Lava View Lodge

We arrived around 5.40 PM, after about 3.5 hours driving from Teras Semeru along quiet, zigzagging roads. I’d been hoping to get there before sunset, and the sky was beautiful, with soft red-orange and bluish indigo colors. We paid the entrance fee at the Lumajang entrance, which I was told is one of a few entries. Seeing the mountain silhouette against the sky was thrilling. I knew I was staying right beside a magnificent area. The hotel looks more like a resort, and some parts were being renovated. Our unit had a king-size bed in one room, two single beds in the outer area, and a spacious bathroom. I was grateful the hot shower never let us down. Slippers made the freezing floor easier to handle. The unit was furnished but not fully, and the furniture and bedding felt ice-cold at that altitude. Still, it was a comfortable stay. The on-site restaurant had a warm, woody ambience, and the staff were very helpful explaining the menu. We rented sweaters for the freezing sunrise hike and the Bromo trek the next morning. Local food vendors were also by the entrance gate on bicycles. Since we were so near the crater, our 3:00 AM start felt less rushed. We had more time to explore Bromo and a convenient place to clean up afterward.

The view is the only good thing about this place. The rooms are freezing, the shower barely works, and the breakfast buffet has few options. Everything else badly needs an upgrade. It’s worth staying one evening if you’re planning to summit Bromo, but I wouldn’t stay longer.

The staff were so attentive and genuinely friendly, and our room was really spacious. It’s being updated and modernized at the moment. Staying right on the crater rim is worth considering if you want a shorter trip to Mount Bromo National Park in the morning.

The restaurant was a bright spot: healthy food and nice jazz. The location is handy too, about 15 minutes from the caldera. Our room had no heating, which was rough with nighttime temperatures around 5-8 Celsius. The bathroom had only two panes of glass with a wide gap between them instead of a proper window. In sea level villages, this kind of setup often has a mosquito net, but there wasn’t one here, and bugs got into the room. Some rooms also look out onto nothing, and one of ours had no towels.