As the first man ever to take trekkers to Mount Rinjani over twenty years ago, no-one knows the area and its people better than self-styled “Mr John”. As part of the “John’s Adventures” programme, he will take you on a three-day trek up the slopes of the volcano to the sacred lake that fills it crater, known as Segara Anak (“child of the sea”). After a sweaty hike, you’ll be ready for a refreshing swim.
It was definitely clear that this company established in 1982 knew exactly what they were doing, as everything was organised impressively, making the whole trip exceed expectations and stress free, meaning we only had to focus on one thing...putting one foot in front of the other. From a timely pick up to the luxury accommodation pre-trek and organised travel on to Bali, they didn't miss a thing. Our guide was early and we were thrilled as we really wanted to keep to the time scale, and this was maintained throughout the trip. The porters couldn't do enough for you with the incredible food (way too much and of such a high quality) and having the tents set up ready for us. At all times we felt safe in the hands of Our guide Singer, and he even brought on another assistant for the summit trek to cater for our group and our different walking paces. Achieving the summit with the support of John's Adventure is the greatest achievement of my life, and I thoroughly recommend it!
For this trek, it is best that you do not trek solo. I went with a couple of friends and we decided to go with John’s Adventure which was a little more expensive than the others, but since there are so many scams out there, we think it would be best if we went with an already established company.
With John’s Adventure, you have a choice of doing the summit for 2 days, the summit and the lake for 3 days or 4 days. We thought we were pretty decent trekkers so we went with the 3 days package. Turned out we weren’t that great and the schedule proved to be too tight for us so we only went up the summit and opted out for the lake because we were too slow to come down from the summit. The fact that we were climbing on volcanic ashes meant that whenever we climb 2 steps up, we were going down 1 step as well. It’s like climbing up a sand dune.
A young seasoned climber, Nur has done the trek over 200 times in his 20 something years, having started as a porter which is an impressive role in itself. Each hiking group is assigned one porter per person. Balancing between 30-45Kg of load distributed in two wicker baskets on either end of a bamboo pole, they effortlessly wind their way up and down the mountain, cigarette in hand, cell phone tunes in pocket and slip slops on feet. Slip slops? Seriously! They put me, my blisters, and my slowly abandoning toenail on my left little toe to utter shame.
To find a suitable trekking company, search the net or ask around. We found ours through John’s Adventures, the very first Rinjani trekking company. John certainly knows his adventures, as we didn’t take long to find out.
We’ve been on full-service guided treks in various places around the world. With its website full of terrible English, and minimal communication at booking time, we were a bit worried how John’s Adventure would stack up. We needn’t have been concerned. All three critical components of a guided trek — guide, equipment, and food — turned out to be excellent. Our guide Adi had good English and was experienced and fun. He’s been up the mountain over 500 times in 15 years of guiding. Our tents were spacious and brand new. The food was plentiful and varied. We splurged on the deluxe package, which also included comfortable camp chairs (photo 6), a toilet tent, and more bottled water than we could drink. And somehow we ended up with the best campsite, by far, at every location. No complaints whatsoever.
When it comes to Rinjani, the whole experience depends on the quality of your trekking company.
The cheaper companies may lack food, water, good matresses to sleep and groups may be as big as 7-8.
In this case, the maximum is 4 and the service quality is extremely good.
To be notes that the summit is currently unreachable due to the past earthquake, but the 2 day tour totally worth it (and is doable for an « average person »
We found John’s adventure on Rough guide and we decided to trek with them for 2 days and one night trekking on Rinjani Volcano.
The team speaks good English, communications were accurate and detailed.
Everything has been arranged very easily, from the pick up, to the stay at the nearby hotel, to the trek and the drop of.
The guide was very prepared and he give us all the time we needed to complete the trek in our time.
The equipment was good for passing a night out and the camp was posed on zone repaired from the wind.
The porters also cooked and everything was delicious and abundant (Indonesian + snacks + fruit etc).
We recommend to trek Rinjiani with them!
I did the 2 day, 1 night track to the crater rim with John's adventure. I can highly recommend it! Everything was very well organized and the service as well as equipment was excellent! The food was delicious sbd plenty. I had the feeling that they put safety first.
Thanks again for this amazing experience!
We went for the 2days/1night walk to Gunung Rinjani with John's Adventure last night.. A beautiful experience, really well organized. We were with the expert guide Hero and the senior porter Amak Lahul: they made our walk even more special. Hero with his fluent English told us stories about indonesian history and culture and suggest us the perfect place for camping in that windy night (he's really an hero!). Amak Lahul prepared for us amazing food and tea and brought all the staff to let us feel comfortable all the time. Hope to see them again! We recommend this experience to everybody!
We slept in the Rinjani Lodge, which was included in our package. The hotel was great. A very nice bed, view and meals. In the morning we would have had breakfast and started our four day hike, but during breakfast at the office the earthquakes hit. We all fled outside and sat on the street. John came to us and told us that there would be aftershocks the following days, that the Rinjani would be very dangerous, so there ofcourse would be no hike. Other companies actually started the hike, very unresponsibly. John and his crew stayed so calm, and started making everyone breakfast and fruit right after we fled outside. They really took good care of us and really looked after us. Some families got taxis and tried to get off the island. We discussed with John if we could borrow a tent, since we didn’t want to spend the night in a building. He arranged for us and another couple to go with some of his guides and spend the night in tents in the forest, which was the safest place to be. Long story short: if you are looking for a very responsible and experienced company, please pick Rinjani Master (John’s Adventure)
I did a 4D3N package in September 2017 with Rinjani Master, also known as John's Adventure along with 2 of my female friends. The climb to the summit was especially challenging. I did not make it up to the summit in time for sunrise but the sunrise view on the way up was amazing as well. Our Guide Ren was a comical guy - he was hilarious and that really kept the mood high throughout the climb. We carried our own clothes, wipes, 1L bottle, torches, cameras, slippers, walking stick etc, our backpacks weighed about 7-8kg each. We also had porters who joined us, a total of 3 of them who carried pots/pans/food/water/tents etc weighing about 25kg on their backs. These guys are unbelievable, they walk in slippers and carried those heavy items in baskets balanced on bamboo poles.
I'm not extremely fit. I jog 5km about 2 times a week regularly and did only 2 walks at Macritchie and Bukit Timah hill in Singapore with a 7kg baggage on my shoulders prior to the trip. However I did manage to complete the climb - it is all a game of endurance. Your body tends to get into the momentum of climbing (a bit like running a marathon), and its just a matter of what time you get to your destination. If you have the time, you should definitely do this climb!!
We have just returned from the 2 day 1 night Crater Rim Trek with John's Adventure (Rinjani Master), and loved it! We found the company great from start to finish!
We had booked the Deluxe package which included private transfers - nice comfortable car with AC, and the driver was very flexible with pick up and drop off times.
On arrival we had one night at Senaru Lodge (included in the package). The day we arrived my husband wasn't feeling great and had a bit of a dodgy stomach. One of the staff told us that young yellow coconuts are the best thing for it... and the next thing we know
one of them is up a tree getting us fresh coconuts to drink! The staff were all so amazing and helpful.
Accommodation at Senaru was really nice - clean, very spacious and nice views over the rice terraces over towards the mountain!
We started the climb early at 7am which we were later grateful for as it meant we were first to the top to get the best camping spot! The views at the crater rim were definitely worth the walk. The ascent took us about 7 hours, but this included a good 2 hours of breaks. You do need a decent level of fitness, but it's not insanely steep - just long and steady climbing. It's nicely broken down into 4 sections with rest points at each - the first 3 sections up to Post 3 climb steadily through the forest, and the last section is through open grassland, with a little bit of rock scrambling at the top. Good walking/trail shoes or boots recommended, along with something warm & windproof for evening after sunset! You only need to carry your own day pack, and the bottle of water they give you each day.
Our guide Josi and the porters were great! The porters pretty much jog up the mountain carrying around 40kg each! The food they cook fresh on the mountain is genuinely some of the best we've had in Indonesia, and there's plenty of it! We had a nice selection of drinks and biscuits too for snacks.
The only downside really (and not the fault of any one single company) is the amount of rubbish on the mountain. There's some areas where there is obvious human excrement, and just piles of used toilet paper and rubbish. There needs to be some communal effort to keep things a bit cleaner!
John's Adventure won't be the cheapest on the mountain, but absolutely worth any extra. Would highly recommend!
We booked a 2Days/1 Night trek to the crater rim / lake with Johns Adventure,
We had a really good experience. Everything was well organised: pick up and drop off before and after the trek, good guide, incredible porters, lot of good food. They cared about everything. We felt very safe and lucky with them. We would recommend them for trekking Mount Rinjani
Fantastically organised trekking to the summit and the crater lake. Very friendly and hospitable staff. We were collected and dropped off from and to our hotel before and after our trip. We had more food than we could eat, altough we needed the energy, and it's impressive how they prepare such tasty nasi or curry on top of a mountain. Our guide, Adi, was great and really capable and good on safety. He also had a very good sense of humour, and made the trip very fun. It's nice to see how this company is strictly against littering and how it makes an effort to clean up the campsites.
Absolutely worth the trip, would strongly recommend John's Adventures.