Bromo volcano (Indonesia) with toddler?

We are off on a three-month trip around Indonesia and Vietnam in June (couple and a 2.5-year-old). Really looking forward to it and now looking into what is nice and what is feasible with a toddler.
I have heard much about the lovely Bromo vulcano, and I wonder if this is a feasible thing to do with a yound child. We don't intend to hike much (we are not that big on hiking ourselves) but I've read about different (other) possibilities... Still, the whole thing does sound like quite an undertaking: getting up in the middle of the night, in and out of cars, lots of people crammed to see the sunrise, jams up and down... I am unsure: would we get anything out of this or would we just be hauling a screaming child up and down a hill? ;-) Experiences are very welcome!

I guess a lot depends on your toddler and how good he or she is with long car journeys. We took our (much older) kids there and they were pretty impressed to get so close to an active volcano but they could obviously appreciate what a volcano is. I suspect a two year old isn't going to find it all that interesting. We didn't do the early morning trip, instead leaving Melang 8ish and got back mid afternoon so it's quite a long day with most of it spent driving. It's also quite chilly at altitude at the viewing platform over Bromo so take some warm clothes. And finally, when you go down into the Tengurru crater which Bromo sits in you'll be given dust masks to avoid getting volcanic dust into your lungs so will he or she be willing and able to keep these on? But if you're aren't walking., from the toddler's perspective it's just a long, boring and pointless car trip so it's an issue of how this will be dealt with.

Hi
I've written a trip report about our trip to Bromo with our twins (7yrs old) which might help:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2299074&messageID=20710104#20710104

It's really not the ordeal it sounds like! We got up early, but we were staying close to the crater/volcano (Lave View Lodge), so didn't require a jeep to take us to a lookout spot (it was about a 5 minute walk). We didn't need to get up too early for this, as it was close by. Jeeps were around, presumably with people staying at guesthouses farther away. After sunrise, we walked down the hill from the hotel, across the plain to the crater, and it at a leisurely pace, it took an hour or so, but we could've taken one of the numerous horses on offer, as were motorbikes. The kids were led along on a horse on the way back as they were very tired by then. We ate breakfast at the hotel, then got a bus into Problingo, and a bus from there to Surabaya. (To get to Bromo, we just hired a taxi at Surabaya airport for about $65, and it took about 3hrs)

The 'climb' is really only about 10 mins of steps up to the crater's rim, which a toddler could do - very slowly, or if you're up to it, by piggy back. The whole 'hike' wasn't that at all really... more of a walk across a mostly flat large plain and a climb up steps to the rim. It's an amazing sight though, as is being up close to the volcano beside the crater.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions. Enjoy! Bromo was a highlight, if not the highlight, of our trip to Java.

P.S. We didn't see anyone or any sign of dust masks when we went, and certainly didn't see any need. The sulphur smoke at the top of the crater was the only thing we didn't want to spend too long inhaling when we got to the top. Otherwise there was no 'dust' at all, just black sand that the kids thought was pretty cool!

It was very cold at night though, and before sunrise, It warms up fast though, so take layers. By the time we returned around 8am we were in t-shirts and jeans!

Thank you for the very good report and great tips of both! This really helps a lot!

Anne

http://www.thesummerholidayofalifetime.com/2010/07/gunung-bromo.html?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50

Did this with a baby. You'' love how easy it actually is :)

And amazing!