Stand on a volcano this year. Pick the right one.
Which craters you can walk into, which need a guide above 2,900 metres, what a pre-dawn jeep to the rim costs and how early it leaves. Reviews of the volcano tours and crater hikes you can book, from Sicily to the Ring of Fire.
Four volcanoes that book out before the rest.
A Sicilian summit, the crater above Naples, the geothermal loop out of Reykjavik and a Balinese ridge at first light. What each one costs, and how early it really starts.
01The Sicilian summitSummit Guided Hiking Tour up to 3,400 mNobody walks above 2,900 metres on Etna without a guide. The cable car and the 4x4 buy you the altitude, then you climb the last of it on ash.
02The crater above NaplesPompeii Ruins & Mount Vesuvius Day TourVesuvius rim first, Pompeii after, so the ash story runs in the right order. The rim entry is timed and the coaches land at eleven.
03Iceland, geyser firstGolden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid CraterStrokkur, the rift valley and the Kerid crater on one loop out of Reykjavik. The cheapest way to watch geothermal Iceland working.
04Batur before dawnMount Batur Sunrise Trekking Private All InclusivePickup at two in the morning, breakfast steamed in the ground at the top. Pay for a private guide if you want the ridge to yourself.
Six countries that put you on a working volcano.
Etna and Vesuvius in Italy, Teide over the Canaries, the fissures behind Reykjavik, Java and Bali before sunrise, the lava fields of Hawaii, and a caldera in Tanzania with lions living on the floor.
In Italy the volcano is the day out. Choose your mountain.
Etna you are driven up and then walk; Vesuvius is a crater rim with a buried city at the bottom of the hill; Stromboli keeps its lava for after dark. Three mountains, three completely different days.
The most popular volcano trips on the planet right now.
The full volcano list →More travellers take these than anything else with a crater in it. What each one costs, how long it runs, and what it actually gets you to.
1
Golden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid Crater
Review of Reykjavik’s Golden Circle bus tour, including Gullfoss, Geysir, Þingvellir, Kerið, timing, value, and practical tips.
From · $82
Our review of it →
2
Pompeii Ruins & Mount Vesuvius Day Tour
from $120
3
Volcanic Islands Cruise with Hot Springs Visit
from $29
4
Big Island in a Day: Volcanoes Waterfalls Sightseeing and History
from $264
5
Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius Day Trip from Rome with Pizza Lunch
from $90
6
Small-Group Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon with Ticket & Kerid Crater
from $249
7
Golden Circle, Kerid Crater, & Blue Lagoon Tour
from $249
8
Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & Transfer
from $102
Moving lava is a booking you make in a hurry.
When a fissure opens, trips reach it within days: helicopters over the vent in Iceland, night boats under the Sciara del Fuoco, a Hawaiian flow field still ticking as it cools. Eruption trips run for exactly as long as the eruption does.
Crater hikes: how far up the mountain you actually get.
Some rims are a boardwalk with a handrail. Some are eight hours of scree behind a guide who carries a helmet for you. These are the walks travellers rate highest, and they are not interchangeable.
- 1Summit Guided Hiking Tour up to 3,400 mfrom $65
- 2Trek to 3000m with cable car and 4×4from $65
- 3Summit Crater Trek with Cable Carfrom $77
From a cable car to a night on the ridge: pick your effort.
Park boardwalk
Overnight campIceland: geothermal in the morning, lava tunnel after lunch.
Everything in Iceland →
Reykjavik sits ninety minutes from a rift valley, a geyser that fires every ten minutes, a crater you can walk right around and a lava tunnel you can walk into. Most of it fits in one day, and the road home passes the hot water.
Golden Circle, with the crater added
Thingvellir where the plates pull apart, Geysir and Gullfoss, and Kerid crater on most departures. One road, one day, and the clearest look at geothermal ground anywhere in Europe.
A lava tunnel and an ice cave
Raufarholshellir runs a lit walkway through a 5,000-year-old tube. Under the Katla glacier the same volcanic rock holds an ice cave that a super jeep has to reach. Bring one layer more than you think.
The hot water at the end of it
Geothermal water is what an Icelandic evening is for, and it is better in bad weather. Book the slot for after the tour and let the bus drop you at the door.
What you pay to get up a volcano.
Every trip on the site grouped by price. Park entries and boardwalk craters sit at the bottom, guided summits and helicopter flights at the top, and the gap between them is mostly altitude.
Park entry, boardwalk craters, geothermal bathing and the short jeep runs on the lower slopes.
The full-day standards: Etna with the cable car, Vesuvius and Pompeii, the Golden Circle, Bromo at sunrise.
Guided summits above the safe line, helicopter flights over a live vent, and multi-day crater safaris with a driver.
Java and Bali start their volcano days at two in the morning.
Bromo from the viewpoint as the light comes up, Ijen blue fire before the sulphur crews start work, Batur ridge with breakfast cooked in the ground. The alarm clocks are brutal and the light is the whole reason.
Every Indonesian volcano trip →
Three things that only happen on a volcano.
Old towns and beaches are everywhere. A tunnel left behind by moving lava, a cold cone that burps grey mud, and a caldera with lions living on the floor are not.
Lava tubes and ice caves
When a flow drains out from under its own cooled crust it leaves a tunnel, and Iceland has one you can walk 1,300 metres into on a lit path. Under the Katla glacier the same rock holds an ice cave that is a different shape every winter, so a super jeep and a guide are not optional there. Both sit near freezing whatever the forecast on the surface says.
- 1Ice Cave by Katla Volcano Super Jeep Tour from Vik★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,100 reviews
- 2Discovery of the lava tubes 2004 of Piton de la Fournaise★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 449 reviews
- 3Hilo Shore Excursion: Active Volcano, Lava Tube, Waterfall and Gardens★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 393 reviews
The cold mud cones
Azerbaijan holds close to a third of the world’s mud volcanoes, grey cones a metre high that burp cold slurry instead of lava and let you put a hand in the vent. They sit an hour from Baku beside rock carvings older than the pyramids, and the same day usually takes in a hillside that has been burning for centuries. On the Colombian coast the mud is warm enough to float in.
- 1Gobustan, Mud Volcano, Fire Mount, Temple Lunch Entry★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,246 reviews
- 2BEST Gobustan, Volcanoes & Absheron Fire Tour (Group or Private)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,254 reviews
- 3Totumo Mud Volcano Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 675 reviews
The Ngorongoro crater floor
The mountain fell into itself two and a half million years ago and left a caldera 600 metres deep with grassland, a soda lake and a resident population of lions, elephants and black rhino inside it. You descend by 4x4 on a one-way track and the gate opens at six. Nowhere else parks a wildlife reserve inside a volcano.
- 15-Day Highlights mid-Range Crater, Serengeti, Tarangire★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 296 reviews
- 2Private 6-Day Tarangire Manyara Crater and Serengeti with Mid-Range Lodges★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 238 reviews
- 35 Days Camping Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro crater & Visiting Maasai★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 229 reviews
Four volcano trips where the mountain sets the timetable.
Volcano days run on alert levels, permits, altitude and darkness, and none of those care when your flight lands. These four have rules worth knowing before the deposit goes down.
- 01Adventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango VolcanoAn overnight camp on a 3,976-metre ridge. It is close to freezing up there, the tents are basic, and the reason to go is Fuego erupting across the saddle after dark.
- 02Banyuwangi/Bali: Ijen Volcano Midnight Blue Fire Guided TourThe blue fire only shows in the dark, so the minibus leaves around midnight, and the sulphur gas on the crater floor means a mask that fits.
- 03Private Volkswagen Volcano SafariPickup runs between two and three in the morning to have you on the ridge for first light. Sleep is not part of the package.
- 04Summit Crater Trek with Cable CarAbove 2,900 metres on Etna nobody walks without a mountain guide, and the authority closes the top whenever the tremor climbs. The cable car and the 4x4 get you the altitude either way.
Teide is the easiest big volcano in Europe to get up.
A cable car lifts you to 3,555 metres in eight minutes, and the free permit for the last cone goes weeks ahead. Timanfaya on Lanzarote is the opposite, a coach through a field of craters with no walking at all, and La Palma has a cone that was still steaming in 2021.
- 1Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & Transferfrom $102
- 2Guided Off-Road Volcano Buggy Tour
- 3Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing Tourfrom $47
Cloud on the crater does not cancel the volcano.
Summits close for tremor, wind and whiteout, usually with a day’s notice and a refund. The ground underneath still works: a lava show under a roof in Reykjavik, a tunnel that has no weather at all, thermal water that is better in the rain, and the vineyards that grow in the ash.
By kind of volcano day
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