Anak Krakatau (Krakatoa) is an active volcano in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. Anak Krakatau is a new volcano around 2 kilometers from where the famous Krakatoa volcano exploded in 1883. Anak Krakatau has been slowly growing larger since 1912. Anak Krakatau is now over 300 meters above sea level.
You can do an easy day trip to visit the volcano from Jakarta. There are a number of tour operators that organise day trips from Jakarta to visit the Anak Krakatau Volcano.
The tour consists of leaving Jakarta around 5am to beat the busy Jakarta traffic and driving around 2 hours to Carita Beach which is on the west coast of Java.
From Carita Beach you take a speedboat through the Sunda Strait to Anak Krakatau island which now has over a 2 kilometer radius. The speedboat ride takes just over 1 hour to reach the volcanic island.
You can climb up to the half way point of Anak Krakatau volcano to a ridge were you can see the top of the volcano and the recent lava flows from the most recent eruptions in March and April 2017.
I did this day trip from Jakarta to Anak Krakatau in December 2017 and the day I visited the volcano there was lots of steam and smoke coming out. The guide said that there is normally smoke and steam coming from the volcano.
See a recent video of Anak Krakatau from December 2017
The trip out to the island can be a bumpy ride. The tour operator said in the morning that if the wind conditions and the sea conditions got any worse than I wouldn't be able to make the journey. Luckily I was able to go. Later in the day the winds calmed down and then the speedboat ride back to Cerita was quite smooth.
On the boat trip out to Anak Krakatau island you have a good chance of seeing flying fish. If you watch out to the side of the back of the boat, you will see the flying fish leap out of the water, getting out of the way of the speedboat, and see the fish fly for 10 to 20 meters. Also if you are really lucky you can see pods of dolpins in the Sunda Strait (I didn't see any on my trip).
You arrive on the beach of Anak Krakatau island which has black sand from all the volcanic activity. The beach is also lined with volcano basalt rocks which are quite porous and crumble if you twist them with your fingers.
You spend around 1.5 hours on Anak Krakatau island and can climb up half way to a rim. You first have a short hike through some jungle (only a 5 minutes) and as you come out of the forest area you enter a different world, the desolate world of a volcano with no folage insight. The hike up to half way only takes around 15 minutes and you come to the point where there is the most recent lava flow.
Most recent lava flow on Anak Krakatau volcano
Lava flowed down to the sea
After you leave Anak Krakatau island, you head over to the remnants of Krakatoa volcano now called Rakata Island. Here you do some snorkeling in the Lagoon Cabe Coral Park. There is some coral here with lots of marine life but not the best snorkeling I have done in Indonesia. Most of the coral around this area was either dead or bleached but still there were plenty of fish to enjoy some ok snorkeling.
Snorkeling at Krakatoa Island (Rakata Island)
After snorkeling you enjoy a basic lunch on the boat (I had Nasi goreng with some fried chicken and fruit) with some cold drinks before the boat takes you back to Carita Beach which took a bit less than 1 hour as the sea conditions were calm. I ended up back at Cerita Beach at around 3pm.
Now the car trip back to Jakarta in the afternoon takes around double of the time it took to get to Carita in the early morning. It took me more than 4 hours to get back to my hotel in Central Jakarta, so arrive around 7pm. I went on a Sunday and there was really bad traffic leaving Carita Beach and passing by Anyer beach as both of these are popular on the weekends for people from Jakarta to visit. Also in the afternoon you will hit some traffic as you get back into Jakarta. If I was to do this trip again I would choose to go on a week day to avoid the weekenders visiting these beach areas.
Now the prices of the Day trips from Jakarta to Anak Krakatau vary from around 5,000,000Rp to over 6,000,000Rp. This is not per person. Most of this covers the car transfer and the cost of the speedboat. So if you have 3 - 4 people than this cost can be divided amongst you all. They do charge a bit more per person to cover the cost of the lunch and rental of the snorkel equipment.
The tours can also start from Carita Beach so if you are staying in this area or at Anyer Beach than the tour prices will be less.
Check out these tour companies for Day Trips to Anak Krakatau:
Krakatau Ecotourism (this is the company I went with and can recommend and excellent tour!)
