Bukit Lawang Jungle Trekking

Fly to Medan. The gateway to Bukit Lawang is the Medan, Sumatra. Fly to Kuala Namu International Airport in Medan. From Medan it is ±3/4 hours driving to Bukit Lawang.

By Local Bus (budget travellers). Most local buses to Bukit Lawang leave from a terminal at Kampung Lalang, on the outskirts of Medan. Local buses can get you here for around 6,000 Rupiah, but you may need to learn a bit of Bahasa Indonesia to survive! From Kampung Lalang, a minibus to Bukit Lawang will cost ±30,000 Rupiah per person, and the journey will take 4-5 hours. Be prepared for a lot of Indonesian music being played by the driver! Last bus to Bukit Lawang leaves at 17.30hrs.

By Luxury Bus. A more luxury option is to take a tourist bus to Bukit Lawang. These depart from near the Grand Mosque in Medan and they are relatively good quality buses (by Sumatran standards) that don’t break down as often as the minibuses. The price for a bus ticket is ±100,000 Rupiah.

Private Transfer (Recommended Option). The most comfortable and fastest way to get from Medan to Bukit Lawang is by taxi. You won't have any hassle of finding the bus terminal and are not restricted to the timetable. If you do a Bukit Lawang Jungle Trekking with us, you can book the private transfer directly with us for 750.000 IDR for up to 5 people. You can be picked up at your hotel or airport in Medan.

Note: All shown prices are indicative; they were valid at the time of writing in 2020, but are subject to change

Yes. For our longer tours, an airport pick-up and drop off service is included as you see in the corresponding itineraries. For our shorter but popular orangutan jungle treks, you can simply book the airport transfer service when submitting your booking request

The short answer is that we advice you to fly out from Medan Airport the day after your jungle trekking ends, and spend a night in Bukit Lawang. In that case you can enjoy a long day of jungle trekking also on your last day.

However, we will accommodate it if you wish to fly out from Medan airport on the same day your jungle trek ends. In that case we will wake up early in the morning in our jungle camp, have a breakfast, tube back to Bukit Lawang and then drive to Medan Airport. The earliest we can get to Medan airport on the day your tour ends is around 2 pm.

In case you wish to fly out on the same day your orangutan tour ends, we kindly ask you to mention this in the booking form.

Orangutans can be seen all year round as part of a jungle trek from Bukit Lawang.

From a weather point of view, the best period to visit Bukit Lawang is in dry season in the period April - September. The busiest period is July - August.

The wettest period is December - January: There are still mostly periods with sunshine but also frequent heavy rain falls typically at the end of the afternoon.

The shoulder periods October-November and February-March are quite good periods to visit Bukit Lawang as well. While there are rain falls in this period, these last just for a few minutes. Also there are very little tourists in this period, so it will feel as if you have the village and the Gunung Leuser National Park all for yourself!

A recommended accommodation in Bukit Lawang is Ecolodge . It is a beautiful facility and it also donates parts of the proceeds to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme.

Another recommended accommodation is Sam's Bungalow .

Although the jungle is rich with wildlife and orangutans, there is no guarantee that you will see orangutans or any other wildlife. Our guides will do their best to ensure you see as much as possible.

It is very rare for a group to not see orangutans. The longer the tour you choose, the higher the chance of meeting orangutans.

It has never happened to us that for a 2 Day tour or longer, we have not seen a single orangutan, but we can obviously not guarantee this for the future.

Absolutely NO! We treat orangutans respectfully, keep our distance, do not touch them, and do not feed them. The orangutans here are wild, and should be treated accordingly. You will see however that we can nevertheless get quite close to orangutans because they are so peaceful in their nature.

Feeding orangutans may at first sight seem innocent or even a kind gesture, but it will make them aggressive towards humans, lazy to find their own food, or even sick.

We believe it is our responsibility to respect nature and educate our clients about the fragility of it. And we know that travelers will treat our jungle with the same respect once they understand the environmental consequences of our behavior.

The most important function of your shoe in the jungle should be that it protects your ankle (rigid sole) and is closed (no sandals).

Only then comes the question whether your shoes should also be waterproof or not. It is important to realize there is hardly no way to keep dry feet in the jungle. Waterproof shoes are usually quite thick, and as a result your feet would get wet from sweat. Moreover, it is not comfortable to have warm shoes at tropical temperatures.

In our opinion, the best hiking shoes in the jungle (and generally in Indonesia) are light hiking that protect the ankle and shoes that dry fast, such as Palladium shoes.

With our the jungle trekking tours, you will be staying overnight in jungle camps. You'll be sleeping in a tent with a mosquito net. But beware that the tour is quite a back-to-basic experience, including the sleeping. Specifically, the mattrasses in the jungle camps are very thin. You can consider to bring your own pillow and manage your expectations:-)

Yes, there are simple squat toilets at the jungle camp sites.

Yes. Children really love this jungle trek. For groups with children (but older than 4 years), we prepare extra equipment and guiding and take a less challenging route, and most importantly: We make many stops to just play.

Please read our article about How to visit Bukit Lawang with Children.

There is only an ATM on the MasterCard network. Visa/Plus cards will not work! We advice you to bring cash with you to Bukit Lawang and not count on the ATMs. The nearest ATM outside of Bukit Lawang is in Bahorok, which is 15 minutes by becak (tuk tuk).

Among the best places in the world to see orangutans, are Gunung Leuser National Park (Sumatra) and Tanjung Puting National Park (Kalimantan). We offer tours in both places with certified, local guides.

Both are quite well accessible by air from Jakarta. Which of the two is better, depends on your personal interests and on your budget.

Generally speaking, orangutan tours in Bukit Lawang are suitable for adventurous travelers that like relatively long treks, are in shape and/or have a low/mid budget. The transportation is by foot and the accommodation is typically in basic jungle camps.

In contrast, the orangutan tours in Tanjung Puting are by boat as you cruise through the river, and the occassional treks are very easy and short, and the accommodation is typically on the boat. Although this cruise is still relatively cheap for Western standards, it is 2 to 3 times more expensive than the jungle treks in Bukit Lawang.

In case you are interested, check out our Borneo Orangutan Tours in Tanjung Puting.

All accommodations in Bukit Lawang offer a free storage service for your luggage while you do your jungle trekking.

In case you do not have an accommodation or there is any other reason this option does not work, then we will store your luggage in Bukit Lawang during the trek.

Tipping is common in Indonesia, and the staff will be extremely happy and flattered if you decide to do so.

Eventually, the tip of course depends on how satisfied you are with the service and on your budget. The official advice from the Bukit Lawang Tourism is to tip 70.000 IDR per person per day, but you could of course deviate from it depending on your personal situation and satisfaction.

Note: Please notice that these are pre-Covid advices. Covid has completely devastated the economy in Bukit lawang and pushed many - including the guides that you will meet - into poverty, as you read here. So your tip is not only a gesture of appreciation, it will make a real and big difference to the lives of your guides and their families. Thank you very much for supporting the local community.