Jan Z.
Google
The absolute key factor to consider for this hike is the weather. We were lucky to catch a beautiful, sunny day, a time window, as the following three days were filled with rain, and the trail was either closed or not enjoyable. If you're planning the hike, flexibility might be essential. The booking system, however, enforces making a decision many weeks ahead, so it's hard to say what to do if you booked a rainy day. Please drop a note if you know.
As for difficulty, you really don’t need a guide unless you've never experienced an ascent and descent of 1000 meters before. For anyone with average fitness, the ascent is straightforward and very manageable. The descent is a bit more challenging; good shoes are surely recommended. Trekking poles can help too. We didn't use any, but they would definitely have made parts of the descent easier. We were a family of four, with two teenagers, and managed the hike without issues.
The only negative experience was at the very start, where our son's shoes were scrutinized intensely. Although they were worn, they were certainly better than some others we saw on the trail. Also, in older reviews I read, people went with extremely worn-out shoes. In real life, it felt a bit excessive — almost like kids in kindergarten being inspected, or horses and their feet. Even my one-year-old Gore-Tex shoes were questioned for a few seconds. One staff member (the 'bad' policeman) was extremely strict, while the other (the 'good' one) has by coincidence stock of shoes for rent for €20 pair, which left us with a bit of a bad taste but yes, if the only alternative was to cancel completely, we paid 'happily' and with the feeling of relief...
To my personal taste, it is over-regulated. I prefer more personal freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. And if I accept it makes sense to perform these checks there should be more justice as we met people with much much worse footware on the trail. The only thing though I REALLY criticize is that nowhere in the permit process it is mentioned that you might be DENIED entry based on your footwear. This lack of transparency can really throw your plans off and maybe even be interpreted as a small 'secondary income' by someone. It is controversial — I acknowledge my 18 years old son's shoes were not perfect, our and his responsibility for not double-checking, and their website mentioned the shoes. In my opinion, though, it should be in big letters or a checkbox explicitly and transparently mentioning the risk of NOT BEING PERMITTED TO ENTER at all!
What we appreciated was the limited number of daily visitors. It was challenging to pass a slower large guided tour, but it happened only twice to us; the rest of the time we went at our own pace, greeting couples or small groups up and down, which was very nice.
All in all, I understand it is not easy to organize an event where demand surely outnumbers supply, so after all, I still think it is organized well and not a reason to lower 5 stars to 4. Once we got past the most rocky part, the bureaucracy, the hike was absolutely amazing. The views were stunning, and the final scramble to the summit, leaving our backpacks in the crater and using hands for the last stretch, felt adventurous and fun. I've climbed peaks around the world, but this one stands out for its unreal combination of THE OCEAN, clouds, and rugged volcanic landscape. Truly one of the most memorable views I've ever seen.
