Mike C.
Google
YOU DO NOT NEED A GUIDE FOR THIS HIKE - and here’s why (with caveats).
You may be told you need a guide for the hike to Boiling Lake: to find and follow the trail, or for reasons of safety, or because it’s compulsory. None of these is valid - and with the price running at c. $75 per person even in a group, it’s worth making an informed decision.
The trail is very easy to follow. It is a single track through forest for the majority of the way, with literally no opportunity to turn off the route at all. There is a short section through the Valley of Desolation that requires you to use your eyes to follow the trail but as long as at least one of them works, you cannot get lost. That’s not to say it’s an easy trail to walk, as there are a fair few ups and downs and perhaps 60m total of potential scrambling, but it’s certainly dead easy to follow. You do not need a guide to find and follow the trail.
It is also a safe trail. There are some scare stores about distinguishing between scalding or cool streams or pools - but the hot ones have giveaways such as steaming or indeed feeling warm. If you use your common sense, and wear stout boots, you’ll be absolutely fine. It is also worth considering whether the guides could do much for your safety anyway - given none of them carry rucksacks, they clearly don’t carry medical kits, and I seriously doubt any of them are trained first aiders. You do not need a guide to be safe on this trail as long as you take your own common-sense precautions: wear boots, take wet weather gear, carry water and snacks, perhaps take a hiking pole, take a med kit, download the AllTrails map beforehand and have a look at it to plan segments and timings, let people know where you are going. If you are used to hiking in the much bigger, much more dangerous, and much more serious mountainous conditions of Europe or North America, you’ll be absolutely fine.
At the time of writing, it is absolutely not compulsory or ‘the law’ to take a guide. Nor are there plans to make it so. The guides will tell you this, but ask yourself: if it’s the law, how come the guides are unlicensed? How come the officials who check your site permits at the entrance don’t ask whether you have a guide? How come the official websites and tourist office don’t agree with them? And why would it be compulsory for this one hike but not for any others on the whole island (including the much more challenging Waitukubuli Trail)? It is not compulsory to take a guide.
All that said, you may still want to take a guide, to show you interesting things, answer questions, and explain the geology and nature to you. There is absolutely merit in this. But it should be an informed choice made for your own reasons.
That said - great hike and well-worth doing. Stunning scenery and fascinating geological points of interest.
