Which is more difficult to hike, Mount Agung or Mount Rinjani?

It depends what you mean by difficult: Agung is the steeper single-day test, while Rinjani is the bigger expedition, and most trekkers find Rinjani the harder commitment overall. A published Agung guide estimates 3 to 5 hours to the Pasar Agung crater area at roughly 2,800 to 3,031 meters, or 6 to 8 hours to the higher Besakih summit at about 3,142 meters. Rinjani reaches 3,726 meters and usually takes two to four days depending on the route.

The skills tested barely overlap. Agung is steep volcanic footing in one sustained push: one hard morning or day, then a descent and a bed. Rinjani is endurance architecture: the long Sembalun approach, a tent camp on the crater rim at about 2,639 meters, a roughly 4-hour predawn summit climb on loose scree, and descents that keep coming on days two and three. The measured three-day traverse runs about 33.74 kilometers with roughly 4,200 meters of cumulative ascent in one operator’s GPS records.

One caution when comparing notes with other trekkers: Agung’s height gets quoted three different ways, at 2,998, 3,031 and 3,142 meters depending on the source and route, and the Pasar Agung route often reaches a crater-edge objective rather than the Besakih true summit. So ask which route and which destination someone actually completed before you let their story calibrate your expectations. The numbers matter, because an Agung ascent can mean very different days of work.

The verdict for planning: if you have climbed Agung via Besakih and managed it well, your climbing engine is probably sufficient, and your remaining homework is consecutive-day endurance and descent tolerance. If your Agung was the shorter crater route, treat yourself as untested for multi-day work and train accordingly: back-to-back hill days with downhill practice are the local recommendation before a Rinjani summit booking. Neither mountain certifies you for the other, but Agung plus honest training is a reasonable launchpad. The climbing legs transfer, but the overnight cold and the consecutive days do not, so budget your preparation accordingly.