A kramat caretaker considers all visitors in the first place as guests (tamu) who must be treated with honour. Many reasons are given for this. A visitor is a guest not only of his own but primarily of the revered person who sanctifies the place for whom the caretaker works. Here he assumes himself to be the servant (bujang or pelayan) for his master. In this capacity he feels obliged on behalf of his master to receive, mediate and show respect and courtesy to all guests. From a religious and ethical viewpoint, according to a juru kunci, any guest deserves honourable treatment since the Prophet said that whoever believes in God, His messenger and the Day of Judgement, should honour his guest. Considered from the mystical dimension,  although a guest is a barakah seeker, at the same time he is also a barakah bearer who brings barakah to the host. Thus, from this viewpoint, there is a sense of exchange and reciprocity of barakah between the host and the visitors in the ziarah process. Finally, from an economic point of view, a guest, although not always, but more often than not, means a donation for the maintenance of the kramat. At least partly, this is a source of income for the juru kunci and his associates. In some kramat the donations they collect from visitors spill over outside the kramat milieu. A medium size kramat such as Kramat Syeikh Magelung at Karangkendal (35 km North of Cirebon) for example, where Syeikh Magelung is buried, provides a grant of a Rp 1,000,000.00 per annum (1992) to support the desa administration. It is not surprising then that visits to most kramat are always welcome and thus can be made every day at any time. When the juru kunci is not there contact with him can be made at his house and most juru kunci will not refuse to serve visitors.

The relation between visitor and juru kunci normally starts when a visitor or a group of visitors come(s) to the juru kunci explaining whether they have come for ziarah or for nyepi. For formality sake, some juru kunci recommend that a visitor, should come with a parcel of flowers and incense (both, which are not compulsory, usually can be bought from peddlers nearby or around the kramat), take an ablution and go together with the juru kunci and enter the ziarah platform with standard greetings addressed to the dead in a similar way to the ordinary Islamic procedures for visiting graves.^[60] The greeting (in Arabic) reads: “Assalamu'alaikum ya ahladdiyar  minal mu'minin wal-muslimin wa inni insya Allah ma'akum lahiqun nasalullaha lana walakumul ‘afiyah” (Peace be upon you oh, the grave dweller[s] of the believers and surrenderers, verily if God will, we shall be with you soon; we beg God endows us with well being).”^[61] Then they sit on mats or on the floor facing the tomb and burn incense. The juru kunci then asks if the guest will utter the next prayer by himself or, when it is a group, whether one of the group members would like to lead the prayer or else whether the juru kunci himself should lead.

The standard prayer uttered in ziarah is the renewal of faith by means of tahlil.^[62] Prior to the tahlil the fatihah is recited seven times, the merit of each fatihah is addressed to a number of spirits of the deceased.^[63] The first is to the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, wives, descendants, dwellers of his house (ahl al-bayt); the second is to the four companions (the four Caliphs) and some specified closest friends (Thalhah, Sa'ad, Sa'id, Abd Rahman bin ‘Awf, Abi ‘Ubaidah, Amir bin Jarrah, Zubair bin ‘Awwam); the third is to the founders of the four schools of shari'a, their followers, the scholars, jurists, hadithists, readers of the Qur'an, exegetes of the Qur'an, the true Sufi and those who follow them good heartedly (ihsan) until the Day of Judgement. The fourth is to the martyrs (syuhada) buried at al-Ma'la, al-Shubaikah, al-Baqi’, and the believers in general who already passed away in the  East and in the West, on land and at sea. The fifth is to all wali in the East and in the West, on the ground and in the sea, especially Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Junaid al-Baghdadi, Ahmad al-Badawi, Ahmad al-Rifa'i, Ja'far al-Sadiq, Abu Yazid al-Busthami, Yusuf al-Hamdani, Hasan al-Harqani, Ma'ruf al-Kurkhy, Sirr al-Saqty, Habib al-’Ajamy and other Sufi. The sixth is to a number of prominent figures buried at Gunung Sembung and Gunung Jati, especially Syarif Hidayatullah, Syarifah Mudaim (Rarasantang), Nyai Mas Panatagama Pasambangan (Syarifah Baghdad), Pangeran Cakrabuana (Walangsungsang), Syeikh Datu Kahfi, and Syeikh Bayanillah. This is the case of Astana; in the case of other kramat, besides these figures, the figure buried at that kramat is added. At Panguragan, for example, an addition is made by mentioning Nyi Mas Gandasari, and at Karangkendal by mentioning Syeikh Magelung and others related to that place.

Having mentioned these figures a special address like that used in hadiwan is uttered: “Help us by God's permission and by reference to the karamat God endowed to the already mentioned deceased persons, we ask for intercession, blessing, remuneration and safety.” The last fatihah is addressed to the spirits of parents, ancestors, Muslims, and all believers dead or alive. Then the tahlil (testimony “there is no God but Allah”) is uttered 100 times, followed by the recital of a set of selected Qur'anic verses, exaltation of God and exaltation of the Prophet Muhammad. Concluding with a du'a the palms of the hands are raised up and other participants respond with “Amen.” This is similar to tahlil at slametan or other occasions. Then the flowers are put on the grave between tombstones or at the appropriate place as directed by juru kunci. At the end, each visitor contemplates and prays by heart in his own language for any wishes he/she might have, and the ziarah is completed. When the visit is made individually, upon leaving the ziarah platform the visitor shakes the juru kunci's hands and gives him some cash as a donation or puts it into a box provided for it. At Astana where many visitors come and go one after another and usually in groups, the cash is put in front of the pesujudan door.  When a crowd of people want to give their donation in coins but cannot approach the door because there are too many people, they throw the coins towards the door which will fall down around it. The coins hitting the door thrown by the crowd produces an orchestrated sound. Usually the throwing marks the end of a ziarah session. All money and coins will be collected by wong kraman.

Many visitors, especially at Astana, feel unsatisfied by merely attending the tahlil. Some struggle amidst the crowd, or those who are patient wait until there is enough space, and come forward to take a chance, leaning their chest against the pesujudan wooden door; some others kiss it or rub it with their hands, then rub their hands to their face; some brush the door with handkerchiefs; still others pick up and kiss some flowers they put there before tahlil. Outside the tahlil session there are visitors sleeping between graves, or sitting while their lips are murmuring something, or reciting the Qur'an facing the graves, some even hold a tombstone while doing these things.

Seeing this type of behaviour, observers may gain different impressions from it, some would get an unfavourable one. Of these, especially those who condemn wali veneration, usually take it as authentic evidence for their allegations about the idolatrous nature of ziarah practices, saying that not only do the pilgrims worship either wali, their tombs or both along with God, but also other objects as well such as the wooden door at Astana or other objects elsewhere.

There are many others who see it differently ranging from recommending, agreeing or just not condemning such practices, while they themselves may not do them. They are mostly of the pesantren (traditional religious school) stock and the traditional villagers at large. For them faith is in the heart and thus one's faith cannot be judged from outward behaviour only. Some visitors said that what they do is an expression of their anxiety to show respect to Kanjeng Sinuhun (a reference to Sunan Gunung Jati); some others said that it was to satisfy themselves emotionally that they  were able to come to the place; still others said that it was to ensure earnest praying and to show an eagerness for barakah.^[64]

For a wong nyepi, after the ordinary ziarah procedure is concluded, juru kunci may lead him to occupy a space available at the kramat to stay with others if he is a newcomer, or the juru kunci may let his guest take any space he likes if he is familiar with the place. During their stay at kramat, wong nyepi usually engage in either one or a combination of fasting, voluntary night prayer, reciting the Qur'an, tahlil individually or in group, and doing mental training (tirakat) by means of eating only plain staple foods (mutih or ngasrep) such as rice, cassava and maize, as well as doing other pious practices. Those who cannot do these things, can ask the juru kunci for advice. When an individual visitor is unable to take his advice because of serious ignorance, juru kunci usually stress the earnestness of the person's concern to keep praying to God, wishing that by virtue of the barakah and karamah of the figure at the kramat, God would answer his prayer. This earnestness should be expressed outwardly in one form or another like fasting, uttering du'a continuously by heart or by tongue in their own language, reciting repeatedly whatever they can do even only  the Basmalah (In the name of God) and the Syahadat (Testimony of Faith). Concentration of the mind (mancleng) on God is, above all, strongly stressed.

Ziarah however, can also be performed without formal contact with a juru kunci if it is conducted on regular occasions or on the occasion of festivals. At least once a week, usually Thursday night (bengi Jum'ah) after evening prayer (‘Isya), almost all kramat in Cirebon routinely perform tahlil in which public participation is welcome or even expected. At Trusmi, for example, tahlil is held four times a week, on Sunday and Tuesday nights after evening prayer (around 8.00 pm), and twice on Thursday night. Each is carried out after evening prayer and at midnight (12.00 pm). At Astana, on the other hand, tahlil is performed once on Tuesday night (bengi Rebo) and twice on Thursday night at 8.00 pm led by Ki Penghulu, and at 10.00 p.m., led by Ki Jeneng. At Astana, each time it is attended by no less than 5000 participants. This number increases substantially to 30.000 on Thursday night (bengi Jum'at) Kliwon, and several hundred thousand at festival times. Each festival, either at Trusmi or Astana, lasts about a week.

Kramat Trusmi has three main festivals: muludan (commemoration of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad), memayu (replacement of welit or palm-thatch roofs) used on pewadonan, pekuncen and two jinem,^[65] and ganti sirap (replacement of sirap or wooden roofs) used on witana, the mosque, penyekaran, pesujudan and paseban. The muludan is held each year on a fixed date, the 25th of Mulud. Memayu is held once a year and ganti sirap once every two years; each is held at the beginning of the rainy season. The exact date is determined by the assembly of desa officials and kramat custodians specially held for that purpose. All materials and labour needed at both memayu and ganti sirap are provided entirely by the people. The offer of the materials as well as the application for essential voluntary work such  as by carpenters and masons comes eventually after the custodian issues an announcement about the matter.

At Astana, as already mentioned, the festival is held four times annually. These festivals are held on Syawalan or Grebeg Syawal (on the 8th of Syawal), Grebeg Raya Agung on 12th Raya Agung, Muludan (on the 11th of Mulud) and Sedekah Bumi-Nadran, prior to the beginning of the rainy season.^[66] All these festivals attract hundreds of thousands of visitors who come by chartered buses or other means of transportations from many places throughout Java and even Sumatra. Folk arts such as wayang golek (puppet plays), wayang kulit (shadow puppet plays), topeng (mask dances), tarling (Cirebonese local music), acrobatics, sandiwara (play) and Malay orchestra, are performed at these festivals, along with great carnivals held on the last festive day. The entertaining groups voluntarily come for promotion to entertain visitors without being paid, but their hope of gaining berkah from participation in the festival is implicit.