Our Mission

At Backpacking Kilimanjaro, we aim to provide customized treks for hikers according to their level of experience rather than a one size fits all model that assumes no hiking experience. We offer minimal support treks and do not try to encourage customers to hire porters or cooks if they choose not to. We understand that there are hikers who have extensive experience who would not be satisfied with the standard one size fits all offerings.

Pricing

We aim to provide affordable pricing with minimal overhead. Our pricing is fully transparent and is as follows:

Necessary Fees:

• Park Fee from Tanzanian Government $70 per day + $50 per night ($60 for hut on Marangu route) + $20 rescue fee per trip + $2 per trip per local support person + 18% VAT.

• One Guide per 2 tourists is required by Tanzanian government - $45 per day per guide.

• Operator fee - $100.00 per trip to keep our business going.

• Transport to/from trailhead is $100.00

Optional:

• Hotel -  $30 per night. 

• Transport to and from Kilimanjaro Airport (JRO) - $50 per leg so $100 for round trip.

• Porter - $25 per day per porter. Each porter can carry up to 16kg/35 lbs.

• Cook - $30 per day. Food is $10 per day.

• Rental gear as needed. Note that our tents are not ultralight so if you would like to carry your own tent, you must bring a suitable tent.

• Tips are optional and not required (Most operators require a significant tip that supplements the worker wages).

Personnel wages are directly passed to the workers less required payroll taxes. We pay our workers well!  Many operators pay the workers as little as $10 per day for guide, $8 per day for cook and only $5 per day to porters and require large tips to supplement the worker wages so their is effectively hidden cost in their initial quoted number.

Sample Pricing:

• Using the pricing above, the pricing for a 7-day trip for one hiker that requires only one  guide with transport and 2 nights hotel  is $1,634.

• Two hikers with one guide comes out to $2,592 ($1,296) per person.

Routes

We can take customers on all routes. However, our favorite route is 7 day Lemosho Route. It is the easier of the two more scenic routes and allows for good acclimatization that results in statistical results of 85% success rate. However, from our experience most people summit successfully so it feels that the rate is more like 98%. We are quoting the official rate, as we do not want to overstate the statistics. The other scenic route is the 6 day Machame route.  The Lemosho route has approximately  3,795 meters (12,541 feet) of elevation gain. Machame route has approximately 4,255 meters (14,051 feet) making it slightly more difficult.

For experienced hikers the daily hikes are easy often being only a few hours and experienced hikers may be able to summit much faster than 7 days. Barring altitude sickness symptoms, days can be skipped and the trip can be shortened. The decision can be made during the trip of whether to combine 2 or more days in a single day.

Note that there is no water at the last Camp (Barafu camp) so hikers who do not want porters are expected to carry enough water from the lower Karanga camp. 1 liter/1 quart of additional water should be sufficient as the temperatures are low and one does not need a lot of water.  If one wants to be really cautious they can brink additional 2 liters/2quarts. Push comes to shove there are many people in the camps and most groups are overstaffed with porters so $10 in exchange of some extra water will make some other crew very happy. 

On summit day, hikers usually start at 12 a.m. but can start later for experienced hikers who are expected to move faster. After the summit, hikers go down to Barafu camp, relax for an hour or so, pack and then decent to lower camp where there is water. Summit temperatures could drop to -29C/-20F but this is unusual. Common temperature is -7C/19F.

About Us

Email - info@backpackingkilimanjaro.com

WatsApp (Tanazania) - Samora - +255 622 491 494

WhatsApp (USA) - Mihaela - +1 847 704 2185