climbing kilimanjaro

I climbed Kili with a tour arranged by western agent (whole package form home to home with flights), so I can not advice on the choice of agency. One thing though: do NOT take the Marangu route, even though it is the fastest and thus the cheapest. That is, if you actually want to reach the summit. Success rate is only around 30%, while on Machame route it is over 70%, especially if you take the 7 day option.

You can find a good list at http://www.kiliadventures.com/outfitters/. I climbed with Zara and was very satisfied.
--Daniel

Hi Ger,

I climbed the Machambe route (6 day) at the end of August this year with 6 friends. We organised the trip with a small outfitter company and were more than satisfied! Highly recommend Francis Makala's company, Jipe Trekking and safaris. He went out of his way to ensure we had everything we needed. It was very well priced and surpassed our expectations.

Blog: http://ourkiliadventure.blogspot.com/
Outfitter website: http://jipetrekkingandsafaris.com

Regards, Pieter

Totally agree with Petrus on routes. I climbed the Machame route over 7 days but slept in the Crater which was an awesome experience. I used a company called Private Kilimanjaro who were absolutely excellent, couldn't fault them from beginning to end, even when I was feeling a little poorly when we reached the top. We were always well looked after, nothing was too much trouble, and I always felt safe and secure while we were on Kili.

Hope you have a fantastic climb, it's an amazing mountain!

thanks for all the replies...some good info for me to work with. i didn't realise there were so many operators for climbing kili.....from a little research i have got dozens of emails from companies and even 2 phone calls......any info on an approx resonable price for a 7 day hike?

thanks
ger

i climbed the marangu route with 4 friends and three others, on the 4 nights 5 days cabin thing. we all made it and so did the other 6 people trying at the same time.

booked with acacia but actually it was zara who was the company doing the tours

easy to organise, up down, get your cert and relax with a cool bottle of kilimanjaro beer in moshi afterwards

Similar to outdoorjunkie i did the 7 day Machame route with Private Kilimanjaro and had a great time too. I didn't have time to spend the night in the crater but wish i had - maybe next time? PK were really efficient and I climbed in an open group so was with people i didn't know but we all got on really well. Their prices were reasonable too - like you say Ger - not the cheapest but they had everything i needed and were really professional. Hope that helps a bit. Becky.

Great company that is supposed to be one of the largest in South/Eastern Africa is: africatravelco.com They also provide discounts if you're a student!

This is a quick clip of my experience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8in4xQ5aco

Have fun!