Kilimanjaro / Safari trip planning

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Because so many people asked me about planning, cost etc. of the trip, I decided to put it all in this page. Planning for a trip to Kilimanjaro takes months. It stats with:


• Deciding on the time of year you want to go.
• Which route you want to use for the climb.
• How many days do you want to spend on the mountain.
• What, if anything you want to do before / after the climb.



I found lot of information about time of year, routes etc. at www.ultimatekilimanjaro.comThese decisions are probably the most difficult parts of planning and you want to take these at least 3 - 4 months in advance, if not more. On an average people start planning 6 months in advance for such trips.

The next big thing is deciding on which company to go with. There are a lot of players out there and prices of climb range anywhere from $4000 for American based companies to $1500 for Tanzania based companies. I totally fail to understand why anyone will go with a America / Europe based company and pay so much money. In the end you get almost same treatment as people who booked with local company. Ok, there might be some luxuries like private toilet, samosa for lunch, better quality tent?. But come on, you are climbing a mountain, rough it up a little!

The best place to start your tour operator research is spend some time at Kilimanjaro / Tanzania forum at www.tripadvisor.com - http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g293750-i11370-Kilimanjaro_National_Park.htmlThere is loads of information there and a lot of very helpful people. Its best not to ask newbie questions like - "which tour operator to go with", "where do I start planning". You should do some research and then ask specific questions there about your shortlisted tour companies etc.To shortlist, you basically look at company websites, get reviews off the net, e-mail them asking for initial price of route you are looking for, and other parameters that you might have like it should be Tanzania based / Africa based etc. I shortlisted these companies:


• climbingkilimanjaro.com
• Key Hotels
• tanzaniajourneys.com
• Mount Kenya Climbing Expeditions
• ultimatekilimanjaro.com
• zara tours
• focusinafrica.com
• http://www.tanzaniawildlifesafaris.com/
• BaseCamp



Once you have a list of your shortlisted companies, e-mail them all, asking details about your route, climbing dates, private vs group tour and most importantly prices. You should get detailed replies from all. I mostly looked at the prices because rest of all was standard. Since I was also going to do Safari, I asked for Safari prices at the same time. You can get better deal for booking everything together. With each of these companies, I tried to negotiate the prices a little, also looked at details like - airport pickup/drop is free or not, hotel before/after tours is free or not, what type of food is included etc.

If you decide to do Safari after (Its best to first do the climb when you are still fresh), you need to decide:


• How many days for Safari, I picked 5 day / 4 night
• Which parks you want to visit.
• Camping or lodging



I went back and forth quite a bit about number of days for Safari. I really wanted to visit Serengeti which is a long drive away. Decided on 5 days / 4 night camping and visiting Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti.

I would highly highly recommend my guide and cook for safari. They are both great. The guide knew his way around and how to find the animals. The cook was just great at all cuisines! E-mail me for their contact information, I think they do private tours or you can ask for them specifically if booking through Zara.

I finally decided to go with climbingkilimanjaro.com and booked everything with them. I must have exchanged about 60 e-mails and couple of phone calls with the organizer Nikki. But that's normal, its a lot of money and time you are spending there. I did negotiate the price, hotel stays etc. We wanted to spend one day in Arusha and we got them to give us Moshi - Arusha transfer and one night at Arusha hotel. The whole thing costed about $2750 and that included 7 day Lemosho climb, 5 day camping safari, 3 night hotel in Moshi, 1 night in Arusha, all transfers. Seemed like a good deal. Beyond that only big expense will be flight tickets. Shopping and food for couple of days when in town was not much.

I flew to Nairobi and took 10hrs if layover in Nairobi on to and fro flights. It was enough time to get out and see Nairobi city. There is also a shuttle bus from Nairobi - Moshi which takes 8 hrs on Indian-style road. I chose to fly from Nairobi - Kilimanjaro. Visa in either of the countries is no problem, just have US $ cash and yellow fever vaccine.

My trip report - http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/zweiindians/Trips/18693

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Comments

[Harry W.]

Thanks for the info
Thanks for the assistance in research. I took your shortlist and was able to book relatively quickly and painlessly. We climbed with Ultimate Kilimanjaro in October and had a wonderful experience. Our entire group 12 of 12 made it up and down in one piece!