5-Day Mount Kilimanjaro Trekk via Marangu Route – $1,300 USD (PER PERSON)

After breakfast and a briefing from your guide, leave Moshi at 9 AM, drive for 45 minutes to
the Marangu Gate on the eastern side of Kilimanjaro, register with the national park, and
begin hiking at 10:30 AM. In the rainforest, look for towering Eucalyptus trees, bird life, and
Colobus monkeys. At these lower elevations, it can be wet and muddy, so gaiters and trekking
poles will help. Shorts and t-shirts should be sufficient, but keep your rain gear and warmer
clothing handy. Stop halfway for lunch, and reach the Mandara Huts at 2 or 3 PM. Unpack,
rest, and have some tea or coffee. A 15-minute side trip to Maundi Crater is a good way to
see the surroundings including Northern Tanzania and Kenya. Dinner is served during the
early evening at 7 PM. Bathrooms with running water are available.

Wake to a 7:30 AM breakfast, and pack for your next trek. Break camp by 8:30 AM, hike for
an hour through rainforest glades, then follow an ascending path through heathland where
you can look for giant lobelias and groundsels. Continue up into open moorlands where small
shrubs are the main vegetation. Stop halfway for lunch, where you can enjoy amazing views
of Mawenzi. Arrive at the Horombo Huts by 3 PM, where you can see Kibo’s summit. Rest,
unpack, and prepare for dinner. Bathrooms with running water are available. You may start
to feel the effects of altitude here, and to aid your acclimatization, you can choose to spend
an extra day resting at Horombo or climbing to a basecamp below Kibo’s sub peak Mawenzi.

Wake to breakfast as usual, but if you wake early you can get some great photos of the
sunrise. The first part of the day’s hike climbs through the dwindling heathland that blends
into a moonscape as you enter the sweeping saddle connecting Mawenzi and Kibo. When you
stop for lunch, and later when you cross this surprisingly large saddle, you can examine the
summit climb up Kibo that you will be starting in just a few hours. Be careful to notice any
signs of altitude sickness. There is no running water at the Kibo Huts.

Wake at midnight to a light breakfast, then prepare for your summit ascent. The goal is to
climb before dawn so that you can reach Uhuru Peak shortly after sunrise. Leave at 1 AM,
switchback up steep scree or possibly snow, and reach Gilman’s Point on the crater rim at
5,861 m/18,640 ft between 5 and 7 AM. Here, views of the fabled crater and its icecaps greet
you. Another 2 hours of hiking along the crater rim near the celebrated snows take you to
Kilimanjaro’s true summit, Uhuru Peak, by 9 AM. This is Africa’s highest point, and you would
have to travel more than 3,000 miles toward the Himalayas to find a higher peak! Be sure to
have your picture taken at the summit to show your friends.
After your summit stays, descend back to the Kibo Huts, have lunch, rest, collect your things,
and recross the saddle to the Horombo Huts. Eat dinner and get some well-deserved sleep!

Wake, as usual, pack, and descend through the moorland to the Mandara Huts. Have lunch
there then continue your triumphant recessional down through lush forest to the park gate,
which you should reach around 2 or 3 PM. Remember to tip your guides, cooks, and porters,
since you will be leaving them here. A vehicle will take you back to the your Hotel in Moshi,
where it is definitely time for celebration! Depart for the airport or other destinations in
Tanzania or Kenya. A trip to the beaches at Zanzibar is a good way to recuperate. We can
arrange many reasonably priced trips and safaris around Moshi and the Kilimanjaro region.