How To Find and Book Your Kilimanjaro Climb

At the Kilimanjaro Wonders Hotel, we often get the question of where to find the best companies and outfitters for ascending Kilimanjaro. You don’t climb Kilimanjaro every week, in fact, it is likely you are only going to climb Kilimanjaro once in your life and you want to make sure of three things: You want to reach the top, you want to have a beautiful route up and you want to do it with a trusted company. Since it is not allowed to do it by yourself, you might as well put a lot of serious effort in finding the right company which will get you all the way to Uhuru Peak.

If you stand on our rooftop, Kilimanjaro looks rather small. But if you realize that Kili is almost 6’000 meters high, that there are six routes to the top and that it takes anything between 5 and 9 days to make it to Uhuru Peak, your perspective changes. Climbing Kilimanjaro is a serious undertaking and there are many things that you might not think of when exploring your possibilities.

Kilimanjaro Climbing Routes

There are many roads leading to Rome and there are also different routes leading to Uhuru Peak. The Marangu Route is one of the oldest routes on Kilimanjaro and it sometimes called the Tourist or the Coca-Cola Route. With that name, it doesn’t really do the route honor, because, although it is the only route with huts, it still really is a popular route. Not much younger but definitely a bit cooler is the Machame Route. As an answer to the Marangu Route, this route is dubbed the Whisky Route. Having a good single malt on the Whisky
Route is the right thing to do.

Although both the Marangu and the Machame Route are popular options, they are not great for acclimatization. If you want to do acclimatization right, you don’t want to tackle the Marangu in 5 or 6 days or the Machame, but you rather take the Northern Circuit. The latter is the longest route on Kilimanjaro and it involves a detour on the Northern side of Kilimanjaro. Because of it being so long and it having fewer hectic differences in altitude, this route is perfect for acclimatization and it is no surprise that it has the highest success rates of all routes. The Northern Circuit is, however, with 90 kilometers quite a long hike.

According to Sierd van der Bij, trekking expert of Bookatrekking.com, the Lemosho Route is one of the absolute best-sellers. “But that is not surprising”, Van der Bij says. “Success rates vary between 85 and 95% depending on how long your itinerary is. For the best acclimatization, we always suggest choosing 8 days. You are likely to climb Kilimanjaro only once in your life, so you might as well take it easy. The Lemosho Route is also one of the more scenic options.”

Find the Right Climbing Company

It can be a daunting task to find the right company to take you to the top of Kilimanjaro. There are many out there, international adventure conglomerates and small local outfitters. Ideally, you would like to support the small guys but you don’t want to take the risk and rather go with the big guys who do all the big work, right? Perhaps. But if there is a platform where you can compare the smaller guys and you can still enjoy trusted advise and book in a trusted environment. This way you are sure that your money lands at the grassroots level and you are having an authentic Tanzanian experience with a company that can really do with your support. When we came across Kilimanjaro Trekking Company, we saw exactly that. Compare local companies and book their services from anywhere in the world.

Bookatrekking.com offers all climbing routes and works with local companies. They have an extensive travel guide in which all your questions about climbing Kilimanjaro answered and they have a wide offer with competitive prices. “We are in very close touch with our partners in Moshi and we translate all our content and trekking offer from English to Dutch, German and Spanish. This way, our partners can reach a very wide audience and can focus on what
they do best: Climbing Kilimanjaro,” explains Van der Bij. “Our partners know the mountain best and they also know where to find the best places in Moshi. That is how we discovered the Kili Wonders hotel. We listed it in our blog post about where to stay in Moshi.”

Finding and comparing companies for your Kilimanjaro climb has never been easier. At Bookatrekking.com you have all different route options in an overview, see what is included in your itinerary and have answers to all your questions. Trekking experts are at your disposal to answer all the extra questions that you may have during your journey to finding the best Kilimanjaro climb. That sounds like hakuna matata to us.