Kilimanjaro Climb Costs

We find that when most climbers book their expedition they like to know that everything is covered, from arrival at the airport to departure again, hopefully via Kilimanjaro’s summit.

The following are therefore our all-inclusive package prices. These cover the following:

pick up at Kilimanjaro Airport and transfer to your hotel in Arusha
a night’s accommodation both before and after your climb*
all climb costs, salaries, food, fees, etc (excluding tips)
all transfers to the mountain and back to your Arusha hotel again
transfers back to Kilimanjaro Airport for your return flights

*Accommodation is on B&B basis in our standard range hotels, ie either at the Outpost Lodge, Arusha Naaz Hotel, or Le Jacaranda. If you wish to upgrade to either a mid-range or luxury option a surcharge is payable.

Significant additional cost considerations are as follows:

flights or overland transfers to Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha town if approaching from Nairobi (please see bottom of this page)
visas
tips to the mountain staff

meals other than breakfast while in Arusha
additional nights beyond the two standard hotel nights included
hotel upgrade costs if you decide to request an alternative hotel to the standard

items considered to be non-essential, such as alcohol, beverages, cigarettes, snacks, etc

Please read the brief explanations below about the different climb series options before making your decision. Not all series are appropriate for everyone. The vast majority of climbers will be expected to select one of our Team Kilimanjaro Advantage Series climbs.

Explanation of Team Kilimanjaro’s Four Climb Series

Advantage Series

This is our usual option. High level of support with plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and meat. Mess tents will be used and three course hot lunches will be served most days. This strategy is designed to maximise nutrition by encouraging rest and appetite in an environment where this usually suffers. Tried and tested this method has proved extremely successful. Typical climber to staff ratios are: 1:7, 2:11, 3:14, 4:16, 5:19, 6:22, 7:25, 8:28.

Excel Series

This is a very exciting series that spends the night with a small lightweight support team in the crater at 5729m after summitting Kilimanjaro. The following morning we launch excursions to a number of fascinating and rarely seen features within the crater from the Reusch Ash Pit at the crater's centre, to the rapidly retreating edges of the northern and eastern ice fields, where health and strength permit. This is a truly unique opportunity. Support levels are typically: 1:8, 2:12, 3:15, 4:17, 5:20, 6:23, 7:26, 8:29.

Lite Series

A very lightweight, traditional alpinist style, with similar support and provision levels - yet of superior standard and specification - to local budget operations. However, you’ll be required to carry around 12 kg and will only be able to submit 5 kg to your porter. Some foods will be dehydrated and mess tents will not be used. Recommended only for very active and self-sufficient climbers such as regular participants in ultra-endurance events. Typical climber to staff ratios are: 1:3, 2:4, 3:5, 4:6, 5:7, 6:8, 7:9, 8:10.

Superlite Series

A Superlite climb is an entirely self-supported, self-equipped, self-prepared climb, whereby climbers provide and carry all their own food and equipment. KINAPA-enforced regulations require that all climbs on Kilimanjaro be guided by a registered Kilimanjaro guide and therefore Superlite climbs are the closest one may legally come to an unsupported climb, with just the guide being provided by Team Kilimanjaro.

TK assumes that a Superlite climber will have made his or her own way to Arusha and only provides the food and equipment for the guide, transports the group to the mountain and back, and covers all mandatory park fees. On a Superlite climb TK does not arrange airport transfers or accommodation for the climbers, as we do with our other climb series. It should be understood that by most climbers’ standards, the demands of a Superlite climb would be regarded as extremely arduous, with a very high standard of fitness and stamina being required for summit success.

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Cheap Kilimanjaro Climbs

Occasionally, some prospective Kilimanjaro climbers tell us that they would very much have liked to climb Kilimanjaro with Team Kilimanjaro, but having looked more carefully at their available funding, when considering how much they need to earmark for flights and equipment, on reflection they realise that they are having to proceed with more limited means than was at first apparent, and that sadly they are therefore going to have to book elsewhere, with a cheaper Kilimanjaro operator.

While we are very grateful to be able to satisfy the majority of climbers with our principal operation, Team Kilimanjaro, we have in the past nonetheless felt very disappointed that we have been unable to cater to more restrictive budgets, and that cost considerations should be what precludes some climbers from being able to climb with any of our teams.

We have always been averse to charging higher prices than strictly necessary. When Team Kilimanjaro was in its infancy, we used to be one of the cheapest Kilimanjaro operators on the mountain. Within our first few years of operating climbs, however, a number of things became very clear, namely:

that in order to attract and retain the best Kilimanjaro guides, cooks, porters, and permanent administrative staff, we were going to have to pay some of the highest wages,
and that in order to be able to provide some of the best tents and equipment used on Kilimanjaro we were going to have direct more funding into kit purchases and our re-supplies,
to ensure the best quality of meals and the most appealing variety of fresh fruits, vegetables and meals, as well as some exciting morale-boosting surprises and enhancements, it was going to be necessary to augment our grocery allowance.

After a few years of these incremental developments, from the point of view of budgeting, we reached the point from which we have since not moved, at which we believe that our spending choices best secure the climber’s comfort, safety and summit prospects by providing the necessary numbers of support staff and the requisite quantity of equipment as to ensure that climbers are optimally sheltered, hydrated, nourished, rested, supported and monitored; and yet with such spending choices representing neither excessive and unnecessary embellishments, nor skimping economisations that compromise a climber’s summit prospects, safety, or enjoyment of the climb.

Choosing a Budget Kilimanjaro Climb

Our own experience is such that climbers corresponding with us are already aware that the above claim is likely accurate and yet still we encounter the occasional climber who feels that she or he ought nonetheless to prioritise cost reduction measures, even though they realise that this will translate into a lower salaried and necessarily less accomplished staff detail, downgraded equipment and supplies, and a lower level of support.

Also very occasionally, we correspond with a climber that already has a very vast wealth of experience in moving independently in hostile environments and who has previously visited high altitude and already has the confidence that he or she habitually adapts well to such environments. For such climbers, we very frankly admit that the support structure of a Team Kilimanjaro climb could fairly be regarded as ‘overkill’ and we would feel a little dishonest in advising such climbers that to opt to climb with Team Kilimanjaro was in any sense ‘necessary’ in terms of aiming to optimise their prospects of achieving their goal of Kilimanjaro’s summit.

So it is with the above climbers in mind that towards the end of 2008 we launched the Kilimanjaro Alpine Service, Team Kilimanjaro’s budget wing. In addition to being able to cater for climbers that needed to prioritise budgeting over most other considerations, and were willing to make some very significant compromises to achieve a low cost climb, we also had an ulterior motivation in launching this wing, and before encouraging climbers to consider booking a KAS climb, we ought to declare this interest.

Motivation for the Kilimanjaro Alpine Service

It will be obvious to most readers that the best guides on Kilimanjaro will likely aim to work for the company with which they can expect to earn the best monthly wages and enjoy the best working environment. While it is our belief that Team Kilimanjaro’s senior guides have the highest annual disposable incomes on the mountain, (although there are a handful of operators that pay a slightly higher daily wage - but who generally are only able to offer their guides some half a dozen climbs a year and so are unable to contribute very significantly to the guide’s annual income), conversely, our KAS guides are not paid highly and make significantly less than Team Kilimanjaro’s senior guides. This fact means that we are only able to incentivise TK’s junior guides to lead KAS climbs. The reason that Team Kilimanjaro’s junior guides are very happy to work on KAS climbs is that whereas when working on TK climbs these junior guides will generally only work as assistant guides, when working on KAS climbs they get to enjoy the leadership role, along with the accompanying benefits that that accrues, and are paid as chief guides as opposed to be merely assistant guides.

It is probably apparent then, that a significant motivation in having launched KAS - in addition to satisfying climbers seeking a budget climb - is to ensure that as many of our staff are kept as busy as possible and that our junior staff have as much opportunity to lead as possible. It is therefore essential that it be clearly understood that although the KAS enjoys the same oversight and operational support structure as TK, climbers should not expect to enjoy the leadership of guides of equal calibre to our TK climbs.

Additionally it should be understood that whereas our annual Team Kilimanjaro mountain equipment re-supply costs fluctuate between USD 50,000 and USD 70,000, the costs of keeping the KAS equipped are very much less, so KAS climbers should understand that the equipment they will use may either be of inferior design to that on a TK climb, or else - while still serviceable - has been relegated from use on TK climbs.

Climbers who understand the nature of the very significant compromises being made when opting for a budget climb and who are primarily motivated by cost reduction considerations and so are content to proceed nonetheless, are warmly invited to visit the Kilimanjaro Alpine Service website.

Kilimanjaro Alpine Service Prices for Budget Climbs >>