8 days Kilimanjaro by the Machame Route
The most varied route on the mountain: rainforest, then heather and moorland, then high desert, with a climb-high sleep-low profile built in.
Climbing
Kilimanjaro by the Marangu Route
The only route with huts rather than tents, and the shortest on the mountain. We build in the acclimatisation day, because without it the summit rate drops.
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At a glance
- Destinations
- Kilimanjaro National Park
- Best for
- Climbing
- Travel style
- Mountain hut trek · On foot, with road transfers
- Activity level
- Demanding — long days on foot at altitude
- Best time to travel
- January to February and June to October generally suit the Marangu climb. Huts provide shelter at night, but rain still affects the forest path and cold conditions persist on the summit; the acclimatisation day matters in every season.
- Start and end
- Starts and ends in Arusha
Why this journey
- Huts with bunks and a dining room, so no tent and no camp to strike
- An acclimatisation day at Horombo, which roughly doubles summit success
- Rainforest on the first day, with colobus monkeys and orchids
- The Saddle — a tundra desert between Kibo and Mawenzi
- The shortest and least expensive route on the mountain
Day by day
Marangu goes up and comes down the same path, sleeping in A-frame huts with bunk beds. It is the cheapest way up Kilimanjaro and the least time on your feet, which is also its weakness: fewer days means less acclimatisation. The extra night at Horombo is not optional in our version.
Day 0 — Evening arrivals
For those arriving late at Kilimanjaro Airport or Arusha Bus Station, overnight accommodation and meals are available at extra cost. Those already in Arusha or Moshi get an early morning pickup on Day 1.
Meals not included
Day 1 — Arusha to Mandara Hut, 1,372 m (4–5 hrs)
A morning drive through Kilimanjaro's semi-tropical foothills to Marangu situated on the south-eastern side. At Marangu Gate the team collects final supplies and registers at the park entrance. The forest teems with brightly-colored bird life, colobus and other varieties of monkey, with numerous mosses, lichens, and flowers, as well as delicate orchids. Clear skies may reveal the town of Moshi lying at the edge of the plains far below.
Stay Mandara Hut Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 2 — Mandara Hut to Horombo Hut, 3,720 m (5–7 hrs)
The ascent begins with a steep climb through the last swathe of the rainforest, which gives way to rolling alpine meadow dotted with giant heather. Past the forest canopy, Kilimanjaro's twin peaks – snow covered Kibo and rocky Mawenzi – lie directly ahead, dominating the skyline. The trek continues through a zone of open heath with stunted vegetation before emerging onto bleak moorland. About 1,000 m of altitude is gained.
Stay Horombo Hut Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 3 — Acclimatisation day at Horombo Hut (4–5 hrs)
Statistics show that an acclimatization day like this effectively doubles the chance of making it to the summit. A popular optional walk goes to the base of Mawenzi Peak, the dramatic eastern summit of Kili.
Stay Horombo Hut Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 4 — Horombo to Kibo Hut, 4,705 m (5–7 hrs)
The landscape becomes progressively more rocky and rugged as you leave the everlasting flowers, with giant groundsels and lobelias in sparse moorland. Skirting Mawenzi Peak, trekkers pass Last Water and cross a stark, almost lunar landscape onto 'The Saddle', a broad tundra desert between the two peaks, arriving at Kibo Hut, a dry-stone-walled hut with dormitories and limited facilities. The evening is for repacking. An early night is imperative as you must make a midnight start to reach the summit in the morning before the cloud cover settles.
Stay Kibo Hut Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 5 — Summit assault, Uhuru Peak 5,896 m
A long and demanding day. Guides wake climbers shortly after midnight for the ascent, zigzagging up a long scree slope by the light of your torch in the extreme cold. After about two hours, climbers reach Hans Meyer's Cave – named after the German geologist who made the first successful ascent in 1889. The gradient gets steeper over the next three hours — the hardest stretch of the ascent — before the crater rim at Johanne's Notch. A short scramble reaches Gillman's Point (5,685 m) in time for dawn, with the dramatic spectacle of the sun rising over the ice fields. Continuing, it takes another couple of hours along the crater rim to reach Uhuru (Freedom) Peak (5,896 m). Descent of about 3 hours retraces past Kibo Hut to Horombo Hut.
Stay Horombo Hut Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 6 — Horombo to Arusha
The pace quickens as you continue your triumphant way back down across alpine meadow and past Mandara Hut through the rainforest to Marangu Gate. Vehicle transfer back to Arusha for a shower and dinner at the final accommodation.
Meals Breakfast & Lunch
Stay and travel
Shared mountain huts with bunk beds on the Marangu route. Accommodation off the mountain is as listed in the programme.
The ascent and descent follow the Marangu trail on foot with your mountain guide. Road transfers connect Arusha and the park gate.
Camps fill, and roads change with the rains. Where something has to change we substitute at the same level and tell you before you travel, not after.
Included and excluded
What is included
- Every activity named in the day-by-day
- Accommodation as listed, or a similar alternative if a camp is full
- Meals as noted against each day
- Transfers between the agreed pick-up and drop-off points
- Park, reserve and conservation area fees
- An English-speaking Tanzanian driver-guide
- A 4×4 with a roof hatch, or the vehicle the route calls for
- Drinking water through the day
- Government taxes
- Mountain crew, including porters
- Bottled oxygen and a pulse oximeter
- Summit certificate
Not included
- International flights, airport taxes and visa fees
- Travel, medical and baggage insurance
- Personal spending — drinks, laundry, telephone
- Tips for your guide and crew
- Anything not listed as included
Practical information
- Fitness and altitude
- No technical climbing, but long days on your feet and real altitude. Come with hill-walking fitness and take the acclimatisation days seriously.
- Mountain equipment
- Layers, a four-season sleeping bag and broken-in boots. Anything you would rather not buy can be hired in Moshi — tell us and we will arrange it.
- Visas, insurance and tipping
- A visa is arranged before travel or on arrival. Travel and medical insurance is a condition of booking. Tipping is customary and we will suggest a range rather than set one.
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