Need a Western Guide? Nope!

Occasionally we see Western – US-based, Europen-based, Australian-based – guides flown over to climb Kilimanjaro with their upscale clients. Usually these type of clients pay big money to have someone hold their hand, be their friend, to the top of Africa’s highest mountain. They also get the best-of-the-best food, equipment, number of porters, etc. If you can afford it, great (you da money man) – you just paid $5,000 to climb Kilimanjaro, when you could climbed it for a quarter of the price, with a guide who have probably climbs it more than 30 times per year, for the last 10+ years.

Either way, you don’t need a Western-based guide (97 percent of the time). There are great guides in Tanzania, many of them who have taken classes, been trained in the US, and have background in First Aid, Altitude Awareness, from their mandatory training in Tanzania. Many of the guides have fathers and brothers in Tanzania who have been guides, porters, cooks, as it has been a part of their history for many years.

If you do have a Western-based guide, you will also have a Tanzania guide too, as it’s part of the rules for climbing Kilimanjaro. There is no way around it.