Prices

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Before we discuss prices it’s important to know what is included in the price. Climbing Kilimanjaro is nearly always done in a group and usually the larger the group is the cheaper it is for each climber. Even if just two of you want to climb alone you’ll be accompanied by anywhere from 4 to 8 support people (so much for solitude on the mountain!).

It’s best to choose an operator long before you arrive in Tanzania. A reputable operator will hire the head guide and arrange for a trained support crew. The size and specifics of your crew will depend on the route you choose and the number of people in your group. They will also provide for nearly everything you need once you arrive in the country.

What’s included:

An experienced, licensed guide
Assistant guides
Porters
Cooks
Food and water during the climb
All equipment needed beyond your personal items (tents, cooking gear, etc)
Park fees (Kilimanjaro is in a national park and the fees are more than US$450 per climber)
Transportation from Kilimanjaro Airport (if that’s where you arrive)
Hotel room in Moshi before and after the climb

What isn’t included:

Your flight to the area

Okay, now for the prices

Climbing Kilimanjaro is almost always a 6, 7 or 8-day event. Add in all those extras including transportation and hotel rooms and the minimum price is around US$1,300. If money is no object and you arrange your trip through a retailer like sporting goods chain REI and the price could be as high as US$6,000.

When you factor in the park fees and all the support staff for each climber, you can see that a US$1,300 climb is going to be a bare-bones affair. Granted, the guides and support crew are paid in low, local-Tanzania wages, but still all this adds up. The good news is that usually for between US$1,700 and US$2,200 per person you can go through a professional and experienced outfitter to arrange for a safe and well-planned climb. Again, the size of your group will be a factor in price, so if there are two of you going you can either join a larger group or recruit more friends as a way of cutting the cost per person.

Why cheapest isn’t the best

If you’ve done much other research you already know that this can be a dangerous thing to do, and certainly that’s part of its appeal. Weather at Kilimanjaro is unpredictable year round, and altitude sickness is common and affects people almost randomly regardless of fitness. If you choose the cheapest operator and you go when the weather happens to be perfect, and nobody in your group has any health issues, you’ll probably be fine. It’s when things go wrong that you’d notice the difference.

With the smallest-possible crew and cheapest equipment things can get bad in a hurry if you face any adversary. With professional crews if someone needs to be helped down the mountain (and unfortunately this is not too uncommon) there are enough people to send someone back to safely get that person out of danger while the rest of the group continues up. But with the cheapest crews something like this might ruin the trip for everyone. Labor in Tanzania is cheap and these are desirable jobs in the area, so cutting these corners can be foolish. Getting a proper crew helps the locals and keeps everyone safer.

Things you might get by trying to book the absolute cheapest climb:

Cheap equipment or gear that isn’t suited to the task - Are they using mountain hardware four-season tents, or just regular tents? Having proper tents, chairs, and toilets, and quality food will make a huge difference in your experience on the mountain.
A lower ratio of guides and porters per client - As described above, this could be trouble.
Lack of experience, particularly in areas like CPR and first-aid – Guides just starting out have to lower prices to get clients to build experience, but do you want to trust your life with someone who only goes up a couple times a year?

This isn’t to say we recommend paying top dollar for your climb. For only a little more than the absolute cheapest you can book an experienced guide with good equipment and the right size crew. Just beware of getting too cheap on this important decision.

Tipping guides and porters

The prices discussed above do not include any tips, and tipping the crew you just spent a week with keeping you safe is both customary and very much appreciated. This is a very common question among climbers and it’s good to consider this cost in advance when you are budgeting the whole trip.

Wages are low in Tanzania, and relatively speaking these tips are small too, but your crew will be large so it does add up. Let’s say there are two of you on a 7-day climb. With a good company you’ll have about 8 support crew along with you including 1 guide, 1 assistant guide, and 6 porters and cooks. If you’ve had a good experience these guidelines are helpful starting points. If the crew did an outstanding job you may wish to give them even more. If your crew provided sub-standard service or if they kept reminding you how poor they are and how low their wages are, don’t feel obligated to tip. And keep in mind, these amounts are for two climbers, not for each climber.

Guide: $15 per day X 7 days = $105
Assistant guide: $10 per day X 7 days = $70
Porters/cooks (times 6 of them): $5 per day X 7 days = $210

So using these guidelines the two of you would tip a total of $385, so that’s $192.50 each in addition to the all-inclusive cost you’ll be paying for the climb itself. If you go with a group of, say, 6 climbers, your support group may be around 20 people, so the tip per climber is closer to $100 for everyone.

Tipping your crew - another lesson.