Advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello,

My friend and I are looking to climb Kilimanjaro this September and would really like some advice. First we are trying to decide between the Machame or the Marangu route. We have decided if we opt for the latter we would prefer to do the 6 day option to allow ourselves a day to acclimatise but we would welcome your thoughts on which route would be better.

Also we would really appreciate some advice on which tour company to use. We would like to climb with a group, we are both in our late 20's and keen to meet new people and make new friends as well as enjoy the scenery and the challenge. Accordingly an operator which runs group tours of sociable travellers would be perfect! In terms of budget we are probably thinking 'middle of the road'; we are both happy to go budget if that is the recommended option and would prefer not to break the bank but the team and the experience (& the food) are the most important things.

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Sarah

Hi Sarah

The Machame Route is STUNNING with a huge variety of flaura and you get to see Kibo from just about every aspect. It is also very good from an acclimatization perspective. We used Mar Tours in October 2011 and they were EXCELLENT, service during the booking pretrip process. We interviewed quite a few companies and the final selection was based on competitive price, KPAP crew guideline adherence, and prebooking service. Overall the guides, crew were good,the food was great and we were well taken care of throughout the trip.
The trip cost us $1200 each and that included everything. We stayed at the Neneu Hotel prior to starting the trip. And I strongly recommend it.

All the best with your plans and your climb.

Hi, I will be climbing Kili in February of 2013 and would love to hear some first hand advise on what to take on the climb. thanks, rich

Here is a resource we built for Kili when we were guiding trips up the mountain.

Might be a good place to start your research.