Itinerary

1. Day 1: Drive from Moshi to Marangu Gate and then to Mandara Huts

   • Enjoy your breakfast and receive a briefing from your guide.

   • Leave Moshi at 9 AM and drive for 45 minutes to the Marangu Gate on the eastern side of Kilimanjaro.

   • Register with the national park, and start hiking at 10:30 AM. In the rainforest, look for towering Eucalyptus trees, birdlife, and Colobus monkeys. It can be wet and muddy at these lower elevations, so gaiters and trekking poles will help. Shorts and t-shirts should be sufficient, but keep your rain gear and warmer clothing handy.

   • Stop halfway for lunch, and reach the Mandara Huts at 2:00-3:00 PM.

   • Unpack, rest, and have some tea or coffee.

   • Take a 15-minute side trip to Maundi Crater, an excellent way to see the surroundings, including Northern Tanzania and Kenya. 

   Dinner is served during the early evening at 7:00 PM. Bathrooms with running water are available.

2. Day 2: Drive from Mandara Huts to Horombo Huts

   • Wake to a 7:30 AM breakfast, and pack for your next trek.

   • Break camp by 8:30 AM, hike for an hour through rainforest glades, then follow an ascending path through heathland where you can look for giant lobelias and groundsels.

   • Continue up into open moorlands where small shrubs are the primary vegetation.

   • Stop halfway for lunch, where you can enjoy amazing views of Mawenzi.

   • Arrive at the Horombo Huts by 3 PM, where you can see Kibo’s summit.

   • Rest, unpack, and prepare for dinner. Bathrooms with running water are available.  You may start to feel the effects of altitude here and aid your acclimatisation; you can choose to spend an extra day resting at Horombo or climbing to a basecamp below Kibo’s sub peak Mawenzi.

3. Day 3: Extra Day at Horombo Huts

   • Get an extra day at the Horombo Huts (3,690 m/12,100 ft). You can spend an entire day and a second night at Horombo. 

   • Either rest at the huts or take a stroll up to the Mawenzi basecamp, then return to the Horombo Huts. 

   • This extra day will help your acclimatisation and further your understanding of the mountain’s weather and altitude. 

   • After your pause, you will continue up to the Kibo Huts on your fourth day for your midnight start to the summit.

4. Day 4: Trek from Horombo Huts to Kibo Huts

   • Wake to breakfast as usual, but if you wake early, you can get some great photos of the sunrise. 

   • Climb through the dwindling heathland that blends into a moonscape as you enter the wide saddle connecting Mawenzi and Kibo.

   • Stop for delicious lunch, and later when you cross this surprisingly large saddle, you can examine the summit climb up Kibo that you will be starting in just a few hours. Be careful to notice any signs of altitude sickness.

   There is no running water at the Kibo Huts.

5. Day 5: Trek from Kibo Huts to Uhuru Peak

   • Wake at midnight to a light breakfast, then prepare for your summit ascent. Climb before dawn so that you can reach Uhuru Peak shortly after sunrise. 

   • Start the climbing in the dark with headlamps or flashlights. It will be freezing until you start descending, so you will need all of your warm layers. This is, by far, the most challenging part of the trek.

   • Leave at 1 AM, switchback up steep scree or possibly snow, and reach Gilman’s Point on the crater rim at 5,861 m/18,640 ft between 5 and 7 AM. Here, views of the fabled crater and its icecaps greet you.

   • Take another 2 hours of hiking along the crater rim near the celebrated snows to Kilimanjaro’s true summit, Uhuru Peak, by 9 AM. This is Africa’s highest point, and you would have to travel more than 3,000 miles toward the Himalayas to find a higher peak! Be sure to have your picture taken at the summit to show your friends.

   • Descend back to the Kibo Huts, have lunch, rest, collect your things, and recross the saddle to the Horombo Huts.

   • Eat dinner and get some well-deserved sleep! 

6. Day 6: Descending to Moshi from Mandara Huts to Marangu Gate

   • Wake, as usual, pack and descend through the moorland to the Mandara Huts.

   • Have lunch there, then continue your triumphant recessional down through the lush forest to the park gate, which you should reach around 2 or 3 PM. 

   • Drive back to the Springlands Hotel in Moshi, where it is time for celebration!

   • Transfer from the hotel to the airport to board a flight for your onward destination.