Itinerary

1. Day 1: Arusha/Moshi to Marangu Gate to Mandara Huts

   Elevation: (915 m/3,000 ft) to (1,830 m/6,000 ft) to (2,740 m/9,000 ft)

   Distance: 7 km

   Hiking Time: 4-5 hours

   Habitat: Montane Forest

   • After breakfast and a briefing from your guide, leave Moshi at 9 AM, drive for 45 minutes (or if driving from Arusha, leave the town at 7 AM, drive for 1.5 hours) to the Marangu Gate eastern side of Kilimanjaro, register with the national park.
   • Begin the hike at 10:30 AM. 
   • Stop halfway for lunch.
   • Reach the Mandara Huts at 2 or 3 PM. Unpack, rest, and have some tea or coffee.
   • 15-minute side trip to Maundi Crater is a good way to see the surroundings, including Northern Tanzania and Kenya.

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

2. Day 2: Mandara Huts to Horombo Huts

   Elevation: (2,740 m/9,000 ft) to (3,690 m/12,100 ft)
   Distance: 11 km
   Hiking Time: 6-8 hours
   Habitat: Heathland

   • 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 main 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, so to aid your acclimatization, 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: Horombo Huts to Kibo Huts

   Elevation: (3,690 m/12,100 ft) to (4,695 m/15,400 ft)

   Distance: 10 km

   Hiking Time: 6-8 hours

   Habitat: Alpine Desert

   • Wake to breakfast as usual, but if you wake early you can get some great photos of the sunrise.
   • First part of the day’s hike climbs through the dwindling heathland that blends into a moonscape as you enter the sweeping saddle connecting Mawenzi and Kibo.
   • Stop for 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 and note any signs of altitude sickness. There is no running water at the Kibo Huts.

4. Day 4: Summit Day!

   Elevation: (4,695 m/15,400 ft) to (5,895 m/19,340 ft) to (3,690 m/12,100 ft)

   Distance: 4 km up, 14 km down

   Hiking Time: 10-15 hours

   Habitat: Alpine Desert

   • Wake at midnight to a light breakfast, then prepare for your summit ascent. The goal is to climb before dawn so that you can reach Uhuru Peak shortly after sunrise. 
   • 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.
   • Another 2 hours of hiking along the crater rim near the celebrated snows take you 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! 
   • 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.
   • This climb is done 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 difficult part of the trek. Slowly slowly, or, “pole pole,” and an optimistic attitude will get you there!

5. Day 5: Marangu Gate to Moshi/Arusha

   Distance: 18 km

   Hiking Time: 5-7 hours

   • Wake, as usual, pack, and descend through the moorland to the Mandara Huts.
   • Have lunch there then continue your triumphant recessional down through lush forest to the park gate, which you should reach around 2 or 3 PM.Remember to tip your guides, cooks, and porters, since you will be leaving them here.

   Vehicle will take you back to the Hotel in Moshi/Arusha.