Posted: 1/26/2024 3:06:39 PM EDT
[Last Edit: billpete][Edited]
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I thought I would share our recent trip to Tanzania. Offer up what we did and answer any questions that anyone might have. Yes, we did bless the rains. It rained all the time—more on that below. Also, Kilimanjaro does not rise above the Serengeti like an empress—you cannot see it from the Serengeti, even in a hot air balloon at 6500ft. In mid-January we summitted Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak on the African continent, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world at 19,351ft.  We used a guide company (all trips in the park must be guided), Peak Planet, which arranged for all the logistics for both the climb and 5-day safari we did after the hike. We had a group of 10 clients (all Americans) and had a support package of 5 guides and 33 other staff (cooks, waiters, porters, etc).  While this sounds very extravagant—and it is—it is the norm for all guided trips. There are options to do smaller, more rugged trips, but we really wanted the best opportunity to summit. In the end, 9/10 summitted, with the one that did not was due to some pre-existing medical concerns. We signed up for the trip in March 2023, and departed the US on 29 December. Our hike began on 1 January, and we summitted on 7/8 January. We began our safari on the 9th and departed Tanzania on the 13th. It was really an African trip of a lifetime. The trip is guided, and all logistical support comes through the company. Tents, meals, toilet, and the means to move it all. We did rent sleeping bags (I wanted to make sure that we had the right bag for the trip), but we provided all the other gear we wore and used. A typical day was that we would wake up at about 6am, offered coffee/tea, and then packed our gear up. We ate breakfast while camp was torn down, and then departed about 730am. We hiked for about 4-7 hours each day, and when we got to the next camp, the tents were all set up, our duffle bags in them, and were greeted warmly by the staff. Eating dinner, medical checks, and a briefing on the expectations for the next day finished the day. Rinse/repeat except for summit day.   Summit day/night was a different deal—we hiked about 3 hours, got to camp, ate lunch. Took a nap and got up for dinner. After dinner, back to bed for a few hours. Got up about 11pm, snacked, and set off for the summit. About 8 hours later, summitted. Then about a 2.5-hour trip back to base camp, a meal and short nap, and then about a 3-hour hike to the last camp. We then exited the park the following day. About 46 miles from point to point, with about 12,500ft elevation gained. As I mentioned, we had 10 climbers, all Americans, aged from 25-66. Split evenly—5 males and 5 females. From all over the country, and it was a great group of people. It was nice to avoid political talk and such—I am sure that there would have been opposing positions—but we all got along well and had the singular goal of summitting, and that bonded us well. The people of Tanzania are amazing. I have never been treated so well in my life—to watch and experience a group of people whose singular goal is your happiness and success was simply embarrassing. It is hard to explain in words—I am sure that there are others who will read this and have done it—they will know what I am talking about. But you must experience it to fully appreciate it. It is my number 1 highlight of the trip—the people of Tanzania. We suffered through rain the entire trip. We went at the transition from the wet to dry season, and apparently there was an El Nino event going on. In 8 days on the mountain, we probably got about 10 hours of sun. It was rough—everything we had was wet or damp. But it never stopped anyone, and we joked that we did it on “hard mode”. We followed the hike with a 5-day guided safari. Lake Nayara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Parks. We saw almost every African animal you could expect or want to see—just never saw a Leopard. The landcruisers were badass—they are very capable and fun to ride around in. Each night we stayed in a comfortable and modern lodge (most were tents) and enjoyed excellent meals. If you are interested in visiting Africa, I cannot recommend a trip to Tanzania enough--it is worth the time, energy and resources to do it. It is an incredible place to see, to meet some amazing people, and experience some lifetime events. You can also go to a tropical island (Zanzibar), but we wanted to spend our time doing other things. I wanted to get this out to everyone so they could read about it and ask any questions they wanted. I will post more pictures as I go through them. |
| Sounds like an awesome trip. My sister lived in Arusha for a while, and while she was out there went out to visit once but never climbed Kili unfortunately. I agree the people there were generally great. What was your favorite part of the safari? I thought the crater was pretty cool |
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Originally Posted By racerpk11: Sounds like an awesome trip. My sister lived in Arusha for a while, and while she was out there went out to visit once but never climbed Kili unfortunately. I agree the people there were generally great. What was your favorite part of the safari? I thought the crater was pretty cool I agree--the crater was pretty cool. I think that my favorite parts of the safari were the elephants. We had a bull play with some other trucks, and ended up close enough to ours that we could touch it. On another occasion, there were some elephants crossing the road in front of us, and one of the juveniles decided we were too close and trumpeted at us. That was pretty special. |
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Originally Posted By NotIssued: Awesome. Closest I did was Whitney. Tag for info and maybe.convince the wife. What was the ballpark price, if you don't mind? Flights, safaris, etc. Good question! We did the 10 day Lemosho route, with a 5 day safari. Added a day up front (get settled, etc). Paid for premium seats on Delta. All in all, about $15k for both of us. Not counting some incidentals and gear purchases (we had most of our gear already). You can easily spend more, or less, if you want to. We chose a more expensive company for our experience, and they took care of all the logistics except airfare, insurance, etc. |
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Originally Posted By tspike: Congrats! I've seen it a few times and never imagined being able to climb it as you did. Well done! Thank you! It was a cool trip and if you are in decent shape you can make it. It is mostly walking--there was a little rock scrambling, but nothing too hard. |
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Originally Posted By dedreckon: Nice pics and congratulations - seems like a cool bucket list goal.  I've seen Kilimanjaro from Tsavo, but never been up to it That was out goal--clear a bucket list item for a continent and trip. No interest in the 7 summits, this one just seemed a little more "do-able". Highly recommended adventure! |
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Originally Posted By billpete: Good question! We did the 10 day Lemosho route, with a 5 day safari. Added a day up front (get settled, etc). Paid for premium seats on Delta. All in all, about $15k for both of us. Not counting some incidentals and gear purchases (we had most of our gear already). You can easily spend more, or less, if you want to. We chose a more expensive company for our experience, and they took care of all the logistics except airfare, insurance, etc. 1k a day seems pretty decent for that |
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Originally Posted By NotIssued: 1k a day seems pretty decent for that For sure. We could have saved several thousand with economy tickets, but comfort was a goal. I think that we were close to $6k in airplane tickets--but we chose that class of travel. I think that the "10 day" Lemosho route itself is about $2900 pp, so that is a large amount of our expenses. But they also have an above 90% success rate for summitting. For a number of reasons: amount of hiking days (pace/acclimatization), food, number of guides, support staff, etc. Shorter routes are less expensive, but success rates can be lower. |
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Pretty awesome OP! When are you climbing the second peak?   Monty Python: Mountaineer | Kilimanjaro Sketch |
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Originally Posted By GreenLantern: Pretty awesome OP! When are you climbing the second peak?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzOLaRvPAkQI would like to get close enough to Everest to see it. No intentions of going that high again. Kilimanjaro is nice as it is not a technical climb to get to the top. You literally walk the entire route. |
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Awesome! I love Tanzania. I haven't ever been to kilimanjaro though. We flew over it last month on our way to Zanzibar, and my wife and i talked about possibly doing that someday. Attached File But agreed, the people are super nice and the country is beautiful. I've been to the northern areas for work and Zanzibar for play. Attached File Attached File Attached File We also did a safari recently but it was in Kenya. Share some of your safari pics! Attached File Attached File |
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Here are some pictures from the safari as requested. We purposefully did not bring a camera--we just used our phones. We figured almost all of our pictures would be shared through social media or testing, and we wanted to "see" more than take photos. Sorry for the potato images. We just missed this lioness and the zebra. She had killed the zebra, and was waiting for the rest of the pride to show up.  A huge number of wildebeests crossing a lake. It was so cool to watch.  Lots of giraffes, everywhere. They can hide very well too.  We literally saw over a million zebra and wildebeest. It was so cool.  The younger elephant on the right is the one that trumpeted at us.  We saw so many elephants at Tarangire National Park. They got pretty close too.  Our ride for 5 days and over 1000 miles.  A cheetah eating its kill. We were not sure if it was a rabbit or a small gazelle.  |
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Originally Posted By Loonytik: Amazing trip. Congrats! Do you mind sharing the guide company information? Thank you! We went with Peak Planet--and were 1000% satisfied with our trip from the initial inquiry until the final feedback email. Recommended without reservation. |
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Sounds like a great trip! I did a two week Tanzanian camping safari back in 1982. Fabulous trip! And there was a Mt. Kilimanjaro summit hike offered at the end of the safari which I declined. But the two weeks camping through the National Parks was fantastic. We did: Arusha National Park/Mt. Meru, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Ndutu tent camp in the Serengeti and a very interesting trip to Olduvai Gorge where the Leaky's did so much work on prehistoric human origins. Like you, we saw almost every animal. I had to laugh about your not seeing a leopard! My group didn't see any, either. They are secretive and know very well how to stay clear of humans. I was surprised at the amount of support personnel you required ("required" is perhaps the wrong word?). We had about twenty people on two Mercedes ex-military trucks. Our support personnel consisted of: one Australian guide, one Dutch cook and two Tanzanian helpers. They all did a fantastic job. The military trucks were the correct answer. I remember seeing at least one VW "Combi" type vehicle with a shattered axle stranded by the side of the road. |
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Originally Posted By Coolio: Sounds like a great trip! I did a two week Tanzanian camping safari back in 1982. Fabulous trip! And there was a Mt. Kilimanjaro summit hike offered at the end of the safari which I declined. But the two weeks camping through the National Parks was fantastic. We did: Arusha National Park/Mt. Meru, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Ndutu tent camp in the Serengeti and a very interesting trip to Olduvai Gorge where the Leaky's did so much work on prehistoric human origins. Like you, we saw almost every animal. I had to laugh about your not seeing a leopard! My group didn't see any, either. They are secretive and know very well how to stay clear of humans. I was surprised at the amount of support personnel you required ("required" is perhaps the wrong word?). We had about twenty people on two Mercedes ex-military trucks. Our support personnel consisted of: one Australian guide, one Dutch cook and two Tanzanian helpers. They all did a fantastic job. The military trucks were the correct answer. I remember seeing at least one VW "Combi" type vehicle with a shattered axle stranded by the side of the road. That sounds like a cool trip! I bet it was far more rugged back then. The large support staff was for the hike. For the safari, we had a driver, and then at the end of each day stayed at lodges that provided all the hospitality services for us. |
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Originally Posted By benb: Nice job Bill, That looks awesome! Thanks Ben--we are heading to Machu Picchu in August. That should be a great trip too. The PCT continues to elude me though. Tried applying for a permit in the first window, and got one of the last times and therefore no permit. Complained in an email to the PCTA, and then miraculously, got the absolute last time available for the next permit window. That was "random" I am sure. |
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Checked this one off my bucket list as well. A great trek, for sure. You did it right with the trek with more days; altitude sickness is about the only reason people don’t make the summit. When I did it, I remember I felt really bad the night before the summit night/day. Trying to get up and move 30 feet was a challenge before going to bed. After sleeping a night, with the help of Diamox, I woke up feeling much better. The extra time to acclimate made summit night/day awesome. Without the extra days, the altitude would have got me and there is no way I would have made the summit. If anyone is thinking about it, without a doubt, spend the money for extra days to acclimate. Penny wise, pound foolish to do otherwise. |
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Originally Posted By d31tc: Checked this one off my bucket list as well. A great trek, for sure. You did it right with the trek with more days; altitude sickness is about the only reason people don’t make the summit. When I did it, I remember I felt really bad the night before the summit night/day. Trying to get up and move 30 feet was a challenge before going to bed. After sleeping a night, with the help of Diamox, I woke up feeling much better. The extra time to acclimate made summit night/day awesome. Without the extra days, the altitude would have got me and there is no way I would have made the summit. If anyone is thinking about it, without a doubt, spend the money for extra days to acclimate. Penny wise, pound foolish to do otherwise. Great comment--the altitude is no joke, and I didn't really feel it on the hikes to the camps. We walked SO slow--like a mile an hour. Get to camp, and go from the tent to the bathroom at "normal" pace, and I am breathing like I ran a 10k. That was when I really felt it for sure. We took Diamox the entire trip, and already have it for our Machu Picchu hike next month. It does make a difference for sure. |
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Originally Posted By billpete: Great comment--the altitude is no joke, and I didn't really feel it on the hikes to the camps. We walked SO slow--like a mile an hour. Get to camp, and go from the tent to the bathroom at "normal" pace, and I am breathing like I ran a 10k. That was when I really felt it for sure. We took Diamox the entire trip, and already have it for our Machu Picchu hike next month. It does make a difference for sure. We're headed to Machu Picchu in 2026 |
"Problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented."
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Originally Posted By Genin: Sounds like a terrific trip/adventure. Out of all the possible places in the world for such an adventure, why did you select Kilimanjaro? Antarctica, Asia, Russia, South America, Alps, and so many other possibilities, why Kilimanjaro? Great question. We want to go to all the continents, and we really enjoy hiking. This seemed to scratch both itches, not to mention the highest point in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world. It was a great challenge, too. Combined with a safari to get on the Serengeti, it really made our trip to the Dark Continent complete. We knocked out an initial trip to South America with the Machu Picchu hike, and plan future trips to other continents and hikes. |
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Originally Posted By rock71: Which was better; Kilimanjaro, or the AT?  I have only done a couple of hundred miles on the AT, and same on the PCT. All the hikes are great for various reasons. There was something pretty special about Kili, though. The people, the challenge, the scenery, the safari. It was definitely the way we wanted to see Africa. |
