Kilimanjaro Marangu Route Tours in Summer

I had the best experience ever! The climbing day is tough but it's so worth it to be on the highest point of Africa! The marangu route is very comfortable but still is an experience that gets you out off your comfort zone

My husband and I decided to climb Kilimanjaro as part of our honeymoon trip to Tanzania. Our tour operator was absolutely brilliant from the word go! Our team, and especially our guides, Rashid and Osmani, went above and beyond to help us reach the summit. They were so friendly, professional and every detail was taken care of - including providing hot water bottles for our sleeping bags in the cold nights. Our guides were only too happy to show us extra insight about the mountain, as well as teaching us some Swahili! We couldn't have made it to the summit without their help and support. All 7 members of the team (porters,chef, waiter, guides) were keen to meet us and even performed a song for us, which was really moving. Although we spent less time with the porters and chef team, when we did see them they were always smiling and keen to talk to us, and did all their tasks with enthusiasm. The level of customer service we experienced was outstanding and we cant think of anything that could have been improved. We will have amazing memories of this trip, thank you so much!! Emma and Chris

We opted to do the 6 day marangu route with anapa travel - I have to say our guides, porters, cooks and server were outstanding. Very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna on the trail. We felt very comfortable and safe with this team and would hike with them again.

What a great route to choose to get to your destination. You get to see both sides of the moutain the arid dry north compares the lush rainy south. The beautiful extra day at Mawenzi tarn to help with acclimitisation is so worth it. but most importantly living above the clouds for 4 days is just the best.

The Rongai route six day ascent and descent of Kilimanjaro felt like a hit and run trip to me but overall very well run and conducted by skilled professional people. Rongai is frequently touted as being a quiter route, unfortunately simply due to the luck of the draw our group was roughly mirroring the progress of at least two other groups on the same route and we frequently came into contact with each other on the trail and obviously at the camp sites. Perceptions of how easy or hard something is will obviously depend upon the individual, I personally found the first three days of this route to be easy to moderate hiking, enjoyable and certainly not challenging. At the end of the third day, at Mawenzi Tarn camp I got my only significant symptoms of altitude sickness for the entire trip, a very obvious headache that would come and go. After a night's "sleep" it had gone and never came back. Poor quality sleep is a real issue for everyone, guides as well. The high altitude affects your ability to sleep properly, frequently waking in the night was common amongst nearly everyone in the group as was the feeling we hadn't really slept at all but we'd comment that about remembering our dreams so must have been asleep at some point. That third night at Mawenzi Tarn is likely to be the last sleep you get before attempting the summit on the night of the fourth day. Virtually no one sleeps at Kibo Camp at 4700M, it's just too high up and of course you're trying to rest and sleep while it's still daylight and the noise of numerous climbing parties goes on outside. Once the night comes and you prepare for the summit climb the air is electric with nervous excitement and you may see the light trails of groups already making their climb. Within minutes of setting off both myself and another member of our group had taken our gloves off. With all those layers on we were getting hot, very hot. At the first rest stop I ended up stripping off my second pair of thermal leggings and took my down body warmer off too. It's surprising how hard work that is approaching 5000metres up. We read how it can be up to -20C on the summit but the reality that night was -7C, still cold but a fair way from -20C. Incidentally you don't need a super high spec head torch that will turn night into day for the night climb, all it needs to do is light up the ground immediately in front of you as far as the heels of the person in front of you, that's all you need to see. I GPS tracked our summit attempt at 0.7 km/h, 700 metres per hour!!! That is how slow you go, painfully slow, in more ways than one but there are many times when even that felt too quick. Despite a number of rest stops they never seem to be enough and the feeling of really pushing your limits in the thin air are ever present. Eventually the ridge does start to get closer and you emerge onto Gillman's Point to immense relief and elation at finishing the main climb and knowing you made it to the summit crater. Sadly at this point we had to leave one of our group behind as we headed on for Uhuru peak via Stella point. We watched the sun rise from Stella Point which was beautiful and put a smile back on our faces despite being very tired now. A short time later we arrived at Uhuru Peak, miussion accomplished. All that was missing was football stadium style turnstiles, there was quite a crowd there but we got our photos and after only fifteen minutes or so were on a our way back down... no one complained. We did however complain about the speed of descent. We were very sore and tired but felt we were being relentlessly marched down with no regard for that and so started taking our own rest stops. For the only time on the trip there might have been a little tension between the conflicting wishes of the guides and the clients. Anyway the descent continued and we got over it. A short rest stop at Kibo Huts. The crew had made a big brunch for us but we barely touched it we were that exhausted... sorry guys, it was then a sustained descent for the next day and a half until we finally emerged at marangu gate. Fantastic!

This was the most amazing experience, it is an incredible feeling reaching the roof of Africa, but that is not to undervalue the rest of the trip...every day has different scenery and stunning view points. Well worth it!