The most beautiful, but Technical, climbing skills required, is now often booked by many - a bit more expensive but worth it for frequent climbers. The climb involves crossing the breath rain forest and gives you an open view of the glacier when you reach the Shira Plateau situated in the middle of the moorlands.
Day 1 - Airport - Hotel in Arusha B/B
Day 2 - Transfers to Machame camp
Day 3 - Shira camp {3,800m}
Day 4 - Barranco camp {3950m}
Day 5 - Barafu camp {4,900m}
Day 6 - Summit {5,895m} - Mweka Camp
Day 7 - Mweka Camp - Arusha town hotel B/B
We provide all meals, head guide and assistant guide and porters and cook who will prepare all meals.
For those who only have six days to climb Kilimanjaro, this climb through the Machame route is the best choice because of its acclimatization profile.
Compared to the other six day routes, the Machame route exposes the climber to higher elevations quicker (day three) which kickstarts the body's adaptation to altitude. However, this route requires that a person is in good shape to be able to tackle the challenging elevation gains and losses.
In particular, day four combined with day five makes for a very challenging schedule. Day four is a full day of hiking from Barranco to Barafu. Then after dinner and a partial night's sleep, the very long and exciting summit day begins around midnight.
To find out more about day-by-day activities, please see the itinerary.
Tanzania is blessed with some of the most spectacular peaks and hiking points around eastern Africa. The most intriguing of them all is the hike up Uhuru peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Mount Kilimanjaro attracts a lot of visitors annually who seeks the adventure of conquering the highest peak in Africa, and the highest free standing mountain in the world. Mount Kilimanjaro has different routes to the peak at 19340feet (5895meters) above sea level. One of these is the Machame Route which this tour will take.
Machame is a Zigzag route up and down trail. You will be hiking up and then hiking a bit down again to sleep low, which is very good for acclimatisation. Due to this reason, by taking this 7 days Machame Route your chance of reaching Mt. Kilimanjaro's summit will also be higher as you will be better acclimatized.
One of the most challenging points on the Machame route is the Baranco wall. We will pass it slowly and safely so there is not need to worry about this point. One of the highlights of this is of course reaching Uhuru Peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro, but, in fact, the entire climb and tour is a highlight.
On the way down, we will descent via the Mweka route. The sleeping mode on the Machame Route is camping.
For a day-by-day itinerary, please see the itinerary tab.
I always dreamed of conquering Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, and the team has been a great partner in fulfilling this dream. I chose the Machame Route because it's a little more challenging but offers a lot of beautiful scenery. The sunsets of Shira and walking through the mist of the Barranco Wall - all in one word, it was a wonderful experience. Guides and porters were always on hand; they handled everything from the pitch of the tent to the cooking of the food perfectly. I'm grateful to this team.
The Kilimanjaro Machame route is one of the most popular routes for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. The reason for its popularity is due to it being a very scenic route.
This is a long and hard trek, which reaches an altitude of 5895m. Even if you consider yourself fit, you might still find the climb very hard, depending on how well your body acclimatises to high altitude. There is no scientific way to determine how easily you acclimatise, and be aware that the acclimatisation process also differ from climb to climb.
Most of the trails on the Kilimanjaro trek are well defined and of good quality but some forest sections are often slippery and moorland paths can be very wet in poor weather conditions.
The final ascent to Uhuru peak is almost exclusively on loose rock without permanent footpaths. However, no technical skills are required. During the course of the trip we shall spend time at both high and low altitude, experiencing both extremely cold and quite hot conditions.
We will prepare for an early start every day on Kilimanjaro.
Conquer Mount Kilimanjaro via the Machame route during this seven-day, guided trek. Dubbed the ‘whiskey route’, Machame is longer than most of the other routes. However, the opportunity to walk high and sleep low along with the distance to the top mean better acclimatisation for travelers along with a high success rate.
Your climb begins at Machame Gate, located at an elevation of 1800 metres. Hike through a majestic rainforest on the first day of this trip, before continuing up the mountain to reach Shira Camp, where the Lemosho route joins from the west. From here you traverse the southern side of the mountain to reach Barranco and climb the Barranco Wall on your way to Barafu Camp. Having summited the mountain, you will descend via the Mweka trail rather than retracing your steps down the Machame route.
The Machame route is a good seven-day hike for travelers with no experience of trekking in high altitudes. However, experienced mountaineers comfortable with high elevations may opt for the more difficult six-day ascent using the same route.
Please note that you will be joining a group during this tour.