Kilimanjaro National Park Travel Forum

Hi there,

It seems I've agreed to climb mt. kilimanjaro, sometime in 2007. SO I need as much advice as possible please:

- I live in Manchester, are there any packages available that fly from Manchester to Tanzania.

- Is it possible to arrange the trek directly with the local travel companies? If so who? And what sort of price are we talking?

- How much does it cost per day to be on the mountain?

- What is the cheapest way of doing the trip (without it becoming unsafe).

- What kind of training did you undertake? Do they have any altitude training places in the u.k.?

- I would also like to do a spot of diving in lake malawi whilst I am out there. Is it fairly accesible from kili?

Any other advice would be really welcome. I'm just starting out with planning this so I may have even overlooked the small things.

Thanks for your support

Graham

Hi
The options for flights are either direct to Kilimanjaro international airport -main carriers are KLM -Eithiopian - Air Tanzania.
Or next best is Nairobi int airport which very often is much cheaper and thentake the shuttle bus to Arusha or Moshi, cost is circa $20 pp depending on which company you use.
Departure from most main hotels in Nairobi or the airport, dep time is 08:00 & 13:30 so any later arrival means overnight in Nairobi.
You can and it will be cheaper, book direct with a local company which does help the local ecomny :-) a good place to start looking is the TATO website.
Training- steps are good because many people have muscle problems on the descent as well as general fitness.
Lake Malawi is a long way from Kilimanjaro, there is some excellent diving off Zanzibar.
good luck to the top !

i went from Heathrow with Ethiopian, we went via Rome and Addis.

I used a UK company called Explore. Apart from 1 UK tour leader all the guides and porters are locals so I dont think we were doing the local economy any harm. It doesnt work out that much cheaper organsising it locally, for a start ir adds a few days to your trip trying to organise everything.

Training is a difficult one. Its a very slow & gradual ascent and it doenst matter how fit you are, different people react to the cold and altitude sickness in different ways. Only 4 of the 16 in our group made the top, 2 of us did a lot of long distance running which I have been told can get your body used to the oxygen depletion but others have rubbished that theory. No-where in the UK is high enough to aclimatise before you go, just rely on acclimatising when you get there.

I'm planning a trip in Jan 07. The current idea is to fly with KLM via Amsterdam. They do lots of local connecting flights from around the UK. At the moment the price compares with the extra cost of getting down to London and flying out that way.
We are looking at using Zara travel in Moshi. They have a Uk agent called EWP, based in Wales.
Can't help with the diving, too wet for me.

I did the trekking to Kili in february '06. It was hard after 4000 mt, so if you coul the better is a training before to acclimatation of altitude. I did Machame route, it is easy and beautiful. The most important thing is to do it puttind an day around 3000/4000 mt and choose a professional guide that can care and help you along the trekking. I suggest my guide and tour operator, he is nice and reliable, the price is very good, happy to give informations and costs based in Moshi. Elias Shelukindo ( uhuru_exp@yahoo.com )
ciao

Thanks for all your help so far.

Please keep the advice coming in.

Thanks

Graham

Hi

I have posted a bit of info about my trip to Kili a couple of years back. You will find even more details in the trip report that I have posted on my homepage gardkarlsen.com . There you will find a day by day diary, pictures, how much it cost me, equipment I used etc. Take a look and get in touch if you have any questions :-) Good luck

Regards
Gard