Kilimanjaro hiking tours
35 operators run 146 Kilimanjaro tours on Tripperoni. 1,074 fixed departures still have space for Oct 2026 – Sep 2027. Dates for 21 tours from 5 operators aren't tracked here: we list them from their public details. Per-person prices run from $1,775 (private, 6 days) to $9,795 (guided group, 12 days), a median of $330 per day.
- Days
- 5–9
- High point
- 5,895 m
- Difficulty
- 5/5 Extreme
Why 5/5?
Level 5 on our published scale, which puts anything above 5,000 m at 5: the 5,895 m summit is reached after a night ascent of roughly 1,000 m, and altitude sickness is the main reason climbers turn back. There is no scrambling or roped work, and most days stay below about 4,700 m, but the scale is applied as written so high-altitude walks are graded consistently (agent decision, owner-delegated 2026-10-18). How we grade difficulty
- Season
- Jan, Feb, Mar, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Dec
- Route
- A national park gate that depends on the route (Marangu → Mweka Gate
- Stay
- Mountain huts and camping
- Permit
- Required
Departures with space
Guided group departures by start month. Self-guided tours start on flexible dates and aren't counted here.
Oct 2026
22 with space
- Available
- 22
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 6
Nov 2026
23 with space
- Available
- 23
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 3
Dec 2026
104 with space
- Available
- 104
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 6
Jan 2027
120 with space
- Available
- 118
- Limited
- 2
- Sold out
- 4
Feb 2027
107 with space
- Available
- 104
- Limited
- 3
- Sold out
- 8
Mar 2027
52 with space
- Available
- 52
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 2
Apr 2027
10 with space
- Available
- 10
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 0
May 2027
26 with space
- Available
- 26
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 4
Jun 2027
109 with space
- Available
- 109
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 2
Jul 2027
138 with space
- Available
- 138
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 4
Aug 2027
140 with space
- Available
- 137
- Limited
- 3
- Sold out
- 0
Sep 2027
138 with space
- Available
- 135
- Limited
- 3
- Sold out
- 1
Oct 2027
111 with space
- Available
- 110
- Limited
- 1
- Sold out
- 0
Nov 2027
29 with space
- Available
- 29
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 0
Dec 2027
111 with space
- Available
- 111
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 0
Jan 2028
59 with space
- Available
- 59
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 9
Feb 2028
61 with space
- Available
- 61
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 7
Mar 2028
27 with space
- Available
- 27
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 3
Apr 2028
7 with space
- Available
- 7
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 0
May 2028
26 with space
- Available
- 26
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 2
Jun 2028
59 with space
- Available
- 59
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 15
Jul 2028
63 with space
- Available
- 63
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 10
Aug 2028
64 with space
- Available
- 64
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 11
Sep 2028
66 with space
- Available
- 66
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 12
Oct 2028
42 with space
- Available
- 42
- Limited
- 0
- Sold out
- 11
Compare Kilimanjaro tours
| Tour | Format | Days | Difficulty | Group | Stay | Price from | Per day | Next with space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Circuit Route 8 Days (open group) Gladys Adventure & Safaris · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 10 | 5/5 Extreme | — | Huts & hotels | $2,504 | $250 | 5 Dec 2026 |
| Northern Circuit Route 9 Days (private climb) Gladys Adventure & Safaris · Northern Circuit | Private | 11 | 5/5 Extreme | Private | Huts & hotels | $2,975 | $270 | Dates on request |
| 9-Day Mount Kilimanjaro Northern Circuit Route 10Adventures · Northern Circuit | Private | 9 | 5/5 Extreme Operator: “Very Hard (5/5)” | Private | Camping | $2,560 | $284 | Dates aren't tracked here · check 10Adventures |
| Kilimanjaro Northern Circuit Route - 12 days Adventure Alternative · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 12 | 5/5 Extreme Operator: “Challenging” | — | Huts & hotels | £2,595≈ $3,461 | $288 | 3 Dec 2026 |
| 9-Day Northern Circuit Route private climb Kilimanjaro Hiking Tours (KHT) · Northern Circuit | Private | 11 | 5/5 Extreme | Private | Huts & hotels | $3,228 | $293 | Dates on request |
| Kilimanjaro Lemosho-Route (Wunschtermin) Hauser Exkursionen · Northern Circuit German-language site | Guided group | 10 | 5/5 Extreme Operator: “Kilimanjaro 3” | Up to 12 | Huts & hotels | €2,725≈ $3,066 | $307 | No dates with space |
| 9 day Northern Circuit route Climbing Kilimanjaro · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 11 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 15 | Huts & hotels | $3,405 | $310 | 27 Nov 2026 |
| 11-Day Northern Circuit group climb Peak Planet · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 11 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 12 | Huts & hotels | $3,469 | $315 | 16 Dec 2026 |
| 12-Day Northern Circuit (daytime summit) group climb Peak Planet · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 12 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 12 | Huts & hotels | $3,869 | $322 | 19 Aug 2027 |
| 9-Day Northern Circuit Route group climb Ultimate Kilimanjaro · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 11 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 14 | Huts & hotels | $3,649 | $332 | 14 Jan 2027 |
| 9-Day Northern Circuit Route group climb (daytime summit) Ultimate Kilimanjaro · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 11 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 14 | Huts & hotels | $3,649 | $332 | 25 Dec 2026 |
| 9 Day Northern Circuit Route Soraka Tours · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 11 | 5/5 Extreme | — | Huts & hotels | $3,750 | $341 | 5 Aug 2027 |
| Kilimanjaro via Northern Circuit route - 8 days Altezza Travel · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 10 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 15 | Huts & hotels | $3,710 | $371 | 6 Jan 2027 |
| Climb Kilimanjaro Northern Circuit Action Challenge · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 12 | 5/5 Extreme | — | Huts & hotels | £3,495≈ $4,661 | $388 | 23 Sep 2027 |
| 10-Day Northern Circuit Route private climb (daytime summit) Ultimate Kilimanjaro · Northern Circuit | Private | 12 | 5/5 Extreme | Private | Huts & hotels | $4,849 | $404 | Dates on request |
| Northern Circuit Route 9-Day private climb Duma Explorer (Alika Africa) · Northern Circuit | Private | 9 | 5/5 Extreme Operator: “Moderate — no technical scrambling, no Barranco Wall” | Private | Camping | $3,799 | $422 | Dates on request |
| Northern Circuit Route with Crater Summit Expeditions & Nomadic Experience (SENE) · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 13 | 5/5 Extreme | — | Huts & hotels | $5,520 | $425 | Dates aren't tracked here · check Summit Expeditions & Nomadic Experience (SENE) |
| Spiral Route – 14 days Tusker Trail · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 14 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 10 | Huts & hotels | $6,970 | $498 | 15 Jan 2027 |
| The Grand Traverse Thomson Treks (Thomson Safaris) · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 12 | 5/5 Extreme | Up to 10 | Huts & hotels | $9,190 | $766 | 4 Mar 2027 |
| Tanzania Climb Kilimanjaro Northern Circuit Route Trekking MT Sobek (Mountain Travel Sobek) · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 12 | 5/5 Extreme Operator: “activity level 5” | — | Huts & hotels | $9,795 | $816 | 4 Jun 2027 |
| Climb Kilimanjaro: Northern Circuit Route Wilderness Travel · Northern Circuit | Guided group | 11 | 5/5 Extreme Operator: “Level 6+, Very Strenuous” | Up to 14 | Camping | $8,995 | $818 | 7 Dec 2026 |
| 12-Day Northern Crater private climb Peak Planet · Northern Circuit | Private | 12 | 5/5 Extreme | Private | Huts & hotels | Not published yet | — | No priced dates yet |
| Kilimanjaro Private Journey Wilderness Travel · Northern Circuit | Private | 11 | 5/5 Extreme Operator: “Level 6+, Very Strenuous” | Private | Camping | Not published yet | — | No priced dates yet |
Trail status
Season, permits, fees and closures, checked against official sources.
Closures & advisories · Gate hours
The park is open year-round; gates close at 6 PM.
Fees · Camping per night
$50 per adult (16+) non-resident per night, all routes except Marangu; US$10 for ages 5 to 15 (TANAPA tariff FY2023/24, the latest published; confirm current rates)
Fees · Conservation per day
$70 per adult (16+) non-resident per day; US$20 for ages 5 to 15, free under 5 (TANAPA tariff FY2023/24, the latest published; confirm current rates)
Fees · Hut per night
$60 per adult (16+) non-resident per night in the Marangu huts; US$20 for ages 5 to 15 (TANAPA tariff FY2023/24, the latest published; confirm current rates)
Fees · Rescue
$20 per person per trip, non-refundable; does not pay for helicopter evacuation or insurance (TANAPA tariff FY2023/24, the latest published; confirm current rates)
Fees · Tariff period
The latest TANAPA tariff on tanzaniaparks.go.tz is the financial year 2023/2024, shown as valid until June 2024. No 2024/25, 2025/26 or 2026/27 schedule was found on the official site, so the amounts below may be out of date; operators and third-party sites report higher rates.
Fees · Upper barafu camp
$100 per adult (16+) non-resident per night at Upper Barafu Camp instead of the US$50 public campsite rate; US$20 for ages 5 to 15 (TANAPA tariff FY2023/24, the latest published; confirm current rates)
Fees · Vat
The tariff PDF says all charges are exclusive of 18% VAT, while the tariff web page says fees are inclusive of 18% VAT where applicable. The two TANAPA statements conflict, so ask the operator whether its quoted park fees include VAT.
Huts & refuges · Marangu huts
Only the Marangu route has huts (Mandara, Horombo and Kibo); they are charged per person per night and need prior booking. Every other route uses tented camps arranged by the licensed operator.
Permits & quotas · Licensed operator required
All Kilimanjaro climbs must be guided by a licensed operator; solo trekking is not permitted. Guide and porter services are arranged through licensed tour operators.
Permits & quotas · Minimum age 3700m
Children under 10 years of age are not allowed above 3,700 m on Kilimanjaro (TANAPA brochure 2019/1).
Permits & quotas · Minimum days
Visitors are ordinarily required to spend at least five days going up and down Kibo for acclimatization; park visitors are registered electronically to enforce the days permitted.
Permits & quotas · Operator licence
Anyone operating a tourism activity in Tanzania needs a licence from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (the TALA licence; four classes A to D; renewed and paid annually). TANAPA's park guidelines name the mountain licence as issued by the Tanzania Tourism Licensing Board. The licence class and number to look for is on the operator's own website or paperwork.
Permits & quotas · Operator licence register
The Ministry publishes a TALA licence register (about 4,979 licences on 18 October 2026, covering hotels and camps as well as tour operators) at https://www.maliasili.go.tz/stakeholders/tour-operators. Each entry shows company name, TIN, activity (for example Tour Operator, 1-3 Vehicles), class, licence number, issue and expiry dates and a validity flag. To verify an operator, find its licence number and check that the entry is valid and unexpired.
Permits & quotas · Porter load limit
TANAPA park rule: porters may carry at most 25 kg including their own belongings (TANAPA brochure 2019/1). KPAP advocates a stricter 20 kg of company load, excluding the porter's personal kit.
Season · Dry months
Dry seasons: late June to September, and December to early March (cool nights, clear days, good climbing conditions).
Season · Rainy months
Rainy seasons: a short one in October and November, and the main wet season from March to May, when the mountain base is rainy and snow builds up on the summit.
Official source wins. Permit and fee rules can change at short notice. If the official source says something different, follow it, and tell us so we can fix it.
Guided or self-guided?
There is no self-guided Kilimanjaro. Park rules say every climb must be guided by a licensed operator, and solo trekking is not permitted, so every tour here is a guided climb: either a fixed group departure with other climbers or a private climb for your own party. What differs between operators is how they treat the mountain crew, group size and the number of guides per client. The crew of guides, cooks and porters carries the camp, so porter pay and load limits matter. The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project advocates fair wages and a 20 kg company load per porter, and publishes which companies take part in its responsible-travel programme.
Medians are per person, per day, land only, twin share, in USD at today's rate.
About Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest point, the 5,895 m Uhuru Peak on the Kibo cone, and the walk to it needs no climbing gear, ropes or crampons. What it asks for is time and stamina: you pass through five climate zones, from rainforest through heath and moorland to alpine desert and an icy summit, usually over six to nine days. Each route has its own character. Marangu uses huts and goes up and down the same way, the others are tented-camp routes, and all of them end with a cold, slow summit night starting around midnight. The big risk is altitude, not terrain. Longer routes that climb slowly give your body more time to adjust, and park rules expect at least five days on the mountain.
When to go
The park's own guidance puts the dry seasons at late June to September and again from December to early March. Those months bring cooler nights and clearer days, and they are the busiest. The wet season runs from March to May and there is a shorter rainy period in October and November, when the lower slopes are wet and the summit can collect snow. The mountain is open all year and climbs do run in the rains, with fewer people on the trail but muddier forest and worse visibility. Summit nights are cold in any month.
Permits and booking timeline
You do not apply for a climbing permit yourself: the licensed operator buys your park entry and registers your climb with the park authority, and the electronic booking records how many days you may stay. The park charges per person: a daily conservation fee (US$70 for an adult non-resident on the latest official schedule), a nightly camping fee of US$50 (or the Marangu hut fee of US$60), and a one-time rescue fee of US$20. Those amounts come from the 2023/24 tariff and may have risen, and 18% VAT may or may not be included. Because the operator handles the paperwork, book early enough for the operator to secure your dates, and ask for the licence number so you can check it.
Sources
Where our facts and descriptions for this trail come from. Official sources win if anything differs.
Show all 18 sources (13 official)
Official
- TANAPA: Kilimanjaro National Park home page (summit, days, entry fees, gates close at 6 PM) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: Kilimanjaro National Park visitor guide (gates, huts and camps, licensed operator rule) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: Kilimanjaro National Park attractions (Uhuru Peak 5,895 m) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: About Kilimanjaro National Park (peaks, area, history) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: Park fees and tariffs page (financial year 2023/2024, valid until June 2024) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: Tariffs 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 (PDF, latest tariff schedule found on the official site) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: Northern Zone Quick Reference, October 2024 (PDF; tariff table effective 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: Mount Kilimanjaro brochure 2019/1 (PDF; climate, huts and camps, older tariffs, park rules incl. porter 25 kg) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: General brochure 2024/2 Rev. 1, October 2024 (PDF; Kilimanjaro section: 5 to 9 days, reputable registered local tour operator, getting there) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- TANAPA: Kilimanjaro National Park Golden Anniversary magazine, 2023 (PDF; official route list, route shares, five-day rule, Mawenzi guidelines) tanzaniaparks.go.tz
- Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority eRegulations: Tourism licences (Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, classes A to D, renewed annually) procedures.tiseza.go.tz
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism: Stakeholders, Tour operators (public TALA licence register; data served by https://maliasili.go.tz/api/tour-operators) maliasili.go.tz
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism: licence register data feed behind the Tour operators page (paged, 10 per page) maliasili.go.tz
Trail associations
- TATO (Tanzania Association of Tour Operators): public notice on tourism licence applications via the MNRT portal tatotz.org
- KRTO / KPAP (Kilimanjaro Responsible Trekking Organization, parent of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project): home page kiliporters.org
- KPAP: Porter treatment and tipping guidelines (20 kg company load, minimum wage, pay within 2 days) kiliporters.org
- KPAP: Climb with a Partner for Responsible Travel company (list is held by IMEC; contact to confirm a partner) kiliporters.org
- IMEC (International Mountain Explorers Connection): Partners for Responsible Travel list (170 organisations on 18 October 2026) mountainexplorers.org
Kilimanjaro FAQ
Do I need a guide to climb Kilimanjaro?
Yes. The park's visitor guide says all climbs must be guided by a licensed operator and that solo trekking is not permitted. Guide and porter services are arranged through licensed tour operators, so in practice you book a climb with an operator and they arrange the permit, guide and crew.
How do I check that a Kilimanjaro operator is licensed?
Tourism operators in Tanzania need a licence from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, known as the TALA licence, which is renewed and paid every year. The Ministry publishes a register of licences, with company name, class, licence number and expiry date, at maliasili.go.tz under Stakeholders, Tour operators. Ask the operator for its licence number and match it to an entry that is valid and not expired.
How many days does Kilimanjaro take?
The park says climbing Kibo takes 5 to 8 days depending on the route, and its brochure gives 5 to 9 days or longer. Park rules also say visitors should ordinarily spend at least five days going up and down for acclimatization. The more days you take, the better your chance of reaching the summit, according to the park's own advice.
What are the park fees for climbing?
On the latest TANAPA tariff we could find, valid to June 2024, an adult non-resident pays US$70 a day in conservation fees, US$50 a night for camping (US$60 a night in the Marangu huts, US$100 at Upper Barafu Camp) and a US$20 rescue fee per trip. Rates may have changed since, and the PDF says VAT is extra, so confirm the current figures with your operator.
When is the best time to climb Kilimanjaro?
The park describes dry seasons from late June to September and from December to early March, with cool nights and clear days. The wet season is March to May and a shorter rainy period falls in October and November. Climbing is possible all year because the park is open year-round, but the dry months are the usual choice.
What is the porter load limit and how do I know my porters are treated fairly?
TANAPA's park rules allow porters to carry up to 25 kg including their own belongings. The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project advocates a tougher 20 kg of company load, minimum-wage pay, three meals a day and proper shelter and gear. Companies in its Partner for Responsible Travel programme are listed on the International Mountain Explorers Connection website, and KPAP says to contact it to confirm anyone claiming to be a partner.
Related trails
More trails are on the way
We publish a trail once at least five curated operators list departures on it. Lace up and check back soon.