How to choose a Kilimanjaro operator

There are several hundred licensed Kilimanjaro operators and the quality range between them is enormous. The difference is rarely visible on a website, because every operator's website says the same things: experienced guides, safety first, unforgettable experience.

This page is the list of questions we would want asked of us. Ask them of everybody you are considering, including us, and compare the answers rather than the adjectives.

The questions that actually separate operators

On the itinerary

• What altitude do I sleep at each night? Ask for the list. The shape of that profile matters more than anything else on the quote.
• What proportion of your climbs are six days or fewer?
• If I book seven days, what specifically does the eighth day add?

On the crew

• How many guides and assistant guides for a group of my size?
• If one person has to descend on summit night, who goes with them, and does the rest of the group continue?
• How many porters, and what is your maximum load per porter?
• What do you pay your porters per day, and how does that compare to the recommended minimum?

On safety

• How often are health checks performed, what is measured, and is it written down?
• Who has the authority to turn a climber around, and can they overrule the client?
• What happens if I cannot walk down under my own power?
• Is the park rescue fee included in the price?

On the money

• What exactly is excluded? Get the list in writing.
• Are all park fees for every night included?
• What do you recommend budgeting for tips?
• What is the deposit, when is the balance due, and what happens if I cancel?

Warning signs

• A price far below everyone else. Park fees are fixed for all operators. A very low total means the savings are coming from crew wages, crew food, crew equipment or crew numbers — the only flexible costs on the mountain.
• Precise unaudited statistics. A "98.7% success rate" implies a precision that self-reported data cannot support.
• Reluctance to give sleeping altitudes. Any operator who knows what they are doing has this to hand.
• Vagueness about who walks you down. This is the single most important staffing question and it should get a crisp answer.
• Subcontracting they will not confirm. Plenty of websites sell climbs that a different company actually operates. That is not automatically bad, but you should know who is running your trip.
• Pressure to book quickly. A several-thousand-dollar considered purchase should not come with a countdown timer.

Local operator or overseas agency?

Both models work, and both have failure modes.

An overseas agency typically offers easier communication in your time zone, familiar payment protection and, sometimes, financial bonding. It also usually means the company selling you the trip is not the company running it, and a margin sits between you and the mountain crew.

A Tanzania-based operator generally means the people you speak to are the people running the climb, and more of what you pay reaches the crew. The trade-offs are time zones and, in some cases, less consumer protection on payments.

We are the second kind, so treat that framing accordingly — but the questions above work equally well on both.

Reviews: what to read past

Almost every operator has a wall of five-star reviews, and they are mostly genuine, because most Kilimanjaro trips go fine. The useful signal is in the exceptions:

• Look for reviews from climbers who did not summit. How the company behaved then tells you more than fifty happy ones.
• Look for detail. "Amazing experience" tells you nothing; "the guide made us turn back at 5,100 m and I was furious at the time and grateful afterwards" tells you a great deal.
• Check whether reviews mention crew by name, and whether the same names recur. Stable crews are a good sign.