Toilets and hygiene on Kilimanjaro

At a glance

• Private toilet
• Washing routine
• Hand hygiene
• Dental and skin care
• Menstrual hygiene
• Waste responsibility

On TrekUp camping routes, the package includes a private portable chemical/flush-style toilet with a dedicated toilet tent and porter. This provides greater privacy and convenience than relying only on public camp facilities. Marangu’s hut infrastructure is different, so arrangements follow the route. Hot water for basic washing is normally provided morning and evening where practical. Bring quick-dry towel, biodegradable personal products used sparingly, hand sanitizer, toilet tissue backup, lip balm and strong sun protection. Keep feet clean and dry, and address hot spots before they become blisters. For menstruation, bring more supplies than you expect to need, sealable disposal bags and any preferred pain-management products that are appropriate for you. Nothing should be buried or left on the mountain. Follow the guide’s waste-management instructions.

This is the question everybody wants answered and almost nobody asks. So, plainly:

Every camp on Kilimanjaro has public long-drop toilets provided by the national park. They are wooden huts over a deep pit. They are functional, and by the end of a busy season they are unpleasant.

The alternative is a private toilet tent that travels with your group, and for many climbers it is the single upgrade they are most glad they paid for.

The public park toilets

What to expect: a wooden or concrete cubicle over a pit, a hole in the floor, no seat, no light, no paper, no washing water. Cleanliness varies from acceptable early in the season to genuinely grim at busy camps in August.

They work. Bring your own paper and hand sanitiser, and a headtorch for night visits.

The private toilet tent

A portable chemical toilet inside its own small standing tent, carried by a dedicated porter and set up at each camp for your group only. It has a seat, it is private, it is clean because only your party uses it, and it is emptied and carried out.

Whether it is included as standard or costs extra varies by operator — ask specifically, because the wording "toilet facilities available" can mean either thing.

It matters more than people expect for three reasons: comfort at 4am, hygiene when a stomach upset would be genuinely dangerous, and the fact that it removes a real anxiety that stops some people booking at all.

On the trail between camps

There are no facilities. The convention is simple: well away from the path and any water source, and everything non-biodegradable comes out with you. Carry a small sealable bag for used paper — this is not optional and it is why some sections of the popular routes look the way they do.

Washing

You get a bowl of warm water each morning and evening for face and hands. There are no showers. Most people manage with wet wipes for everything else, and a quick-dry towel.

Accept in advance that you will be dirty for a week. Everybody is, including your guides, and nobody minds.

Practical advice nobody gives you

• Drinking three to four litres a day means getting up at night. Keep your headtorch and shoes where you can find them without unzipping everything.
• A wide-mouthed bottle kept exclusively for night use saves a lot of misery at Barafu. Mark it unmistakably.
• Do not reduce your water intake to avoid the toilet. It is a common and genuinely dangerous mistake — dehydration makes altitude sickness considerably more likely.
• Bring more toilet paper than you think, in a dry bag.

What we provide

A private portable flush or chemical toilet is included in every camping itinerary we sell — not offered as a paid upgrade:

• A private portable flush or chemical toilet
• A dedicated toilet tent
• A porter whose job is to carry and service it
• For the whole trek, not only at the higher camps

The exception is Marangu, which sleeps in park huts with their own facilities. Everywhere else, you use ours rather than the public long-drops — which is, honestly, one of the larger differences between a good week and an unpleasant one, and one of the easiest things for a cheaper operator to quietly leave out.