Travel insurance for Kilimanjaro

At a glance

• High-altitude trekking
• Medical treatment
• Evacuation
• Trip interruption
• Baggage and gear
• Policy exclusions

Standard holiday insurance may not cover trekking to Kilimanjaro’s summit elevation. Your policy should explicitly cover trekking at least to 6,000 m, emergency medical treatment and appropriate evacuation for your itinerary. Read exclusions carefully. Check whether evacuation requires insurer authorization, whether helicopter or air evacuation is included when medically/logistically appropriate, and how ground rescue, hospital treatment, repatriation, trip interruption and delayed/lost baggage are handled. Keep your policy number and emergency-assistance contact accessible to both you and your travel companion. TrekUp coordinates operational response on the mountain, but specialist evacuation and medical costs are normally the traveller’s responsibility unless specifically covered. Obtain written clarification from the insurer when policy wording is ambiguous.

Most standard travel insurance policies do not cover you on Kilimanjaro. Not because they exclude Tanzania, but because they exclude trekking above a stated altitude — commonly somewhere between 3,000 m and 4,500 m.

Kilimanjaro's summit is 5,895 m. If your policy caps at 4,000 m, you are uninsured from roughly day four onward, which is precisely when you would need it.

What the policy must actually cover

1. Trekking to 6,000 m. Ask for 6,000 rather than 5,895 so there is no argument about the margin.
2. Emergency medical treatment and hospitalisation in Tanzania.
3. Emergency evacuation and repatriation. This is the expensive one and the reason to have insurance at all.
4. Helicopter evacuation specifically, if you want that option. Many policies cover "evacuation" but not the aircraft.
5. Trip cancellation and curtailment, given what a climb costs.
6. Baggage, including your own equipment.

What is usually excluded, and matters

• Technical climbing. Not relevant on standard Kilimanjaro routes, but check the definition — some policies define anything with a scramble as technical.
• Pre-existing conditions not declared. Declare everything.
• Search and rescue costs, sometimes separate from medical evacuation.
• Loss caused by altitude sickness in a small number of policies, which is close to absurd but does exist.

The park rescue fee is not insurance

Every climber pays a mandatory rescue fee to the national park, usually included in your climb price. It covers the park's own evacuation to a road head — stretcher, or wheeled carrier, and vehicle. It does not cover hospital treatment, helicopter transfer or repatriation. It is not a substitute for a policy.

Practical steps

1. Buy the policy when you book, not before you fly — cancellation cover only works if it exists before you need it.
2. Get the altitude cover confirmed in writing, by email, from the insurer.
3. Carry a printed certificate and a digital copy.
4. Give a copy to your operator before the climb.
5. Leave the insurer's emergency number with somebody at home.

What we require of your policy

Insurance is not optional on our climbs, and the requirement is specific:

• Cover for high-altitude trekking to at least 6,000 m — Uhuru Peak is 5,895 m, and many standard policies stop well below it
• Emergency evacuation cover, including air evacuation, which our price does not include
• Medical cover valid in Tanzania

We ask for your policy details before departure, and we may decline to start a climb without them. Read the altitude ceiling in the policy wording rather than the marketing page — it is the clause that most often turns out to be lower than the mountain.