Day 1: Welcome to Moshi
Arrive in Moshi, the relaxed trekking town known as the gateway to Kilimanjaro, and make your way to your hotel. There is time to settle in and freshen up.
In the evening, we gather for a welcome dinner and full trek briefing, your last comfortable night before the climb begins.
Meals: Dinner
Stay: Hotel, Moshi
Day 2: Marangu Gate to Mandara Hut
After breakfast, we drive for about 1 hr 30 to Marangu Gate at 1,860m for park formalities before setting off into the lower slopes. The trail climbs steadily through misty rainforest, home to blue monkeys and black-and-white colobus, with ferns, mosses and birdlife at every turn.
After five to six hours, the forest opens into a clearing at Mandara Hut at 2,700m, a group of wooden A-frame huts where dinner and your first night on the mountain await. If time and energy allow, a short detour to the rim of Maundi Crater gives sweeping views back over the forest.
Drive: 1 hr 30
Trek: 5 to 6 hrs | +840m
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Stay: Mandara Hut
Day 3: Mandara Hut to Horombo Hut
The day begins with a steeper push through the last of the rainforest before the trail leaves the tree line for open moorland. Heather, giant lobelia and long grass replace the forest canopy, and in clear weather you get your first views of Kibo and Mawenzi, Kilimanjaro's twin peaks.
We reach Horombo Hut at 3,720m by mid-afternoon, one of the mountain's largest hut sites, with time to rest and look out over the plains far below.
Trek: 7 to 8 hrs | +1,020m
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Stay: Horombo Hut
Day 4: Horombo Hut Acclimatisation Day
A rest day built into the itinerary to help you acclimatise. A shorter walk heads towards Mawenzi Hut, passing Zebra Rocks, a lava cliff striped black and white by mineral-rich rain, before returning to Horombo for a second night.
Walk slowly, drink plenty of water and let your body adjust to the thinning air. All meals are provided at Horombo Hut.
Trek: 4 hrs
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Stay: Horombo Hut
Day 5: Horombo Hut to Kibo Hut
Beyond Horombo, the landscape changes completely as you cross the Saddle, a vast, barren lunar desert between Mawenzi and Kibo. The climb is gradual and taken at a deliberately slow pace, with the terrain turning rockier and more exposed.
After six to seven hours, Kibo Hut at 4,700m comes into view, your last base before the summit.
Trek: 6 to 7 hrs | +980m
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Stay: Kibo Hut
Day 6: Kibo Hut Acclimatisation Day
A final rest day before the summit, spent mostly resting and conserving energy. After breakfast, an acclimatisation walk climbs to William's Point at 5,000m before descending to Kibo Hut at 4,700m, giving your body one more chance to adjust.
Have an early night, as the summit climb begins at midnight.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Stay: Kibo Hut
Day 7: Summit Day, Kibo Hut to Uhuru Peak and Horombo Hut
You are woken at midnight for tea, coffee or hot chocolate with bread and biscuits before setting off in the dark with head torches. The trail zigzags up scree and volcanic rock to Gilman's Point at 5,685m on the crater rim, often reached in time for sunrise over Mawenzi.
A further walk along the rim leads to Uhuru Peak at 5,895m, the highest point in Africa. After time for photographs, you descend to Kibo Hut for breakfast and a rest, then continue down to Horombo Hut for dinner and your final night on the mountain.
Trek: 13 to 15 hrs | +1,195m
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Stay: Horombo Hut
Day 8: Horombo Hut to Marangu Gate and Moshi
The final descent retraces the route through moorland and forest, passing Mandara Hut before reaching Marangu Gate, where those who reached the summit receive their certificates.
A vehicle takes you back to your hotel in Moshi, about 1 hr 30 away, for a hot shower, a real bed and a celebration meal.
Trek: 6 to 7 hrs
Drive: 1 hr 30
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Stay: Hotel, Moshi
Day 9: Departure
After breakfast, your trip ends. You leave Tanzania having walked from the rainforest to the roof of Africa.
Meals: Breakfast
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