Kilimanjaro Climb Rongai Route

Trek Africa's highest mountain on a much less crowded route compared to the Marangu and Machame trails

With its gentle gradient and sense of unspoilt wilderness, the Rongai Route approaches Kilimanjaro from the north and is less crowded than the most popular trails. We trek through farmlands, forest and alpine moorlands as we approach the beautiful summit cone. This route allows an extra day for acclimatisation under the imposing spires of Mawenzi, before the arduous final ascent. The final climb begins in darkness but our reward is an incomparable dawn vista over the sweeping East African plains.

People, Places & Planet

We work hard to create trips that have a positive impact on the people and places we visit and look after the planet we explore. Learn more about our sustainable travel ethos and practice here and find out about the work of the Exodus Travels Foundation here.

Some sustainable travel highlights of this trip include:

People

How this trip helps improve life for local communities.

• Local guides keep you well informed about local traditions and cultural-social sensitivities.
• Human porterage is an essential part of the Kilimanjaro Climb and here at Exodus we understand the importance to adhere to the strictest guidelines for the porter’s welfare on the mountain. Exodus is a member of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) which has a clear mission to improve the working conditions of porters on Kilimanjaro by advocating for fair wages, providing educational opportunities, and ensuring companies uphold a responsible treatment practice. Read more about the porters project here.
• This trip brings income and opportunity to the destination community through the inclusion of locally owned hotels, restaurants, and other enterprises, and by championing locally produced food wherever possible.
• Where the group has time they will visit markets which support local economies.
• Read more about our other initiatives

Places

How this trip helps protect and conserve local landscapes and nature.

• By travelling in a small group we ‘tread lightly’ to minimise our impact on local resources and the environment.
• We work with our partners on the ground to proactively reduce waste; this includes eliminating all single-use plastic water bottles by providing refills for re-usable bottles.
• The payment of entrance fees to natural reserves generates income which is used for upkeep and development of these important sites. We visit the Kilimanjaro National Park.
• Our trips adhere to ABTA’s industry-leading animal welfare guidelines to ensure the best possible practices regarding working animals and wildlife viewing. Our animal welfare policy can be found here.
• Our local partner holds an environmental certification from Leave No Trace (LNT) and their staff are trained in this approach to environmental protection.
• We rewild 100 square metres per passenger to compensate for all trip and flight emissions.
• Read about our commitment to nature protection and restoration here, including our rewilding commitment for every customer who travels with us.

Planet

How we seek to keep the carbon footprint of this trip low.

• Accommodation and restaurants in the itinerary use locally sourced food which has not been transported long distances.
• Walking trips like this have very little detrimental impact on the environment and the locals, as it is a quiet, low impact activity requiring comparatively few resources to support.
• Read about our climate action here, including our carbon reduction and compensation commitments.

Tips for sustainable travel on this trip

• Leave no trace: we do all we can to ensure we leave no rubbish in the wild and beautiful places we visit; we ask that you do the same. If there are no recycling facilities in-country, consider bringing recyclable materials home with you.
• Plastic waste reduction: please bring a re-usable water bottle on this trip, also consider avoiding single-use hotel toiletries, which generate a large amount of plastic waste.

Visa

Tanzania

Travellers from the UK, US and EU normally need a visa to enter Tanzania. Please note, visa requirements often change and it is your responsibility to obtain any required visas for this trip. Therefore, we recommend that you check with the nearest embassy or consulate of your chosen destination(s), including any countries you may be transiting or transferring through.

Some local governments provide guidance on what visas their citizens need. To help, we’ve gathered a selection of useful links below.

• Australia: www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/africa/tanzania
• Canada: www.travel.gc.ca/destinations/tanzania
• United Kingdom: www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/tanzania/entry-requirements
• USA: www.travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Tanzania.html

Please note, it is possible to get the visa online (from US$50), but this can take between 10 days and three weeks. For more information and to apply for the visa, please visit www.eservices.immigration.go.tz/visa. If you are flying into Kilimanjaro Airport, we recommend arranging the visa in advance as the visa-on-arrival process has become more complicated and can now take longer.

Vaccination

Tanzania

There are no required vaccinations. However, you may want to consider vaccinations for hepatitis A, tetanus, typhoid, cholera, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, rabies, tuberculosis and yellow fever. Protection against malaria is essential. Please seek advice from your doctor or travel clinic on the best course of action for all the above. Additionally, dengue fever, a tropical viral disease spread by daytime biting mosquitoes, is a known risk. There is currently no vaccine or prophylaxis available, so we recommend you take the usual precautions to avoid mosquito bites.

You may also be required to show a yellow fever vaccination certificate (or an exemption certificate) if you're coming from (or transiting for more than 12 hours through) a country with risk of yellow fever transmission. If you're visiting Zanzibar from mainland Tanzania, border officials have been known to demand proof of yellow fever vaccination or an exemption certificate.

Eating and Drinking

All breakfasts, 6 lunches and 5 dinners included.  All meals during the climb are included. Please allow about GBP40 (USD65) for the meals not included, while in hotels.

On trek the emphasis is on a varied and well-balanced diet with a greater amount of fresh fruit and soup to maximise the daily intake of fluids.

Vegetarians are well catered for but please inform us before departure of any special dietary requests. Please note that in Tanzania the availability of certain specialised products for restricted diets, e.g. gluten-free or dairy-free, is minimal or non-existent and we strongly recommend you bring these specialised dietary items from home.

The menu has a high liquid and carbohydrate content; the two important elements for successful
climbing. At higher altitudes, stimulants (such as coffee) and less digestible foods (such as meat) are
not recommended. Our evening meal at the highest camp on Kilimanjaro is a meatless stew as our
experience shows this to be the ideal preparation for the summit day. At mealtimes a
selection of hot drinks are available. Soup is served twice daily.

Daily Meals

Bed Tea - tea or coffee served in your tent.
Breakfast  - consists of seasonal fresh fruit (mango/banana/watermelon), porridge, cooked eggs,
sausage, bacon and toast.
Energy snacks are provided for the daily walk such as biscuits, bananas, and chocolate bars.
Lunch  -  either a packed lunch on longer days or, more usually, a hot lunch served in camp by a small
team who have raced ahead of the clients. A hot lunch typically consists of soup, bread or pancakes,
cheese, tuna, jam, peanut butter, pasta salad and cake.
Afternoon tea  -  served in late afternoon. It is an opportunity to drink lots of hot drinks and snack on peanuts or popcorn.
Dinner  -  the main meal of the day and always consists of three courses; soup and bread, followed by the main dish, which could be rice, potatoes or pasta with fish, meat or vegetables, and is followed by a dessert often of fruit.
Summit snacks - Whilst we provide enough food for the climb, we recommend that you bring some of your favourite snacks, and keep them for the summit day. This is because the summit day is a long and tough climb and having your favourite snacks can give you a very welcome boost.

Water

Whilst the water we provide on Kilimanjaro is suitable for drinking you may wish to be extra safe and treat it with your own water purification tablets. Biox Aqua drops or tablets are the best available alternative for sale in the UK as they kill giardia and cryptosporidium.

Weather

Kilimanjaro can be climbed at any time of the year but it is usually very wet in the rainforest in April and May. January and February are the warmest months. Above the cloud line the days are warm and pleasant, with temperatures in sunlight often above 20ºC, but the nights can get very cold. It is possible for temperatures to drop as low as -20ºC at Kibo campsite, our highest overnight stop. The daily weather pattern on the mountain tends to be clear mornings with an afternoon cloud build-up that often clears before sunset. In the (European) summer, the weather is usually cloudy at lower altitudes and often sunny above 3,500 m. Please note that mountain weather conditions are never totally predictable and we may meet wet and snowy conditions at any time.

Weather Charts

Arusha

Is this trip for you?

Grade 6- Challenging/ Tough

The summit day is graded 7 / tough because of the high altitude and the level of physical effort needed. Please be aware many people find this day on Kilimanjaro the toughest physical challenge of their life. The rest of the trek is graded as 5/ challenging, more as a consequence of the high altitude and extended wilderness camping rather than the difficulty of walking; hence the overall grading of this trek as challenging/tough.

Walking Conditions
This is a hard trek, which reaches an altitude of 5,895m. Even if you consider yourself fit, you might still find the climb very hard, depending on how well your body acclimatises to high altitude. There is no scientific way to determine how easily you acclimatise, and be aware that the acclimatisation process can also differ from climb to climb.
We avoid the more crowded Marangu and Machame routes, preferring to approach the mountain from the north by the Nale Moru (Rongai) route, which is considered to be an easier ascent route than the main trails. We also add an extra day to the standard five-day itinerary to ensure maximum acclimatisation and to give ourselves the best possible chance of enjoying the magnificent scenery. Recent statistics indicate that the chance of reaching the summit increases by at least 20% if an extra day is spent acclimatising.

Last year our groups on the Rongai route demonstrated that this is the best six day route on Kilimanjaro for reaching the summit. 88% of our clients reached Gilman's Point and 79% reached Uhuru Peak, the true summit of Kilimanjaro.

You may find our Fitness Training Guide a useful reference: http://www.exodus.co.uk/assets/pdf/Exodus_WT_Fitness_Training_Guide.pdf

Most of the trails on trek are well defined and of good quality but some forest sections can be slippery and moorland paths can become very wet in poor weather conditions.
The final ascent to Uhuru peak is almost exclusively on scree and loose rock without permanent footpaths but no technical skills are required. During the course of the trip we shall spend time at both high and low altitude, experiencing both extremely cold and quite hot conditions. You should be prepared for an early start every day on Kilimanjaro. 

Please note walking hours stated are given as approximates only. Timings stated in the itinerary include lunch and photo stops and will vary depending on the pace of your group.

Following a review of all our trips we have categorised this trip as generally not suitable for persons of reduced mobility. However if you are a regular traveller on such trips, please contact customer services to discuss the trip and your personal condition.