Kilimanjaro Climb Rongai Route

Trek the highest mountain in Africa on a route much less crowded than the Marangu and Machame trails

With a gentle gradient and sense of untouched 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 last 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 we understand the importance to adhere to the strictest guidelines for the porters’ 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.
• Since 2020 we have funded scholarships for 30 women to train at the College of African Wildlife Management to become guides. 28 have now qualified and they are our ‘Mountain Lionesses’. Over the next 3 years we are funding five more women to train as guides each year and are supporting a follow-up training programme ‘Becoming even better’ to provide advanced guiding and language skills for the women.
• On your trek, there might be female trainee guides who are sponsored by The Exodus Travels Foundation. The trainees are women who have undertaken the Mountain Lioness Scholarship, a training programme for ambitious women to qualify as Mountain Guides. Our Exodus Travels Foundation are funding additional training climbs to further develop their skills and progress their careers as guide on Kilimanjaro. We’re also pleased to include at least 4 female crew on every departure, which will support their professional development and provide more opportunities for women working on the Mountain.
• 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 visit markets, which supports local economies.

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 reusable bottles.
• The payment of entrance fees to natural reserves generates income is used to upkeep and develop these important sites. We visit 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.
• With our partners, Rewilding Apennines, we rewild 100 square meters (1,075 sqft) of land per passenger who travels with us.
• 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 reusable water bottle on this trip, also consider avoiding single-use hotel toiletries, which generate a large amount of plastic waste.

Is this trip for you?

This trip is rated Activity Level 6 (Challenging & Tough). For more information on our trip gradings please visit the Activity Level Guidelines page. If you have any queries about the difficulty of the trip please do not hesitate to contact us.

The summit day is graded Activity Level 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 Activity Level 5 (Challenging), more as a consequence of the high altitude and extended wilderness camping than the difficulty of walking; hence the overall grading of this trek as Activity Level 6 (Challenging/Tough).

Walking conditions: This is a hard trek, which reaches an altitude of 19,340ft (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 the acclimatisation process can differ from climb to climb. 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.

Route: We avoid the more crowded Marangu and Machame routes, preferring to approach the mountain from the north by the Rongai (Nale Moru) Route, which is considered to be an easier ascent 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 percent 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. During that time, 88 percent of our clients reached Gilman’s Point and 79 percent reached Uhuru Peak, the true summit of Kilimanjaro.

Trails: Most are well defined and 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.

Conditions: We spend time at both high and low altitude, experiencing extremely cold and quite hot conditions. You should be prepared for an early start every day on Kilimanjaro.

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.

Vaccinations and Health

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.

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.visa.immigration.go.tz. 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.

Food & Drink

All breakfasts, six lunches and five dinners are included. All meals during the climb are included. Please allow about 153,500 Tanzanian shillings (US$65) for the meals not included.

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 (eg 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 is available. Soup is served twice daily.

Daily meals

• Bed tea: Tea or coffee served in your tent.
• Breakfast: Seasonal fresh fruit (mango/banana/watermelon), porridge, cooked eggs, sausage, bacon and toast.
• Energy snacks, such as bananas and chocolate bars, are provided for the daily walk.
• 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 group. 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 three courses: soup and bread; followed by the main dish, which could be rice, potatoes or pasta with fish, meat or vegetables; and dessert, often of fruit.
• Summit snacks: While we provide enough food for the climb, we recommend 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

While 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.

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 20C (68F), but the nights can get very cold. It is possible for temperatures to drop as low as -20C (-4F) 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 11,480ft (3,500m). Please note, mountain weather conditions are never totally predictable and we may meet wet and snowy conditions at any time.