Where to fly to climb kilimanjaro
How to Prepare for Trekking Kilimanjaro - 10 Tips
after successfully summiting Mount
Kilimanjaro and a few weeks of recovery
I want to use this video to talk about
how to prepare for trekking up
Kilimanjaro
I hope you enjoyed watching my little
mini documentary about trekking up
Kilimanjaro it was actually the first of
this kind of videos I've ever done a lot
of questions are actually being answered
in this documentary what about what it
is like to trek up Kilimanjaro but in
this video I want to talk about all the
questions you have beforehand when we
talk about a weather of course we need
to bear in mind that we're talking about
a really high mountain but whether in
the mountains is really hard to predict
so you should always come prepared and
matters of Kilimanjaro this could mean
that you have minus 20 degrees Celsius
at the summit why you have about plus 30
degrees Celsius down in mocchi
the weather is unpredictable change is
quick but also here we have seasons it
is not as much summer and winter season
as we knowed from Europe and North
America it is more the wet in the dry
season because of the proximity to the
equator therefore the best time to go is
actually in the dry season from August
to October this is when you have the
lowest rainfall and you have less clouds
however this is also the time when it is
most crowded we were there in September
and you could see that there are a lot
of people are hiking up the mountain but
because we were choosing the longer
route it was actually more relaxed but
even though we were going in September
we were not really lucky was our summit
day because we were hiking into the
clouds on that day while we could see
the mountain totally free of clouds all
the other days the time you should avoid
is of course the rainy season because
bad weather drains your energy and
therefore the summit success rate during
that time is way lower the rainy season
lasts from March to May and also
November is not a good month to do it
because in all these months you have
high rainfall but of course you have
less crowds if you want to avoid the
crowds you can do it in the rainy season
and maybe you are
lucky and have good weather or you go in
the shoulder season which is in July and
December until the 28th of December
because then there are the holidays but
if you do it before as well as from
January to February you have the chances
of getting good weather and having less
crowds when we talk routes the general
rule is the longer the route the better
day acclimatization if you take a longer
route then your body has more time to
adjust to the height high altitude and
you increase therefore your chances of
reaching the summit so it is a
once-in-a-lifetime experience don't rush
it it's a marathon not a sprint when you
take a longer route this also means you
have way more time to take pictures and
the longer routes like in my case Lee
Marshall route but also the mashanda
route away more picturesque than the
other ones because on the Marshall route
for example you approach and also in the
Makana you approach the mountain from
the west side so you come up to shear a
peak where you have beautiful valley
below you go over to the lava tower and
then to the impressive barranco wall
until you go up into the Alpine desert
and go up finally to the summit with
that you have a lot of diversity in
matters of taking pictures and the
landscape so how to recommend taking the
longer route if you're not into camping
at all your only chance is to take the
morongo route which is super short and
therefore it's really hard to
acclimatize on that route
however those Hut's are not really
luxurious you're staying basically in
huge dorms with a lot of people so I
highly recommend taking a longer route
camping and the cams are actually super
picturesque so for me it was always
worth it to get up early for the sunrise
because the whole setting is just super
picturesque with all the colorful tents
pitched in front of this
impressive mountain the next really
important topic is choosing the right
company as we're talking here about a
national park you're only allowed to go
with registered guides and tracking
companies and the national park fees
you're looking into make up almost half
of the money you pay for a tour so here
we're talking about 800 to 1,000 dollars
depending on the duration of your tour
and they're always included in the tool
prizes so the question you should ask
yourself before going with the tour
operator is do they pay fair wages do
they have good equipment and how much
experience do they have you can find
those information if you look online for
example in reviews of others but the
general rule of thumb is that you
shouldn't book at or below $2,000
because this means that the money is
safe
saved elsewhere for example for wages or
equipment or maybe both even so my
recommendation would be to go for the
mid-tier price range between two
thousand and three thousand five hundred
dollars depending on which route you
choose and to go with local two
operators I went with three adventures
because I'm one of their brand
ambassadors and the tours for
Kilimanjaro at G Adventures start at
about $2,500 they have often sales where
you can actually get it for up to 20
percent cheaper so it's always worth
looking into that I put some links in
the description box down below where G
does is that they only use local
employees and suppliers and they also
have really good and up-to-date
equipment so for example our tents were
brand-new and they renew the equipment
every few months and what was also
interesting is to see the footwear our
Porter's hat they all had proper hiking
boots while when you were looking at
other two operators some of the porters
they were wearing
only sneakers so it's really worth
looking into how the two operator you're
choosing is treating the employees and
which equipment they have another tip
would be to opt in for having your own
toilets this is a decision which you
usually make when you're with your to
group on the day before you start a hike
because this costs extra money but it's
definitely worth investing that money
because the toilet situation in the
camps is something else for Tanzania you
need a visa which you can get in most
cases on arrival
so for example for Europe and North
American citizens in general you can
actually get visa once you arrived this
is how I did it but it is always better
to check with your Ministry of Foreign
Affairs if you need to apply for visa
beforehand or not next topic is
insurance actually you need to have a
proper insurance in order to go on a
tour with most companies
so in general I highly recommend getting
a good health insurance because here
we're talking about active travel you're
in a foreign country you're on a
mountain where things can happen all the
time it's always best to get a travel
insurance I use walled nomads and I put
a link down in the description box below
and I found this to be the perfect fit
for most of my travels especially when
I'm going into the outdoors in medicine
vaccinations it's always a good idea to
have yellow fever protection and
everything beyond that I also recommend
you to check the latest status online
with your Ministry of Foreign Affairs
big topic when talking about man
Kilimanjaro is of course high-altitude
sickness and we addressed actually this
topic in the documentary we have a known
segment only about high-altitude
sickness but to sum up things really
quickly it is actually something which
everybody can get no matter how old you
are how fit you are or how experienced
you are if you're not living in the
mountains at an altitude of more than
3000 meters your chances are high to
have syndromes of high-altitude sickness
but then they can leave awry so you can
have stronger syndromes or weaker
syndromes of high-altitude sickness but
which the chances are that you get a
certain distinct of high altitude
sickness
good to operators like in my case G
adventurous there will always check with
you like we had everyday our blood
oxygen levels checked and our pulse rate
and also the guides they were really
experienced so they can tell somebody's
not feeling well high altitude sickness
can actually be life-threatening so most
of the cases where people died on the
mountain are actually related to high
altitude sickness so it's always a good
idea to tell you guys how you're feeling
there are however pills for high
altitude like Diamox
which might help but our guides actually
advised us not to take those pills
because the effects are not as big and
the downside is that you need to pee a
lot which means your body loses a lot of
water and you need to drink a lot of
water in order to help you cope with the
altitude so this can have actually
negative effects as well so my tip
therefore is to take headache pills with
you I had I would protein with me as a
standby medicine and of course to do a
lot of training in advance in the months
leading up to the trip
[Music]
I'm doing regular workout sessions which
means I'm running every every week about
twice as three times a week but in the
month leading up to the trip like the
last six months before my trekking
adventure in Kilimanjaro I decided to
increase the intensity of my training so
I was running ten kilometres every
second day and with that I wanted to not
only strengthen my body but also wanted
to work on my endurance I also decided
to quit alcohol for this time and to
change my diet to a more healthy diet to
boost my immune system and this way to
not take any chances to not make it to
the top at the end and overall I'm
really glad that I took all these steps
because as you've seen in the
documentary I had problems with high
altitude sickness and the only reason
why I could make it to the top actually
that my body was strong enough to do so
because I have this workout program I
changed my diet and therefore my body
had all the strength needed to make this
final push and this would also be my
recommendation for you to really train
your body in let's say the six months
the last six months leading up to the
trip in order to be able to make it
when we talk about Tanzania of course we
need to talk about malaria because
Tanzania is actually in a high-risk zone
of malaria
however when we're talking about
Kilimanjaro
you're most of the time on an altitude
level above 1500 meters and at that
altitude there are no mosquitoes so it
highly depends on your own travel plans
for example if you do with safari before
you do a track or if you do safari
afterwards so I highly recommend you to
consult a doctor a few weeks in advance
to talk about your travel plans and the
season when you're going there to
determine which medicine you need if you
need to take malaria medicine beforehand
or if you just have it with you
assistant buy medicine so my case I went
in a season where you don't have a high
risk of malaria and the area where I
went to and it was only flying in for
the tracks so my doctor advised me to
only take Malarone as the stent buy
medicine with me because what you need
to bear in mind is well is that those
pills like men are owned for example
they can affect you and with that maybe
decrease your chances of making it to
the summit via an equipment is another
really big topic therefore I have a
whole video which I will be making about
my whole packing list for this trip but
I want to use the chance here to point
out the most important items I had with
me starting with water and we're talking
about water already and when we're
talking about the high altitude sickness
so it's really important to have yeah
something with you to carry about three
liters so I had this bottle here and add
another additional camera bag which
could hold about two and a half liters
this one had about one letter then of
course having proper hiking boots really
essential and I also decided to have
poles this time for like the final push
to the summit those were really helpful
then of course the sleep
back which goes to minus ten degrees
Celsius as well as a waterproof duffel
bag this is what I gave to my portal to
carry it up and this way everything
stayed dry because you never know when
it starts raining so everything on my on
my clothes work we're dry then
waterproof day pack because in my case
on the summit day where we had to deal
with snow and on the final day when we
went out of the park
it was it was pouring when we went
through the rain forest area so it's a
good idea to have a waterproof day pack
in order to protect your electronics
like camera another really good thing to
have with use Vaseline for your lips as
well as sunscreen as the Sun is really
really strong up on this high altitude
and last but not least you should always
layer up so have long underwear with you
and then have many layers more of that
in the next video
every trekking tour which goes up to
Kilimanjaro usually starts in the error
around Moshi so you will fly into
Kilimanjaro International Airport which
is located between
Arusha and mushy and from there you
should organise a private transfer or
private pickup with the two operator you
are going to trek up Kilimanjaro in
medicine accommodation I stayed at the
Stella Maris lodge in Moshi and at the
Bristol cottages and I can actually
recommend both of them finally let's
talk about money and tipping actually
the tips you are handing out at the end
of your Trek are probably your biggest
expense this always depends on your
experience with your tour but the
general rule would be to have 10% of the
tour price with you as tips you can hand
out to the porters and the guides of
course you can always choose to give
less or to give more I in my case for
example I also decided to give part of
my equipment I had with me to the porter
which was helping me personally to get
up the mountain because I had all my
camera equipment with me and he was
actually carrying my back for the last
part in order to reach the summit so I
decided to give him my gaiters from the
tips you don't really need much more
money because actually in your tour
usually everything is included like 4G
adventures for example even the hotel
before and afterwards the hotel states
were included in the to a price as well
as all the meals you have on the
mountain only the meals you have before
and afterwards as well as the transfer
to get to the airport are not included I
brought US dollars with me because
Dollars are widely accepted there of
course you also have the chance to
withdraw money at local banks but then
it is a good idea to make sure with your
bank that your credit card works and
doesn't get blocked immediately if you
try to withdraw money at a local bank
[Music]
all right that's it I hope this video
helps you in order to prepare for your
own Kilimanjaro tracking adventure if
you want to know more about trekking up
Kilimanjaro I highly recommend watching
a documentary if you haven't already
done so and to head over to my blog
where I wrote down a lot of information
and guides on how to track up
Kilimanjaro and the packing list there
and I will also produce packing list
video for Kilimanjaro next week so make
sure to subscribe to this channel for
new travel videos every Thursday and I
see you on the next one thanks for
watching bye
[Music]
