Rongai Route (6-8 days)

The Rongai route is the only route that approaches Kilimanjaro from the north, close to the Kenyan border. Though gaining popularity amongst climbers, this route still experiences low crowds. Rongai has a more gradual slope than the mountain’s other routes. It is the preferred route for those looking for an alternative to the popular Marangu route, for those who would like a more remote hike, and for those who are climbing during the rainy season (the north side receives less precipitation). Rongai is a moderately difficult route and is highly recommended, especially for those with less backpacking experience.

Although the scenery is not as varied as the western routes, Rongai makes up for this by passing through true wilderness areas for nearly the entire way. Descent is made via the Marangu route.

Chief's Tours is happy to offer you the chance to get to the roof of Africa via Rongai route from 6 to 8-day tours.

Please find detailed itineraries and prices of each option in the following links and CHIEF'S TOURS GALLERY.

- Rongai Route 6 days 5 nights: https://goo.gl/zEE4Rg

- Rongai Route 7 days 6 nights: https://goo.gl/SqAX2w

- Rongai Route 8 days 7 nights: This option is for those who wish to extend the hike based on physical and mental conditions.

Below is the sample of a 7-day 6-night Rongai Route tour.

Itinerary

DAY 1: NALEMORU GATE TO SIMBA CAMP

This morning we will drive to the village of Nalemoru for the starting point of the Rongai route. The first stage of the trek is through farmland and pine forests. You may have a chance to see the beautiful Colobus monkeys or if you’re lucky enough, elephants or buffalos en route. Our first camp will be the Simba Camp located at the edge of the moorland zone at 2625m.

Elevation: 1990m to 2625m
Distance covered: 8km / 5mi
time taken: 4 - 5 hours
Meals: Lunch & Dinner

DAY 2: SIMBA CAMP TO 2^ND CAVE CAMP

The morning hike is a steady ascent up to the Second Cave Camp located in the moorland zone with superb views of Kibo and the Eastern ice fields on the crater rim.

Elevation: 2625m to 3480m
Distance covered: 5km / 3.1mi
time taken: 3 - 4 hours
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 3: 2^ND CAVE CAMP TO KIKELEWA CAMP

Leaving the pine forest behind, we carry on with a steady ascent walking though moorland. There are superb views of the Eastern ice fields on the crater rim of Kibo, the highest of the three volcanoes which form the mountain. We will leave the main trail and strike out across moorland on a smaller path towards the jagged peaks of Mawenzi, the second of Kilimanjaro's volcanoes. We will set up camp today in the sheltered valley near Kikelewa caves at 3630m.

Elevation: 3480m to 3630m
Distance covered: 5km / 3.1mi
time taken: 3 - 4 hours
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 4: KIKELEWA CAMP TO MAWENZI HUT

This morning we have a short but steep ascent up grassy slopes which is rewarded by a superb view of the Kenyan plains to the north. We leave vegetation behind shortly before reaching our next camp at Mawenzi Tarn Hut directly below the towering cliffs of Mawenzi. This afternoon you have a chance to rest or explore the surrounding area to aid acclimatization.

Elevation: 3630m to 4310m
Distance covered: 8km / 5mi
time taken: 4 - 5 hours
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 5: MAWENZI HUT TO KIBO HUT

We leave our campsite and cross the lunar desert of the ‘saddle’ between Mawenzi and Kibo After a couple hours trekking, reach this spectacular place, with the summit of Kilimanjaro in the background and our trail to the high camp stretched out before our eyes. Upon reaching our camp the remainder of the day will be spent resting in preparation for the final ascent after a very early night!

Elevation: 4310m to 4700m
Distance covered: 8km / 5mi
time taken: 5 - 6 hours
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 6: KIBO HUT TO UHURU PEAK DOWN TO HOROMBO HUT

Today is “The Big Day” - the summit stage. You will begin your final ascent around midnight which will be long and strenuous. Passing the Hans Meyer Cave at 5220m, the climb slowly but surely goes upwards. At sunrise, you will reach Gillman’s Point (5681m) – the crater rim of Kilimanjaro – where the sun will slowly start to warm up the land. You will have soon forgotten the cold of the night and after a further hike of 1 - 2 hours, you will reach Uhuru Peak at 5895m. On your return to Kibo Hut, a warm meal awaits you followed by a 1 - 2 hour break before proceeding back down to Horombo Hut.

Elevation: 4700m to 5895m down to 3700m
Distance covered: 22km / 13.7mi
time taken: 12 – 15 hours
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 7: HOROMBO HUT TO MARANGU GATE, BACK TO TOWN

The last stage passes through the heath and moor zone to the Mandara Hut (2700m) where a warm lunch is waiting for you. Soon, you will once again pass the tropical rainforest and after a total time of 6 hours trekking, you will be back at the Kilimanjaro National Park Gate (1860m). After saying goodbye to your mountain guides, a short transfer follows to take you back to your hotel in Moshi. Once there, you can take a warm and relaxing shower and celebrate your success in reaching the summit of the Kilimanjaro.

Elevation: 3700m to 1860m
Distance covered: 20.8km / 12.9mi
time taken: 8 hours
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

PRICE OF 2018

To meet a significant number of climbers’ demand, we are happy to provide you with a wide range of Kilimanjaro tours divided into 03 types: Budget – Standard – Luxury. Below is the price of Standard offers. For Budget and Luxury options, kindly contact us. Asante sana!

Route	1 person	2 people	3 people	4-5 people	6-8 people	9+ people
Marangu Route 5 days	$ 1350	$1250	$ 1180	$1150	$ 1140	$ 1120
Marangu Route 6 days	$ 1510	$ 1450	$ 1400	$ 1380	$ 1340	$ 1350
Marangu Route 7 days	$ 1680	$ 1630	$ 1600	$ 1570	$ 1550	$ 1530
Rongai Route 6 days	$ 1690	$ 1650	$ 1620	$ 1590	$ 1580	$ 1570
Rongai Route 7 days	$ 1800	$ 1780	$ 1750	$ 1730	$ 1720	$ 1700
Rongai Route 8 days	$ 1920	$ 1890	$ 1860	$ 1830	$ 1820	$ 1800
Umbwe 6 days	$ 1800	$ 1770	$ 1740	$ 1710	$ 1700	$ 1670
Umbwe 7 days	$ 1850	$ 1830	$ 1800	$ 1770	$ 1750	$ 1740
Umbwe 8 days	$ 2000	$ 1970	$ 1940	$ 1910	$ 1900	$ 1880
Shira Route 6 days	$ 1690	$ 1670	$ 1630	$ 1600	$ 1590	$ 1570
Shira Route 7 days	$ 1800	$ 1770	$ 1730	$ 1700	$ 1690	$ 1680
Shira Route 8 days	$ 1920	$ 1890	$ 1860	$ 1830	$ 1820	$ 1800
Machame Route 6 days	$ 1690	$ 1670	$ 1630	$ 1600	$ 1590	$ 1570
Machame Route 7 days	$ 1780	$ 1750	$ 1720	$ 1690	$ 1680	$ 1660
Machame Route 8 days	$ 1920	$ 1890	$ 1860	$ 1830	$ 1820	$ 1800
Lemosho Route 6 days	$ 1690	$ 1660	$ 1630	$ 1600	$ 1590	$ 1570
Lemosho Route 7 days	$ 1800	$ 1770	$ 1740	$ 1710	$ 1700	$ 1670
Lemosho Route 8 days	$ 1920	$ 1890	$ 1860	$ 1830	$ 1820	$ 1800
Lemosho Route 9 days	$ 2100	$ 2070	$ 2040	$ 2100	$ 2000	$ 1980
Northern Circuit Route 7 days	$ 1690	$ 1660	$ 1630	$ 1600	$ 1580	$ 1570
Northern Circuit Route 8 days	$ 1920	$ 1890	$ 1860	$ 1830	$ 1820	$ 1800
Northern Circuit Route 9 days	$ 2100	$ 2070	$ 2040	$ 2010	$ 2000	$ 1940

Inclusion

Exclusion

2-night accommodation in Moshi town: before the first and the final hiking day
Arrival and departure airport transfers
High-quality 4-season camping equipment
Experienced and professional mountain guides
All park fees and rescue fees
All large-portioned, nutritious food and purified drinking water on the mountain
Guides, porters and cook salaries
Pulse Oximeter for daily health check
Crisis management and safety procedures
Fair and ethical treatment of porters
Beds (for luxury tours)

International Flights & Visa & Insurance
Tips to porters and guides (customary and much appreciated)
Meals while in Moshi town
Items considered to be non-essential, such as alcohol, beverages, cigarettes, snacks, etc.
Optional Tours (for example, short safaris after your climb or Moshi day tour, etc.)
Oxygen tanks (included in luxury tours - can be rented in budget and standard tour)
Portable toilets (included in standard & luxury tours - can be rented in budget tours)

Thank you for considering us. We look forward to guiding you to the holy mountain Kilimanjaro!

Contact: +255 732 973893 / +255 7555 49872 / + 255 686 952 599 (Call/WhatsApp)

Email: info@chiefstours.com | Website: https://chiefstours.com/

Testimonials

We have recently come back from a holiday in Tanzania. Our father has been to visit Tanzania on many occasions and has had many trips organized by a local guide named Adidas who is the owner of the Chiefs tours. Adidas and Shiriwa (driver) took care of every little detail and were a well run professionally and friendly local buisness. Both Adidas and Shiriwa had an amazing range of local knowledge. Everything was planned exceptionally well from our trips.

The day before Adidas and Shiriwa came to meet us to talk about the plan for the next few days, we just told them all the trips that we wanted to do and they planned the rest. They asked us about food likes so they could make us a packed lunch for the trip. The following morning, they picked us up at 6:15 am to start our trip to Lake Manyara National Park. After Lake Manyara, we went to a campsite called Heaven Nature Safari Campsite and Lodge. This campsite was recommended by Adidas and we weren't disappointed. We were greatly welcomed by all staffs and the food was delicious. Adidas and Shiriwa sat up chatting with us that night, we talked about the differences in both our cultures.

The next morning we headed to Ngorongoro Crater where we saw all of the "big five". The road down to the crater was bit teeth clenching but Shiriwa is an excellent driver so put us at ease. After the Ngorongoro crater, we went to visit the Masai Village which was so impressive.

The final tour that we did was the coffee tour. It was just outsite of Moshi. Here we leant how coffee is handmade. We were even involved in making our own coffee and then sat down to drink it. The boys who taught us about how they make coffee were very enthusiastic and lovely. Throughout the trip with both Adidas and Shiriwa, nothing seemed to be a flaw Thank you for an excellent trip that we will never forget. I can't recommend Chief's Tours anymore.

Thank you so much!

Lorraine Coulter (Ireland)

Sarah O'Sullivan (England)

Sarah & LorraineEngland & Ireland

If you go with anyone else, you’re doing it wrong!

My wife and I, along with 8 friends, recently spent two weeks seeing Tanzania with Chief’s Tours. Adidas was there to greet us at 10:00 PM on a Saturday night when we got off the plane, and only stepped up the service from there. He arranged for a driver to pick us up the next morning and take us to relax with plenty of drinks and our own cook at some local hot springs, then gave us a thorough briefing and gear check before setting off the next day to climb Kilimanjaro on an 8-day trek of the Lemosho route.

The climb could not have been smoother. Our guides (Emmanuel, Emanuel 2, Mohammed, and Niklaus) were experienced, knowledgeable, and a pleasure to spend our eight days with. The staff of cooks and porters were equally professional. They took special care of my wife and me who have very specific dietary restrictions. Actually, they were much more accommodating of our diets than Delta/KLM was, and the food was outstanding! Ask Mateo to make you his lentil “Amaze-balls” (my term, not his). There was never a point on this trip where I felt the least bit hungry or unsatisfied. When it came time for our summit day, our lead guide, Emmanuel Washington, really put his 189 summits worth of experience on Kilimanjaro to good use. He told us exactly when to wake up, when we would get started, and how long our group would take it to make it to the rim at Stella Point by sunrise. He absolutely nailed it! We hit Stella Point just as the first rays of light hit the horizon and were rewarded with the most amazing sunrise I’ve ever seen. Emmanuel then took a camera from one of our group members and ran around (at 19,000 ft remember) taking photos of everyone in the group making their way along the rim the rest of the way to the summit!

Our guides were also accommodating when a couple other members of the group and I wanted to take a couple side trips along the way and climb Shira Cathedral and Lava Tower. They went above and beyond the whole time.

Following the climb, we went on a four-day safari. This was initially an issue because we needed to do laundry following our climb in order to have clothes for the safari and our hotel wasn’t going to be able to get it done in time. Another group member emailed Adidas hoping he’d know of a laundromat where we could take our clothes that evening. Instead, one of his employees came to our hotel within 30 minutes to get all of our laundries. It was dry cleaned and delivered to us at our first safari stop over five hours away the next morning!

The safari itself was incredible. Our driver, Arnold, knew right where to take us to see all of the animals. We had incredibly close encounters with elephants, lions, hippos, warthogs, giraffes, etc. He even got us within just a few feet of a pride of lions feeding on a wildebeest! Accommodations on the safari were the first-rate, especially considering that we went with the mid-tier option. I don’t know what’s included when you option up from mid-tier, but it would have to be pretty impressive to beat our experience.

We had a day in Moshi after our safari was over and figured we would just walk around and shop a bit. We went to breakfast and were then pleasantly surprised to see our mountain guide Emanuel waiting to greet us in the hotel lobby. He had come to walk with us around Moshi and make sure we made it to all of the best places. He even walked us to a small village of artists hidden within a park in the middle of the city where my wife and I got our favorite new painting. We would never have found that place on our own. Adidas then arrived to see us off to the airport in plenty of time for our flight back to the US.

Like I said before, if you’re going to Tanzania and not booking your activities through Chief’s Tours, you’re doing it wrong.

Daniel S.USA

From the first contact onward, the communication went really well. Chief Tours answered all our questions within less than one hour which was excellent as I have booked the tour with them short-notice and still had tons of questions.
We have been warmly welcomed in Moshi at the bus station by the owner and Ceo of Chief Tours, Adidas. He also took immediately care about one of our luggage which went missing in Nairobi.

His Team, especially Julius and Msafiri the two guides have so many experiences with guiding us slowly to the top of the mountain. Both of us made, it thanks to them.
The chef James was providing delicious meals out of his very simple kitchen every day. We could not stop eating and gained actually some weight at the mountain.
The waitress, as well as some porters, taught us some Swahili words which were really great.
If my friends or family would ask me for a recommendation, I definitely would recommend Chief Tours for the Kili hike. They will be in good hands.

Sabina S.England

Amazing experience!

We found Chief Tours while researching our Lemosho trek up Kilimanjaro. While training at home, my wife experienced an injury and we were not able to continue with the trek. However, Adidas was kind enough to transfer our deposit to a 5-day safari tour and we are so glad we did! It was an experience of a lifetime. Our driver, Shirima, was incredibly knowledgeable, went above and beyond to show us the best of the parks, and was just a genuinely nice guy! The only thing as wonderful as the safari experience was getting to know Shirima!

The safari itself took us through 4 parks, each unique in their own way. We saw countless animals and seeing them in their natural habitat was surreal. Shirima was able to spot things we couldn't possibly have seen. (Lions, elephants, wildebeest, buffalo, cheetahs, zebra, giraffes, baboons, and we were lucky to see 5 of the hard to spot leopards!)

We were lucky enough to be in the Serengeti as the 'great migration' of wildebeests were taking place! It was amazing to see hundreds of thousands of them stampede together in herds through the plains. Truly amazing nature.

The accommodations were comfortable, clean, safe, and to stay within the Serengeti was an experience in itself with all the amazing sounds you hear at night! The food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was delicious and also plenty of food!

We compared prices for both the trek and safaris with many other tour companies and Chief Tours was always the better price by a significant amount.

Our experience with Chief Tours from beginning to end was a wonderful, professional, safe and inspirational one. We highly recommend Adidas and his team for your trekking or safari needs!

Michael Scotland

Definitely book with Chiefs Tours!

Our group of 9 friends had been planning to climb Kilimanjaro for a year. We did a lot of research in terms of tour companies and prices. We found Chiefs Tours to be very competitive and decided to book a 7-day Lemosho route trip with them. This was due to the success rate of this route and because it is one of the most scenics.

Adidas from the first contact was most helpful, nothing was too much trouble. Everything was jointly planned and agreed. From the moment we stepped off the plane at Kilimanjaro (at 1:15 in the morning!) to the moment we stepped back on it, Adidas and his team were on hand to guide us all the way.

Every part of our trip was taken care of from a pre-hike 1-day safari to accommodation before and after the hike to even getting his driver to take us to a restaurant for a post-hike meal!

Adidas employs a professional team who ensure you have an enjoyable, comfortable trek (well, as comfortable as a hike up Kili can be). If it was not for the support of his staff, some members of our group would not have made it to the peak. We were so happy with Chiefs Tours that another group of our friends will be doing the hike next year. Thanks you Adidas and team for a trip of a life time and Hakuna Matata!

PaulEngland

Rongai Route (6-8 days)

Itinerary

DAY 1: NALEMORU GATE TO SIMBA CAMP

Elevation: 1990m to 2625m

Distance covered: 8km / 5mi

time taken: 4 - 5 hours

Meals: Lunch & Dinner

DAY 2: SIMBA CAMP TO 2ND CAVE CAMP

The morning hike is a steady ascent up to the Second Cave Camp located in the moorland zone with superb views of Kibo and the Eastern ice fields on the crater rim.

Elevation: 2625m to 3480m

Distance covered: 5km / 3.1mi

time taken: 3 - 4 hours

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 3: 2ND CAVE CAMP TO KIKELEWA CAMP

Elevation: 3480m to 3630m

Distance covered: 5km / 3.1mi

time taken: 3 - 4 hours

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 4: KIKELEWA CAMP TO MAWENZI HUT

Elevation: 3630m to 4310m

Distance covered: 8km / 5mi

time taken: 4 - 5 hours

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 5: MAWENZI HUT TO KIBO HUT

Elevation: 4310m to 4700m

Distance covered: 8km / 5mi

time taken: 5 - 6 hours

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 6: KIBO HUT TO UHURU PEAK DOWN TO HOROMBO HUT

Elevation: 4700m to 5895m down to 3700m

Distance covered: 22km / 13.7mi

time taken: 12 – 15 hours

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 7: HOROMBO HUT TO MARANGU GATE, BACK TO TOWN

Elevation: 3700m to 1860m

Distance covered: 20.8km / 12.9mi

time taken: 8 hours

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

PRICE OF 2018

To meet a significant number of climbers’ demand, we are happy to provide you with a wide range of Kilimanjaro tours divided into 03 types: Budget – Standard – Luxury. Below is the price of Standard offers. For Budget and Luxury options, kindly contact us. Asante sana!

Inclusion

Exclusion

DAY 2: SIMBA CAMP TO 2^ND CAVE CAMP

DAY 3: 2^ND CAVE CAMP TO KIKELEWA CAMP