Kilimanjaro starts for you where you touch down at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). Once you have climbed down the immigration walls and have your bags with you, one of our professional guides will meet you right after you leave the terminal. To ensure your comfort during your trip, for the first day, you will be placed in a 4x4 wheel drive vehicle that will transfer you to a hotel in Arusha. To ensure you get ample time to rest, no other activities will be organized. This rest is needed to ensure recovery after a long bout of international travel.

Activities: Airport reception, direct private transfer to Arusha.
Accommodation: Hotel in Arusha.
Meals: Dinner.

Let’s face it. Today is an important day, and a good amount of it will be spent preparing. After grabbing breakfast at the hotel, you’ll have an extensive, personalized briefing with your chief Kilimanjaro guide. This instruction will touch on safety, daily trek logistics, altitude/health pinpointing, and more, and the Shira route’s particular difficulties. The guide’s briefing then leads into a more hands-on approach with a gear check to determine if all the appropriate equipment for the trek is packed. If not, the guide will assist in ordering the gear. After this is completed, the rest of the day is for relaxation to rest up for the trek tomorrow. This focus preparation day is just the beginning of our devotion to safety and success.

Activities: In-depth trek briefing, full equipment check, and relaxation.
Accommodation: Hotel in Arusha.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner.

The day starts with some breakfast, and from there, you go to Kilimanjaro’s western slopes, starting from Arusha. This journey takes around 3 to 4 hours. After this time, you go through a difficult drive from Shira Gate to around 3,500m (which takes some time) on a rugged road. Your guide takes care of registration while you soak in the altitude. You start the day with a walk across the Shira Plateau. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, the plateau is a moorland and alpine desert, offering superb views of the Kibo summit cone. At the Shira 2 Camp, the crew would have set up the tents in preparation for the 2 to 3-hour trek.

Hiking Time: 2-3 hours.
Distance: 7 km / 4 miles.
Altitude Gain: 345m / 1,132ft.
Zone: Moorland / Alpine Desert.
Accommodation: Tents at Shira 2 Camp.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Today you will be leaving Shira Plateau, and you will be trekking eastwards into the alpine desert. The goal is to ascend to the Lava Tower. Then, directly east of the tower, you will see the Lava Tower. Around the tower is a 90m high volcanic and known as the Lava Tower. The goal is to reach 4640m in height of the Lava Tower, and this will be the height of the day. You will have to reach this height to achieve your body's necessary adaptive process. You will have your lunch adjacent to the Lava Tower, and then you will have to descend the Lava Tower from a height of 680m into the Barranco valley. The strategy is called "climbing high and sleeping low’’ and is the best way to acclimate. The Barranco Camp is a breathtaking site that is located directly under the Great Barranco Wall.

Hiking Time: 6-8 hours.
Distance: 10 km / 6 miles.
Altitude Gain/Loss: +795m ascent, -680m descent.
Zone: Alpine Desert.
Accommodation: Tents at Barranco Camp.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Starting, you get to enjoy the exhilarating experience of going up the Great Barranco Wall. Although it looks scary, it is a non-technical scramble over a rocky path. Your guides are the best professionals, so you will get up there easily and safely. The picture you get from the top is phenomenal. The rest of the day is a shorter trek aimed especially to aid and further assist acclimatization. You will go through a landscape composed of beautiful ridges and valleys. As always, the mesmerizing views of Kibo's southern glaciers are there to admire. The trail dips into the Karanga Valley and ends with a very tiny ascent to Karanga Camp. The early afternoon arrival gives you some rest and the beautiful views.

Hiking Time: 3-4 hours.
Distance: 5 km / 3 miles.
Altitude Gain: 75m / 246ft.
Zone: Alpine Desert.
Accommodation: Tents at Karanga Camp.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

You will finish the Southern Circuit trail today and reach the southern base camp. Hikers taking the trail to Barafu Camp will always describe the same thing: slow and steady uphill through a desert landscape devoid of vegetation. Those campers who take the Mweka descent trail will have the bonus of a vertical climb around Barafu Camp, which means ‘ice’ in Swahili, and is Barafu Camp’s most distinctive feature. The camp is basic and exposed and captures the full sensation of the mountain’s altitude with strong, barring winds. You'll arrive around early afternoon, which is a sufficient amount of time to rest, eat, and hydrate before preparing your gear to take a full summit the next day. After an early dinner, we all go to sleep to rest for the 12 A.M. departure.

Hiking Time: 3-4 hours.
Distance: 4 km / 2.5 miles.
Altitude Gain: 605m / 1,985ft.
Zone: Alpine Desert.
Accommodation: Tents at Barafu Camp.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

This part serves as the biggest test. Starting the final part of the journey at around midnight will mean overcoming a major challenge. This will test both mental and physical endurance as they slowly ascend. For the next 5 to 7 hours, strenuous climbing will be required in order to reach Stella Point (5,739) at the same time the sun rises and starts to illuminate the rest of the world. This will be around the crater rim. Stella Point serves as the final point of the crater. From Stella Point, a fairly simple 1-hour walk will take you to the Uhuru Peak (5,895m). After spending time in Uhuru Peak, you will turn and descend back to Barafu. After a short rest, the path leads you to the Mweka Camp, which marks the last night you will spend on the mountain.

Hiking Time: 11-15 hours.
Distance: 17 km / 10.5 miles (5 km ascent, 12 km descent).
Altitude Gain/Loss: +1,255m ascent, -2,795m descent.
Zone: Arctic (Summit) and Rainforest.
Accommodation: Tents at Mweka Camp.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Our last sunrise breakfast on Kili is presented in style, then the mountain crew is joined for a customary parting ceremony. After this, the rest of the day is for resting. You may also doze off. You don't climb anymore; you descend. In 3 to 4 hours, you will descend to the Mweka Gate, still in the rainforest. There, you do the formalities of check-out and receive the summit certificate you worked for. The private car will take you to Arusha and to the hotel. There is a hot shower and a comfortable bed ready. You may spend the night thinking of the journey,of which this event is just a part. You may also spend the evening celebrating.

Hiking Time: 3-4 hours.
Distance: 10 km / 6 miles.
Altitude Loss: 1,460m / 4,790ft.
Zone: Rainforest.
Accommodation: Hotel in Arusha.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner.