Hike completed: February 2023
Route: 7 day Lemosho
MY SEARCH
When I was searching for company for Kilimanjaro I got quickly overwhelmed. There are so many options. Most companies have good reviews but the price points differ significantly. Why is the price so different? Should I spend more of my hard earned money to make sure best experience? Or is the price inflated? The cheaper companies have also good reviews. Then I started to look how can I make sure that the company I choose looks after the employees. Oh nice, there is this KPAP (Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project) certification to assure fair treatment and good working conditions, but why not all companies have it? Is it even legit assurance of fair treatment? At the end I narrowed it down to two companies on opposite spectrum. One is very popular company, based in Tanzania but not locally owned, KPAP certified with higher price tag. Second one is locally owned, not KPAP certified with budget friendly price tag.
I decided to go with the latter and instead I made sure to budget a lot for tips.
To give you some benchmark, at the end of 2022, I have paid 2000 USD for private tour for 7 day Lemosho route and paid around 600 USD in tips (7 crew members for 7 days). To help to prepare full budget for your trip, refer to my article HERE.
The other company I was considering was asking 2700 USD (part of group) or 3700 USD (private tour) plus tips for the same trip.
GUIDE/PORTER TREATMENT
What I didn’t know before coming to Tanzania is that majority of the guides and porters are actually freelancers, they are not employees of any company. A company will call a guide and offer them a trip and the guide decide if they take the gig it or not. So naturally I have asked why would any of them choose to work for non-KPAP certified company.
To get KPAP certification it does cost some money and local companies usually do not bother with this. This does not mean that all non-certified companies treat guides and porters poorly.
KPAP is indeed serious certification and it does provide certain securities to the guides and porters in terms of treatment and payouts. Due to this SOME companies might take away any tips that tourist leave. This can be good in case the tips are poor, but it might be bad if tips are good and the crew might miss out on higher pay.
The guides I spoke about this, they didn’t want to go in too much details but both said they prefer and work mostly with non-KPAP certified companies for few reasons as their choice.
To me this makes the topic bit more complex then just disclaiming that you must choose KPAP certified company if you care about fair treatment. Nothing is black and white. This makes the selection bit complicated because you will not know unless you ask your guide and then it also depends if they are comfortable to discuss this with you.
If you are not sure but want to be 100% certain about good treatment of the porters, do select KPAP certified company. At the end it is the decision of the guide, who they want to work with.
PRICE/QUALITY
When it comes to price, my personal conclusion is that essentially everyone has almost the same experience. The trail is the same, the campsites and “public toilets” are the same. Some companies ask for more money but provide nothing more in terms of the overall experience other than better marketing and pre-trip customer service.
I have seen many big international companies that went above and beyond to provide additional comfort to their clients, but I feel like some of these come at cost for the crew and I’m not sure if they are getting any further compensation for this, even though they are KPAP certified. For example at the Lava tower some companies set up picnic tables and tents to provide hot teas, portable toilets and I don’t know what other luxuries to their clients. However Lava tower is unnecessary trip for the porters, they could by-pass the tricky and often icy climb and just carry the heavy loads to the next campsite. You are getting taste of small comfort/luxury at expense of someone else.
If you look at the campsite at the end of the day, except for large international companies, you will notice that most tents are non-branded and non-uniform. I have learned that this is because most companies do not even own tents and other camping equipment (sleeping bags, mats etc), but they rent them out, which means that no matter the company, you are getting the same camping equipment regardless of what you pay. The large international companies might offer you better quality equipment, all uniform and branded, at significantly higher price. This is again up to you to decide.
LOCAL/NON-LOCAL
This point is very much personal opinion. I personally prefer to support local company over international. Do not expect that local company runs the same way as tour provider in Western world but to me its all part of the experience. You will still get all the information you need and even though some things might seem messy, if they are established company with good reviews, you will likely have great experience. You will definitely experience the “hakuna matata” lifestyle of Tanzania.
If you do decide go with local company, pay attention not only to the office address but check the about us page to see who actually owns the company. There are few companies that are registered in Tanzania but are owned and managed by non-locals.
If you do choose international company, you will get much better pre-trip service. Also try to understand if you are getting anything more for the higher price. Since I was choosing between local and non-local providers, I could compare the service and it was day and night. The international company responded very quickly providing me with all the information and some more, all very professional.
OPEN GROUPS
One other way to bring the cost down is to join open groups where companies post specific dates for specific routes and anyone can join. Some companies offer the open group trips slightly or significantly cheaper. The company I went with had open group dates, but the cost was the same as if I booked private trip, the only saving was on tips because you have more crew but the tips are shared, so you will save that way.
MY TIP
Although it might not be popular suggestion, my personal tip is to choose locally owned company with mid-range budget-friendly price and budget for generous tips instead. KPAP certification preferred but optional.
Of course be smart and either go with referral from someone who had done the trip or check the reviews on trusted platforms such as tripadvisor. There are many local companies that are simply not up to par. It is trip of your lifetime and you literally trust them with your life so choose carefully.
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