This is detailed Kilimanjaro cost breakdown my trip in early 2023. This guide covers everything you need for your Kilimanjaro trip and more, including accommodation, and safaris. This is only for your budgeting and indication purposes. Depending on where you live and your personal circumstances and preferences, the actual figures might differ.
ONLY KILIMANJARO COST
If you only plan to fly in, do Kilimanjaro and fly back, the budget is fairly straight forward, there are only few expenses. The price can vary depending on your flight details or company you choose. Tips would be lower if I joined group instead of solo hike. Note my insurance is on higher end as I stayed 3,5 weeks.
My total – if I only did Kilimanjaro – would be around 4400 USD.
Details around tipping, in this article:
GEAR
The Kilimanjaro cost of 4400 USD is excluding any clothes or gear, which you might need to buy or rent. I had majority of my hiking gear from previous trips, however I did end up renting down/windbreaker pants for the summit night for 15 USD/trip. Tent and sleeping bag should be included in the cost of your trip. Your company should inform you which gear is included and what is the cost of rental.
OTHER
Pre-trip purchases: cosmetics, medication (malaria pills), toiletries, hand warmers, snacks, etc. This is very personal. It is not part of my budget above.
Hotels and taxis: Not necessary. Most companies offer airport drop off/pick up and 2x nights in hotel (1 night before the trek and 1 night after), this should be included in your tour cost. Do check with your company before booking, if this is the case.
Food: While on the mountain, food will be provided by your company. Before and after the trek (hotel, airport,…) the food is usually not included, so allocate some budget for it. Hotel food tends to have Western prices, around 10-15 USD per meal per person. You can visit one of the places where locals eat. I have paid 5 USD for 2 meals and 2 smoothies.
Other: You will not spend money elsewhere as there are no places to spend it at unless you have more time or energy before or after the trek. Possibly some money can be spend at the airport for food, snacks or souvenirs.
COSTS – TANZANIA
If you are able to, I highly recommend staying longer in Tanzania. I have spend 3,5 weeks there, doing 3 different activities: safari, trekking and Zanzibar.
Read more for tips on saving money and avoiding tourist traps like the Maasai village tour.
COST – SAFARI
The cost of safari can vary dramatically. Some 3-day tours go for 3000 USD or more. SURICATA SAFARIS was the cheapest I found at 750 USD. The reason for low cost is that we joined open group, we were 5 people in the jeep. We also opted out for sleeping in tent instead of hotels. I find that paying premium price is not necessary. Usually you arrive pretty late and leave very early so if you splurge on luxury hotel with pool etc, you will not be able to properly enjoy it. Personally the experience of sleeping in savannah with giraffes grazing around, hyena running through our campsite and hearing lions roaring while you are in the tent were my favourite safari memories. Of course, do consider that with tent you will not shower and restrooms are not the cleanest.
Food, accommodation, park fees, transport, water should be all included in your tour. Except for tips, there is nothing further you need to budget for unless you want to buy additional tours, snacks or souvenirs.
Safari tips
It is expected to tip all safari staff. The company you go with will provide a guide of what is common. It is difficult to provide general guide as some companies have driver and a guide, while with others the guide also drives. Since I stayed in tent, we instead had a cook with us. If you stay at the hotel, you will be expected to tip the hotel staff instead.
Other safari costs
Personally I opted-in also for hot air balloon, which set me back around 600 USD including tips. We didn’t see many animals and due to this excursion, I missed part of the safari. If I knew this, I would have skipped the balloon.
We have also visited Maasai village, paying 15 USD per person. I would advise you to skip this unless you are 100% certain the village is truly authentic village. The guides will tell you it is maasai village, although that is not the case. They will dance for you, but all the time they will try to get additional money. They brought us to “school” which was falling apart, full of children who put on show for you and then look extremely sad asking for money. Then they ask you to buy overpriced souvenirs to support local community. And I had someone downward ask for more money just because. Do not support this scam and AVOID.
COST – TREKKING AND CHEMKA
I have hiked also Mt Meru, the price structure is the same as for Kilimanjaro. The tour price has everything included (hotels, food, park fees,…), you will only need to budget for tips.
I have also done day tour to Chemka hot springs, through the same company. You could probably get this tour significantly cheaper if you did it on your own. For example rent car or taxi and then pay the entrance and lunch yourself. Since it was my first time in Africa and I was solo female, I preferred organised tour. The guide gave me a lot of info and thought me some Swahili on the way, took pictures for me and made sure I had everything I needed. The day trip to Chemka was really nice and I enjoyed. It seems most people leave after lunchtime so its nice and empty in the afternoon with local people doing some crazy jumps into the pools from swing.
COST – ZANZIBAR
I also decided to see other part of Tanzania and flew to Zanzibar for 5 nights. Please note that I did Zanzibar with a friend and while I mention the price of the hotels and taxi at full price for your indication, for me this was half since it was shared cost. Day tours and Zanzibar-budget were my personal expenses.
Zanzibar was fully self-organised and you can make your trip cheaper or more expensive depending on your choices. The approach of me and my friend was that we have chosen more budget-friendly options for hotel with the idea we will only sleep there, while explore the island. We tried to eat on budget most of the time. Of course we went to restaurants few times, but sometimes we just had fruit or something small from supermarket. Of course we still enjoyed ourselves and treated ourselves, we just preferred to spend money mostly on the experiences.
Tip: You can haggle lower prices for the taxi.
Cheetah Rock
We have also done day tour to Cheetah’s rock, which was expensive for 160 USD per person, but very much worth the money. Part of the tour package was collection from/to hotel with option from hotel/to airport, so we have saved about 40-50 USD on taxi.
For the animal lovers out there – this place is truly caring for the animals and they ended up there as rescues and it is not possible for one reason or another to release them back to nature. The crew will share stories of each animal and you really feel that they very much care for the animals and only let the animals do what they are comfortable with. They share few rules not only to keep you safe, but also the animals. The place is not tourist trap exploiting animals, but sanctuary doing tours as a way to sustain the centre. I do not support place that just takes advantage (or worse) of animals, so I did a lot of research prior. If you can budget for this, I do recommend this experience. You will be supporting the cause and have amazing experience.
COST – TOTAL
The total of my 3,5 weeks in Tanzania was around 8500 USD.
In general I’m very happy with the experiences I had and the tours and companies I booked with.
The price of my trip could have been slightly lower by opting to skip some tours, mainly hot air baloon that would deduct the price by 600 USD. Or by joining open group for Kilimanjaro or by skipping Cheetah’s rock. But for me all of this was worth the price.
On the other hand I feel like the trip is on the lower side as most options I have selected were budget-friendly. Most companies run safari’s around 3k, same for Kilimanjaro at 3k and other companies offered Mt Meru to me for 2k.
I hope this helps budgeting Kilimanjaro cost and in planning your dream vacation in Tanzania.
