IMG Kilimanjaro Climb and Safari Itinerary
For more details on the day by day schedule, please see our:
Expanded Kilimanjaro Itinerary PDF »
For details on daily elevation gain and distances traveled, please see the: Machame Route Daily Stats »
| DAY | Itinerary (Our Itinerary is by day, NOT date) |
| Depart USA on Northwest/KLM to Amsterdam. Arrive in Amsterdam early on the morning of Day 2 in Amsterdam. (Some team members may choose to depart a day or two earlier than the group in order to explore Amsterdam and to avoid jet lag.) | |
| Transfer in Amsterdam to flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). Flight leaves at 10:35am, arrives JRO at 8:20 pm. We will meet in the arrival area at JRO and arrange group pickup at the airport and vehicle transfer to Keys Hotel in Moshi. Overnight at Keys | |
| Free morning to relax, stroll around Moshi and explore a bit. Group meeting in afternoon. Pack personal gear into duffel bag for porters (up to 30 pounds or so). Leave one bag with travel and safari clothes, etc. at the hotel in storage. Dinner / overnight at Keys Hotel. | |
| After breakfast, we'll drive by 4WD vehicles to the Machame Gate, where the climb begins. The first day is a nice hike through the rain forest to Machame Camp (10,000'). | |
| We climb out of the forest to the Shira Plateau (12,000'), in the zone of "weird plants" native to high mountains of Africa, ie. Lobelia and Groundsel. Wild! | |
| We climb to over 14,500' and then drop back to 13,000', which is great acclimatization. We'll camp at Barancco (13,000'). This is really neat hiking. | |
| Cross the Breach Wall (a bit of pretty steep scrambling in a few places, sporty!) and traverse below the Southern Glaciers. This is our favorite day on the approach, with great scenery and rugged hiking. Overnight at Karanga Valley (13,000'). | |
| By now we're well acclimatized and we move up to High Camp at Barafu (15,000'). | |
| Summit Day! Start climbing around Midnight with about 8 hours to the true summit (Uhuru Peak at 19,340'). Descend to Mweka Camp in the forest. A long and rewarding day. | |
| Continue descent via the Mweka route to Mweka Gate. 4WD vehicle pickup and transfer to Keys Hotel. Shower and celebrate our climb! Overnight at Keys Hotel. | |
| Drive to Arusha for lunch. In afternoon, fly to Serengeti, game drive, transfer to Serengeti Wildlife Camp | |
| Full day Serengeti game drive with a picnic lunch. Overnight at Ndutu Lodge. | |
| Morning Game drive, visit Olduvai Gorge, transfer to Ngorogoro Sopa Lodge. | |
| Morning game drive and then drive back to Arusha. Transfer to JRO airport in the evening in time for the KLM flight. | |
| Connect in Amsterdam for flights back to USA. |
I had a great time on the Kilimanjaro trip. It went just as planned, we all made the summit, and the safari was great fun too. Thanks also for pre-arranging everything so perfectly...
