Two of the biggest questions which always lingers in everyone’s mind when hiking Kilimanjaro is –How many porters and guides you need for Kilimanjaro Trek and Tipping on Kilimanjaro – How much to tip guides/porters. What is too much or too less?
Prepare well about what you need to take and wear while hiking Kilimanjaro – Read more.
One thing which I want to make clear at the very start is – without the team i.e. porters, guides, chefs; the hike is simply impossible. A big chunk of the credit for successfully hiking Kilimanjaro goes to the porters.
Always try using a local company rather than booking it from a big travel company overseas. This has two essential advantages – Firstly, it’s obviously cheap compared to bigger companies and secondly, you are essentially helping the local people who live in the villages around Kilimanjaro. The mountain and its hikers are a big source of income for this impoverished people – so you can do a little bit for them by booking with a local travel company – Kilitreks.
Right from Day 1, the porters carry all your luggage, chef cooks delicious meals, and the guides keep you engaged and motivated. They do all this with a broad warm smile. They are so accommodating and were as happy as us when we succeeded the hike. Our 5 day encounter with these local people changed my perception in many different ways.
Now let’s do some maths. This is just a thumb rule guidance – so feel free to tip anything above this but would prefer that you don’t go below this.
To start let’s assume you are two people hiking Kilimanjaro. Please read my post about what to carry on a Kili Hike – Click here.
Lets start with answering the basic question – “How many porters and guides you need for Kilimanjaro Trek“. So, this would be your bare essential team to carry everything up Kili, basically a team of 5 for 2 people.
- Guide – 1
- Assistant Guide – 1
- Chef – 1
- Porters – 5
Now let’s look at tipping –
| No. of people | $ per day | No. of Days | Total | |
| Guide | 1 | 20$ | 5 | 100$ |
| Assistant Guide | 1 | 15$ | 5 | 75$ |
| Chef | 1 | 10$ | 5 | 50$ |
| Porters | 5 | 8$ | 5 | 200$ |
| Total | 425$ |
This is an indicative figure – We did tip above this as our experience with the team was just beyond awesome. Also, there are two other things which you could possibly do to help these poor people –
–If possible carry some stuff from your country to help the children of these poor porters/guides. For example, stuff like stationary, colour pencils, and books etc. They really appreciate it a lot.
–These porters etc. have very basic minimal clothing and footwear. Some even trek without proper winter clothing. Once we finished the hike, we gave all of our hiking specific stuff like fleece jackets, water bags, headlamps, all weather jackets etc. to these guys. If you could possibly give off some stuff then please do.
We successfully hiked Kilimanjaro, all thanks to the wonderful team who made this possible. Please read our Kili hike here – Click here.
View our Kilimanjaro Hike Video here –
If you have any queries/feedback, leave me a comment with your email id and I’ll get back to you at the earliest.
This is Aldrin and my partner Amoli. We bring you "Earths Pilgrim" - a unique insight into our travel escapades while leaving life in a cubicle. If you are looking for some inspiration to break the shackles of a regular life, then you are the right place. Read more about us- Click here.