Costs

With the main exception of the park fees and cost of the climb, other costs in Tanzania are relatively low offering excellent value for money. The amount you spend is largely governed by the amount of time you have available. We were on a fairly tight time schedule with only three days in the country when we were not on the mountain, therefore we felt that it was worth organising as-much-as possible before we went to maximise our available time. Our main costs were as follows:

Flights:US$700

Insurance:US$50

3 Day Safari:US$290

Climb & Park Fees:US$750

Tips:S$120 (each)

The safari that we took was organised by Zara, the same firm as we did the trek through. Before departing for the trip we had toiled with the idea of hiring a 4-wheel drive to minimise the cost of the doing a safari. However once the cost of park entrance fees, vehicle hire, camping fees and food had been taken into account the organised trip we felt offered good value for money. It is worth bearing in mind that vehicle hire is notoriously expensive in Africa. The cost of our safari included all the items mentioned above as well as a competent guide, cook and pick-up directly from the hotel. We were especially lucky as we ended up having the long wheel base Land Rover to ourselves.

We were able to minimise our trek cost by booking directly with Zara over the Internet. We reckon that this probably resulted in a 20% discount off the price you might expect to pay by booking through a European or American travel outfit. Obviously the disadvantage with this method is the limited or non-existent comeback you will have if anything goes wrong with the booking or the local firm 'disappears'! However by ensuring that we used one of the better known and recommended firms we felt it was worth the 'gamble', especially as we only had to pay a deposit in advance. It was slightly worrying sending $400, via a bank transfer, into the Tanzanian 'ether', but everything ended up where it should. We met a few people that had booked their trips locally in either Mosi or Arusha and had no problems. The main advantage of this is that you can shop around and ask other climbers their opinions, however during the more busy periods your options may be limited and as numbers on the mountain are controlled and you may not get the opportunity to go when you want.

Perhaps most important of all is the cost of beer! The good new is it's cheap (US1.50 per 0.5 litre bottle), strong and actually tastes reasonable.

Tipping

Tipping is something of a grey area. This is mainly due to the large amount of contradictory information that is available. We discussed the amount to tip with a number of other walkers and the general consensus amongst them was that a minimum of 10% of the trip cost should be given out in tips. During the pre-climb briefing meeting at the Springlands Hotel the evening before we started our climb we were advised of the following rates for tripping.

Guide:US$ 70

Assistant Guide:US$ 50

Cook:US$ 40

Porters (each): US$ 20

Although some level of tipping is expected, those amounts are not fixed but should reflect your level of appreciation and satisfaction with the service that you received. You should bear-in-mind that the wages the staff receive are low, a reflection of the fact that their pay is expected to be supplemented by tips. Equally, US$50 is a lot of money in a country where the average monthly wage is very low.

It was unclear whether the above rates for the Guide, Assistant Guide and Cook were per person or per group. A large amount will depend upon the size of the group you are with and the number of people each guide or cook is responsible for. At the briefing meeting we were all in-groups of two, therefore on the basis of the 10% of the trip cost rule-of-thumb the above rates could be assumed to be per group.

We gave our tips out on the last day of the trek when we reached Mweka village at the very end of the trek when we were loading up the vehicle. All the other walkers we spoke to decided to give out their tips at about this time as well. In addition to the tips we gave away a 'selection' of our T-shirts so if you see a porter in a Dubai rugby sevens or Mott MacDonald T-shirt you know where they came from!

We ended up tipping the following amounts - perhaps a bit on the high side but we were impressed by the standard of the team and wanted to show our appreciation.

Guide:US$ 120

Assistant Guide/cook:US$ 80

Porters (each):US$ 25 / US$ 30