One among questions any person considering to climb Kilimanjaro should ask at a very early stage of the climb preparation is the cost. Travelling can cost a lot especially flights and accommodation but entry fees to the parks should not be left behind.
Mount Kilimanjaro is among the destinations need to lose budget although some local operators on the ground can trap you with cheap trek options. Let’s see how much costs per day to be in Kilimanjaro Park. The entry fee is US$ 70 and sleeping in the park is US$ 50 for the camping route. Marangu route is US$ 60 per night because climbers sleep in the huts. Now, the fewer days someone can spend to climb Mount Kilimanjaro is 5 days and is by Marangu and Umbwe routes. The rest of the routes take more than 6 days and touring companies with the sense of altitude impact, always advise longer routes for acclimatization to reduce the chances of altitude sickness hence increasing the success rate of the hikers to reach the summit.
Now, Simple math will be as below if you take 8 days Lemosho route:
| Number of days | Entry in $ | Total One | Add 18% | Total Two |
| 8 days | 70 | 560 | 100.8 | 660.8 |
| 7 nights | 50 | 350 | 63 | 413 |
| Rescue fee per trip | 20 | 20 | 3.6 | 23.6 |
| Grand total per person for Entering the Kilimanjaro Park | $ 1,097.4 |
The table above shows only the entry fee of the client and is for a one-person taking the Lemosho route for 8 days. If you add the crew entry fees (yes! Each mountain crew you have on the mountains pays the entry fee, and the minimum crew you can have if you are a solo trekker is 6 for the camping routes and 5 for the Marangu route), Wages and salaries, transportation and meals, and camping gears, you can see the cheap option is only suitable for terrible experience: – overweigh porters, poor camping services, few days on the mountain, little food on the mountain, and worse enough porters who do a lot more than anybody by carrying all your stuff plus your food will not get paid accordingly.
What is bad if porters do not get paid the right amount recommended? Well, good question. The quick outcome of reducing the porter’s payments will increase the insecurity of your belongs. Just think a little: If someone carrying your bag with valuable items inside and he knows at the end of the trip will not get paid enough, what will happen next? Yes! You guess right – stealing! I am not saying that every clients’ missing items on the mountain is because the less paid porters got steal it but most are likely to!
When you consider choosing the company to go on the mountain with, please remember not to choose the cheap trip companies even if you are trying to save some money. Wise people said it clear: “The cheap is always very expensive”!