Kilimanjaro – Machame Route

All arrangements were punctual; guides and porters excellent. Trek / summit day / food etc all very good .. whole experience excellent.

Even accounting for advice received, more detail is needed to prepare 'virgin' travellers to Africa for the 'tipping' culture. There were tips to the drivers that were 'expected' but we were not advised about.  As a small group of two we had significant additional tips to pay for that with larger numbers would have been distributed / shared out - this added considerably to an already expensive trip. Are these 'tips' anyway? Aren't these payments just additional payments .. the term 'tip' suggests payment is discretionary - these payments are not .. this needs clarification in all the information you produce. That written .. we were happy to give 'tips' for we received excellent service and support .. it is just that this needs greater clarity so as to be better prepared in country.

[Accommodation] Excellent in all ways .. except perhaps it is a longish drive .. but overall very good.

We had a form to complete about diet and medication etc - this was not requested by the group leader and contained key information about someone (my son) with lifelong conditions that needed managing. This was a gap in knowledge.

See previous comments - information not collected .. as it happens this was covered in briefing etc .. and we never felt unsafe .. just a matter of good practice

Mr T - Travelled in June 2012

getting to the top of Kili

[Least enjoyed] toilets arrangements on Kili.  I noticed others had independent arrangements ie chemo toilets 

We had confidence in him.

Watching the sunrise from the side of Kilimanjaro was amazing!

[Least enjoyed] The organisation of the climb and the following days walk, I think it may have been too much to do 24hrs of walking/climbing in 48hrs.

The "tips" that we had to pay the guides after the trip which I had no prior knowledge about was not a nice surprise. I had to spend all my emergency money paying them off and then had to borrow further money from another person on my tour when my card didn't work in a ATM!

William was a great team leader, he really made it fun and interesting.

Mr H - Travelled in January 2012

From start to finish this has got to be the best "holiday" of my life, although holiday isn't the correct word ... the trek was seriously tough, the actual walking side of the trip I found do-able but coping with the altitude was so much harder than I had imagined and it was this that stopped me from reaching the summit ... no amount of training could have prepared me for it. But although I was extremely disappointed at not achieving my goal I still came off that mountain elated. Even now, 7 weeks on, I still look back on this trip with pride, and still catch myself walking through the local supermarket feeling very smug with myself.

Our tour leader (William) was terrific, he gave me a lot of support, but it wasn't just down to him, every single one of the support team were amazing, I got the nick name "Mama" being the oldest in the group, and as they passed me during the days to (and from) final camp I had a lot of encouragement from all of them. The food was incredible considering what the chef had to cook on, and there was always plenty of it, although during the few days around final camp I wasn't able to eat very much.