Kilimanjaro (Moshi)

Top things to do in Kilimanjaro (Moshi)

1. 01

   Uhuru Peak - the summit night to the roof of Africa

   hiking scenic 👍 Popular

   Summit day starts around midnight from Barafu or Kibo hut, a slow switchback grind in the dark to Stella Point or Gilman's Point and then along the crater rim to the signboard at Uhuru Peak. Dawn breaks over the glaciers and the plains, and you are back down at a lower camp by the afternoon.

2. 02

   Machame Route - the Whiskey route over Shira and Barranco

   hiking adventure ⭐ Highly recommended

   The most walked way up: six or seven days through rainforest onto the Shira Plateau, past Lava Tower and over the Barranco Wall before the traverse to Barafu. It climbs high and sleeps low, which is why its summit rate beats the shorter trails, and the landscape changes completely every day.

3. 03

   Marangu Route - the hut trail up the eastern slopes

   hiking 👍 Popular

   The oldest route, and the only one with dormitory huts instead of tents, climbing through mossy forest to Mandara, Horombo and Kibo. Nicknamed the Coca-Cola route, it is the shortest and the least varied, and walking it in five days gives you the weakest acclimatisation on the mountain. Take the extra day at Horombo.

4. 04

   Barranco Wall - the scramble under the southern glaciers

   hiking adventure scenic ⭐ Highly recommended

   A rock face of about 250 m below the Heim and Kersten glaciers, taken hand over hand on a zigzag path that includes the Kissing Rock, where you hug the stone above a long drop. No ropes and no technical skill, over in roughly ninety minutes, and the best morning on the Machame and Lemosho routes.

5. 05

   Lemosho Route and the Shira Plateau - the long western approach

   hiking off beaten path

   Starting in forest on the western side, Lemosho crosses the wide Shira Plateau, the floor of an older collapsed cone, before joining the southern circuit. Seven or eight days, much quieter than Machame for the first two, and the extra time up on the plateau is what lifts its summit rate.

6. 06

   Rongai Route - the dry northern side near the Kenyan border

   hiking

   The only approach from the north, drier and gentler underfoot, with the jagged spires of Mawenzi ahead of you most of the way and a fair chance of wildlife in the lower forest. Often chosen in the wetter months, and it comes down by Marangu, so you see two sides of the mountain.

7. 07

   Kibo crater and the Furtwangler Glacier - camping at the top

   hiking adventure

   Some operators add a night inside the summit crater, beside the ash pit and the ice cliffs of the Furtwangler Glacier, the remnant of an ice cap that once covered the whole summit. It is the highest camp in Africa, only sensible if you are acclimatising well, and a hard, cold, extraordinary night.

8. 08

   Mount Meru - the acclimatisation climb in Arusha National Park

   hiking nature wildlife

   Tanzania's second mountain, a broken crater rim walked in three or four days with an armed ranger because buffalo and giraffe graze the lower slopes. Many people climb it the week before Kilimanjaro; the knife-edge ridge to Socialist Peak at sunrise, with Kilimanjaro floating above the cloud, beats anything on the bigger mountain.

9. 09

   Kilimanjaro coffee - a Chagga smallholding on the southern slopes

   food culture arts 👍 Popular

   Arabica has grown in banana shade on these slopes for well over a century. Family farms walk you through picking, pulping, drying, roasting over a fire and pounding the beans in a wooden mortar to a work song, and you drink what you made at the end of it.

10. 10

    Moshi town - the clock tower, Mbuyuni market and the view up

    food culture arts

    A small grid of a town built on coffee money, with a landmark clock tower roundabout, the sprawling Mbuyuni market for produce and kanga cloth, and cafes where climbers eat their first proper meal in a week. On clear mornings the snowline hangs directly above the rooftops.

Getting to & around Kilimanjaro (Moshi)

Know before you go