Luxury Kilimanjaro Tours: Discover the Classic Machame Route

Machame is the route most people picture when they think of Kilimanjaro, even if they’ve never heard its name. It’s the one with the rainforest at the bottom, the strange high plateau, the cliff you climb with your hands, and the long dark walk to the summit. It’s also the route we use on our luxury Kilimanjaro tours, and I want to walk you through it, because the route matters as much as the tent you sleep in.

Why Machame?

Several routes reach the top of Kilimanjaro. Machame has two things going for it. It’s beautiful, and it’s smart about altitude.

From an aesthetic perspective, one gets to experience all the different climatic zones on the mountain. One begins with lush montane rain forest, then moves up to heather moorland, alpine desert, and finally the glaciated summit.

On the altitude side, it follows the mountaineers’ rule of climbing high and sleeping low. You go up during the day and come back down to sleep, which gives your body time to adjust. That’s why serious altitude trouble is rare on this route, and why we use a seven-day itinerary and a deliberately slow pace. Rushing is the usual mistake on Kilimanjaro. The mountain is non-technical, so the challenge is adapting to the height, not the terrain.

Before you climb: Arusha

The classic route begins in Arusha, staying for two nights in the Gran Meliá, a five-star hotel located in the midst of coffee and tea farms with views of Mount Meru. The Gran Meliá offers spacious modern rooms, good food in the restaurant, a roof-top bar, spa facilities and a big pool; the hotel is situated between Arusha town and Arusha National Park.

This is where the point comes in. The first full day sees a walking safari through the national park that surrounds the base of Mount Meru, the second tallest mountain in Tanzania at 4,566 meters high. Among the animals you will meet are giraffes, buffalos, zebras, warthogs and colobus monkeys; there being no big game in the national park, you get to see it all on foot.

The route, day by day

Starting from Machame Gate, the path takes you uphill through the rainforest and onto the Shira Plateau. The next destination will be towards Lava Tower, which is a huge volcanic formation on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro, after which the path descends to Barranco Camp.

This up-and-down structure is the technique used for acclimatisation. After that is the Barranco Wall, which is a rock face that you have to climb, using your hands in some cases. It looks more difficult than it actually is, and it becomes one of the most loved sections of the journey.

I’ll explain Kosovo properly, because it’s the best thing about this trip.

Kosovo, and why it matters

Most Machame climbers sleep at Barafu Camp before summit night. We use a private camp at Kosovo, about an hour higher up the mountain. That sounds minor until you picture it at midnight.

Summit night is the hardest part of Kilimanjaro. You start before midnight, walk in the dark and cold, and the altitude makes every step heavy. Starting an hour closer to the top shortens that night climb by about an hour, and it shortens the descent by a similar amount afterwards. It’s also quieter up there. Our page calls it one of the best-kept secrets on the mountain, and while I’d phrase it less grandly, I agree with the logic. When you’re tired and cold, one hour less is a great deal.

From Kosovo you climb to Stella Point for sunrise, where hot drinks are waiting, then follow the crater rim to Uhuru Peak at 5,895 metres, the highest point in Africa. The views take in the crater, the remaining glaciers, and on a clear morning, across to Mount Meru and Mawenzi.

You go back down to Kosovo for rest and lunch, then continue to Millennium Camp for the last night on the mountain, where head chef Hadson Richard serves a celebration cake baked on the mountain. The next morning you walk out through Mweka Gate to a celebratory lunch and the drive back to the Gran Meliá.

The camp and the team

The mountain camp is our own equipment, brought from the US and set up by our in-house crew, led by Robert Mollel. You sleep in standing-height Big Agnes Bunkhouse tents on proper camp beds, in 6,000-metre sleeping bags with a hot-water bottle, with a bedside table, a light and a charging point. There’s a private toilet tent and a hot shower system for your group, with cotton towels, and a heated dining tent.

Michael Mushi and John Bosco lead the guiding. Each has more than two hundred ascents, many by the technical Western Breach. Hadson cooks at the standard of a good safari lodge, and Mohammed Mdee, who spent a year at Nihi Sumba, runs front of house. Nobody is subcontracted, and every guide, chef and host is named before you travel. We also carry an Iridium satellite phone for emergencies and give you a tailored training plan before you go.

Classic or Original?

We run two versions of the seven-day Machame climb, and people ask which to choose.

The Kilimanjaro Classic, described here, uses the Gran Meliá in Arusha, starts with the Arusha National Park walking safari, and summits from the private Kosovo Camp. It’s 10 days and 9 nights from £7,915 per person, for one to 24 travellers.

The Original Kilimanjaro Luxury Trek is 10 days and 9 nights from £5,950 per person. It stays at Airport Planet Lodge, starts with a walk to Materuni Waterfall and a coffee experience in a Chagga village, and uses Barafu as the summit camp.

Both use the same camp, crew and route. The difference is the lodge, the first-day activity and the summit launch point. If the shorter summit night appeals, Classic is the one.

Making it your own

This is where bespoke travel experiences come in. Either trip can be extended with a luxury safari in northern Tanzania, the Selous, Kenya, or gorilla trekking in Rwanda. We also run small-group departures timed to a full moon, the calving season, the Great Migration and New Year’s Eve, and a private trip can be built around your dates and group.

If you’re weighing a Kilimanjaro climb against other luxury adventure travel trips, our list also covers Everest Base Camp, Mont Blanc, safaris and yacht charters. Kilimanjaro works well on its own, and also as a first step toward bigger mountains.

When to go

The best months are June to September and December to February, when conditions are generally drier. You can climb outside those windows, but rain and clouds become more likely.

You don’t need to be an athlete or to have climbed before. You do need good fitness and the ability to walk for several hours on consecutive days, and you should train for it.

You can read the full itinerary on the Kilimanjaro Classic, get in touch, or call 020 4585 8888 (UK) or +1 347 964 0104 (US).