Most climbers add a safari, and the order, the rest day and the route between mountain and parks decide how well the two fit. A plain guide to putting them together.
The mountain and the northern parks are next to each other. Arusha, the safari town, is an hour from the Kilimanjaro airport and two hours from the first park. So most people who climb Kilimanjaro add a safari, and most people who come for a safari at least think about the mountain. Putting the two together is easy if you get three things right: the order, the rest day, and the length of each half.
This page covers those three things and the shapes that work. For the safaris themselves, see the safari pages.
Places Kilimanjaro
Known as the “Coca-Cola” route, the Marangu route is a classic trek on Mount Kilimanjaro. It is the…
Places Kilimanjaro
The Marangu route is one of the most popular routes to the summit of Kilimanjaro.
Places Kilimanjaro
Six days on the Machame route, camping throughout. The shortest Machame itinerary, with a steeper daily…
Places Kilimanjaro
Seven days on Machame, with the Barranco to Barafu leg split over two days, so the day before the summit…
Places Kilimanjaro
The Rongai route is the only route that approaches Kilimanjaro from the north, close to the Kenyan…
Places Kilimanjaro
Eight days on the Lemosho route, starting in rainforest on the mountain's western side, with the longest…
The climb is the tiring half. You finish it exhausted, with sore legs and a week of broken sleep behind you. A safari is the opposite: early starts, but you sit in a vehicle, eat well and sleep in a bed. Doing them in that order lets the safari be the recovery.
There is a practical reason too. If the climb runs over, because of weather or an extra rest day, it eats into the safari. If the safari came first and ran over, it would eat into the climb, and a climb cannot be shortened without changing the route.
And a flight. If the climb is last and runs late, you miss the plane. If the safari is last and runs late, you miss a game drive.
Leave at least one night between coming off the mountain and starting the safari. Two is better.
You come down to the gate around midday on the last day of the climb, reach your hotel by mid-afternoon, and want nothing but a shower, a meal and a bed. Starting a safari the next morning at seven is possible and nobody enjoys it. Starting it the morning after that is a different experience.
Use the day for nothing, or for a gentle day trip near Moshi or Arusha: hot springs, a waterfall, a coffee farm. The day trips on this site are built for exactly this gap.
Do not shorten the climb to make room for the safari. A seven or eight-day route is the one that gets you to the top. Five days to save time is the most common way to fail.
On the safari side, four days reaches the Serengeti and the crater and nothing else. Six days gives the Serengeti a full day with two nights around it and the crater a day of its own. Eight or nine days stops compromising. Which you choose depends on time and budget, but four is the floor.
A typical combination is a seven-day climb, a rest day, and a six-day safari: fourteen days on the ground, plus travel. Add three or four nights on Zanzibar and it becomes a three-week trip.
The two-week trip. Land at Kilimanjaro, a night in Moshi, seven days on Machame, a rest night in Moshi, drive to Arusha, six days on the northern circuit, fly home from Kilimanjaro airport.
The three-week trip. The same, then fly from the Serengeti or Arusha to Zanzibar for three or four nights, and fly home from there. Check the international routing from Zanzibar when you book flights.
The short version. A six-day Machame or Rongai climb, a rest night, and a four-day safari. Ten days on the ground. It works if that is all the time there is. The climb is the part not to cut further.
The long version. Eight-day Lemosho or the nine-day Northern Circuit, two rest nights, and an eight or nine-day safari with Ndutu or the far north. About three weeks, and the best of both.
The climb and the safari want different things, and one bag has to carry both.
The climb needs warm layers, a sleeping bag, boots and poles. The safari needs light neutral clothes, a fleece for the cold mornings, and a sun hat. The overlap is bigger than it looks: the fleece, the shell, the hat, the sun cream and the daypack all do both jobs.
Most people leave the mountain kit at their Moshi or Arusha hotel during the safari and collect it on the way to the airport. Ask the hotel. It is a normal request. If you are flying any safari leg, the light-aircraft limit is around 15 kilograms in a soft bag, and the mountain gear needs to stay behind for that reason too.
Book the climb and the safari with one operator if you can. The transfer between the two is then one company's problem, the rest day is built in, and there is one person to call if anything changes.
Say at the start that you want both. The climb dates set the safari dates, and the safari camps in the peak months need booking early. A combined enquiry gets the whole thing planned once, in the right order.
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Wildlife
Where the wildebeest herds are through the year, and what that means for when to travel.
Planning
What to bring on safari and up Kilimanjaro, and what you can leave behind.
Planning
Most visitors need a visa, and most can get one on arrival or online in advance. What the visa covers, what to bring to the desk…
Planning
Park fees are the largest fixed cost of any safari or climb, and they are the same for every operator. Who sets them, how they…
Planning
Fly into Kilimanjaro International for the northern circuit, Dar es Salaam for the south, Zanzibar for the beach. Airports…
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Early mornings, long quiet stretches, a vehicle that becomes home, and hours that pass in a way nothing else does. What the days…
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Medical cover with a high limit, evacuation from the bush, cancellation, and the activity clauses. What a safari policy has to…
Places
A national park on the doorstep, a crater lake, coffee farms, the markets and Mount Meru. The best ways to spend a day or a half…
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Materuni waterfall, Kikuletwa hot springs, Marangu, Lake Chala and the coffee cafés. What to do with a day or two in Moshi before…
