The oldest path up the mountain and the only one with huts. You sleep under a roof, walk a gentle gradient, and go up and down the same way.
Marangu is the oldest way up Kilimanjaro and the only one where you sleep under a roof. It climbs the south-eastern side from Marangu Gate at 1,860 m and returns down the same path.
There are three huts. Mandara at 2,720 m sits at the top of the rainforest. Horombo at 3,720 m stands on open moorland with Mawenzi behind it. Kibo at 4,700 m is a stone building on the bare saddle between the two peaks, and it is where summit night starts.
The summit approach climbs to Gilman's Point at 5,681 m on the crater rim, then follows the rim past Stella Point to Uhuru Peak.
People call it the Coca-Cola route. The name has stuck for decades and it does the route no favours. It suggests an easy option, and the five-day version is the least likely climb on this mountain to put you on the summit.
The walking on Marangu is the gentlest on Kilimanjaro. There is no scrambling anywhere, the gradients are steady, and the paths are the widest and best maintained on the mountain.
The difficulty is entirely in the altitude, and this route handles it badly.
On the five-day version you sleep at 2,720 m, then 3,720 m, then 4,700 m, and go for the summit that night. Three sleeps to gain 2,840 m, with no day spent climbing high and sleeping low. Your body is asked to adapt faster than most bodies will.
The six-day version adds an acclimatisation day at Horombo. You walk up towards Zebra Rocks and come back down to sleep at the same height. That one day changes the summit rate more than anything else you can do on this route.
Summit night is the longest of the four routes we run. It is 981 m of scree from Kibo Hut to Gilman's Point, and Gilman's is not the top.
The huts. Bunk beds with mattresses, a dining hall with tables, and a roof at every camp. Nothing else on the mountain offers that.
It handles rain. When the forest is soaking and the paths are running, a dry building at the end of the day changes the whole trip. In April, May and November this is the route we would put you on.
The gradient is kind. No wall to scramble, no long traverse, and no day that ends with your hands on rock.
It is the shortest way up, so it costs the least. Park fees are charged per day, and five or six days is fewer than seven or eight.
And it is simple to picture before you go. Three huts, one path, one summit night. For a first time at altitude that clarity helps more than people expect.
The five-day version has the lowest summit rate on Kilimanjaro. That is the most important thing to know about this route, and it is why we push people towards six.
You go up and down the same path, so you see everything twice and nothing new on the way down.
It is the least varied route for scenery. Forest, moorland, saddle, summit, and the ground between Horombo and Kibo is bare for hours at a stretch.
The huts are shared dormitories. Bunks sit close together, and a snoring stranger at 3,720 m is part of the deal.
And it is busy. Everybody on this route walks both directions on the same path, which doubles what you meet coming the other way.
Marangu suits anybody who will not sleep in a tent. That is the clearest reason to choose it, and it is a good one.
It suits climbers in the wet months, when a dry room at the end of the day counts for more than a change of view.
It suits people with only six days who still want a fair chance, as long as they take the six-day version and not the five.
It does not suit anyone whose first aim is the summit. Lemosho and seven-day Machame are better for that by a clear margin.
And it does not suit anyone who wants the mountain to keep changing under them. Rongai and Machame show you far more.
You are woken at Kibo Hut around eleven at night and start walking by midnight. The path climbs scree in long switchbacks and there is nothing to look at in the dark, so it becomes an exercise in putting one boot in front of the other.
Hans Meyer Cave at about 5,150 m is the usual rest stop, roughly halfway up.
Gilman's Point sits on the crater rim at 5,681 m, five to seven hours above the hut. Your certificate records a summit if you reach it, and a good number of people stop there.
Uhuru Peak is another 214 m of climbing and about ninety minutes further round the rim. In good conditions that walk is not hard in itself. After six hours of scree in the cold, plenty of climbers have nothing left for it.
Then you come down to Kibo, rest, and carry on to Horombo the same day.
January to March and June to October are the dry windows, and Marangu is good in both.
It is also the route we would choose in April, May and November. Rain on Kilimanjaro falls hardest on the southern forest, and every route passes through forest somewhere. On Marangu you finish each wet day in a building with a roof and somewhere to hang a jacket.
June to August brings hard frost on the saddle and cold nights at Kibo, and the huts do nothing to warm you. Take a bag rated well below what the season suggests.
The first three weeks of December are quiet and often fine. Christmas and New Year fill the huts and raise the rates.
Hut space is limited, so peak dates need booking further ahead here than on a camping route.
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.
