TIPPING ON KILIMANJARO

TIPPING GUIDES AND PORTER



Tipping on Kili: how to reward your crew

Should you tip porters and guides on Kilimanjaro?

Like a herd of elephants on the African plains, the subject of tipping on Kilimanjaro is a bit of a grey area. What is certain is that, in addition to the cost of booking your trek, you will also need to shell out tips to your crew at the end of it all.This is a contentious issue. Indeed, the subject of tipping on Kilimanjaro is, perhaps, the one subject that we get more emails and letters about than any other.The gratuity system on Kilimanjaro follows the American-style: that is to say, a tip is not so much a bonus to reward particularly attentive service or honest toil, as a mandatory payment to subsidize the poor wages the porter and guides receive. In other words, tipping is obligatory.To anybody born outside the Americas this compulsory payment of gratuities seems to go against the very spirit of tipping. Nevertheless, it is very hard to begrudge the guides and porters a decent return for their labours – and depriving your entourage of their much-needed gratuities is not the way to voice your protest against this system.Clearly satisfied with the size of their tips, these porters started to dance uncontrollably.

How much money should you give out as tips on Kilimanjaro?

$250-$300 in USD for tipping guides, chefs, and porters at the end of the trek.
You will get to know (and love) the group of 20-25 men who help you to get to the top. They carry your bags, filter your water, set up your tents, clap and sing for you upon return to camp each day — they’re amazing! 


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