We booked this trip as a belated honeymoon and it was above and beyond our expectations!
I really want to commend the whole team that we hiked with, please make sure they know how excellent they all were.
—– Kilimanjaro Hike —–
My husband and I hiked the 8 day Lemosho route and summited on 12/31/24. I truly cannot say enough good things about the team we had. Our guides were Godlisten & Paul and our absolutely amazing team of porters were Ernest, Muzhir, Msami, Fredrick, Japhet, Calvin, Jummanne, Idrissa, Michael, & Peter. The hike was even more enjoyable than we expected it to be and a large part of that reason is because this team was so excellent.
Every time we arrived at camp it was already set up with our spacious tent, the table where we enjoyed tea & meals was ready, and the team happily greeted us every day. Our chef, Michaal, and assistant chef Idrissa cooked us amazing meals 3x a day. We were expecting boring meals but everything we ate was tasty & we were so impressed about the caliber of meals they were able to prepare on the mountain! Our lovely waiter Ernest was also a highlight of our entire trip. He took such good care of us and is really just so sweet, we loved chatting with him every day at camp.
Godlisten & Paul are clearly experienced guides and every evening they discussed with us what time we should plan to leave camp in the morning, based on our pace and what the next day of hiking would entail. Along the daily hikes they checked in often to ensure we took enough breaks and our pace was still good. Often during our breaks they would teach us about the landscape, plants, & animals we were passing. They are both so smart & caring and spending the days chatting and learning with them made the long hiking days fly by. In addition, building a strong sense of trust with them the first 6 days made our summit push feel much safer as we knew we could tell them anything we might need and they would ensure that we had the best chance of summiting while remaining safe. It’s also clear that they have built strong relationships with the full team and everybody respects each other immensely.
The best word I can think of to describe our hiking team is joyful and I’m thankful for every one of them for making this experience one of the best we’ve ever had. We booked this trip as a belated honeymoon and it was above and beyond our expectations.
Lastly some advice for those going on this trip in the future –
1. If you can, we highly recommend getting the private bathroom tent. You will likely be on Diamox which will make you have to pee frequently, and the shared toilets at the camps are pit toilets (no seats, squatting only) and are shared by many people so even when cleaned, they don’t smell great. The small private bathroom tents right next to your tent, with a western toilet seat was a luxury that we were happy to have.
2. They will pack you snacks for every day of the hike but we also brought many snacks we liked from home for the hike. If you do bring snacks, we loved sharing them with the team and they were very appreciative! (someone please bring Paul & Godlisten some more chicken in a biscuit crackers for me!!)
—– Safari —–
Following our hike we went on a 3 day safari. Our safari guide was Calvin and solidified our belief that Kilimanjaro Sunrise has the best staff.
I get very car sick (which is certainly difficult on a 3 day driving excursion) but Calvin made sure to grant me frequent rest stops and was such a good driver that I never once experienced feeling sick, which was a true miracle!
Thanks to Calvin and some well timed rain we were able to see nearly every possible animal much closer than we expected to!
We spent 2 nights while on safari at tented lodges which were even nicer than we expected them to be. Large beautiful beds, excellent dinners, and stunning views made this the perfect end to our trip.
Overall, the 2 weeks that we were in Tanzania were an absolute dream and we are grateful for Kilimanjaro Sunrise for making the trip so easy and for having such lovely staff.
Sydney and Alexander
January 2025