Must I tip my Kilimanjaro crew? And how much?

As the word itself suggests, tipping on Kilimanjaro is not compulsory. But we've never met anyone who's climbed Kilimanjaro and then not wanted to tip their mountain crew! This is because they invariably work so hard and trekkers feel such gratitude that they're glad to be able to give tips to express this. So your tips are a key way of acknowledging and thanking your crew for all of their hard work in helping you to safely climb the mountain.

Gratitude aside, tipping is also a well-established practice on Kilimanjaro, and as such tips are expected.

In fact, the Kilimanjaro crew rely on climbers' tips to subsidise their salaries.

While we pay them the minimum wage stipulated by the Government, their salaries are, in fact, inadequate on their own to provide them with a liveable wage.

One of the reasons why Kilimanjaro tour operators don't increase crew members' salaries and do away with the tipping ceremony is that many crew members – and the porters especially – are in favour of the tipping custom. This is because the tipping system allows them to earn a liveable wage while staying below the tax threshold.

Another reason the mountain crew prefer the tipping system is that a set wage isn't as motivating as a rewards-based one. Mountain crews who work hard and deliver a really good service enjoy the prospect of earning bigger tips.

Finally, the tipping system is advocated by the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP), an NPO that advocates for the fair treatment of porters.

So tips are really very important to Kilimanjaro mountain crews. And for the above three reasons, we really encourage our clients to budget money for the tipping ceremony.

We love this photo showing how quickly you become friends with your mountain crew on a Kili climb!

Every single Kilimanjaro climb group is accompanied by a mountain crew. This crew consists of:

These men and women are incredibly hardworking individuals who are specially trained to support you throughout the climb. Their support extends to the logistical, practical, emotional, medical, and more. Whatever is needed, they're there to help!

The majority of the Kilimanjaro guides and porters are local Tanzanian men (and a few women) between the ages of 18 and 40. Most Kilimanjaro porters are not employed on a permanent basis. Instead, they freelance for different companies.

For many, their work on Kilimanjaro climbs is their main source of income and how they survive. This is another reason why tipping on Kilimanjaro is so vital to the welfare of your support staff.

Three of our awesome team celebrating a climber's trek with her

The size of your Kilimanjaro crew depends on how many climbers are in your group. The more people in a group, the more porters and guides that are required.

Kilimanjaro climbing groups generally vary from two to 20 people. That said, at Follow Alice we've taken solo climbers up the mountain on occasion. And we cap our groups at 12, though other operators do take larger groups.

To give you a sense of numbers, a group of four climbers, for example, would have a mountain crew of around 21 people. A group of 12 climbers, on the other hand, would need a much larger mountain crew of around 57 people.

Kilimanjaro porters work unbelievably hard on the mountain

The table below shows the number of people in a Follow Alice mountain crew per group size.

So we've mentioned that a Kilimanjaro mountain crew consists of guides, assistant guides, porters, helper porters, and a cook. Below we explain their different duties and how many of each are needed per climb group.

Lead guide

Assistant guides

Cook

Porters

Helping porters

If you're wondering why each trekker needs three porters, you won't be the first! The reason for this is that everything you need for your six to nine days on the mountain must be carried there and back. We're talking:

* You might be interested to learn more about the toilet situation in our blog Toilets on Kilimanjaro.

As you can see above, the porters have an awful lot of stuff to carry! And each Kilimanjaro porter is only allowed to carry a maximum of 20 kg (44 lb), excluding their own personal gear.

Porters carry the bulk of your belongings, so you only need to carry a daypack

Some Kilimanjaro trekking companies – what we refer to as 'budget operators' – use smaller mountain crews to lower their costs. In this way they're able to offer a much cheaper Kilimanjaro climb. However, these companies overload and overwork their staff.

Every single porter and guide is an essential part of the team. They all work hard to ensure your Kilimanjaro climb is enjoyable and, above all else, safe.

Please ask any Kilimanjaro climb company that you're researching how they determine the size of their mountain crew. You don't want to travel with a company that compromises the well-being of its mountain crew and (by extension) its climbers.

The easiest way of finding a tour operator that you know treats porters well is by looking for company that's an acknowledged partner of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP).

KPAP is an NPO that helps to improve the working conditions of porters by:  

Follow Alice is an approved partner company of KPAP. By climbing with us you can rest assured that your porters are being treated and paid properly. 😀 

Follow Alice is an approved partner company of KPAP

No. As per Tanzanian law, it's illegal to climb Kilimanjaro without a mountain crew.

Climbing Kilimanjaro is a challenge and a serious commitment. You need an experienced team of support staff with you in order to have a safe and enjoyable trip.

Read: Can you climb Kilimanjaro without a guide? to see why you WANT a trek guide when climbing Kilimanjaro.

It can be tricky to work the exact amount to set aside for tipping early on in the planning phase, as you don't yet know how many climbers will be in your group, and therefore how large your mountain crew will be.

But closer to the climb, when the size of your climbing group is set, you can use the tables below to work out exactly how much to bring.

But first, we just want to show you how much is recommended per type of mountain crew member. Mountain crews have a hierarchical structure based on experience and duties, and it's important to divvy up tips accordingly.

So, in keeping with industry recommendations for tipping, we suggest that as a group you tip each type of Kilimanjaro crew member the following daily amount:

* These tip amounts are our recommendations based on industry standards as of January 2023.

Please ask your lead guide to indicate who is a helping porter and who is a porter. If you have a large mountain crew, it might just be about asking the number of helping porters and the number of porters, as you might not get to meet each one individually.

Staff taking a rest on Kilimanjaro

Most Kilimanjaro climbs are six to nine days. Given that crew members should be tipped on a daily basis, the longer your climb, the more you'll tip. The tables below provide overall tips per climber for different route durations.

The top row indicates the number of climbers in your climb group. Please scroll right for the complete table.

The top row indicates the number of climbers in your climb group. Please scroll right for the complete table.

The top row indicates the number of climbers in your climb group. Please scroll right for the complete table.

If the tip amount above seems a large amount at first blush, remember that you’ll be dividing it between your whole mountain crew.

Also, don’t underestimate how important these folks are to your climb – they work so hard, smile while doing it, encourage you when you’re feeling tired and demotivated, and much more. We’re pretty confident you’ll want to thank them with every penny you have on you. 

The amount you tip is, of course, premised on receiving good service. This is one of the reasons for having tips: the mountain crew are motivated to work hard to earn good tips.

If you decide you aren't happy with the service, by all means tip less than the recommended daily amounts. If the service is good, please tip somewhere within the recommended amount. If the service is truly exceptional, you might consider tipping the maximum amount indicated in the above tables.

Please also note that while tipping above the high-end recommendation may be tempting when you've had super service and just enjoyed your mountain crew so much, it's not actually advisable. We say this because overtipping can lead to crews starting to depend on unsustainable tips.

So if you loved your mountain crew's service, please tip each crew member the highest recommended daily amount for their job type. When multiplied by the number of days you were on the mountain, the amount adds up and they'll appreciate that you're tipping them generously.

The porters set up and strike camp for you, allowing you to spend your camp time recovering from the climb

The suggested tip amounts above are for climbers travelling with companies who pay their mountain crew the industry-recommended minimum salary. Porters, for instance, should be paid around 20,000 TSh (US$9) per day by their employer. If they receive an additional $6 per day from the climbers as tip, then they've achieved the minimum liveable wage of $15 per day.

Some budget tour operators are able to offer clients a lower climb price by not paying their staff properly. As you can see in the infographic below, you should be suspicious of any Kilimanjaro tour operator offering a climb fee below $1,900. We suggest that you ask them how much they pay their mountain crew. You don't want to climb Kilimanjaro with a company that exploits its staff!

Kilimanjaro tipping can be done in US dollars or Tanzanian shillings (TSh). Other currencies aren't helpful to the crew.

We suggest withdrawing enough dollars before you travel to Tanzania, or drawing the necessary cash at the airport. Once you head to Kilimanjaro for your climb, you won't have an opportunity to get your hands on cash.

Please note that it's very important that US bills are new (post 2013), crisp, and untorn. Otherwise they won’t be accepted by the local banks. 

It's very helpful to bring an assortment of notes for tipping on Kilimanjaro. In this way the climb group's appointed spokesperson can divide the cash into the appropriate portions for each member of the mountain crew. This is the ideal, as discussed more in just a moment.

Climbers give tips to the mountain crew during the tipping ceremony at the end of a climb. To learn more, please read What is a Kilimanjaro tipping ceremony?