Meals on Kilimanjaro – nutrition is important for summit success!

Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro is a massive challenge, so you need to fuel your legs properly if you aim to succeed. Nobody makes it to Uhuru Peak – the mountain’s summit – on just peanut butter sandwiches!

We know that nourishing and tasty meals can make all the difference on your climb, both mentally and physically, even emotionally. For this reason, the food we feed our Kilimanjaro clients is a top priority at Follow Alice. We want to feed you the food your body needs so that you're excited about every meal and energised afterwards to keep on climbing!

The Follow Alice dining tent often offers an epic view!

Food and water, while always vital, are especially important to your body when at high altitude.

In fact, did you know that water can help to alleviate the symptoms of altitude sickness?

Altitude sickness is an illness that affects many people when they ascend above 3,000 m above sea level. Given that you climb up to 5,895 m above sea level on Mt Kilimanjaro, there's a good chance you could develop altitude sickness. But this isn't a real worry provided it's only mild altitude sickness, also known as acute mountain sickness (AMS).

It's quite normal to lose one's appetite a little at higher elevations. In fact, did you know that high altitude increases your metabolism while suppressing your appetite? This means at mealtimes high up on the mountain you should eat more than you feel you inclined. It's important to eat enough to have enough energy for the demanding climb.

Our client Jack took this snap of some his mountain crew enjoying their dinner 🙂

Every Kilimanjaro tour operator has a cook and cook's assistant as part of the mountain crew climbing the mountain with you. These guys are highly trained cooks who know how to prepare tasty as well as nutritious meals.

Our client Eva took this snap of the mess tent

Naturally every tour operator develops their own unique meal plan. That said, every reputable operator does, however, provide three solid meals, as well as snacks and hot drinks. Here is a run down of the meals on Kilimanjaro provided by Follow Alice ...

Every morning on a Follow Alice Kilimanjaro climb starts with a hot breakfast in the mess tent. This consists of:

You can also, of course, expect hot drinks like tea, coffee and hot chocolate to be in plentiful supply. (But as discussed in Advice for women climbing Kilimanjaro, you might want to drink these early to try fit in a visit to the toilet tent before starting the day's hiking.)

Don't be shy at breakfast – you need plenty of fuel to scale the highest mountain in Africa!

Fresh, chopped fruit

On the days when there's a hot lunch (which is most days), the mountain crew needs time to set things up. To allow for this, you're served hot drinks and a snack (like biscuits) to keep you happy till the food is ready.

Like most other operators, we provide two kinds of lunches on our Kilimanjaro climbs, depending on the day. Specifically, lunch on the first day is a packed lunch. This is done so that you can sit and enjoy your food when you arrive at the gate to Kilimanjaro National Park. Meanwhile, your mountain crew deals with the necessary paperwork and prepares everything for porterage.

On the Lemosho route you stop at Lava Tower for lunch

On most days, however, you can expect a hot lunch. This is managed by having the porters and cooks hike on ahead of you (yes, they're crazy fit!) to set things up at the designated lunch stop. That way you arrive, drop into place, and are served a revitalising meal!

So what can you expect from your packed and hot lunches?

An example of a Follow Alice packed lunch is a recyclable box containing:

An example of a packed lunch

On most days of your Kilimanjaro climb you can expect a cooked lunch. As the photos below show, at Follow Alice this sometimes entails soup, toast, salad, pancake, toppings. On another day it might equal toasted cheese sarmies, flapjacks, cucumber slices and fresh fruit. And on yet another it might mean sausages, toast, savoury pancakes, fritters and papaya.

Lunch on the mountain, which here includes soup, toast, salad and pancakes

Anyone for soup?

Eat up, as there's still plenty of climbing to do!

When you arrive at camp for the night, it's still going to be a little while till dinner. The porters still need to set up camp and the cook needs time to prepare and cook the food. For this reason, a pre-dinner snack is in order. This often consists of hot drinks, popcorn and biscuits. Just something to tide you over till the main repast!

Pre-dinner huddle around popcorn and hot drinks!

Dinner is a really great meal. We crowd together in the warmth of the dining room tent for talk about the adventures of the day, who is more hungry than everyone else, and who is looking forward to their sleeping bag the most! It's a wonderful time, full of the laughter and camaraderie that comes after a really hard day's climb.

As shown in the photos below, dinner is always a hearty, cooked affair. Every dinner is different, but there's always plenty of it, and it's always nutritious and aims to fill up the tank. One night there might be spaghetti with a tasty topping of chicken and vegetables. Another night might see juicy beef, potatoes, boiled eggs, and spinach-stuffed avocados. And yet another might see you presented with stew, chips, veggies and a fresh avocado slice.

A yummy full dinner plate of fat potato chips, fresh avocado, cooked spinach and beef stew

Hard-boiled eggs, fresh tomatoes slices and boiled, herbed baby potatoes make up part of this hearty dinner spread

Nobody wants to be eating a meal of canned food on their Kilimanjaro climb. It's important that you have the taste and nutrition of fresh meat, fruit and vegetables throughout your climb. But some of you clever souls might be wondering how we can promise quality, fresh produce for your meals on a climb that lasts around a week, often longer? The answer isn't food parcels airdropped onto the summit and stored in the ice. The answer is, instead, resupply runners.

Usually once per climb a few über fit porters do a resupply run to bring us fresh produce. On the Lemosho route, for instance, runners bring fresh produce to Karanga Camp. Depending if you opted for the seven- or eight-day itinerary, this is where we overnight on Day 5 or 6 of the climb.

Yes, we do!

At Follow Alice, we collect trekkers' dietary info before the climb and pass it on to the team on the ground. They're then equipped with all the necessary details for their pre-climb grocery shop. The diets that we're most confident to cater for are vegetarians and gluten-free diets.

If you have Coeliac disease, please speak to us before booking your climb so we can chat through things with you. And while we're working on our vegan offering, please consider packing some protein-rich snacks and supplements just to ensure you're getting the protein you need.

Snap by our client Eva of her group in the mess tent at Barafu Camp

As mentioned above, you're provided with plenty of food, including snacks, by your tour operator on the trek. So you should never be hungry during your climb. That said, bringing along some of your own, favourite snacks is still definitely a good idea. These can be a fantastic resource should your energy level or mental resolve start flagging – a taste of home could give you just the boost you need!

You don't need more than one or two snacks per day. One average-sized snack bar and a couple of sucking sweets, for instance, should be sufficient for one day. The higher the altitude, the greater the chance of you experiencing some mild symptoms of altitude sickness, which include nausea and loss of appetite. If you're eating your fair share at mealtimes, you really won't want more than one or possibly two snacks during the climb.

You might like to read The 7 snacks every trekker should pack.

Here are some snack ideas:

If you're planning to bring bitty snacks, like individually wrapped sweets, you might like to place the snacks for each day in a separate little baggie to make things simpler for you the trail, and ensure you don't run out. Just a thought. (And also please note that Tanzania doesn't permit single-use plastic carrier bags to be brought into the country. But resealable, reusable bags like Ziploc bags are allowed.) Electrolyte sachets could be also added to water in the evening to help you recover from the day's trek.

Some snacky inspiration!

You might also like to pack the following drinks sachets or bags:

The reason we suggest the flavour infusion sachets is that the water on the mountain is purified using water tablets. These can make the water taste a little different or funky to some palates. The flavour sachets can mask the taste should you not like it.

Speaking of the evenings, bring along your favourite herbal tea or other drink of choice if you think it'll be a comfort to you. Your tour operator will offer the usual suspects like tea, coffee, hot chocolate and maybe Milo or a similar malt drink. But you know what evening drink best suits you.

We don't recommend you bring any snacks that crumble or melt too easily. The snacks, remember, will be bouncing about in our daypack. And while melting isn't an issue higher up on the mountain, where things are very cold, it can get steamy during the hike through the rainforest sea the mountain's base. You don't want to wind up with a sticky mess in your backpack.

We also don't recommend bringing the same snacks for every day. Variety is important, especially if your appetite is affected by the altitude. You may find one snack becomes unappealing, and so it'd be unfortunate for that to be all you have to turn to when wanting some extra energy.

Note that you should also avoid the following sorts of snacks:

Be sure to also bring some snacks to share. It’s really nice to whip out a pack of sweets or biscuits to share with your teammates and mountain crew. Perhaps you have a favourite treat that's specific to your country that you'd enjoy introducing to the others on the climb?

It can be really nice during a rest to offer around a snack you've brought from your home country

It’s very important that your mountain crew – which consists of your guides, cooks and porters – is eating enough nutritious food during the climb.

Some budget tour companies try to keep costs low by cutting down on the food provided to the mountain crew. In fact, sometimes these teams only get one or two meals a day. Unacceptable!! Mountain crews work extremely hard and should never have to go hungry.

The mountain crew are the backbone of every Kilimanjaro climb

If you're considering a Kilimanjaro tour operator who is able to offer an extremely low rate, investigate how they're able to offer such a low price. Often the answer is that the mountain crew is being short-changed, from inadequate pay and training to insufficient food during the climb.

On a Kilimanjaro climb, the mountain crew regularly collects water from streams that they purify for everyone to be able to drink. They use water purifying tablets, which can give the water a slightly different taste. This is why we suggested above that you might like to bring along water infusions should you decide you don't like the taste of the purified water. Some trekkers prefer to re-purify their own water, which is fine, but it isn't really necessary.

Drinking enough water is an essential part of your Kilimanjaro climb. You should drink at least three litres of water per day during the climb. Again, if the flavour infusions make drinking that quantity of water easier for you, go for it!

Note that you must carry your own drinking water for each day's trek. For this reason, we advise that you come prepared with two water containers:

Staying hydrated is key while hiking, especially at high altitude

By carrying two water bottles, you can place them on either side of your daypack to prevent a lopsided bag. You also want a water bottle and not just a water bladder as the bladder can freeze over on summit day, leaving you parched in a world of ice. A bottle can be placed in a sock, near to your body, to keep the water from freezing.

You can also place the bottle upside down, which helps too – do you know why? No? Well, we discuss this neat little trick in our Kilimanjaro packing list. 😉

Let us introduce you to Raja, one of our excellent Follow Alice cooks!

Raja is a highly trained and experienced Kilimanjaro cook. He knows exactly what needs to be done for a tasty and wholesome meal to be whipped up on the side of Africa's tallest mountain!

Say hello to Raja, one of our fab FA cooks!

Farewell lunch with the people you've bonded with for life!