Kilimanjaro: The Trekking Guide to Africa’s Highest Mountain

This is the third edition of the bestselling travel and trekking guide to Kilimanjaro. First published in 2003, this book quickly became the established guide to those wishing to reach the summit of Africa’s highest mountain.

About the Kilimanjaro guide

For this third edition we have improved and updated the book in a number of ways. As a result, this book:

Is the only one with full descriptions of each of the trekking routes up Kilimanjaro by somebody who has climbed all of them.
The only one to include town and city guides to Arusha, Moshi and Marangu, the three towns and villages that will be your base before and after your climb.
The only book with a review of the trekking agencies, both in Tanzania (Arusha, Moshi and Marangu) and those tour operators in the UK/US/Europe/Australia/New Zealand/South Africa. As it is the tour companies and the guides they hire that, more than anything else, will make or break your trip, this is a vital part of the book and should be required reading for anybody before booking a climb. We do not accept sponsorship and our reviews are completely unbiased and based on our dealings with the companies and from readers’ letters and recommendations.
The only book with up-to-date and accurate maps and altitude readings (other books are still using inaccurate and out-of-date maps and altitudes that are widely accepted by tour operators and park officials alike to be inaccurate).
Full run-down of Kilimanjaro’s nature including full-colour flora guide.

We also provide

A thorough health and fitness section to help you stay healthy in East Africa, increase your chances of making it to the top and ensure you make it back down again;
Advice on how to book your trek and what to look out for in the agency’s contract;
Comprehensive pre-departure information including advice on what to take – and what to leave behind!
Details on flights to East Africa;
City guides to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the two cities that you are most likely to fly into, as well as an introduction to the newly-opened Kilimanjaro International Airport;
A thorough practical information section (including visas, currency, budgeting, transport, food etc) on travelling around Tanzania and Kenya;
Advice on how to look after your porters and crew on the trek;
The most comprehensive sections on the history of Kilimanjaro and Tanzania;
A look at the culture of the local Chagga people who inhabit Kilimanjaro’s lower slopes;
Photos and illustrations (from both contemporary and historical sources, including some wonderful pen-and-ink sketches by the first Europeans to see Kilimanjaro, way back in the nineteenth century).
Over thirty maps covering every stage of climbing and descending from the mountain.
A full description of the Mount Meru trek, following recommendations by a number of our readers that this should be included.

. . . everything, indeed, to help you get from the safety of your favourite armchair at home all the way to the very summit of Africa’s highest mountain. And no other guidebook can provide anything like that kind of comprehensive coverage.

In addition, for the third edition the book now has:

We also have worked closely with the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) to highlight the plight of porters and how trekkers can help to alleviate their suffering.
And if that’s not enough, this book is still the cheapest and the most up-to-date available, with all the new park fees and regulations included.

To buy from Amazon.co.uk (British readers):

To buy from Amazon.com (US readers):