Evaluating and comparing Mount Kilimanjaro tour companies and climb operators to book with the Best Kilimanjaro tour operator – Topi Adventure!

A Kilimanjaro tour is commonly once in a lifetime trip.
It is a trip on which you spend a heck of a lot of money.
It is a trip into a part of the world that you are likely not familiar with.

And it is a trip that, if organized by irresponsible or incompetent Kilimanjaro tour operators, can quickly become dangerous and even life threatening.

Now, you may think that Kilimanjaro trekking companies would all be responsible and competent.

After all, they have to get approved by the park authorities, right? And all the mountain guides have to be licensed, right? So that would ensure that no matter who you go with, at least you would be safe, right?

Think again!

There are several hundred operators who offer Kilimanjaro tours. I would trust only a small fraction of them with my life and money.

Tanzania is a typical African country and regulation exists only on paper. There are a million loopholes and evasion strategies. The people supposed to enforce the regulations are poor. A budget Kilimanjaro tour operator can bribe his way out of any requirements that would cost him too much money to keep his rock bottom prices.

Safety may be the most dramatic issue, but it’s not the only one.

The best Kilimanjaro climb operators not only have the best safety record, they also have the best client success rates.

Your chances to reach the summit depend on your operator more than on anything else. Yes, your operator is more important than your fitness level!

I talked to long time Kilimanjaro mountain guides about success rates, to investigate how the “official” numbers compare to their real life experience. They would not give me a number or estimate, because in their experience the success rate totally depends on the tour operator.

And last but not least, there is the issue of the Kilimanjaro porters. How they are treated does not necessarily affect your safety or success rate. But is that a reason to support the blatant exploitation of the people who make it possible for you to climb Kilimanjaro in the first place?

If you haven’t done so already, you may want to read the pages about the cost of climbing Kilimanjaro and the page about the Kilimanjaro porters.