MT. KILIMANJARO TIPPING GUIDE

What Do I Need To Know About Tipping Kilimanjaro?

Tipping is a very cultural thing on Kilimanjaro. The tradition of tipping has evolved over the last two decades to its current state. As a company, we don’t get involved in the tipping process. We can only give you our guidelines on what the crew is expecting. Tips are given directly by you to the crew.

In our own experience, once a company assumes the role of distributing tips, trust & transparency is lost. Most of the times, tour operators are accused of charging higher tips from their clients and paying the crew a lower amount. Although larger tips are always appreciated by our staff, they will be extremely grateful if you follow the guidelines for tipping given below and also recommended by KPAP (Kilimanjaro’s Porter Assistance Program).

The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) is a legally registered non-profit organisation supporting the fair and ethical treatment of Kilimanjaro porters, cooks, and mountain guides. We adhere to porter treatment guidelines and encourage our guests to follow KPAP tipping recommendations.

Mt. Kilimanjaro Crew Members for various group size:

To calculate tips, it’s important to understand how large your support team is going to be.
Below we have listed the crew size from Group of 1 to 10 people

Group of 1 person – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Cook, 3 or 4 Porters
Group of 2 people – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Assistant Guide, 1 Cook, 6 Porters
Group of 3 people – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Assistant Guide, 1 Cook, 9 Porters
Group of 4 people – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Assistant Guides, 1 Cook and 12 Porters
Group of 5 people – 1 Senior Guide, 2 Assistant Guides, 1 Cook and 15 Porters
Group of 6 people – 1 Senior Guide, 2 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks, Toilet crew 1 and 18 Porters
Group of 7 people – 1 Senior Guide, 2 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks, Toilet crew 1 and 21 Porters
Group of 8 people – 1 Senior Guide, 3 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks, Toilet crew 2 and 24 Porters
Group of 9 people – 1 Senior Guide, 3 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks, Toilet crew 2 and 27 Porters
Group of 10 people – 1 Senior Guide, 3 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks, Toilet crew 2 and 30 Porter

Mt. Kilimanjaro Recommended Tips per role

Senior guide: $20 – 25 per day

Assistant guide: $18 per day

Cook: $15 – 20 per day

Waiter: $12 per day

Porter: $10 per day

Summit Porter: $12 per day

Toilet Crew: $10 – 12 per day

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