Tipping Your Crew – Another Lesson on Tipping on Kilimanjaro

It always seems like people are more worried about tipping on the mountain, than actually the experience of climbing Mount Klimanjaro. Let’s not worry about our gear, or the weather, or our tents, but let’s worry about how much to tip. I think it’s just an American concern.

Since I have covered this question on another tipping post, I thought I would remind everyone how much you can spend on a tip – the total amount with everyone included.

Take into consideration that an average group of two people climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro would probably have around 8 more people. You would probably have about 5 porters, a guide, and an assistant guide. This is assuming you are going with a good company that has tents, chairs, tables, etc. This isn’t for a budget company.

If you calculate this out on a seven day Machame climb for two people, a tip could look like this
$35 per porter multiplied by 5 porters =$245
$70 for the assistant guide multiplied by one guide = $70
$100+ for the guide = $100

If you calculate this out, you are looking at $415. Of course, this would be divided by two people so it would be around $200 each.

Still $200 is another $200 and adds up. Don’t ask me about the time I add 70 porters for 30 people. Our tip was close to $4500.