Based on a friend's recommendation, myself and 3 others planned a trek with Kilisa Tours for February 2022. We truly worked with a dream team!
They were wonderful to work with from the start. We had to postpone a few times due to the pandemic in 2020, and Kilisa was more than accommodating in working with us to reschedule for one person in the group's 40th birthday to be the date we summit!
In February of 2022 we all flew out to do an 8 day Lemosho route on Kilimanjaro! Kilisa made it super easy by meeting us at the airport and then transporting us to the hotel we were staying at the evening before our trek. We were able to meet our guides for the trip and they were able to review the gear we brought to make sure we had what we needed!
The next morning we set off on our trek. Our guides were patient with our group's varied abilities and helped us all to feel energized and excited for each adventure. We were offered many breaks and got to learn a lot about the flora and fauna we passed as well as about Tanzanian culture.
We were amazed by just how nice everyone was from Kilisa tours. Our porters were incredibly strong and fast, they would break down camp after we had already started hiking, pass us during the hike, and have camp set up for us before we got there!
Our chef and waiter (yes a waiter!) were amazing. At each meal we were fed multi course feasts with a variety of options! One member of our group had dietary restrictions and they were able to accommodate her and make separate portions to meet her needs! We were all full and very happy after each meal. With each meal we also were offered hot water for tea, coffee or coco and they provided all the fixings you could want to go with your meal or drinks.
The accommodations on the mountain were wonderful, we had spacious tents that you could easily sit up in for camping with thick warm sleeping pads. For dinning, they provided a full tent with table chairs and even a tablecloth.
The guides were wonderful in helping our group acclimate appropriately and monitored everyone's health in a respectful, encouraging way, never making anyone feel discouraged no matter how the altitude or weather was affecting them.
We had 2 members of the group that were having some issues with the altitude, and our dream team thought ahead and two porters agreed to assist our group with the summit. The two porters helped carry the gear for the 2 individuals having issues and all the guides and porters helped encourage and lead our team up for the summit push. One member started to feel very lightheaded and the guides were able to help her work through her dizziness, assess if it was wise to continue and then monitored her carefully as we continued up. Thanks to the amazing oversight from the team, all 4 of us made it to the summit!
Even more amazing was that at the summit, for the birthday, the guides pulled out a birthday sign and balloons for her and we all got to take a birthday picture with the summit sign!
Even more amazing was later that evening after we got to our final camp, the chef surprised the birthday girl with a beautiful and delicious birthday cake!
We truly did have a dream team with Bakari leading the way and Omary always ready for a laugh! We could not recommend using Kilisa tours enough, they were wonderful to work with and we all had an amazing time hiking Kilimanjaro with them!
