Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate and Safaris
KTrek Mate
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2012)
- Member Of:
- TATO, TTB & kilimanjaro national park
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $200 to $550 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
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Reviews
Experience of a Lifetime!
Words can not describe how amazing the team at Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate is. From their leader Nick to all of their guides, exceptional cooks and incredible porters, the entire team is amazing. If you want to summit Kili, do it with these guys. They make the experience worry free and they get you to the top. Amazing attitudes that will make you wish the trip would ever end. Thank you all for the amazing trip.
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Email Daniel | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
A Wonderful andResponsible Company for an Incredible Kili Climb!
Kili Trekking Mate is an exceptional company to hike Kili with! We went on recommendation from friends, and we couldn’t have been more pleased. Firstly, Nick (the owner and founder) used to be a porter, who became a guide, and then started his own company. He knows what’s important, hires extremely qualified staff, and cares about every detail of the trip.
Where to start? Our guides, Good Luck and Ally were attentive - everything from teaching us about the mountain and flora / fauna, to being in tune with how we were feeling. We had some difficulties along the way (due to stomach flu and altitude sickness), but both guides (and our porters) constantly checked in with us and went that extra step to ensure we were comfortable and supported. Our guides felt like family, and even though it was one of the hardest trip of our lives, we were sad when it ended.
Ask anyone around town - Kili Trekking Mate is known to treat their porters well!
The food was great, the gear we rented was like new, and the team were diligent with their medical checks every morning and evening.
We would highly reccomend KTM for your journey on Kilimanjaro - this is responsible tourism at its best, and Nick and his team will surely give you the experience of a lifetime!
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Email Katey | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Perfect Safari Adventure!
We did a four day safari through Tangiere-Serengeti-Ngorogoro and were so pleased with our trip! Our guide from KTM answered all of our questions and helped us not only find the Big 5 and all of the other wonderful animals, but also to find champagne for a special new years toast! He drove safely over the roads and thus avoided the breakdowns that we saw often on the side of the road. We were happy to be so well taken care of! It was an absolutely unforgettable adventure.
We also climbed Kilimanjaro with KTM and would highly recommend their services in this endeavor as well. It is clear that the team works together well and their biggest concern was our happiness and safety. Could not recommend them more!
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Email amir | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Safari + Kilimanjaro Hike
Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate was amazing. I couldn't leave a better review. They were extremely accomodating, I always felt safe and well looked after. They provided everything necessary and we're fully prepared for everything. The guides and porters were friendly and extremely knowledgeable. The food was as good as it can be in the places you are. Loved them!!
Email Oleg | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review of Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate
We came across Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate after comparing reviews for various Kili trekking and safari operators mostly on TripAdvisor. While there are not many reviews available for these guys, they all seemed positive. The decisive factor was our limited budget: with many other positively reviewed companies Kili climbs and safaris can be significantly more expensive.
Price: $1045 per person for a 4-day safari (Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro) plus a $150 tip for the guide + $80 for the cook from the group. $1700 per person for 8 days of Kili trekking via the Lemosho route plus a $300 tip per person to the guide (who then distributes it as appropriate to the trekking crew). Note that these tips are considered mandatory. For a bit extra KTM offers various equipment for rent, which is a good solution if you don't fancy bringing your own sleeping bag or trekking poles to Africa.
Safari: overall an excellent experience, with our guide Shirima being a highly professional and pointing out animals that our untrained eyes would have never noticed on their own. The car was comfortable and had no issues with the tough roads in the national parks. Camping in the parks' vicinity was a lot of fun, especially seeing zebras and hyenas sneaking around at night. Definitely consider adding a safari to your hike, especially if you love seeing exotic animals in the wild and up close.
Kili: once again, an excellent experience. Our crew carried the heavy stuff around (thanks, guys!), leaving us to enjoy the hike with daypacks. The tent was comfortable and spacious, with an integrated mess section. The food was enjoyable for an 8-day hike, and around day 5 we even had fresh goods delivered up, including some absolutely delicious ginger tea. Kudos to the guides, Baraka and Goodluck, for doing a fantastic job of leading us through, especially the hike at summit night (which was tough, but "pole-pole" does the trick). Baraka and Goodluck measured our oxygen levels and pulse each evening as well as our lungs in the morning to make sure we're acclimatizing well. It's important to have medically trained personnel with you on the mountain, we've heard about bad things happening in groups that apparently didn't. Lemosho route is highly recommendable due to its beauty and relative lack of congestion. As the rest of the mountain, it's quite dusty, so bring some gaiters along. KTM does not provide private toilet tents, so be prepared to use the common squat toilets. While not an issue at the lower camps, squeamish people may cringe at those in the higher camps. If you want to hike at a more relaxed pace, have problems with altitude or have never been as high as Kili, we suggest you opt for an extra acclimatization day (Lemosho can be done in either 7 or 8 days).
The company: we found KTM to be very reliable, patiently answering our many questions prior to arrival. We were met at the airport by Nick, the company's director, and transferred to Moshi where we cross-checked our plans and equipment rental list. Nick even threw in a few freebie rental items for the mountain (asante sana!) :) We also found out that evening that our post-Kili flight to Zanzibar by Precision Air had been cancelled. Since we would definitely not have internet and only very sporadic mobile signal, we asked Nick if he could buy us new tickets for the same date while we were away. He was glad to assist and helped us out brilliantly (thanks again, Nick!). Since the new flight schedule introduced some spare time after the climb, he and Baraka offered we go together to some of the local sights. Thanks to them, we had an impromptu and very worthwhile visit to Chagga tribal coffee growing villages and a beautiful waterfall that day.
I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but I consider KTM to be a trustworthy company that can provide you with a fantastic experience in Tanzania without breaking the bank.
Unforgettable Safari experience
We did a 5 day Safari starting from Moshi (Day 1Tarangire, Day 2 en route-Ngorongo-Serengeti, Day 3, 4 Serengeti, Day 5 Ngorongoro and back to Moshi) with Nick's team. Our guide Shirima was one of the best we could have hoped for; knowledgable, experienced, witty and very professional. All the 4 lodges that were organised for us, all differed from each other and provided us with unique experience in each of them. Everything was very well organised, professional, on time. Other than spotting all the big 5, the most memorable experience was driving 300 km in serengeti up north to catch the wilderbeast migration; was spectacular. Overall found them humble in their approach, caring with great attention to details . Excellent service. Highly recommended.
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Email Janis | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great safari & Kilimanjaro trek with Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate
We did a 7-day Machame route Kilimajaro trek and 5-days safari (Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater) with Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate. As we had much time to prepare the trip locally in Moshi (volunteered for 5 weeks there), we spoke to many operators and Nick & his crew stood out. Very professional (great briefings, daily medical checks etc.), very high success rate (we climbed the summit, yeah :), and the whole team of porters, guides and chef were very friendly and fun! Same holds true for safari seeing all big fives, the migration and amazing nature. Highly recommended and really thankful for two amazing experiences!!!
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Email Rebecca | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
wonderful safari experience I'll never forgt
My husband, cousin and I recently booked safari with Kilimanjaro Trekking Mate and can't speak highly enough of our experience. We recommend them very highly. We visited the Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, and also Tarangire national park. We saw an incredible amount of animals (30 lions!). We also got up close and personal with the Maasai tribe, and made memories together we won't soon forget. Our guide, Shirima, was very professional and cared very much to provide us an excellent experience. We had a great time with him. Nick, the organizer, did a great job of setting everything up, and cared a great deal that we had a nice trip. Our hotels and the food were very nice.
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Email Matthieu | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Awesome 5 day safari with Kilimanjaro Trekking mate
Phenomenal five day trip: Tarangire-Serengeti-Ngorogoro. We saw an incredible amount of animals, including lions fighting over a female (it was the mating season) and some animals that are very difficult to spot (like leopards and chetah) thanks to our guide's sharp-eyes. Shareema (that's his name) was super knowledgeable about the animals, their hunting techniques and mating behaviors; he really did an amazing job at finding quiet and amazing spots.
It was a bit of a mission to get there because the roads are so bad but our guide was incredibly careful with his car so we made it through without any incident (unlike many other people that we saw waiting for repairs on the side of the road).