Kilimanjaro Shira Route climb
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travelers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are traveling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travelers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.
How this vacation makes a difference
Environment
Of the 30,000 trekkers on Kilimanjaro each year, only 5% use the wonderfully remote Shira route. By choosing this route not only will you avoid the crowds on the busy Machame and Marangu routes but also help to limit the over exhaustion of the mountain's natural resources.
On Kilimanjaro, like any other mountain, we do not believe in taking shortcuts. On our Kilimanjaro Shira Route climb you will find an extra day trekking which is 2 days more than a standard climb so your ability to maximise your acclimatisation and increase your enjoyment of the wild scenery on this remote path to the summit.
Without compromise, all cooking is on kerosene stoves rather than wood fires and all rubbish is carried off the mountain. Unfortunately it is possible to cut corners on Kilimanjaro by rushing the time spent on the ascent to save on expensive park fees and porter fees. It is our careful attention to the treatment of our local staff that makes us stand out from other tour operators. We pay one of the highest salaries in full immediately on exit from the National Park and ensure that they are well supplied with food, fuel and tents.
The natural landscapes we explore are some of the richest, often most challenging, yet at the same time some of the most fragile environments on earth. With education, experienced leadership and appropriate equipment and techniques, it is possible to travel responsibly through these regions. For us, it is critically important that such wilderness travel experiences do not diminish the natural values of the environment.
Our environmental sustainable principles: True sustainability is a guiding aspect in all aspects of our business planning and operations. Specifically our tour operations should be managed in a way where the natural and cultural values of the host region are undiminished in the long-term.
Where possible, we engage in partnerships with local environmental groups and/or land managers to actively campaign for conservation or promote environmental protection and/or rehabilitation.
Our Responsible Travel Guidebook: Our philosophy since 1975 has been to leave only footprints and take only photographs. To reiterate this, every customer who travels with us receives a copy of our award-winning Responsible Travel guidebook. This detailed book outlines our environmentally sustainable principles, and outlines how each customer can minimize their impact while traveling.
Global Warming and Carbon Balancing: The root cause of Global Warming is society's dependence on emission creating fossil fuel. Planting trees is not going to reverse this trend or cancel our carbon emissions very quickly or effectively. We believe the way to reduce these dependencies is to create clean energy production. Therefore, we support renewable energy projects like wind and solar power, and we are aligned with Climate Friendly, the gold standard setter in effective, meaningful action addressing climate change. So, while we believe that tree planting can play a small role in greenhouse gas abatement, we have gone the extra mile in promoting a longer term solution. Is this cheap? No. Is it responsible? Absolutely!
Community
Our responsible travel principles: Our company aims to maximise the positive benefits of tourism for host communities. This includes training and employment of local staff, using local suppliers and assisting in the development of sustainable local businesses.
We actively minimise the negative effects that tourism can have by ensuring that tourism does not divert resources away from local communities or drive up prices on local resources.
We provide opportunities for real cultural exchange, where locals and visitors alike can share and learn from each other in an environment of mutual respect.
We contribute to the welfare of the host community. This is epitomised in our Community Project Travel program where we organise for our travelers to spend time in disadvantaged villages upgrading basic facilities such as health, education and water access.
We strive to educate our travelers about the destination and its local cultures as well as providing guidelines on appropriate behaviour to minimise impact.
No local payments policy: Local cash payments are becoming increasingly popular with many operators in the adventure travel industry. This policy seems to benefit the tour operators more than the local economies or the travelers, as it avoids local taxes and transfers the costs and risks of cash handling onto the travelers. In accordance with our Responsible Travel practices, we have chosen a policy of not asking for such payments.
Listen to the podcast below:
Just got back from Mt. Kilimanjaro with my son (we both made it to the peak) and the experience exceeded my expectations in every regard. It was better than I had hoped for and I want to thank you very much for all the assistance, hand holding, and help before the trip. 
The most memorable part of the climb was probably the feeling of accomplishment when reaching the peak. I felt like I could accomplish anything in life now that I had made this trek successfully. 
The local people definitely benefitted. This is a third world country and the people are very poor by our standards. The money the porters and guides make, and the tips (be generous!) are a very good living compared to many of the alternatives they might otherwise face. I chose this operator and Responsible Travel precisely for the reason of the environment and the way they look at things. "Leave only footprints and Take only pictures" is more than a slogan. We not only picked up after ourselves, but we picked up other trash that we saw along the way - and there was surprisingly little - in general it is a very clean mountain.
