Tipping Guide for Kilimanjaro Crew
Tipping Guide for Kilimanjaro Crew
At Bush Lion Tours, we value the hard work and dedication of our Kilimanjaro climbing crew. When you embark on your Kilimanjaro adventure, you will be supported by a team of porters, guides, and cooks who ensure your safety, comfort, and success throughout the journey. One of the important aspects of your climb is showing appreciation for their efforts through tipping. This guide will help you understand how tipping works and how much to give to each member of the crew.
Why Tipping is Important
Tipping is a way of showing gratitude for the incredible support your crew provides during your climb. The crew members work tirelessly to ensure your comfort and safety, from setting up your tents to preparing meals and guiding you along the challenging trails. A tip is an important part of their income and helps them support their families.
Can I prepay the tips?
Unfortunately this is not possible at the moment.
Even if it were possible, please note that around 50% of what you pay might be deducted from what crew receives because of various taxes and costs associated, if the tour operators are involved in the process. So we prefer not to get involved in the tipping process.
Can I leave the tips with the briefing manager while I complete the trek?
Yes, you can hand over all of your tipping cash to the briefing manager before the start of your trek. A receipt will be issued for the amount you’ve handed over. After completing the trek and while providing feedback, you can return the receipt to collect your funds. Once you have the cash back, you are free to distribute the tip to the crew based on what you feel is appropriate for the service provided.
Please note: We recommend keeping the funds with the briefing manager because, as per the park guidelines, trekkers are not allowed to carry more than USD 200 in cash on them, while on the mountain. This helps ensure you comply with the regulations while still allowing you to manage your tipping.
Should I tip even if I didn't reach the summit?
The crew dates are blocked for your entire planned trek when you start the trek so we suggest you to plan for tips accordingly. Often the reason for clients failing to summit is AMS which is not related to quality of service delivered by crew. The decision on how much should you tip on Kilimanjaro should not depend on whether you have reached the summit or not but how well the Kilimanjaro guides and crew served you.
But in case you feel you haven’t received good service from our crew, we don’t want you to feel obliged to follow the tipping guidelines and can tip whatever you think is fair. But do share the feedback with us in such cases so we understand what went wrong and can prepare ourselves better for future.
Can I tip higher or lower than the suggested amount?
If you think the service was exceptional, we suggest you to tip upto the maximum amount indicated in the guidelines. We generally advice not to tip significantly above the higher end of recommended guideline because over tipping can lead to crews starting to depend on unsustainable tips and having unrealistic tipping expectations in their future tours.
If you think the service was good, we suggest you to tip as per guidelines.
Lastly if you think the service did not meet your expectations, please feel free to tip whatever you think was fair for the service delivered by your crew. Kindly share detailed feedback on where the crew failed to meet your expectations so we can analyse and work on addressing the shortcomings.
Our tipping guidelines
Although larger tips are always appreciated by our staff, they will be extremely grateful if you follow the guidelines for tipping given below. These amounts given below are for the whole group. For e.g, the whole group tips USD 15 to the cook per day. So these costs will be divided amongst the whole group.
- Senior guide : $20 – $25 per day from the whole group
- Assistant guide : $15 – $20 per day from the whole group
- Cook : $10 – $15 per day from the whole group
- Waiter : $8 – $12 per day from the whole group
- Porter : $7 – $10 per day from the whole group
- Summit porter : $10 – $15 per day from the whole group
- Toilet crew : $8 – $12 per day from the whole group
Crew for various group sizes
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.
- Group of 1 – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Cook, 3 or 4 Porters
- Group of 2 – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Assistant Guide, 1 Cook, 8 Porters
- Group of 3 – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Assistant Guide, 1 Cook, 9 Porters
- Group of 4 – 1 Senior Guide, 1 Assistant Guide, 1 Cook and 12 Porters
- Group of 5 – 1 Senior Guide, 2 Assistant Guides, 1 Cook and 15 Porters
- Group of 6 – 1 Senior Guide, 2 Assistant Guides, 1 Cooks and 19 Porters
- Group of 7 – 1 Senior Guide, 2 Assistant Guides, 1 Cooks and 22 Porters
- Group of 8 – 1 Senior Guide, 3 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks and 24 Porters
- Group of 9 – 1 Senior Guide, 3 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks and 27 Porters
- Group of 10 – 1 Senior Guide, 3 Assistant Guides, 2 Cooks and 30 Porters
How to give tips to the crew?
The best way would be to collect the tips from the whole group, and then divide it amongst the whole crew. Tips can be placed in individual envelopes and the climbers can hand them directly to each crew member. You can also prepare two envelopes. One for the guide, assistant guides and cooks. You can hand this envelope to the lead guide. The other envelope is for the porters. You can hand this over to the porters representative.
When to Give the Tip
It’s best to give your tip at the end of your climb when you are completing the trek. This is when you will have a chance to personally thank each crew member. You can give your tip in cash, and it’s a good idea to have small denominations of US dollars for easier distribution.
Expected tip amounts per client for some common routes and group sizes.
| Route | Group of 1 | Group of 2 | Group of 3 | Group of 4 | Group of 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Days Marangu | $260 - $350 | $208 - $300 | $159 - $250 | $141 - $225 | $144 - $230 |
| 6 Days Marangu | $312 - $420 | $249 - $360 | $190 - $300 | $170 - $270 | $173 - $276 |
| 6 Days Machame | $312 - $420 | $249 - $360 | $190 - $300 | $170 - $270 | $173 - $276 |
| 7 Days Machame | $364 - $490 | $291 - $420 | $222 - $350 | $198 - $315 | $202 - $322 |
| 7 Days Lemosho | $364 - $490 | $291 - $420 | $222 - $350 | $198 - $315 | $202 - $322 |
| 8 Days Lemosho | $416 - $560 | $322 - $480 | $253 - $400 | $226 - $360 | $231 - $368 |
