This is the number one question that i received since i got back
from my one month long trip in the beautiful country of Tanzania
so today i will answer this question and i will share with you the budget to climb mount
kilimanjaro the budget for a safari in tanzania and the budget for one week long of a relaxing
vacation in the beautiful island of zanzibar
i do have time stamps on this video so if there is any adventure that you're not interested in you can skip ahead to the next segment so
we'll start with climbing mount kilimanjaro this is the most asked questions how much do i have to
budget for to climb mount kilimanjaro the average cost to climb mount kilimanjaro range from 2 000
us dollars to 6 000 us dollars i know there's a huge gap i know the numbers sound outrageous
but let's start from the beginning and try to understand why these numbers look the way they
do first off if you're not familiar with mount kilimanjaro mount kilimanjaro is the highest peak
in africa one of the seven summits and the highest or the tallest freestanding mountain in the world
which drives a lot of tourism to tanzania and is on the bucket list of a lot of hikers and
adventure travelers from all over the world now you might ask why do i have to pay to climb a
mountain mount kilimanjaro is one of these mountains that you can't climb by yourself
it's no longer possible it is even illegal to attempt to climb mountain without a guide and
without a permit so in order for you to climb mount kilimanjaro and make it to the summit of
mount kulimanjaro you have to go with the tour operator and that is the largest cost that you
will have to pay for to climb the mountain now this cost like i said ranges from two thousand
dollars to six thousand dollars and there are a lot of factors that make up for this price
a lot of people will say i was able to climb the mountain with less than two thousand dollars sure
many people would wait travel to tanzania first go to arusha or moshi and then they negotiate
to take the price down to lower than two thousand dollars but i do not recommend that and i'm going
to explain why so two thousand us dollars to six thousand dollars why there is a huge gap
the main reason is there are two different type of tour operators and i did make a live stream
that you can check up here before i climb mount kilimanjaro so you can refer back to that video to
just hear what we have to say about what things you should be paying attention to to pick a
company to climb the mountain with and then why we chose the company that we choose but usually there
are two type of tour operators to climb mountain majora there are tour operators that are operating
in tanzania and there are other tour operators with admin teams sales teams and operation teams
in a western country so usually these local tour operators not only they have porters and
guys who are local to tanzania which is actually the case for both companies but even their admin
team and sales team they are based in tanzania while the other big names like g adventures can
do adventures kili warriors most of their teams their sales teams their admin teams they are in
western countries like the uk australia and the us and that is one of the reasons why their pricing
is usually higher so a high price doesn't always mean that it's better quality because in the past
we have traveled when we hiked the inca trail in machu picchu we have traveled with a local
company and they had a great service so a western company does not mean a better service because a
lot of local companies to tanzania still have great service but for the company that we chose
we were climbing during the pandemic and there were a lot of uncertainties around a lot of things
we wanted to have better assurances and that is the reason we went with the western company
so when you're going to start your research you will notice that usually local companies will have
lower prices now there is a big important thing that you have to pay attention to and i said
earlier that you don't want to pay less than two thousand dollars the reason being they will be
companies in tanzania who are willing to take you up the mountain for less than two thousand dollars
but your safety might be compromised not only that but usually the lower price means that
they are compromising on how much they are paying their porters on the mountain their guides their
assistant guys and their chefs and the last thing that you want is to get to the top of the mountain
knowing that you took advantage of people who helped you to get there the other thing that you
want to pay attention to when you are choosing a tour operator to climb with is that they are part
of k-pac kilimanjaro porter association program this is a non-profit organization with the program
to enhance the quality of life of porters so usually k-pop make sure that these porters on
the mountain they have the right gear they are not carrying more weight than they are expected
they are being paid fairly from the companies that they are working with and their overall conditions
on the mountain are to a good standard so you want to make sure that the company is part of kpat
and usually when you go to their website or their about me page you will it will states a
lot of companies will state that they are part of kpap program so that is a very important thing to
pay attention to this is not going to be the only cost but it is going to be the biggest chunk of
your cost the amount of money that you are paying to the tour operator but the other thing that you
should be budgeting for is tipping when you are on the mountain there will be a lot of porters
that will help you and support you and carry your supply and provisions to make sure that you have
a successful climb to the summit with our team we were eight people and between the porters
guys assistant guys and chefs on the mountain we were around 30 people so it takes a village
to make it happen you will need a lot of support from these supporters who are doing a tremendous
job on the mountain so for you are expected to pay every single day for the porters on the mountain
the guides assistant guides and chefs you don't have to pay every single day usually the way it
works towards the end of the climb there will be a tip-in ceremony either on the mountain or at the
hotel where they will be dropping you off and then you will be getting together with the team or the
people that you climb the mountain with to split that money and put it in envelopes for guides
assistant guys chefs and porters the company that we climbed with they gave us a document with some
guideline about how much you should be paying these porters on the mountain so you can follow
that guideline and you can pay more than what's suggested by the company the majority of these
guides and porters on the mountain they do rely heavily on tips this is how they make their living
whether they work with local companies or with western companies they're not getting
paid a huge amount of money so the majority of their income is coming from tips so you have
to be considerate and you have to put a lot of thoughts into making sure that you are being fair
and you are paying these porters and these guys on the mountains what they really deserve
make sure that you budget for that and make sure that you sit with yourself you look at the
guideline ahead of time and you plan accordingly on top of how much you're paying the tour operator
for and how much you are budgeting for tipping you will obviously have to plan for your flight to get
to tanzania or to get to kilimanjaro international airport this is going to be variable depending on
where you are flying from and usually the company that you're going to be climbing
the mountain with they would accommodate you the day before the climb and the day after the climb
but it's a good idea to ask and check and make sure that you are going to be covered
otherwise you will have to budget for a day before the climb and the day after the climb
so this is generally speaking the budget to climb mount kilimanjaro you also have to consider gear
that you will need for the mountain whether it's gear that you are renting from the company or
gear that you have to buy for yourself and again this is going to be different from one person to
the other but this is generally the budget that you will have to think about in order to climb
mount kilimanjaro if you have any questions about mount kilimanjaro do let me know in a
comment and i will have a lot of videos coming in the future to talk about the gear that you
will need to climb kilimanjaro with tips for a successful climb on mount kilimanjaro so make
sure that you are subscribed to the channel to get a notification once these videos are out and with
that we move to the next step and talk about the budget for a beautiful safari in tanzania
a trip to tanzania is not complete if you don't go for a safari to at least one or some of the
beautiful national parks in tanzania now what is the average cost for safari in tanzania on average
a tanzania safari costs 200 us dollars per person per day mid-range prices from 350 us dollars per
person per day and a luxury safari price is from 600 us dollars per person per day there are so
many factors that can make this price either a lot more expensive or a lot cheaper starting with how
many days do you want to spend on this safari usually for someone who is going for a safari
for the first time you don't have a lot of time to spare you would go for three four days safari or
even five days during these four days you can see a lot of beautiful national parks usually people
would go for central serengeti national park the senegal national park is a huge national park
the wildlife is so very diverse we spend time in the north serengeti the north serengeti is where
you can see and witness the great will the beast migration when it's the right season and then you
would be able to see the water crossing of the wildebeest just crossing the mara river it is
a wonderful experience but it's a lot further out if you are going for a short safari so instead you
could go and enjoy the central serengeti with that you can also go to gorongoro crater conservation
area you can see lake maniara this is the famous lake where you can see a lot of flamingo
and tarangire national park all of these national parks they have a lot of wildlife you will be able
to see lions you will be able to see giraffes elephants crocodiles and so many more animals
so you don't really have to go and visit every single national park in order for you to see
all of the animals and by the end of the day there is no guarantee that you will see all of
the animals because it's not a zoo it is the wild plains of the serengeti or whatever national park
that you are going to we were hoping that we can see all of the big five the big five are the big
five games that you want to see when you are going for safari for the first time and that includes
lion leopard buffalo elephant and rhino we saw four of them we were not able to see the rhino
because the population of rhino is reducing year after year and we were told that we'll probably
have higher chances to see a rhino in gorongoro crater but we didn't see it and then the second
thing that will determine how much money you will be spending on this safari is the type of safari
you are going for which i did not know before traveling to tanzania apparently there are a lot
of different types of safaris there is the vehicle safaris and even within the category of vehicle
safaris there are different types of vehicles so a vehicle safari is what we went for and that is
usually you sitting in a vehicle with your guide who is also your driver and then they drive you
around from one national park to the other and they usually have an open roof in some national
parks because some national park will allow you to open the roof and some of them won't so you
will have an open roof the majority of the time where you can see the wildlife around you take
pictures and take videos and that is a vehicle type of safari there are other type of vehicles
where the whole vehicle is open again these open vehicles are not load in all of the national parks
and conservation areas but that's a different pricing there are walk-in safaris and usually
with walk-in safaris you can walk outside with a park ranger which with the vehicle safari you are
not allowed to walk outside unless you want to use the bathroom then you go just behind the vehicle
with the walk-in safaris it's a whole different experience and it's a whole different pricing
and then there are hunting safaris for people who are into hunting and tracking animals it's a great
experience i know that i have a lot of people who are passionate about hunting on this youtube
channel so it's something to consider if you are planning a trip to tanzania i know that there are
a lot of rules and regulations when it comes to what animals you can hunt and how many of them
you can hunt i know for example that the maasai giraffe is not an animal that you can hunt in
tanzania at all because it is the national animal of the country but that is a conversation for a
different time the third thing that will determine how much money you're spending on your safari is
accommodation and the type of accommodation that you want to go for there are a lot of people who
join group safaris where you are just joining a group of people random people in the vehicle
and that will make the price a lot more cheaper there are a lot of people who choose their type
of accommodation to be tense where you are kind of backcountry camping it's primitive camping
you are sleeping in a tent and a lot of people enjoy it and it's usually a lot cheaper there are
luxurious lodges and hotels there are bush camps and usually the company that you are going to
to talk to or to choose to go on this safari with they will give you a range of choices to pick from
ranging from the lowest price to the highest price and then based on what you choose from that is
going to make the sum of your pricing towards the end so it's up to you i love how the industry of
safaris in tanzania they can accommodate all type of travelers if you're traveling on a
budget you can still go for a safari if you are a luxurious traveler you can still do that and then
obviously if you are going on a private safari the price is going to be a little bit higher but
that is going to allow you to customize the whole experience you can even add things to your safari
if you are spending an extended amount of time you can say i want to go and see this tribe i
want to go and hang out with this tribe there is a particular thing that i want to learn about or
there are particular cooking classes that i want to go for or something like that i'm just throwing
random examples but if you go with the private safari that is going to open the world for you
to be more flexible and probably experience things that you know are not just open and accessible for
everyone and i will be making a lot of videos in the future to talk about how to prepare for safari
what to wear for a safari what are some of the things that you need to pay attention to
so be sure to subscribe to the channel to get a notification once these videos are
up with that let's move on to talk about the beautiful island of danny zivar
the average price of a seven-day trip to zanzibar is 2386 us dollars for a solo traveler
4 285 us dollars for a couple and 8 000 34 us dollars for a family of four zandy bar hotels
range from 38 us dollars to 217 us dollars per night with an average of 64 us dollars and i
totally agree with these numbers because they are aligned with how much money we spend in zanzibar
now if you choose hotels that are off the beaten path you stay away from stone town you stay away
from nungwi you can find very good deals we ended up staying in kigomani and the hotel was 130 us
dollars per night with direct access to the beach which made our experience a lot more enjoyable but
we ended up paying zero dollars for seven days stay in zanzibar and if it's something that you
want to learn about you can check this video up here in which i talk about how you can travel
for cheap and sometimes for free other than accommodation in zanzibar for seven days
we ended up spending 1 500 us dollars for two people and that included transportation getting
to and from places in the island including a scooter rental we rented a scooter for
two days just to explore the island on our own that also included food sometimes eating
in the hotel sometimes eating outside of the hotel knowing that all of the breakfasts were
included and usually the breakfasts are open until 11am so sometimes we would even snack from there
so that covered a lot of food that we ate in in zanzibar that also included snorkeling it included
a sunset cruise on a sailboat just for the two of us it included a day trip to stone town a tour in
stone town and a trip to prison island as well as tipping all of the people who either helped
us with the tours or helped us get to and from places so 1 500 us dollars for two people seven
days on the beautiful island of zanzibar now there are so many things that you can do in zanzibar if
you add more activities to the list then you will be spending more money but for us we spend the
majority of the time relaxing by the beach or in the pool hanging out at the hotel the hotel was
really nice so we love spending time in the hotel itself so this is the budget for the beautiful
island of zanzibar and that is the full budget for one month of travel in the beautiful country
of tanzania if you guys found this to be useful please give this video a thumbs up subscribe
to our channel for more videos about tanzania safari climbing mount kalimanjaro and a lot more
my name is habiba this is trekking pals and i will see you very soon on a new adventure