Tipping on Kilimanjaro

How much to tip

Tipping is a universal custom on Kilimanjaro, and on safari, and it has always been a large part of a guide’s or porter’s income. It is said that some local operators pay their crews no wages at all, leaving them to live on tips.

We don’t pay the very highest daily wages on the mountain: doing so would raise our prices, fewer climbers would come, and each of our crew would end up with less work and a smaller annual income, which they would not welcome. But we believe our daily wages are among the top 10% or so, and that our top guides and their core crews probably earn the highest average annual incomes on Kilimanjaro.

A tip is a gift, so rather than set an amount, we tell you what our climbers actually give. On our Superlite, Lite, Advantage and Excel series, that is usually 10 to 15% of the climb price; on our two VIP series, 15 to 20%, because the crew is so much larger. Smaller groups tend to tip a little more each, but their climb costs more each too, so the proportion stays about the same.

Probably at least 97% of our groups tip within these guidelines. A tip well below the usual leaves the guide having to explain it to a crew who will assume they have displeased you. If you cannot budget at least 10% of the climb price, please ask us about the slightly cheaper climbs run by our sister companies.

How the guide divides it

Two climbers on seven-day TK Rongai, each tipping USD 400, with a crew of thirteen:

Four climbers on the same climb, each tipping USD 300, with a crew of eighteen:

You will notice that as groups grow, the chief guide’s share grows faster than anyone else’s. The work of a porter or cook changes little with a bigger group, but the chief guide’s responsibility increases with every climber.

On our lighter series, Lite and Superlite, the crew is small and the tip is shared more equally. On our VIP series the porters receive a little more, and when the tip allows, the chief guide’s share rises faster still: a VIP climb is a huge responsibility, and takes massive organisation on his part.

Within the porters there are many roles: head porter, camp supervisor, tent crew, water carriers, waiters, the cook’s assistant and sometimes summit porters. Each guide arranges these his own way, and the office pays them all the same wage, so the tip is how he rewards the extra work and responsibility of each role, and how well each person did it.

How to give the tip

1. Agree the amount as a group, using the calculator above as a guide.
2. Bring it in USD 50 and 100 notes (see why below).
3. Collect it together and hand it to the chief guide at the gate as you leave the park.
4. If there is someone you would especially like recognised, tell the guide as you hand it over.

Please don’t tip crew members individually: it takes away the guide’s ability to reward those he knows worked hardest, often behind the scenes. Ask us for our printable tipping procedure to take with you.

Large notes, not small

It is very kind to ask whether small notes would make the guide’s job easier. But please bring USD 50s and 100s.

The guide divides the tip in Tanzanian shillings, often with three or four tiers of reward among the porters, so it is exchanged straight after the climb, usually at a money changer in Moshi while you have lunch, or after hours in Arusha. The crew have no access to the banks’ best rates at such short notice, and small dollar notes are exchanged at a poor rate, often around 10% below large ones. Small notes would therefore reduce your tip by about a tenth.

Why not just add a service charge?

We prefer direct, voluntary tipping, for three reasons.

It gives the guide control of his team. Porters know that the chief guide, not the office, divides the tip, so they take on unpopular jobs willingly, knowing that slacking will cost them and hard work will be rewarded.

It keeps standards high. People everywhere work harder when their reward depends on how well they work, and you become part of that incentive.

It lets the crew keep more of it. A gift in appreciation of someone’s personal qualities is not taxable in Tanzania, so a porter may legally take home far more of it.

Employees in certain trades receive tips which form a substantial part to their income. The payments of tips received from the employer or a third party as a reward for services rendered in the course of the employment are taxable. Payments given as a present in appreciation of the recipients’ personal qualities, such as faithfulness, and consistency and readiness to oblige, would not be taxable.Income Tax Practice Notes, paragraph 4.11, Tanzania Revenue Authority

In the busiest months, February and September, we sometimes add porters who spend the rest of the year freelancing for other operators. And if a guide has not weighed the loads properly before the climb, the park’s scales may require extra porters, hired at the gate. A guide is unlikely to start a climb by confessing that mistake, so he will welcome the newcomers as honorary members of the team, and you won’t be able to tell who is who.

A favourite technique of such freelancers is a beautifully written letter, bought from a copywriter in Arusha or Moshi for a few dollars and left in the tent of whoever seems most sympathetic. It says that the guide cannot be trusted to share the tip fairly and will keep it for himself.

Our own crew know that if a guide treats them unfairly, any of them can tell our coordinators privately. We then hear independent accounts from team members whose reputations we know well, and an unfair guide faces demotion; one was dismissed for it, in 2006. And porters soon refuse to work for a guide they think unfair, so he cannot raise a team.

The porter who wants the tip taken out of the guide’s hands is usually the one the guide has been watching: the one who arrives in camp just after the tents are up, rather than racing in to help put them up in the sleet.