7-Day Mount Kilimanjaro Machame Route Trek

Your 7-day Mount Kilimanjaro Machame Route adventure begins in Arusha. On arrival, you will be met and transferred to Arusha Planet Lodge, where you can settle in and recover from your journey.

Use the rest of the day to relax and prepare for the climb ahead. Arusha sits beneath the dramatic highlands of northern Tanzania and provides a comfortable base before you head to Kilimanjaro. Your mountain preparation will focus on making sure you are ready for the changing temperatures, terrain and altitude you will experience over the coming days.

After breakfast, you leave Arusha and travel by road to Machame Gate, the starting point of your Kilimanjaro climb. Once the necessary park formalities and preparations are complete, you begin trekking through the lush lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The first section of the Machame Route takes you through dense montane rainforest, where tall trees, moss-covered vegetation and changing mountain scenery provide a very different introduction to Kilimanjaro from the open alpine landscapes that come later.

You gradually gain altitude before reaching Machame Camp, at approximately 2,835 metres. This first trekking day allows you to settle into the rhythm of mountain life while beginning the gradual acclimatisation process.

After breakfast at Machame Camp, you continue climbing as the forest gradually gives way to open heath and moorland. The landscape becomes increasingly dramatic, with wider views across the mountain and surrounding plains.

Your route climbs onto the Shira Plateau, one of Kilimanjaro’s most distinctive high-altitude landscapes. On clear days, you may begin to appreciate the scale of Kibo and the upper slopes you are ultimately heading toward.

You finish the day’s trek at Shira 2 Camp, approximately 3,850 metres above sea level. The noticeable increase in altitude makes today an important part of your acclimatisation as your body adjusts to thinner air.

Today is one of the most important acclimatisation stages of your Mount Kilimanjaro Machame Route climb. You leave Shira and move deeper into Kilimanjaro’s stark alpine environment, where vegetation becomes increasingly sparse and volcanic terrain dominates the landscape.

The route takes you considerably higher during the day before descending to Barranco Camp, at approximately 3,983 metres. This pattern of climbing high and sleeping lower helps your body adapt progressively to altitude and is one of the reasons the Machame Route is popular with climbers seeking a gradual acclimatisation profile.

Barranco Camp sits beneath the impressive Barranco Wall, creating one of the most dramatic campsites on Kilimanjaro.

You leave Barranco Camp and continue towards the upper reaches of Kilimanjaro. One of the day’s defining experiences is negotiating the Barranco Wall, a steep-looking but rewarding section of the Machame Route that involves careful hiking and some hands-on scrambling rather than technical climbing.

Beyond the wall, you continue across the rugged high-altitude landscape as the route moves progressively closer to Kilimanjaro’s summit zone.

Your destination is Barafu Camp, situated at approximately 4,673 metres. This is your final camp before the summit attempt. After arriving, the priority is to eat, hydrate and rest as much as possible before the demanding overnight ascent toward Uhuru Peak.

This is the defining day of your Kilimanjaro summit climb.

Your summit attempt normally begins during the night, allowing you to make steady progress through the darkness while temperatures are cold and the trail is firm. You climb slowly through the extreme high-altitude environment towards Kilimanjaro’s crater rim, where the first light of morning can reveal extraordinary views across the mountain.

The ultimate objective is Uhuru Peak, at 5,895 metres above sea level — the highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro and the highest point in Africa.

After time at the summit for photographs and to take in the achievement, you begin a substantial descent. You return through the upper mountain before continuing down to Millennium Camp, where the air is noticeably thicker and the landscape begins to regain vegetation.

It is a long and physically demanding day, but also the moment around which the entire Machame Route experience is built.

Your final morning on Kilimanjaro begins with breakfast at Millennium Camp before you continue descending through progressively greener vegetation.

As you lose altitude, the air becomes warmer and richer in oxygen, making the contrast with the summit environment particularly noticeable. You eventually leave the mountain and complete your 7-day Kilimanjaro Machame Route trek.

After finishing the descent, you will be transferred by road to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward journey.

You leave with far more than a summit photograph: over the course of the climb you will have travelled through rainforest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and Kilimanjaro’s icy summit environment before descending again into the forests below.