My son and I wanted to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and we contacted Geographic Expeditions to arrange a private trip for the two of us. The price GE gave us was $16,000 for an 8-day climb---steep, but I could afford it so I didn't complain, at least not initially. But the trip was very badly planned by GE and the local Tanzanian tour guides were ripped off by GE, so in the end I became very unhappy with GE.
For starters, all GE did for $16,000 was send me an itinerary typed on nice paper in an attractive portfolio and then sub-contract the trip to local outfitters---who they paid only $1,600. When I got back from the trip, I told GE I didn't mind paying $16,000, but why did they keep 90% of the fee and pay the outfitter who actually did the trip so little [the baggage carriers were making $7 a day!]. I said, why don't you pay them a decent wage? The GE President said, "Don't tell me how to run my business."
The hike itself was badly conceived by GE. First, they started us hiking at 6,500' through a mosquito-infested jungle, ankle-deep in mud. After two days of miserable hiking, we crested a hill at 11,000' to see buses bringing people into a trailhead! Later, I asked GE why they started our trip at such a low elevation and they said, "To acclimatize you to elevation." This explanation was totally absurd because no one needs "acclimatization" at 6,500' [[I've never had any acclimatization issues below 16,000']. It would have been far better to avoid the mud-slog, start at 11,000' and stay an extra day at the camps at 11,000' or 13,000' to acclimatize at elevation.
Then, GE planned for us to climb Kili and spend the night on the top, but when I asked our trip guide what he thought of that idea, he said it was "crazy." "If you want to get altitude sickness, sleeping overnight on the top is the way to do it," he said. Along the trail, I asked every guide I met the same question and every one gave me the same answer---sleeping on the top would seriously increase the chance of altitude sickness and they strongly recommended against it, so we made a mid-course correction and camped at 15,500' before the final ascent. Later, I confronted the President of GE with this information and he insisted, "I know what I'm doing." I responded, "Who should I believe---20 mountain guides who climb Kilimanjaro every week or some desk jockey in San Francisco?" He said he didn't want to talk any more about it. GE doesn't handle criticism very well.
The mountain itself is quite beautiful, even more beautiful than I expected, but the climb is marred by a huge amount of trash on the trails and in the campsites, and everyone has to camp at designated campsites, so you end up camping with 100-200 people around you, amidst trash and garbage. It is still well worth doing, but not with Geographic Expeditions! read more
