While it is customary to tip your crew for their assistance and hard work during your Kilimanjaro climb, the way tips are being paid and distributed to each crew member varies from company to company:
Some guide companies hold the tipping ceremony on the mountain on your last evening or morning, others ask you to pay the tips after completing your climb at the park gate. Some companies ask you to tip each crew member individually, others have a list for you to record the tip intended for each crew member, while yet others will allocate your total tip for you.
If in doubt, it’s best that you bring lots of smaller US dollar notes to make it easier to tip crew members individually. This will also ensure that your tips will reach the very people whom you intended to tip. If you only hand your tips to your guide and trust that he will allocate the money fairly amongst all crew members, chances are high that your porters will not receive their fair share.
That’s why all ethical climb companies have transparent tipping procedures and will ask you to either record your tip on paper, announce it in front of each crew member, or hand it directly to each crew member. However, it is important that you check the tipping procedure and tipping ranges recommended by your operator before the start of your climb and follow their guidelines in order to ensure a fair total compensation for your crew.
If you book your climb with Fair Voyage, you can rest assured that your climb is being monitored independently by the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP). Amongst the criteria KPAP checks for each climb, the KPAP investigative porter will also report back to KPAP to ensure that tips are being allocated fairly, as intended by you.
If you notice any irregularities or deviations in the way your guide asks you to tip, please report those to us and directly to KPAP through the KPAP Climber Survey.
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