The Rongai Route is the only route on Kilimanjaro that starts in the north near the border to Kenya, the furthest away from an airport of all Kilimanjaro National Park gates. This makes it much less visited than other routes, providing for a true wilderness experience during your summit approach.

Descending along the Marangu Route in the south east, is furthermore offers a cross-over experience with views of the north, east and south of Mount Kilimanjaro and its surroundings.

The Rongai Route can be completed through a short and direct approach of the summit in only 5 days or, via a detour to Mawenzi in the east of Kibo, in up to 7 days. This allows more time to acclimatize to the thin air and improves your summit success chance.

This 5-day itinerary is only recommendable if you have pre-acclimatized to the high altitude. For example, given its starting location near the border to Kenya, the Rongai Route can be combined conveniently with a pre-acclimatization climb on Mount Kenya. This would allow you to climb both of East Africa’s highest mountains over 9 days in total – not a bad accomplishment at all!

Otherwise, if you are not used to high altitudes or have not pre-acclimatized, you are running a fairly high risk on the 5-day Rongai Route (as in all 5-day Kilimanjaro routes) that you will not be able to reach the summit due to altitude sickness. Please consider the 6-day Rongai Route or 7-day Rongai Route to allow more time to get used to the thin air.