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Notes on Mountain Climbing Rates
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We pride ourselves on our transparency of prices. On request, we provide you with a complete breakdown of costs before your trip, in this manner you can see where your money is being spent and thereby build trust and eliminate bartering – the rates we offer you are the lowest we can make them. Additionally, an absence of rent or overheads by meeting our clients in person or processing bookings online means that we can also afford to offer some of the lowest rates in the industry. Most of the costs for your trip are out of our management, such as National Park entrance fees, car rental, and campsite fees. All other costs such as guides, porters, drivers, camping gear and food are charged at a fixed rate. These prices have been calculated to ensure they are affordable to everyone including budget travellers and at the same time allow us to pay our staff adequate salaries, and cover our costs. We provide all rates in USD for practical purposes only; we receive payment in US dollars, Euro, Pound Sterling and Tanzanian Shillings. However, should you wish to pay in any of these currencies, rates will be calculated on the sell rate of the US dollar. NOTES ON MOUNTAIN CLIMBING RATES: As you will have noticed, mountain climbing prices are much heftier than other types of excursions. This is due mainly to two factors. Firstly, we have to account for at least 4 porters per client, plus one guide per group. These porters help carry food, water, tents, cooking equipment and other gear for the entire climb. Our service charges per porter on climbs are actually lower than on safaris yet they amount to a higher overall rate due to the need for more porters than any other type of excursion. Secondly, National Park entrance fees for Kilimanjaro must be paid for every day spent on the mountain, this fact, together with the most expensive nightly camping fees on any National Park in Tanzania results in comparatively expensive daily charges. As with all our excursions however, we provide you on request with a complete breakdown of all the costs before your trip. As with all operators we encourage our clients to tip our guides after a tour if they feel they have enjoyed their experience. These tips are by no means obligatory but they are significant to us for two main reasons: They provide an extra source of income for guides and porters and their families. Our personnel, as with most operators, are paid on a “per-day-worked” basis. Although their salary rates are respectable for each trip (compared to the average Tanzanian), they do not necessarily work everyday and thus it is an unstable source of income. As importantly, 50% of all our tips are used for our School Donations Aid Program. At the end of each month we purchase desks, blackboards and other necessities to shortlisted schools, and the funding for this comes directly from your tips contribution. Often, rates that are outside of our control can change without warning, such as entry to National Parks and camping sites. Travel Closer thus reserves the right to make modifications to rates as and when it deems necessary; including those rates which are under our control but which we feel need to be changed due to various other cost factors or currency exchange implications.
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