Company Review By Dave Harris

My girlfriend and I climbed Kilimanjaro last year with Lava Expeditions. They were awesome! I’d say not many companies fill you with confidence but these guys did. Just the little things made all the difference, for example, I received receipts for all our payment installments, they met us at the airport and settled us in nicely; no matter how many questions we had previous to our departure they were always answered fully and what impressed us the most was how quickly we received a response. The only thing that slightly disappointed us was the hotel in Arusha prior to the climb. The food and service wasn’t that great but we only stayed there for a couple of nights and after the climb, Lava Expeditions took us to a couple of Tanzanian restaurants which were great fun and the food was fantastic.

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was just the most amazing thing that we have ever done. During the climb we felt safe, the porters made sure that we drank at least 3 liters of water between one camp and the next; the chefs cooked us tasty food every night and gave us a huge packed lunch during the day. The climb was hard in a strange way. It wasn’t too physically demanding fitness wise for us but altitude made it difficult. Lava Expeditions insisted that we took part in an acclimatization day so we hiked up to a place called the Lava Tower. The next day, we met two other parties who did not do this and they weren’t feeling too well the day after, as they rushed things and therefore didn’t even make it to Barrafu camp (the last camp before the summit). Lava Expeditions checked our oxygen levels every day and generally kept an eye on us all.
rnEach night we were briefed about what was expected the following day; what time we needed to wake up, when breakfast would be served, what that day’s trek would encompass etc. They also provided endless motivation and told us stories about the history of Kilimanjaro. The guides were just brilliant and so unbelievable patient.

As I’ve mentioned before, Lava Expeditions just filled us with confidence and made it an extra special trip. A truly memorable experience.