The busiest way up Kilimanjaro, and the one most first-timers are offered. It climbs the south side, crosses the Barranco Wall and summits from Barafu. Over seven days it has a good record.
Machame climbs the south-west side of Kilimanjaro and comes down the south by Mweka. You start in rainforest at 1,800 m and finish on the crater rim at 5,895 m, and the path crosses every one of the mountain's climate zones on the way.
The shape of the route explains its reputation. After the forest you come out onto the Shira Plateau. The third day climbs to Lava Tower at 4,630 m for lunch and drops back to Barranco at 3,960 m to sleep. Climbing high and sleeping low is how your body adapts, and this route builds that in.
From Barranco the path crosses the wall, traverses east under the summit and reaches Barafu at 4,673 m. Summit night goes up to Stella Point on the crater rim and round to Uhuru Peak.
People call it the Whiskey route, set against Marangu's Coca-Cola. The name is trekkers' slang and it tells you one true thing. This is a harder walk than Marangu.
Nobody needs ropes, crampons or any climbing skill on Machame. It is a walk, and the difficulty comes from three things: the length of the days, the altitude, and one hour of scrambling.
The first day is long. Five to seven hours of steady climbing through wet forest with a daypack on.
Lava Tower day tires people out. You gain nearly 800 m to 4,630 m, eat lunch at a height where nobody has an appetite, then lose 670 m again. Headaches are common that afternoon and usually pass overnight. That is the day doing its work.
The Barranco Wall is a scramble. You use your hands for about an hour on rock that is solid and well used. There is exposure in places. Anybody steady on their feet manages it without equipment, and anybody frightened of heights should know it is coming.
Summit night is the hard part on any route. From Barafu it is 1,080 m of scree and rock in the cold and the dark.
The acclimatisation profile. Lava Tower gives you a genuine climb-high-sleep-low day, and the seven-day version adds a second night above 3,900 m before the summit push.
The scenery changes every day. Rainforest, moorland, the open Shira Plateau, the alpine desert under the summit, then the glaciers on the rim. Few routes show you as much of the mountain.
You come down a different path. Mweka drops fast through forest on the southern side, so you never retrace the way you came up.
The seven-day version has a good summit record. Longer routes on this mountain do better than short ones, and seven days on Machame is where the odds start to favour you.
And it is easy to book. More operators run Machame than anything else, so departures, hire gear and last-minute space are easier to find here than on the quieter routes.
It is the busiest route on Kilimanjaro. From the Shira Plateau onwards you share the path, and Barafu on a peak-season night holds a great many tents.
There are no huts. Every night is under canvas, and the camps between 3,900 m and 4,700 m are cold.
The first day is steep and often wet. People who have not walked much before arrive at Machame Camp tired, and that sets the tone for the days after it.
The six-day version combines the two days that the seven-day version splits. That leaves a long walk immediately before summit night, and it shows in the summit rate.
If six days is all the time you have, look at Marangu or Rongai before you book six-day Machame. Both are gentler over the same number of days.
Machame suits walkers who are comfortable on their feet for six or seven hours, who do not mind camping, and who want to see as much of the mountain as one route can show them.
It suits photographers. The variety of ground is the widest of the popular routes, and the Barranco Wall in early light is the picture people come back with.
It does not suit anyone who wants a bed. Marangu is the only route that has one.
It does not suit anyone genuinely frightened of exposure, because of the wall. Rongai and Marangu have nothing like it anywhere on them.
And it does not suit a first climb at altitude on six days. Take seven, or take a route with a gentler profile.
You leave Barafu at around midnight. The path climbs scree and rock in switchbacks, and the pace is slower than anything you have walked in your life. That is deliberate.
Stella Point sits on the crater rim at 5,756 m, five to six hours above camp. Sunrise usually catches people somewhere near it, and the hour before it is the coldest and hardest of the climb.
From Stella the path follows the rim to the left, gaining another 140 m over about an hour, past the glaciers to Uhuru Peak at 5,895 m.
Then you come down. Back to Barafu for a rest and something to eat, then on to Mweka Camp at about 3,100 m. Summit day on this route runs fourteen to sixteen hours in total, and the descent hurts more than the climb. Bring poles and use them.
The dry windows are January to March and June to October, and those are the months to aim for.
January to March is warmer and quieter, with a better chance of snow on the summit. June to October is drier and much busier, and August on Machame fills several months ahead.
April, May and November are the wet months. Machame's first day is forest, and that forest is genuinely wet. If your dates fall there, Rongai sits in the rain shadow on the northern side and Marangu has huts to dry out in. Either is a better answer than Machame.
Full-moon dates book earliest, because the route is visible on summit night without relying on a head torch.
The first three weeks of December are quiet and often fine. The holidays fill the mountain and raise the rates.
Places Kilimanjaro
Six days on the Machame route, camping throughout. The shortest Machame itinerary, with a steeper daily…
Places Kilimanjaro
Seven days on Machame, with the Barranco to Barafu leg split over two days, so the day before the summit…
