Airport.ca the travel blog

FEB

Climbing Kilimanjaro Tops List For Adventure Travelers

Adventure travel continues to grow in popularity as more people seek out engaging travel experiences that differ from the garden-variety tourist vacations. In some ways, our changing climate is behind the adventure travel boom as people flock to areas they feel may be forever changed by the onset of global warming. One such example is Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro which recently topped a USA Today list as the #1 adventure travel destination. While Kilimanjaro is still covered in glacier ice and snow, many feel that it is only a matter of time before our warming climate catches up with Kilimanjaro.

"I'm hearing more people say 'I want to climb (Tanzania's) Mt. Kilimanjaro now, while it still has glaciers," Marian Marbury, owner of the woman-only Adventures in Good Company

To give you some idea of the popularity of climbing Kilimanjaro, over 30,000 travelers every year make the trek to the summit. That number is growing in part because of how friendly Kilimanjaro is for the average traveler. You do not typically need mountaineering skills or hard-core equipment to reach Kilimanjaro's summit. A burning desire, strong legs and lungs are all that you need to make the approx. 40-mile journey up and down, and that gives Kilimanjaro a big tourist advantage over some of the other majestic mountain tops like Mt. Rainier which is far more of a challenge.

"In travel, people are increasingly seeking the authentic unique experiences that stretch the imagination and create potent memories that last a lifetime,"

If that describes you, maybe it is time to start planning an adventure travel vacation and if so, climbing to the top of Africa should be high on your list.