First off, I want to say that the two people who impacted my trip the most were Mirenyo (Mirenyo Lucas Kivuyo) and Modi (Izina Mshana), my two guides. If you are booking through Wayfairer or Fair travel, they are both worth requesting as they were an amazing team and made the experience unforgettable. I could not say enough good things about them! Now for some more specific details about my trip though, but more about them later! I happened upon Wayfairer/Fair travel through the Responsible Travel website. They provided me with three recommendations and I was most impressed by Wayfairer, who were very up front about their mission to provide treks by fairly treated employees (guides, cooks, porters). From doing the math (costs including salaries of each employee, daily park pass, tents, food, ancillary team costs, etc), it is very clear that many companies do not treat their employees fairly. The easiest place for money to come from seems to be the bottom of the food chain or the porters. Many of these companies then rely on tips to survive, which is not a reliable way to run a business. Wayfairer/Fair Travel actually creates their employee salaries with a tip already factored in. However after spending 8 days with my group, I still wanted to leave a small tip of $280 or $20 per person (which was about one extra day of work for most of the team). While I was very excited to have booked with a company that reflected such a socially and environmentally-sustainable philosophy, there were several instances that Wayfairer's lack of communication made me nervous. Occasionally, their email response times were long or I had received a generic email about payment that went into my spam folder, with no follow-up. Furthermore, while Tom did send us a general packing list several weeks before the trip, it would have been a lot more beneficial if a phone call had been scheduled to go over the details of what he (or the Fair Travel crew) would suggest bringing on the trip. While the provided packing list listed things as required, recommended or optional, it was still very hard to navigate. How many days should I expect it to be cold, how many layers will I be wearing (at camp and while hiking), how many people are happy they brought hand warmers? Some of these questions I would not have even thought of until afterwards, but it would have been nice if Wayfairer had anticipated them and provided more guidance. Another area where I feel Wayfairer could improve on would be better guidance on the different types of medication that are usually taken while on the mountain. While I do understand that Wayfairer cannot give firm recommendations since they are neither doctors or know a person’s medical history--in truth, medication is a very important part of the climb. Although it may not be required, enough people are taking it to make your clients want to be aware of it. Wayfairer only recommended we consult with a doctor, but Wayfairer should be the experts because to be honest, doctors are not (and I am a doctor!). For most doctors in the US, their training on altitude sickness will be comprised of a brief review of acetazolamide (Diamox) which they are taught can be helpful for altitude sickness. They will not know anything more about the research, more recent literature or even dosages. Wayfairer should know the most recent research and be able to tell me “Research suggests acetazolamide/steroids/NSAIDs may be helpful for altitude sickness, typically given in doses of ____. However, as I am not a medical professional, I am not able to prescribe any of these to you or give you precise recommendations”. As I am a doctor, I reviewed the literature on both acetazolamide and steroids (dexamethasone/prednisone) as they relate to altitude sickness. My sister and I both took 250mg of acetazolamide twice daily as well as ibuprofen three times per day (as suggested to be helpful for inflammation by more recent research). On summit night, we both took a 1 mg/kg pulse dose of prednisone. While no one person can say whether this medication got us to the top without any problems, we did make it with my sister only getting a mild headache as we reached the summit. As for the entire crew that traveled with us up the mountain, they were absolutely amazing. Mirenyo and Modi were our head and assistant guides and they were the perfect team. Mirenyo was personable, incredibly engaging, funny, and added a boost of positive energy when my sister and I were starting to feel sluggish or tired. Modi was more reserved, but very sweet, helpful, and conscientious. They were the perfect balance. They helped each other out and were the primary reason we made it to the top for sunrise. During the summiting hike, my sister and I were struggling to stay motivated to make it to the top, but we were so grateful that Mirenyo kept pushing us to not give up. By the end of the trip, my sister and I felt very connected to our entire team. Unfortunately, all week I was experiencing mild diarrhea (in retrospect traveler’s diarrhea that abated immediately after 1 dose of azithromycin) that I had been controlling with Immodium (loperamide). After hiking 6 hours to the summit, 3 back to base camp and 4 to our final camp, I think I was not able to recuperate my losses and I woke up the next morning feeling terrible. The remaining 4 hours down the mountain was almost harder than the summit. I was taken to the health center where I spent 6 hours getting fluids and a few tests. It was then I realized I had hiked down with a fever, which was 102 F in the hospital (39.9 C). This is where the Fair Travel team really came in. Both off the ground people from Fair Travel spent all afternoon at the hospital with my sister and I to make sure we were taken care of, which was incredible. While it was not the best way to end the hike, it made for a good story and really solidified my deep respect for Fair Travel. In conclusion, I am most happy to have chosen Wayfairer because it allowed me to work with Fair Travel. While I have no true regrets about going with Wayfairer, I would recommend booking directly through Fair Travel for a Mount Kilimanjaro trip. While Tom was nice and very much believed in the mission of the company, he seemed to be more of a middle man in the operation. Fair Travel was the primary actor that organized the entire trip, the rentals and the guides. The entire team were Fair Travel employees. I feel so grateful and lucky to have had this experience climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with my sister. And also for reaching the top! I cannot say that either one of us trained particularly hard for the experience, but we are both in good baseline shape (she is a marathon runner and I do primarily interval training). That is not to say it was easy, I think we were mostly lucky. We climbed in parallel to someone who does Iron Mans and he said Kilimanjaro was even harder!! To be fair though, we found only summit night to be incredibly hard. The rest of the time you are forced to hike extremely slowly for acclimatization purposes, but I think this really helps to make it a more doable trek. I never got sore or felt like it was too intense. In the end, I would recommend, book and sing Fair Travel’s praises forever.