Tanzania
Mount Kilimanjaro
Five climates stack between the coffee farms and the ice at 5,895 metres.
The mountain stands alone on the plain, five climates stacked from farmland to summit ice: forest, then moorland, then alpine desert, then the ice fields still holding out at the equator.
Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest mountain at 5,895 metres and the world's tallest free-standing peak, its climb crossing five climate zones without ever needing a rope. The law requires a registered operator with a full guiding team, and the routes that give the body time, Lemosho and Machame among them, are the ones that summit; altitude, not fitness, is the examiner. Below, the Chagga foothills run on coffee: estate lunches, waterfalls and farm walks for those not going up, in the dry windows of December to March and late June to October.
Solo
Solo climbers must join a registered operator; non-climbers can choose a guided foothill and coffee programme instead.
Friends
Friends attempting Kilimanjaro should agree on acclimatisation and turnaround judgement before choosing a summit route.
- Five climate zones stack between the gate and the summit ice.
- At 5,895 metres it is Africa's highest point and the world's tallest free-standing mountain.
- A licensed guiding team is legally required; the days bought are acclimatisation.
- The Chagga foothills' coffee estates reward visitors who never touch the scree.
Machare's coffee-estate lunch runs three courses off the farm, vegetarian menu included.
On the mountain the crew cooks; the operator's menu is the route's kitchen.
Stelvio Pass
Italy
Forty-eight hairpin bends climbing to 2,757 metres, the highest paved pass in the Eastern Alps.
Serra dos Órgãos
Brazil
Brazilian climbing began here in 1912, on a human pyramid, with pitons the blacksmith forged himself.
Honister Slate Mine
England
A via ferrata bolted to slate cliffs above a pass where miners once clung.
Nyerere National Park
Tanzania
Hippo pods crowd amber channels in a park twice the Serengeti's size.
Moyowosi Game Reserve
Tanzania
Sitatunga wade a papyrus labyrinth on a flyway most birders never reach.
Pemba Island
Tanzania
Clove hills drop to a channel 800 metres deep, and the wall dives start at shore.