Kilimanjaro Grand Hostel — Hotel in Kilimanjaro

This hostel is very basic but special in it's own way:||||Room (#3): End of the main hall. Clean and well kept. 3 twin beds (firm yet comfortable) each with a mosquito net. Nice, pretty soft comforters. Private bath with weak shower (mostly cold water) in a deep tub (YIKES)! Be careful getting in and out! No drinking water provided but available for purchase. Room lighting is very dim (seems to be common) and not good for reading.||||Internet: STRONG and very reliable (for Tanzania). Yes, it went up and down on occasion, but WAYYY better than our previous Moshi hotel.||||Service: Amazing. This is the STRENGTH of this hostel. These guys go over and above. Sylvia, Judith and the other lovely girls on the front desk were a delight. I needed to make a connection with the USA, and Sylvia gave me her personal phone number and worked to make it happen after several other attempts failed (we finally made the connect through skype). They arranged pickups for dinner, dragged suitcases around, and shared funny stories -- all with equal energy and delightful humor. It was just fun coming "home" after dinner and having the girls greet us with warm smiles and genuine expressions of happiness that we were back. ||||Noise levels: At first we were concerned the walls were very/too thin when we arrived because the room next to us was quite loud, but must have just been something odd they were doing 'cause we never heard anything again. The location is off the beaten track, so very quiet and relaxed. ||||Location: A tad out of town, though walkable (15-20 mins?)||||Common areas: Very social spaces which encourage chatter among different travelers. A small outdoor porch with a couple of comfortable couches. A breakfast/dinner area with several smaller and one larger table. Lighting not very good/strong. There is also a TV, though it was never turned on. A nice area for working on computers or chatting or snacking... Very social.||||Food: no on-site facility. We ordered dinner from a menu however delivery took almost 2 hours and food was fair at best. Breakfast is provided including coffee/tea and fruit and then a varied main dish per day. One day was omelets, the next day pancakes. Fair, nothing really special. (This is the weakest point for the hostel)||||Price: VERY inexpensive. Appropriate for the basic setup. ||||All in all: It's a winner. It IS a hostel, so set your expectations appropriately. But it's a really GOOD hostel with a staff you will want to adopt and bring...

La peor experiencia de nuestra vida

Estuvimos 4 días con tres amigas más , nos pareció buena idea reservar el safari en este hostel ya que luego nos íbamos a Arusha y de esta forma no perdíamos tiempo. En teoría, el director del hostel nos gestionó todo la reserva y le pagamos 3 mil euros, nos dió la factura, hasta aquí todo parecía correcto, y nos fuimos a Arusha. El día antes de recogernos, le llamamos y le escribimos para confirmar la hora exacta de la recogida, no nos contestó. Nos empezamos a preocupar, contactamos con el hostel y el director había desparecido y nadie sabía nada de un Safari. Llegó el día previsto y el director nos escribió diciéndonos que se había ido del país con todo nuestro dinero y que nos amenazó en que no contactaramos con la policia. Fuimos a la policia a denunciarlo y pasamos dos días allí. Pero nuestro dinero no apareció.

Nunca había tenido una experiencia tan horrible como ésta, perdimos 3 mil euros, nadie se hizo responsable de nuestro Safari y pasamos 2 días en comisaría.

Despite the good reviews and the good experience we had the first days in the hostel, once we  payed to Mandela (the manager) the Safari, he RUN AWAY and left the country WITH OUR MONEY. We DIDN'T DO the safari and WE LOST 3.000 euros.

The worst experience of our life

We are 4 girls who spent four nights in the Grand Kilimanjaro Hostel, Moshi. We booked some day trips with the hostel and they all worked good. That's why we thought it was a good idea to book the safari with them since the manager looked kind and treated us good. The hotel's owner managed the entire reservation and we paid him 3. 000 euros for a 4 day safari, he gave us a receipt and we left to Arusha before starting it.  The day before the safari was meant to start we begun to get worried as he wasn't answering our messages to confirm the collecting time. We managed to contact the hostel and it end up that the director had disappeared and nobody knew anything about our Safari. At the end, he wrote us a long message explaining quite ackward explanations to justify that he left the country with our money.  He threatened us to avoid we  contact the police. We went to the police to report it and we spent two days there. But our money had never appeared and we lost almost 4 days and had to reschedule again our vacations.

I had never had such a horrible experience, we lost 3,000 euros, nobody took responsability for our Safari and we spent 2 days in the...

My family of four had been traveling for 6 months when we arrived in Moshi. We were tired and a bit physically beaten up. Staying at the KGH was so comfortable and easy that we were back to our regular selves in no time. The location is fantastic, everything is within walking distance (including the Union Cafe). Its also next to a Bank which has a 24 hour armed guard next to the entrance. The space is comfortable (good beds and bedding and some rooms have air-conditioning). The staff are sweet, helpful and they keep the space immaculate. The food is authentic and freshly prepared (although for us, staying there for so long, we dined out fairly often). In fact breakfast, dinner and laundry are included in the price. The KGH also has a relationship with one of the best tour companies in town Mega Adventures Ltd. The wifi was adequate for planning and just surfing. One of the best features is getting to meet the other travelers. We met so many compelling people and made some true friends there. ||||Now on to Mandela. Mandela is an exceptional human. His hotel is designed to provide stable funding to children centric organizations that he has developed. He found that traditional fundraising would not provide a stable enough funding, but that a successful hotel could, thus the KGH. I met some of his NGO board of directors and they are very active and experienced people. There is no doubt that this endeavor will be successful. ||||My family and I are nearing the end of our 1 year round the world trip. We will have gone to 35 countries and stayed at countless places.... Mandela's Kilimanjaro Grand Hotel experience is without exception, the best travel experience that we had and we look forward...