The park's rule is simple: climbers must be at least ten years old to attempt the summit. Our view, from watching families on the mountain, is that the comfortable sweet spot starts around twelve: old enough for the walking days, old enough to communicate clearly about how they feel, which matters enormously up high, and old enough to bank the achievement as a permanent part of who they are.

There are two schools of thought on climbing a mountain with the person you love. One says it is the most romantic thing you will ever do: a shared summit, a sunrise nobody else will ever fully understand, a story you get to keep telling together for the rest of your lives.

Let me declare an interest immediately: I climbed Kilimanjaro as a middle-aged man doing something his knees had opinions about, and I wrote a whole book admitting it. So when someone in their fifties or sixties asks us, usually quietly, usually at the end of an email about something else, "honestly, am I too old for this?"

Everyone can picture the summit photograph. Almost nobody can picture Tuesday. And it is Tuesday, the ordinary middle day of a climb, that people are really asking about when they ask whether they could do this: what happens all day up there, what is the rhythm, when do you rest, what do you actually do?

Of all the questions we answer before a climb, this is the one where the truth most outperforms the expectation. People picture ration packs, energy gels and a week of grim chewing.

Let us be the operator that finally answers this properly. You have read about the routes and the altitude and the training, and somewhere around midnight you typed the real question into Google: what about the toilets?

This is the great dinner-table debate of world trekking, and it is really a choice between two opposite prizes. Kilimanjaro gives you a summit of your own: the highest point in Africa, under your boots, earned. Everest Base Camp gives you an audience with the king: a two-week walk through the greatest mountain range on earth to stand at the foot of the highest mountain of all.

Before any numbers, one honest thing needs saying. On some climbs, tips are not a thank-you, they are the wage. Crews on cut-price expeditions can depend on tips to reach a living income, which quietly turns your gratitude into the payroll and puts the welfare of the crew on your conscience instead of the operator's books.

The Shira Route suits the experienced trekker who has been to altitude before and knows how their body responds, and the climber who wants the plateau's vast early wilderness more than anything else on the mountain.

Day six. The climb to Barafu Camp. The final camp before summit night. The point at which the mountain stops being beautiful and starts being serious.

A responsible operator does not send one guide with ten climbers. The guide ratio matters enormously. At Vertical Sky, our lead guide is supported by assistant guides in a ratio that ensures every climber is properly supervised throughout the expedition.

Can your child climb Kilimanjaro? The answer is more nuanced than yes or no, here is the complete, honest guide to age, readiness, and preparation.