Dream Trips: 2006 Edition

Mount Kilimanjaro

To this day, local tribes offer prayers to the gods living on its summit, the same magnificent white crown that 19th-century explorers initially mistook for a gathering of fluffy clouds.

The facts are now known: Kilimanjaro, in the northern reaches of Tanzania, is Africa's highest peak (19,341 feet) and is covered not in clouds but in glacial ice. Its famous snows are melting, and some forecasters predict the mountain will be bald in 15 years. That's even more reason to make the ambitious climb to the shimmering plateau on top, and soon.

Getting There: Climbers take on Kilimanjaro year-round. The best times to do the trip are during the warmest, driest months: September, October, January, and February. Northwest Airlines, with its Dutch partner KLM, flies daily through Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania. (From New York, round-trip prices start at around $1,100, plus $100 ...