Kibo Safari Camp Amboseli Kenya – Review

The Kibo Safari Camp was our accommodation for two nights we spent in on safari in Amboseli National Park in Kenya. During our trip to East Africa, we stayed in several different safari lodges. And in this blog post, I’ll review the Kibo Safari Camp in Amboseli National Park Kenya. All of these lodges were chosen by our safari company, in that we could chose between budget, mid-range, or luxury accommodation. For our safari, I chose mid-range. I definitely didn’t want budget, as I don’t want shared bathrooms, bucket showers where you have to summon an attendant to give you water, or actual tents (vs. tented lodges – huge difference!) and I didn’t feel luxury was necessary.

Because this lodge was chosen for us by our safari tour company (which is very common – typically you pick the tour operator and they will book your lodging), I do not have information on prices. But you can book this place independently – it’s just not a common practice.

When we first pulled up, I thought we were in for a delightful experience but, well, I was wrong. This was our first lodge we stayed at during our safari, and looking back and comparing it to other places we stayed, it wasn’t terrible, but it’s not anywhere near a 5-star experience that the online reviews on TripAdvisor or Google will lead you to believe. Let’s get into it!

First Impressions of the Kibo Safari Camp Amboseli Kenya

When you pull up to the Kibo Safari Camp, you’re immediately greeted by staff members, offering you a wet towel to rinse off the dust from your drive (and you will be dusty and nasty, whether you just came from a game drive or are pulling up to check in), and a glass of juice. You’ll be instructed to sit down and relax in the lobby area while other staff members take your bags out of the vehicle.

At this lodge, I had to sign a few papers — basically just confirming who I was, and my sister and I presented our passport – typical procedure when checking into a hotel overseas, though I didn’t have to do this at every lodge I stayed in. I didn’t have to give a credit card or anything; the reservation was already paid for in my safari package.

The staff will give you an overview of the lodge – meal times, pool hours, etc. As this lodge is secured with an electric fence, you don’t need to request a staff escort when walking around at night (unfenced accommodations will require you to do this!) We were also instructed to NOT tip staff individually, as there is a tip box in the lobby for you to use, should you want to, when you wrap up your stay. Remember this! This is important!

Rooms at Kibo Safari Camp

After the briefing, we were taken to our rooms by about 4 staff members. I thought this was completely unnecessary and excessive, as I’m a self-sufficient person, but if this is procedure, fine. They showed us how to use the room, which was pretty standard – there was nothing weird about it, as we had access to hot running water 24/7, electricity 24/7, etc., but they wanted to show us the ropes, so fine.

The room was very spacious and having power on 24/7 was really nice (this wasn’t the case at all of our lodges). We never ran out of hot water and the shower was really nice and we had plenty of towels. The beds all had mosquito netting, which was un-tied during the nightly turn down service.

The Kibo Safari Camp boasts of having rooms that open up to Mt. Kilimanjaro, but the reality of it is that only the huts that are in the last row can view the mountain. Ours was in the last row, which was really nice.

There is a small refrigerator in the room, a fan, and you’re provided a large jug of water, like one you’d see at an office cooler. I thought that was really nice. There is no wifi signal or 3G/4G/5G signal that reaches the lodge, but you can use wifi in the restaurant, lobby and bar.

So in general, the room was great, no problems there.

Pool / Grounds at the Kibo Safari Camp

The grounds are absolutely lovely. Nice walking paths, common areas are really nice. We absolutely loved the pool. We used it both days we were here as it was really hot in the afternoon. It’s not a heated pool but it feels so good to get in and cool off, especially after a hot and sweaty game drive. The pool has a deep end too which was nice – you don’t find that much nowadays!

Location of the Kibo Safari Camp

Extremely close to the entrance of Amboseli National Park – as opposed to many other lodges that we saw on the way. Some were 30-45 minutes away from the entrance. Here, it’s maybe 7-10 minutes, but it’s only that long because of the nasty road that leads to this lodge. It’s sandy and bumpy – you will be jostled around in your safari vehicle as you get here!

Staff at the Kibo Safari Camp

This is where things take a turn. The staff here totally soured my experience staying at the Kibo Safari Camp and it comes down to one thing – TIPS.

Remember when I said that we were instructed not to tip staff members individually, rather you are to leave a tip in the box in the lobby as you leave, if you wish. This is a common thing on safari where you tip when you leave instead of individually, so that the staff can share the tips – especially so that the ‘back of the house’ staff members can get a share, too.

But here, the staff ignores this – in particular, staff delivering bags to your room, the staff at the restaurant – if they work here, they want tips. They want tips for every thing – every and any interaction with them, they will want money. They expect money from the minute you pull up and they had you a hot towel (yes, the lady doing this wants your money) to the minute you leave.

And they’re very aggressive about it! I literally had to shoo those four men away from my room after my luggage was delivered. The guy just stood there with his arm out asking me to tip him. He wasn’t going to leave. I had to be firm and tell him to please leave my room.

When it’s your date to check out, there is someone lurking around your hut, waiting for you to leave your room so they can get the luggage and beg for more money. It’s creepy – we were two women traveling alone and do NOT like being watched like this. We just took our stuff and left. The staff member was bewildered. I do NOT like being treated like a walking wallet, nor do I like being watched

Food at the Kibo Safari Lodge

One thing I noted in my research prior to going on safari was that the food was “AMAZING!” “The best food I ever tasted!” – rave reviews consistently across the board, no matter what safari lodge you chose. And looking at reviews for Kibo Safari Lodge, they too had excellent reviews on their food.

So imagine my complete disappointment when we ate our first meal here.

In summary, the food was downright nasty. It’s all buffet style, which is fine, but it’s just not good. They had plenty of choices – but it was all just terrible. Everything was devoid of any flavor. I’m not a foodie by any means – I will happily eat microwaved food from Applebees, but this!! This was much, much worse. Don’t eat the beef – it’s gamey and 99% chance its water buffalo. Pizza station was okay but it’s essentially bread with very bland pasta sauce and a ton of cheese on top. Not flavorful at all. Desserts were terrible – cakes were not cut (the guests can self-cut a piece) and were mangled to mush after like two guests broke into it – and were dry as ever – inedible. No free water – coffee and tea available. We brought our water from the room to dinner.

If the reviews are real, then I don’t know what kind of food these folks are eating at home because this was terrible. But I have a hunch that a lot of these reviews for safari lodges – not just this one – are gamed.

A couple of other notes:

You are assigned a table where you will sit for all of your meals. You cannot change this table (we asked to be moved over by the open-air window since it was so hot, but no dice.

There is no free water at dinner. You can have free coffee and tea with your meal (who wants hot coffee when it’s 95 degrees out??). If you want something else, you’ll have to pay. We brought water from our room, but we did end up purchasing some Coke Zeros just because we wanted something cold. Prices were actually pretty reasonable, considering this is a tourist hot spot.

We were here in early March, just as the rainy season is starting to kick in (no, it didn’t rain at all!). This is the start of ‘low’ season here, but despite this, the lodge was filled with other tourists. In hindsight, this was a good thing because later on in our safari journey, we’d end up being the only guests at some of the lodges which made us uncomfortable).

Internet Access

As mentioned above, there is WiFi at the restaurant, lobby, and bar area. You cannot reach the wifi signal from your room. There is also no cell data service here.

When you are at the common areas, actually getting on the internet is very inconsistent. There are just too many people staying here trying to access the wifi, and it slows down to a crawl. After 10pm, early in the morning, and during the afternoon when people are on game drives are when you can access it much faster.

Kibo Safari Camp Amboseli Kenya – Final Thoughts

In general, I probably would stay somewhere else if doing this again. If the staff wasn’t so hung up on tips – when we were explicitly told not to tip them individually – I might’ve had a better experience but the downright abrasiveness asking for money is a complete turn off. And the food – it was awful. There’s no better way to put it.

HOWEVER. In hindsight, comparing the Kibo Safari Lodge to the other places we stayed at on our safari, this was one of the better places. By the end of our safari, we would’ve begged to come back here…

Have you stayed at the Kibo Safari Lodge? What did you think?