Baboon Budget Safaris Team
Baboon Budget Safaris
- Office In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2006)
- Member Of:
- KATO, KTB & Ministry Of Tourism
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $1,722 to $12,051 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Mike | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
I had a horrible experience with this company which works with Cache Safaris. Horrible!
Entirely unprofessional. They work together with Cache Safaris. Avoid the headache! There are dozens of other options… use ANY of them. You will not be communicated with except to apologize for the multitude of ‘mistakes’ in the itinerary. In other words, they will lie to you about the itinerary, do nothing about it, keep your money, and then call it a mistake. Incredibly frustrating! AVOID THIS COMPANY!
Email Frank | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Baboon Budget Safaris – We almost died - extremely disappointing experience
We booked a 6-day safari with Baboon Budget Safaris company, and the experience was deeply disappointing and, at times, dangerously unprofessional. Below is a summary of the key issues we encountered.
Severe Lack of Safety and Professionalism: There was no safety briefing or orientation at the start of the tour, despite entering a wildlife park. The driver assigned to us was not a trained guide but an inexperienced driver operating a poorly maintained, outdated vehicle with no navigational tools or working two-way radio. He lacked knowledge of the animals, animal locations, the park and camp-site routes, or even basic driving protocol in wildlife settings.
On Day 2, we suffered a serious accident. The driver got lost around 7:00 PM as he took a wrong route back to our camp. We had to intervene and use our personal phones with Google Maps to guide him in the middle of pitch-black wildlife park. At 8:30 PM, in complete darkness, he failed to slow down for crossing large wildlife animals like Zebras and buffalos crossing the road, lost control of the vehicle while speeding, and drove off the road violently while seven passengers were being tossed around in the car. The impact burst the back tire, pushed the car into the mud and grass on the side of the road and left us stranded deep within the park. We were unable to exit the vehicle due to the surrounding wildlife. There was no passing car since the park was closed at that time and no hope for help. The driver got on the phone and tried to secure a rescue plan for us while passengers were distraught and distressed inside the car. Eventually a random passing car stopped and offered to take us back to our campsite for a fee.
What’s worse, the tour company, Baboon made no effort to check on us, send help, or even contact us to make sure we are fine or at least apologize. We wrote emails to them later that night, but they completely ignored us. They did not send any alternative safe vehicle for us to continue the rest of our trip. There was no apology, no accountability—only total neglect. The entire situation could have ended in tragedy or death.
Freelance Drivers: The drivers Baboon hires are freelancers – they are not employees of Baboon. This is according to the drivers. Once Baboon takes the full payment for the safari, they pass you on to the drivers. Any issues you face during your safari, you are either on your own or have to go through the driver to resolve. This makes things a lot worse.
Accommodation Failures: We had clearly agreed with Baboon on accommodations with two separate rooms throughout the 6-day tour. Upon arrival at the first camp (at 8:30 PM), we were told only one room with 2 beds was booked by Baboon, and that Baboon had instructed the camp to provide just a single room for two people. This left three of us without appropriate arrangements, discussions, haggling and pleading with the camps manager to secure another room and bed. This problem persisted at every accommodation throughout the rest of the tour.
Payment Issues: We paid a deposit via bank transfer two months in advance. On the first day of the tour, we were taken to the Baboon office and asked to pay the remaining balance in cash only—credit cards were not accepted. Although we provided brand new US dollar bills, several were rejected arbitrarily for not being “new enough,” despite having come directly from the bank in excellent condition. This unnecessary negotiation delayed the start of our tour.
Our experience with Baboon Safari Tours was unacceptable on every level: lack of professionalism, communications, total disregard for safety, logistical failures, and a refusal to take responsibility when things went wrong. I strongly advise others to consider alternative, reputable tour operators when booking a safari if you care about your safety and life.
Reply from Baboon Budget Safaris
Posted on Oct 15, 2025Dear Frank,
We sincerely apologize for the inconveniences you experienced during your safari with Baboon Budget Safaris. We truly regret that your trip did not meet your expectations, and we appreciate you bringing these matters to our attention.
After thoroughly reviewing the concerns you raised, we have taken corrective action to ensure such incidents do not happen again. The issues regarding vehicle maintenance, guide training, and accommodation arrangements have been addressed with the respective teams and service partners. We have also strengthened our internal safety procedures, introduced stricter vehicle inspection routines, and improved communication with camps and drivers to enhance our guests’ overall experience.
We are grateful for your feedback, as it has helped us identify areas for improvement and take the necessary steps to maintain the high standards of professionalism and care that we strive to deliver.
Once again, we are truly sorry for the inconvenience caused and wish to reassure you that the issues have been fully resolved. We value your trust and hope to have the opportunity to restore your confidence in our services in the future.
Do not trust.
My girlfriend and I booked a 4-day-tour up Mount Kenia from the 27th until the 30th of December 2024. We made it to the top and safely back home again. So all in all the tour was a success. Unfortunately, I have to agree with most other reviewers here. I will spare you all the details of the multitude of times we were misinformed, ignored and lied to before and during this trip. Do not book any tour with this company. They are plenty of other companies that will make sure you enjoy your trip way more.
Reply from Baboon Budget Safaris
Posted on Jan 6, 2025Dear Mark,
Thank you for sharing your feedback about your recent Mount Kenya tour. While we are glad to hear that you successfully summited and returned safely, we are truly sorry to learn that your experience did not meet your expectations due to the issues you mentioned.
We sincerely apologize for any instances of misinformation, lack of communication, or mismanagement you encountered before and during your trip. This is not the standard of service we aim to provide, and your concerns are taken very seriously.On our end we did our best to provide detailed itinerary outlining all the necessary information and also gave response to your queries both before and during the trip.
Your input is invaluable in helping us identify areas for improvement and ensuring that future clients receive a more seamless and enjoyable experience.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we genuinely hope to regain your trust in the future.
Email Katie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
The director Dennis Solomon is a incompetent and is only worried about money. No respect.
I was super excited about the safari, and the lady who helped us book was so nice, even our driver to the safari was so nice. The issue was on the second day ( we did only two days one night), logistics was awful. We were told to meet the tour guide at 6 am only to find out, the tour we were suppose to be on left. We spent the next 45 mins in the safari searching for that said group, only to find out they were finished in the park, so we parted the park to return to Nairobi. We were suppose to spend three hours in the safari. All while my husband did not have a seat in the van ( over crowded) so he sat on the floor- literally where you put your feet. When we discussed this with the direct of baboon budget his response was; “ who told you you would have a seat, you can stand”, which was not of course what we paid for. After some time explaining his only response to our cristicms was, “ oh you people- I know people like you- you are just never sastified, you just want to complain and get money”. We were of course only relaying our complaints. We ( my husband and I) spent 520.00 usd ( 240 a person, plus surcharge for using debit machine), and spent less than three hours actually touring the safari. Logistics are awful and the director does not care about the costumer.
IL
Email Sergey Priven | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Patrick Atweng'a (introduced to me by at baboon office) stole 500$ which left as a deposit
A year ago my parents rented a car trough babbon tours from guy named Patrick Otieno Atweng'a...
after 3 weeks of using the car my folks returned it but never saw any of the the deposit, they were left to wait for couple of hours for the thief to come back - which never happened.
Baboon tours admitted their responsebility for Patrick Otieno Atweng'a action and promising me to deal the issue and return the stolen money..
I was in touch with mr. Dennis across the year via watsap and every time he gave me another excuse.
Beware of Baboon budget tours and other scammers...
Thank you for nothing mr. dennis behalf my parents and me
CA
Email Gail | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Untrustworthy, changes to itinerary, skipped site, misleading communications...
I do not recommend this tour company. No compensation for changed itinerary with a site completely skipped that was on my tour, no pickup in Arusha on arrival, poor customer relations and misleading communications from day to day, difficulty with payment at national park resulting in lost time on drive, not enough room in vehicle for equipment so stacked tents on top resulting in no pop up viewing one day. It just seems the operator wants money and cannot deliver what is promised. Be very wary when touring in Tanzania. Enough said. I have experienced several safaris, and this one is the only one that I can say was regrettable.
IL
Email Vladimir | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
They behaved dishonorably
I signed a lease contract with Patrick for Nissan X-Trail from 5.09 to 25.09.17, I've paid him for rentingת and left him a deposit of 500 USD.
At 25.09.17 I've returned the car. Patrick examined her and then drove her to the parking lot. He said that he have to go to the bank to refund me a the 500 dollars. Patrick did not return with the money.
CN
Email Chen | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An unreliable trip with a severe overload of passengers in the vehicle
First of all, I need to clarify that the scenery I saw during this trip to Kenya was very beautiful. However, the services provided by travel agencies are extremely unreliable. The travel agency originally said there would be no more than six passengers on the bus, but they ended up arranging seven adults and two children. This family of Indian tourists with children was extremely noisy and almost treated the bus as their own private car, which was very impolite! The travel agency doesn't seem to consider children as "human beings". The children sat on adults throughout the journey or were crying and fussing. They didn't have their own seats.
I think that when travel agencies encounter such passengers, they should allocate personnel based on the number of people. Are children no longer human beings? Don't children need seats? Why let this extra child affect others' travel experience? We can only squeeze in the middle of the last row, which is ten times more dangerous and crowded!
Besides, the tour guide and driver on the bus are not fixed. When your itinerary changes compared to others, you will be "sold" to another tour guide, and you don't know at what time the next tour guide will come to pick you up the next day. This is a very nerding thing. Moreover, once you have paid, the travel agency will not reply to any of your messages.
All in all, the irresponsible behavior of the travel agency made me dissatisfied with this trip. Overloading of personnel not only leads to a noisy environment inside the vehicle but also poses a threat to personal safety. I'm really speechless.
Reply from Baboon Budget Safaris
Posted on Oct 14, 2025Dear Chen
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We truly appreciate your honest comments and are very sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations.First and foremost, we are glad that you enjoyed the beauty and scenery of Kenya — it is indeed a special destination, and we’re pleased that part of your journey left a positive impression.Regarding your concerns about the number of passengers and the situation with the children onboard, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and discomfort this caused. Our shared group tours are designed to accommodate a maximum of seven passengers per vehicle. Every traveler — including children — should have a proper seat, in this case the children were toddlers and the parents had communicated that they would sit on their lap.We accomodated their humble request ,which turned out to not favour the group.
We also acknowledge your comments about the changes in guides and communication. During group safaris, itinerary adjustments sometimes require coordination between different guides and vehicles. We apologize if this process felt confusing or unorganized and for any delays in responding to your messages after payment.
Please be assured that your feedback has been shared with our operations and customer service teams so that such incidents do not happen again. We truly value every guest’s comfort, safety, and satisfaction, and your experience will help us improve our service delivery.
Email Naz | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Give them a miss
I booked a 12 day tour through Kenya and Tanzania. Seven wonders managed the Tanzanian side and I couldn't have been happier with them. The Kenyan side( Nakuru, Masai, Amboeseli) was managed by Baboon budget who the booking was made through. It started of badly with being collected late at the airport and having to run around in trying to find a person, who wasn't there. The accommodations throughout were poor esp the Eco camp in Masai with very poor quality food. The worst was the lack of personal attention, we were passed like luggage from one driver and group to another depending on their schedules, groups, etc. one traveler had been with 5 different drivers/guides in 5 days! The quality of drivers was potluck. Michael our initial guide tried really hard, but was with us for only one day. Another driver/guide, Jackson, (apparently quite senior )who had previously been haring around at ridiculous speeds , all of a sudden started going at a crawl in circles for more than an hour and included a pitstop an hour into the trip "to stretch our legs". We later determined that a vehicle transporting a traveler who was due to join our group after a balloon ride got stuck in some mud and teh driver was unable to provide co ordinates so we drove in circles trying to connect with them. Jackson initially tried to deny this but i had my GPS on so showed it to him. His response was that the tour hadn't stopped as we were "moving". The point of this trip was to observe a river crossing. It was clear to all that the second day this may happen. Approximately 20 othre vehicles waited patiently along the Mara for this to start. Jackson in his wisdom decided it wouldn't happen and drove off. Needless to say he was connected on radio to say it had started and we raced back . already an eighth of the herd of thousands of wildebeest had crossed. WE all thought we wre in for a treat as so many more had to make their way across. Again Jackson surprised us, we observed for about 5mins( I filmed it, so it was actually less) and he started driving off. We though this was to secure a better vantage point. But no, he drove out the park! Then proceeded to dump us outside the accommodation to await another person to conduct the tour to the Masai village. Clearly he had another pressing appointment!
Things just went downhill...
There's many other companies available , however it seems that they operate differently from other countries group tours. Schedules and people interconnect throughout, with no personalised service or accountability.
They should take some tips from Seven Wonders on how to operate...
AE
Email Bhat | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disappointing - Would not recomend them to any of my friends.
Communication- Fair
Service- was pretty bad. they dont stick to the timings . On the day we were to leave from Nairobi to Masai Maara, we were quite appalled with the quality and cleanliness of the mini bus that we were driving to Masai Maara. When we were told that this would be the vehicle that we would go on the game drive , we politely refuse to take that vehicle considering the rough terrain that we would be covering as the Van was in really bad condition without propoer upholstery and bad seats.
when we insisted they had the vehicle changed to a slightly better one.
Day 1- Evening -on reaching MM ,our Tour guide (Fred) was not able to locate our lodge amidst the Savannahs and we aimlessly wandered for about an hour searching and then he decided that we would go on the game drive after which we will find the lodge.
Day-2 was the best day of the 3 day tour as we were on the game drive from morning to evening. Packed lunch was provided.
Day-3 : our schedule was to leave for another game drive from 630 to 830 am after which we were to drive back to Nairobi. However when the tour guide came to pick us up he said that there was some technical snag and the car battery was having problems. We hardly took off and the van stopped twice in the grasslands. We then suggested that he go to the mechanics available in the town to which he agreed and after a 40 mt drive we reached the place but none of them were available. it was already 820 by then and he quitely filled petrol and said that he suggests that we skip the drive as we would reach Niarobi only between 7pm-9m if we went for the drive. We agreed to that as we were a bit concerned about the Vehicle giving way in the middle of the Savannahs with animals around us.
Little did we know that this was a ploy by the tour operators as half way through on our way back to Nairobi , the guide stopped for lunch and after lunch he told us that there would be a change in plan and that we had to move into another car which was parked beside ours and that the passengers in that car would travel in the vehicle we came from MM and we would go to nairobi in their car.
at that point of time we actually wondered how could they take them on a game drive if the van had technical snags (stoppped at least 3 times in Masai Maara when we started the game drive)??
It was just a pretext used by these guys as they needed the car by noon to make the swap.
Overall - Althoguh i would want to visit MM again , i would not take another package with them as their service was quite disappointing and would not recomend them to any of my friends.