Gamewatchers Safaris is one of the best safari companies for affordable Kenya Safaris. And, that's not all they do!
The great news is that Gamewatchers Safaris offers high-quality budget African safaris, not just luxury safari packages. Thus, we proudly feature a handpicked selection of their well-priced Kenya Safari Tours on our website.
To cast your net wider, browse our nearly 100 different Kenya Budget Safaris with a variety of top African safari companies. This gives you more choices. Budget-wise and in terms of travel style, group size, safari destinations, vehicles, and more.
With the help of our safari experts, it's easy to find the ultimate Kenya Safari for your budget and needs. We know there are lots of choices, but we help you to find the best safari for you–be it a luxury camping trip, family safari, or small group adventure tour. And, if we can't find the right one, our safari experts can tailor-make a Kenya Safari just for you, without busting your budget.
(Or, just compare affordable Gamewatchers Safaris on African Budget Safaris).
Gamewatchers Safaris is one of our most treasured African safari partners. We love working with them because they are leaders in eco-tourism and community-based wildlife conservation. Their commitment to responsible tourism, and their outstanding personalized service, places them firmly ahead of the pack.
Our Kenya Safaris with Gamewatchers are always in demand and our clients rave about their well-priced safaris!
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They are a leading African safari tour operator that also owns and runs the award-winning Porini Camps in Kenya. Established in 1989, Gamewatchers Safaris is one of the longest-running African safari companies. They have been operating in Kenya for over 30 years.
This safari company is famous for its exclusive tailor-made safaris and eco-friendly Porini Camps in Kenya.
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The company is owned by Kenyan citizen, Jake Grieves-Cook, who founded Gamewatchers Safaris in 1989. An icon in African tourism and wildlife conservation, Jake has been involved in Kenya's safari industry since 1972!
Gamewatchers Safaris has a team of about nine African safari consultants and a team of customer services staff on the ground in Kenya. Other staff members include a Managing Director, Corporate Affairs Manager, Conservation & CSR Coordinator, and Product & Marketing Manager. Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps also has over 10 safari experts (travel consultants) representing them across the globe, from the USA and UK to India and Australia.
Then there are all their camp managers, game rangers, drivers, and hospitality staff members at the Porini Camps in Kenya. They employ about 240 staff members at the Porini Camps and conservancies alone. Job preference is given to local Maasai people from the communities that own the conservancies so their camp staff consists mostly of Kenyans from the area.
All-in-all there is a massive team of international and local people involved in running Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps in Kenya and beyond.
This internationally acclaimed African safari company specializes in personalized (tailor-made) safari experiences to small, eco-friendly lodges and camps.
Gamewatchers Safaris offers some of the best tailor-made safaris to private wildlife conservancies and top national parks in East Africa. They take visitors to the leading eco-safari lodges, hotels, and camps in Kenya, Tanzania, and elsewhere. Of course, this includes safaris to Porini Camps and the other eco-safari camps they manage.
The smaller safari camps they visit provide a more intimate and exclusive African safari experience. But, Gamewatchers Safaris is more than a tour operator and camp owner. It is an active champion of wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism in Africa.
In 2020, Gamewacthers Safaris launched an initiative called “Adopt-an-Acre” to help sustain the wildlife conservancies and camps during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the drop in tourism, this initiative enables anyone to adopt parts of the conservancies in Kenya with donations being used to pay the landowners and staff salaries. (More about this Adopt-an-Acre in Kenya Initiative).
Gamewatchers Safaris Ltd is based in Kenya with its headquarters located in Nairobi. They offer safari tours in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda as well as beach holiday packages to Zanzibar and other African beach destinations.
In Kenya, their safari destinations include Masai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo, Ol Pejeta, Lake Nakuru, Laikipia, Samburu, Lewa Downs, Meru, and Shompole.
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Their collection of safari camps is in Kenya. These include the acclaimed Porini Camps, located in Ol Pejeta Conservancy (near the Aberdare & Mount Kenya national parks), Selenkay Conservancy (at Amboseli National Park), and Ol Kinyei Conservancy and Olare Orok Conservancy (both in the Greater Masai Mara Ecosystem).
They also run two Adventure Camps in Selenkay and Ol Kinyei conservancies, the Rhino River eco-lodge in Meru National Park, and the Nairobi Tented Camp in Nairobi National Park.
Gamewatchers Safaris has played a pivotal role in creating and sustaining private conservancies in Kenya.
Jake Grieves-Cook (the founder of Gamewatchers Safaris) is one of the leading pioneers of eco-tourism in Africa. In the late 1990s, he introduced the ‘conservancy concept’ as an alternative approach to wildlife conservation in Kenya. This conservancy model entails leasing land from the local Maasai to create game reserves, called wildlife conservancies, next to the national parks.
In 2005, Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps established Ol Kinyei Conservancy in partnership with 171 local landowners. This was the first conservancy in the Greater Masai Mara Ecosystem. It still belongs to the local Maasai and now comprises 17,500 acres.
In 2018 Ol Kineyei achieved IUCN Green List status for “its good governance, sound design and planning, and effective management”.
Today Gamewatchers Safaris runs six Porini Camps in private conservancies that they have been instrumental in creating and sustaining. These conservancies continue to bring direct benefits to the people and wildlife in Kenya, serving as a successful model for conservation in Africa and beyond.
Saving Wildlife Habitat, Kenya from jakegc on Vimeo.
By partnering with local landowners, Gamewatchers Safaris has used eco-tourism to effectively conserve the wildlife and wild habitats of Kenya whilst helping local communities to generate income. This has transformed the wilderness areas around Amboseli National Park and Masai Mara National Reserve in particular.
"It is tourism that pays for the conservancies to continue in existence so if you come out for a safari staying in our camps in the conservancies then that will definitely be a big help for conservation and for the communities who have set aside their land as a home for wildlife." - Jake Grieves-Cook
And, in 2020 when tourism plunged due to COVID-19, Gamewatchers Safaris launched an Adopt-an-Acre initiative (featured on Ecotourism Kenya) to help support the wildlife conservancies and local communities.
Sustainable and responsible tourism is at the heart of what they do. The core mission of Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps is:
"...using tourism to protect habitat and partnering with communities as we do that." - M. Brar, MD of Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps
Gamewatchers Safaris plays a critical role in Kenyan wildlife conservation and local socio-economic development through their involvement in private conservancies and their eco-safari camps. Beyond this, they also contribute to social upliftment in Kenya through CSR programs.
"Our community outreach projects include donations towards school fees and equipment and the employment of local community members as rangers to protect the widlife."
Not only are they a socially and environmentally sustainable company but they are also one of the oldest and most experienced safari companies in Africa. Even better, their decades of experience are rooted in the Kenya safari industry. Who better to experience the wild places and wildlife of Kenya with?
Their safaris and tented camps are highly rated and sought-after. And their mission – to conserve wildlife and support local communities in Kenya through low-impact tourism – is 100% worth supporting.
Many of the Gamewatchers Safaris include flights from Nairobi to the national parks and conservancies and back. This cuts out the long cross-country drives and gives you more time to explore the destinations and watch animals in the wild. Even their more budget-friendly safaris (featured on African Budget Safaris), often include flights between Nairobi and Masai Mara National Reserve.
Oh, and 10 they offer the best Kenya safaris when it comes to value-for-money!
The cheapest Kenya Safari Tours with Gamewatchers Safaris cost from $1,300 to $2,300 per person. The 3-day Kenya Safari Packages include scheduled flights from Nairobi to Masai Mara (return). These are tented camping safaris so you stay in walk-in safari tents (with en-suite bathrooms), not in rooms at a conventional lodge.
Thus, the tented camps provide more comfort than standard camping (in dome tents) but they have less impact on the environment and cost less than lodge safaris in Kenya.
Their most pricey budget Kenya Safari costs about $4,300 to $5,000 per person. But, that's for a 12-day Kenya Lodge Safari to Masai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo, Samburu, Lake Nakuru, and the Great Rift Valley including 4x4 transport, most meals, a qualified guide, and more! This is not a tented camping safari. You stay at high-quality safari lodges.
Of course, they offer more expensive, luxury safaris in Kenya and other African countries. If you want to spend more on a private, tailor-made safari talk to one of our African travel advisors who can design a customized safari program for you. We pride ourselves on creating excellent-value safari packages, at no extra charge.
Or, check out our nearly 100 Budget Kenya Safari Packages on African Budget Safaris.
Rated 5-Star on TripAdvisor, Gamewatchers Safaris boasts 244 Excellent & Very Good reviews. Review titles range from ‘Life-Changing Experience’ and 'Gamewatchers Rocks!' to ‘Over the Moon’ and ‘Magical, exceptional, unparalleled.'
Browse the Gamewatchers Safaris Reviews on TripAdvisor.
The Porini Camps are small, eco-friendly tented camps located in the exclusive private conservancies of Kenya.
These intimate safari camps are set in wildlife conservancies near or bordering on the best Kenya national parks, from Masai Mara to Amboseli and Tsavo. The wildlife conservancies are home to an abundance of wildlife and offer some of the finest game-viewing experiences in Kenya.
Besides teeming with large mammals (lions, elephants, leopards, cheetahs, and more) the wildlife conservancies are private and thus visitor numbers are limited to the handful of guests staying at the eco-friendly Porini Camps.
Accommodation at the Porini Camps is comfortable and offers exceptional value for money. These are not luxury camps with private hot tubs and personal butlers. They are authentic African safari camps set inside exclusive private conservancies.
In addition to the Porini Camps, Gamewatchers also operates two Adventure Camps in Kenya's private conservancies. These budget-friendly safari camps offer a high-quality safari experience at an excellent price. Accommodation is in dome tents, but you explore the same exclusive wildlife conservancies as guests staying at the Porini Camps.
All of these Budget Kenya Safaris stay at the exclusive Porini Camps owned and run by Gamewatchers Safaris. The tented safaris to Masai Mara conservancies all include return flights between Nairobi and Masai Mara. Accommodation is in comfortable tented rooms (walk-in safari tents) with en-suite bathrooms at the eco-friendly Porini tented camps.
These Fly-in Kenya Safaris with Gamewatchers do not require participation from guests in the running of the camps or operations. You can simply relax and enjoy being on safari in the middle of the African bush, while the staff take excellent care of you.
This affordable Kenya Safari combines ground (overland) transfers and flights. Accommodation is in traditional Kenya safari lodges selected by Gamewatchers Safaris and not at the Porini Camps.
The Kenya Camping Safaris stay at the Gamewatchers Safaris Adventure Camps. These budget-friendly Kenya Safaris include flights and comfortable camping accommodation*.
*The style of camping on these Kenya Safaris is a step up from basic camping. Guests sleep on camping beds with linen and pillows and the spacious tents have en-suite bathrooms. The guides and crew also take care of all the cooking, camp chores, and logistics.
These Budget Kenya Safaris include safari lodge accommodation, ground transport, and most expenses. They all start and end in Nairobi.
Contact African Budget Safaris to find out more about our affordable Kenya Safaris with Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps or other top safari companies in Africa.
Planning a safari in Masai Mara and looking for more options? Browse our Budget Masai Mara Safari Tours.
It's easy to design your own tailor-made Kenya Safari with African Budget Safaris.
African Budget Safaris creates the best tailor-made safaris on a budget. We pride ourselves on creating the ultimate affordable safari packages customized to our clients' wants and needs.
If you don't see the Kenya Safari Tour that is right for you, contact us to design an affordable safari adventure just for you.
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