Under canvas

Camping in Amboseli National Park

Name: Amboseli National Park
Address: Kenya

Amboseli has exactly one public campsite, run by KWS near the park office, and at $30 per adult a night it is the cheapest way to sleep inside the park. For a roof, KWS lets five self-catering houses and cottages from $110 a night for two.

If you only want the answer

You can camp at the single KWS public campsite inside Amboseli for $30 per non-resident adult per night ($25 a child), with water, toilets and a kitchen area, and KWS says it needs no prior booking. Park entry comes on top at $90 per adult per 24 hours, prepaid on KWSPay because the gates are cashless. KWS's self-catering cottages start at $110 a night for two and must be booked through reservations@kws.go.ke or reservations.kws.go.ke.

What camping costs in Amboseli

Amboseli is a KWS premium park, so its camping rates are higher than the $20 a public pitch costs in most Kenyan parks. The figures below are from the KWS card in force since 1 October 2025, still current on 4 October 2026, and from the KWS Mbugani Homes 2025 rate card for the houses. Every line comes on top of the daily conservation fee, not instead of it.

Type	Rate (non-resident / African citizen / Kenya resident / East African)	What you get
Public campsite, per person per night	$30 / $15 / KSh 350 / KSh 250; child $25 / $13 / KSh 250 / KSh 200	A shared site near the park office with water, toilets and a kitchen area
Special campsite, per person per night	$50 / $25 / KSh 700 / KSh 500; child $25 / $15 / KSh 350 / KSh 250	Priced on the card, but KWS names no special campsite operating in Amboseli
Special campsite reservation	KSh 10,000 per week, non-refundable	Would apply on top of the nightly rate
Kilimanjaro Guest House (1 house)	$300 per night / KSh 20,000 citizens and residents	Three bedrooms, sleeps 7, kitchen, sitting room, caretaker
Kibo House (1 house)	$250 per night / KSh 15,000	Sleeps 4, self-catering
Kilimanjaro Annex (1 house)	$200 per night / KSh 10,000	Sleeps 4, self-catering
Simba Cottages and Chui Cottages (2 of each)	$110 per night / KSh 6,000	Two single beds, kitchenette, electricity, caretaker; $55 a head

The house rates are per unit, not per person. KWS's 2020 management plan counted four self-catering units; the 2025 rate card adds Kibo House, so treat the card as current.

Where the public campsite is and what it has

KWS's management plan for 2020 to 2030 places Amboseli's one public campsite near the park office, in the central zone around Ol Tukai where the lodges and the KWS houses also stand. KWS's February 2026 brochure lists its amenities as water, a toilet and bathroom block and a kitchen area. KWS publishes no coordinate for the site, so ask for directions at the gate.

Do not expect fresh paint. The same plan says the bandas and campsite were last renovated in 2013 and had deteriorated, and it budgeted for benches, a cooking shed, new washrooms and a perimeter fence. Whether that work has been done KWS has not said. The plan also proposed a second public campsite at the Daraja Mbao enclosure, which has not appeared on any KWS list.

Do you need to book the Amboseli campsite?

No, according to KWS: its brochure says 'Public campsites do not require prior booking.' You still pay before you arrive, because the gates are cashless. KWSPay at kwspay.ecitizen.go.ke takes M-Pesa, a Visa card or a bank transfer, asks for your vehicle registration and lets you add activities to the ticket. If the camping fee is not offered there, the KWS reservations office will tell you how to pay it.

The KWS houses and cottages are different: they must be reserved. Book them online at reservations.kws.go.ke, by email to reservations@kws.go.ke, on WhatsApp or the direct line +254 113 434 304, or on +254 726 610 533. The park's own hotline is +254 716 493 335.

The email for a KWS cottage, ready to copy

This gives the reservations office everything it needs in one message:

“Hello, I would like to book KWS accommodation in Amboseli National Park. Unit, in order of preference: [Simba Cottage / Chui Cottage / Kibo House / Kilimanjaro Annex / Kilimanjaro Guest House]. Dates: [arrival] to [departure], [x] nights. Party: [x] adults, [x] children with ages. Rate class: [non-resident / East African citizen / Kenya resident]. Please confirm availability, the total, and how you would like it paid. I will pay the conservation fees separately on KWSPay.”

Private campsites on the Kimana side

Outside the park, the strip of camps beyond Kimana Gate includes at least one place that takes tents. Amboseli Mountain View Camp invites guests to 'pitch your own tent on the well-shaded campsite' and hires out tents, and Amboseli Bush Camp in Kimana runs self-catering tented camps with room for extra camping tents for groups. Neither publishes a camping rate, so ask them directly.

Camping outside is not automatically cheaper. A KWS ticket covers a single entry of up to 24 hours, so each day you drive into the park from a pitch outside costs another $90 per adult, where a camper inside pays consecutive 24-hour periods. OpenStreetMap puts Amboseli Mountain View about 0.8 km outside the boundary near Kimana Gate, and Amboseli Bush Camp about 8 km from that gate.

Water, food and fuel: buy everything before the gate

There is no fuel inside Amboseli, and KWS lists 'reserve car fuel' among the things to bring. Fill up in Emali on the Mombasa Road, in Kimana town 27 km from Kimana Gate, which has a Shell station, or in Namanga, which has several. Emali has a Mulley's supermarket and Namanga a Zamzam supermarket on the map; Kimana has a market and the Shell shop, and no bank branch that KCB lists, so draw cash in Emali or Loitokitok.

KWS tells visitors to bring their own drinking water, and its brochure lists 'water' at the campsite without saying it is drinkable, so carry your supply. Single-use plastic is banned in every KWS park: bring large refillable containers rather than a crate of small bottles. And remember the single-entry rule: a run out to the shops ends your ticket.

Camp rules inside the park

Amboseli's campsite gives you the same swamp-side nights the lodges sell, at a fraction of the price, as long as you treat the dark hours with respect. Wild animals move freely across the park, and nothing on KWS's list of amenities mentions a fence.

Gates open at 06:00 and close at 18:00. Be back at the campsite before dark.
Stay in your vehicle everywhere except designated areas; Observation Hill is the one place KWS lets visitors walk and picnic.
Speed limit 40 km/h, off-road driving strictly prohibited, at least 20 metres from wildlife, no hooting and no feeding animals.
Do not wade into the swamps: schistosomiasis is a risk in Kenya's fresh water, and swimming in national parks is illegal.
Keep food locked in the vehicle, never in the tent.
KWS's rule is plain: visitors enter the park at their own risk.

Which option suits you

Choose the public campsite if you have your own kit and want the cheapest legal night inside, $120 per adult with the park fee included, and the swamps on your doorstep at first light. Skip it if you want hot showers you can count on: the facilities were described by KWS itself as worn in 2020.

Choose a Simba or Chui Cottage if you are two people who want walls and a kitchen for $110 a night, which is less than many tents outside the gate. A family or a group of four to seven should price Kibo House, the Annex or the Kilimanjaro Guest House, which at $300 for seven works out at about $43 a head. All of them sit inside the park, so you pay consecutive 24-hour tickets and never the re-entry penalty.

Something this page does not answer?

Campsite booking in Kenya's parks is rarely a website. If you cannot work out who to write to, ask us.

Ask us. We answer questions about the park itself, and we can usually tell you which camps work on one route and who to write to. If what you want is a trip someone else arranges, we will say so and hand you to an operator we know, and we earn a commission if that becomes a booking.

Nothing on this site sits behind the form. Every figure we have is already on the page.

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