Petting Tiger Cubs at Pai Pai
Updated June 2025: Petting tiger cubs is a unique shore excursion in Ensenada. But the official Pai Pai website and notes from Carnival are confusing, so here is some on-the-ground info from our local tours team, as well as alternative ways to see animals and nature in Ensenada.
Where can I pet tiger cubs in Ensenada?
As of June 2025, there is one option to pet tiger cubs and take photos with big cats, lemurs, monkeys at Pai Pai Eco Animal park Previously, the same owners did have animals near La Bufadora at Habana Banana Restaurant, but they were removed in June 2023.
Pai Pai is an eco animal park on the way to Bufadora. They have tiger cubs, monkeys, falcons, barn animal petting (they call it interactions), and photo-only options. In the last years, they added in activities such as zip lines, ATVs, tequila tasting, and horseback riding.
Those other activities are well suited for kids, but adults will find more fun at other ATV, Horseback riding, and Zip Line locations. We like the Zipline and canopy tour at Las Canadas and ATV on the mountains. For horseback, the beach ride and echo canyoun ride are great, and have lower age limits than the cruise sponsored.
The Habana Banana restaurant is on the strip of flea market vendors between the parking lot and La Bufadora viewing platform. It is a bit touristy and creates a fun environment for kids. The monkey logo and slide down the stairs are kinda fun. Previously the offer animal interactions, but stopped in 2023 due to some bad press.
I don’t work directly with either place, so prices and options may change. We do offer private excursion tours to Pai Pai and other places, making safe transportation and bilingual driver guides and a back-to-ship guarantee.
How much to pet tiger cubs?
Based on the current website at Eco Animal Park Pai Pai, $90usd for adults and $75 for the least expensive package including feline interaction.
Their marketing department changes packages and uses marketing language, so I can’t accurately describe their offerings.
Our private transportation Pai Pai Excursion is $37 each for groups of 4, and we can now offer an exclusive discounted package with 5 value activities. You can take transportation only, or best to get the value ticket to avoid a huge budget surprise when you get to the window.
Our Exclusive Package 75usd includes:
Petting juvenile (3-6 month) rescue tiger/lion/jaguar cub
Pet & feed Barn animals goat, sheep, chicken, ducks, donkey
Play with Spider Monkey or Lemur
Surprise animal (falcon, racoon, lizard . . rotates with animal health)!
Tequila tasting, making, history talk
They have many other activities you can pick. They take credit cards so you can buy at the window. Keep in mind it is pretty expensive 35-55 each activity.
Full disclosure, our package includes interacting with a juvenile tiger, lion, or puma. This is usually 6-9 months only. The tiger cub in the picture below is about 2-3 months old. As you can imagine, the grow fast.
Pai Pai will attempt to upsell the experience with the cub. . . . .
There are packages of transportation to Pai Pai available on Viator too, but that platform does not allow entrance tickets so none of the listings included there include entrance tickets.
Is Petting Tiger Cubs Legal?
Yes, these businesses are 100% legal here in Mexico. Although traveling circus animals like big cats have been phased out here in Mexico, these facilities are legitimate. In my experience, the facilities at Pai Pai are very clean well kept. This is not the case in many public zoos I have visited on other countries in my world travels. And I don’t know about the care practices there.
I am a big fan of connecting with animals and nature. And of trying to do that in the most compassionate, respectful way. I now prefer to keep my petting to domesticated animals like dogs and horses, however, I have interacted with a big cat cub.
Twenty years ago in Bangladesh, I did get a chance to hold a Bengal Tiger cub by chance. I had a private driver and we pulled into a mini-mall for gas, the baby tiger was in an open-air pen there in the next store like I used to see puppies in the mall when I was young (is that still a thing)?
I did get a chance to hold the tiger cub and a picture. It was a pretty amazing feeling and memory one - just one I don’t need to repeat.
Is Tiger Cubs Safe at Pai Pai?
Carnival Cruise Lines is currently recommending against the Pai Pai Excuruison.
I understand there was an incident where a man was bit in the calf and had puncture wounds enough to seek medical attention. This has not happened with our tours. One other provider reported to me that his client got a scratch that was a small scar for 3 or 4 months. Both of these incidents happened at the La Bufadora facility, which is smaller and has now been shut down.
Of course, you have to sign release forms when entering the park.
Having said that, the place is clean, well-maintained, and orderly. I get the sense that is is a well-run place.
Are the Animals Well Treated at Pai Pai?
Carnival makes the effort to discourage cruisers from going to Pai Pai, and they do not offer this as an excursion.
I honestly can’t say since I don’t work there. I will say that it is clean. Many of the animals are nocturnal, so daytime petting is not normal for their circadian rhythm. Likely, they are lightly sedated for safety.
In concept, Pai Pai gets the baby cats from situations from where the baby has been rejected by the mother. And, as an animal rescue, they care for the animals.
This is the key point since the premium experience is a tiger cub of 1-4 months soo cute to hold and pictures. However, this would imply that they need to have 3-4 cubs a year, and then place 3-4 tigers or lions in other zoos or keep them as they mature. . . . I just don’t know what you can humanely do with tiger after they are not cute to hold and take pictures, but need to be care and captivity for years. . . .
The staff also reports that when the cats are older, they are placed in zoos.
How true is this? I don’t have firsthand knowledge and it would be hard to verify.
On one hand, any kind of animal rescue is doing amazing work and needs to have funds to pay for expenses. Let’s face it, as humans we are obsessed with our own lives and easily forget about animals no in our care, and our impact on animals living environment.
On the other hand, the motivations of business and paying for any kind of organization lead to improvement and sometimes fancy marketing stories that are had to verify, or at least an ideal that each organization strives for that is more or less true.
Horses and Other Animals
If you want to connect with nature or animals with your family, you might also consider the packages at Pai Pai with the barn animals petting and reptiles, or a horseback riding excursion. There are options for beach rides and kids can arrange for a smaller horse or ponies. Honestly, horseback on the beach in Mexico pictures are pretty epic memory.
And if you have a heart for animals, my teams (massage, mobile spa, and excursions) have quarterly gifting to a local bajaj animal rescue (dog rescue Los Adoptables in June 2025 and horse rescue Tina Jos Promise July-Sept 2023).
Since horses are domesticated, the relationship with humans is much more satisfying and tolerable than cats in my humble opinion. I also feel very connected with horses as my father was a light-hands horse trainer in his retirement years. Did you know a horse’s heart weighs about 8 lbs? Thinking creatively about the magnetic and electrical field created by the heart makes me smile.
In the city, there are sea lions and seagulls along the Malecon downtown by the harbor in front of Mercado Negro fish market, where I love fish upstairs fish tacos and smoked marlin or tuna.
Kids Zoo in Wine Valley
If you are dedicating a day to kids and want something different, Ensenada has a kid’s zoo, Zoologico Parque del Nino Jersey.
Logistically it is 40 minutes northeast of town, in the opposite direction from Bufadora and Pai Pai, in the heart of Wine Valle. It is not on the regular route of cruise excursions, so its business packages, website, and facilities have not been optimized for tourism, and not the hustle of walking through the gauntlet of shops at La Bufadora.
I don’t believe there are tiger cub petting opportunities.
Even with the transportation, it will likely be less than Pai Pai for a group of 4. Request a custom tour and we can set it up, would be about $111 each for a group of 4 with entrance included. Since it is a bit further away, not easily combined with other visits to Bufadora or much time for first-street walking and shopping.
Breathe Deeply and Travel Slowly!
Jesse in Ensenada
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Please comment with any new information or questions, and I will update this blog.
