African Paradise Safaris

Visited: Jul. 2024 Reviewed: Aug. 13, 2024 Submitted in:

We were a group of four and wanted to do safaris in Kenya and Tanzania in July 2024 and wanted this to be a private tour. After doing a lot of research, we had a very specific itinerary in mind, including the parks we wanted to visit and the accommodations we wanted to use.

So we contacted African Paradise Safaris (APS) in July 2023 (over a year in advance) to ask if they would be able to do this itinerary and they assured us they could. They provided us with a quote for this specific itinerary and it seemed good so we booked with John Peter.

We just returned from our trip and we had a very bad experience with APS. They did not respect the contract at all, they lied, and they did not respond to our emails when we reported the problems. They were very responsive when they wanted us to book our trip with them, but after that they just ignore you.

Here are some of the very bad surprises we had with APS :

- The Land Cruiser provided in Kenya was not appropriate.

It was very dirty, very old, too small to accommodate our luggage and in very poor condition. And it did not seem safe at all. Everybody was passing us on the road and our driver could not keep up because his steering wheel was shaking hard. At some point he even left us at a roadside market to go get it fixed but it did not help a lot. This caused us to lose a lot of precious time during the Kenya part of our trip.

During our game drives we saw a lot of other Land Cruiser et we clearly had the worst, and this was not what we paid for.

- The itinerary was not respected and something fishy was going on.

One day we were scheduled to arrive at our lodge in time for lunch, relax and have an afternoon game drive later.

However, our driver told us he knew a shortcut and decided to use some back road to get there and was very evasive when we asked him questions as why we were not going to the lodge first as planned.

He got lost three times trying to figure out where he was going and we lost so much time that he finally had to stop in the middle of nowhere to ask a guy to guide us on his motorcycle, through a very rocky terrain, to a non-official questionable entrance of the Maasai Mara park. We then lost some more time while he negotiates our entry and I suspect that using this back-entrance was a way to avoid paying the full fees for the park. We finally got in the park around 16h30 for a short game drive, but with all our luggage still in the jeep so this was very uncomfortable.

We were supposed to have lunch at the lodge and then relax until our game drive, instead we lost all our afternoon driving around in bad conditions, had a late crampy game drive and got to the lodge after sunset so we could not enjoy the facilities as expected.

- We booked two nights at the Zebra Plains Mara Camp but when we got there, there was no reservation for us.

Our driver took us to the wrong lodge first, then he finally got us to the Zebra Plains but they had no reservation for us, they told us APS did not book our reservation.

We thought somebody must have made a mistake and they would fix it so we will let them figure it out. After a while the Zebra Plains representant told us that they would only be able to provide us with rooms at their sister lodge, the Zebra River camp, about 35 minutes away.

It was irritating but it was getting late and we had no other choice.

The other accommodation seemed equivalent (not as much wildlife around though) but it was not the one that we chose and paid for.

Again a lot of time was wasted.

- In our quote we asked for a french speaking guide and APS told us it would not be a problem and they would provide a guide/driver that speaks french.

APS confirmed to us more than once that there would be just one person to accompany us (guide/driver would be the same person) when we specifically ask about that. However, in the middle of our trip we learned that we would have to switch vehicle and driver for the Tanzanian part of the trip because it seems APS subcontracted this part to another company called African Natural.

When we got to the border we were surprised to see that now we had two guys, a guide and a driver, which would mean that we would now have to pay double in tips.

We tried to contact APS about that but got no response.

But on the bright side, the Land Cruiser provided for the Tanzanian part of the trip was a LOT nicer. It was clean, spacious and in good mechanical order. It had a working cooler full of water, not just a dirty non-refrigerated box like we had before. In fact, this Land Cruiser was just like the ones all the other companies use! That was exactly what we expected and did not get in Kenya.

- We booked one night at the Rhino Lodge but again when we got there, there was no reservation for us.

This was the second time APS failed to book what we asked for and this time it was really beginning to piss us off.

We asked and there were rooms available but no reservation for us.

Our driver tried to contact APS and African Natural to sort this out, but they blamed each other and told him they could not even booked the available rooms.

They relocated us to Ngorongoro Wild Camp which is about 45 minutes away and is not at all comparable (a big step down).

We paid for a room with a fireplace, a nice restaurant, a nice view and we got a camp with no view, no fireplace and a restaurant that looked like a poor cafeteria.

And this place was not convenient at all (a lot further on very bad road), so we lost more than 2 hours the first day sorting this out and getting there and lost another hour the next day to get to the Ngorongoro crater.

Again we emailed APS to get some answers and never got any response.

- Our reservation at Masailand Safari Lodge was not booked full board (all meals included).

When we got to this place they informed us that our reservation was just bed and breakfast so we would have to pay for dinner and would not have our lunchbox the next day.

Our driver had to sort this out with APS again. After a while the lodge finally told us that African Natural agreed that we could have dinner but no lunchbox.

Since our invoice was clear that we paid for full board we send proof to APS and African Natural using Whatsapp and after a while we got a response telling us we would get our lunch the next day. Again we lost a lot of time for something that should have been done right from the start.

- We booked two nights at the Kibo Safari Camp but again APS failed and did not book it.

This time we did not even had to get to Kibo Safari Camp to learn that APS did not book our reservation.

We were on the way there and we happened to ask the driver if he knew the place to which he just answered that we were not going there after all!

This was the third time APS failed to book what we asked for, this is unacceptable.

We were pissed and asked why since this is the place we booked, and he told us APS decided to upgrade us for no reason and that we were now going to the Ol Tukai Lodge.

We specifically chose the Kibo Safari Camp because it is #1 on TA but again it seemed we had no choice but to accept that APS failed and lied.

The Ol Tukai Lodge (#3 on TA) was not bad and we liked it, but when you plan a year in advance and did not get what you paid for it is very irritating.

We were still able to have a good trip since Kenya and Tanzania have a lot to offer if you want to do safaris, but just do not use African Paradise Safaris (APS) if you want to avoid the stress and the deceptions. And make sure your driver uses his radio to communicate with other drivers. Our driver did in Kenya which was very helpful but in Tanzania the other driver did not and we think we missed a lot of opportunities because of that.

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