African Paradise Safaris guide
Paradise in Africa Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 1-5 employees (Founded in 2009)
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $3,123 to $9,543 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
NZ
Email Brett | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Untrue and dishonest to secure our budged joining safari booking
In Aug 2023 my wife and I signed with African Paradise Safaris (APS) to join a 6-day budget safari of Masai Mara, Nakuru and Amboseli National Parks. We loved the parks, saw plenty of animals, and enjoyed the park environments. We were very disappointed with the arrangements made by APS, the blatant untruths told to us in order to secure our safari booking, and the unprofessional manner in which they avoided addressing issues that we had regarding their safari arrangements.
Prior to arriving in Kenya, APS was very communicative in answering all of my questions. On the basis of the information they provided, we signed up to join their budget safari. Unfortunately, it turned out that a lot of the information provided to us was completely untrue.
APS guaranteed that we would be in a safari van with a maximum of 6 passengers, but the van had 8 seats and 8 passengers, which makes the small van too crowded, particularly when you are trying to stand on the game drives. It also means that at least two people sit in the middle, without direct access to a window.
We were told that the safari would be operated by APS and not by another company. On the day, APS was nowhere to be seen, and we were told that we were joining a safari operated by Big Time Safaris. There were people from 3 different safari companies in the van, all with different itineraries. When we raised these issues with Big Time Safaris, they told us to contact the safari companies that we had booked with. (APS).
We were told by APS that all participants in the safari would stay with the safari throughout. This wasn't true, with some people leaving the safari at different points.
We were told by APS that everyone would be staying the same accommodation on the safari (so time wouldn't be wasted picking people up before the game drives). This wasn't true. People were staying in up to three different lodges and both budget and moderate accommodation each night.
In our itinerary we paid for 7 game drives. 3 at Maasai Mara, 1 at Nakuru and 3 at Amboseli. Our safari van broke down on two occasions, taking a total of 5 hours to repair on the roadside. As a result, two evening game drives in Masai Mara and Nakuru were shorter than they should have been. Due to changes to the itinerary as a result of vehicle repairs, and to changes in Masai Mara ticketing fees that were not communicated to us by APS, we missed a further two game drives completely - 1 in Masai Mara, and one in Amboseli. When we brought all of these issues up with African Paradise Safaris, they completely ignored us, and would not correspond with us regarding all the misinformation they had provided, the issues with the vehicle, or the missed game drives. In fact, we never met or saw any APS staff at any time either before or after our safari. The other members of our safari were met by staff from their companies at the drop off in Nairobi and at least one received some compensation for their missed game drives. APS was nowhere to be seen.
APS have many great reviews and I suspect that if we had booked a private safari with African Paradise, our experience would have been completely different, but be aware that if you are booking a budget joining safari, there is a good chance that APS will tell you whatever they think will secure a safari booking, but it will not necessarily be the truth. I would recommend you look for a more trustworthy company for a joining safari.
NZ
Email Yvonne & Jim | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Tanzania a trip of a lifetime. APS the Company and the People that ensure this is true.
We began the search for our African Adventure by browsing the wonderful website of Safari Bookings.
Thanks Safari Bookings for such a great resource.
Our "once in a lifetime" safari holiday to Tanzania started the moment we contacted African Paradise Safaris (APS). John Peter gave exceptional help and advice as we put together our trip, with his help we were able to customize our holiday so that it was the right fit for our party of 4. After best part of a year in planning and numerous enjoyable emails back and forth with John Peter, it was a little disappointing to realise we would not meet this man who had put together a fantastic itinerary for us.
Thanks Heaps John Peter.
We were met a Kilimanjaro airport by our driver / guide David. A better guide we couldn't have hoped for. His passion, care & knowledge for the wildlife - his "eagle eye" for spotting animals hidden to our inexpert eye - his personality and sense of humour and his attention to all the little details of our trip meant we had a safari experience way beyond our expectations. A very special man.
Thanks Heaps David....
And last a MASSIVE thank you to the most amazing animals for just being you...
Tanzania is a "once in a lifetime holiday" and the wonderful people at APS made that come true
We began our search for an African Adventure by scrolling through awesome information and advise on Safari Bookings website. A great place to begin. Thanks Safari Bookings.
Then our "once in a lifetime" safari holiday to Tanzania really began to come true the moment we contacted African Paradise Safaris (APS). John Peter gave exceptional help and advice as we put together our trip, with his help we were able to customize our holiday so that it was the right fit for our party of 4. After best part of a year in planning and numerous enjoyable emails back and forth with John Peter, it was a little disappointing to realise we would not meet this man who had put together a fantastic itinerary for us.
Thanks Heaps John Peter.
We were met a Kilimanjaro airport by our driver / guide David. A better guide we couldn't have hoped for. His passion, care & knowledge for the wildlife - his "eagle eye" for spotting animals hidden to our inexpert eye - his personality and sense of humour and his attention to all the little details of our trip meant we had a safari experience way beyond our expectations. A very special man.
Thanks Heaps David....
And last a MASSIVE thank you to the most amazing animals for just being you...
Email Mark | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Do not do business with African Paradise Safaris
I bought a 7-day 6-night group safaris from African Paradise Safaris. It turned out there was no such safaris.
They subcontracted my safaris to Africa Natural Safaris, which does not have a license to operate. I was shuffled between 4 different safaris groups in seven days. It was a disaster. Do not do business with this company
Reply from Paradise in Africa Safaris
Posted on Jun 18, 2018Dear Mr Adam,
Thank you very much for the review. I apologies for not meeting your safari expectation.
When you wrote to me in regards to the service. Yes I advised you that I sub contracted Africa Natural safaris. One thing in Tanzania - If you are not registered tour operator your vehicle cannot entered National parks. So the Africa Natural Safaris is a registered tour operator.
You mentioned well that the tour was good and the problem was breakdown of communication. In budget joining tour, some time you might join 2 or more groups going in the same area.
Initially remember the package I sent to you, you were to do 2 nights in Serengeti but when Geoffrey came to take collect the payment. You changed and stated you want a tour which will have 3 nights in Serengeti. And it was few hour (less than 15hrs) to the departure time. Now we had to joining you to the group you had requested initially, And because we had another group extending in Serengeti we joined you to the other group - so that we can satisfy you staying 3 nights in Serengeti National Park.
You changing the program last minute when company representative is collecting the payment, made everything out of order. In which the services was provided, the problem was joined in several group which was a result of you changing the program, less than 15 hour to the departure time.
I listen to your dissatisfaction and we refunded you all the profit we made for your package- which was delivered by Jacob under my instruction.
CA
Email Marco | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
My advice is not to trust APS, they were dishonest and unresponsive with us
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.
CA
Email Brian Jeffay | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing photographic journey. A wonderful and professional tour company.
After careful research and having talked to a person who previously did a safari organized with Peter, I decided this was the company I wanted to use. I did a messenger video chat with Peter and explained my interest in photography. He organized a 3 week trip in Kenya and Tanzania taking into account my wishes. It was all spectacular from start to finish. Our driver Davido went above and beyond to accommodate our small group of 3. He made sure we saw all the animals up close.
A couple things to keep in mind. A very good camera will definitely make the experience totally awesome.
The roads between parks and in the parks are at times an adventure.
The lodges that were booked were all clean , safe and relaxing.
If you sleep with a cpap, be sure to point that out in advance. Places will make arrangements for that. Otherwise in some places the power might not function overnight.
Africa is not like North America or Europe. Don't compare , just enjoy it. Please feel free to contact me for any additional information. Brian
*** Photos are just a few from my trip.
Email Thomas | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
John Peter and Davido(guide) make a great team. They were the reason why we had such a great time!
We had organized a Kenya/Tanzania tour with African Paradise Safaris back in June of 2020, but because of Covid we had to postpone the trip until a year later. It was a 12 day safari where we visited Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Amboseli. John Peter who helped us organize this trip was extremely communicative throughout the entire process. He responded to emails in less than 24 hours and addressed all our concerns and catered our trip to fit our needs. He gave us great confidence in his company and got us excited for our trip!
Davido was our guide/driver during our time in Kenya and was one of the reasons our trip was so incredible. He was so attentive, calm and educational throughout the entire trip. He clearly has built a great reputation amongst his peers and has a great network of people he works with during the game drives to ensure you find the best animals. His eyes are always scouting the area for something to see. His knowledge of the animals was very extensive. He helped guide us through customs during Covid times and always made sure we felt safe. We had to take multiple covid tests to cross borders. This process was new for all parties and Davido handled all situations like a professional. There is no problem that can't be solved. Hakuna Matata!
Stay in the tented camps!
I fully recommend this company!
NL
Email Katie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Amazing and magical experience - super flexible provider
The Safari was absolutely incredible, we loved every minute of it and wish we could have done more. Davido was a great tour guide, and we'd recommend him to anyone - super attentive and catered to the type of adventure we were looking for. John Peter who helped us plan everything was so flexible and had abundant patience (trust me, I changed our Giraffe Manor booking 4 times). Thanks for this incredible experience!!
DE
Email Heike | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very good tour operator
We had a fantastic time on our 12-day safari in Kenya and Tanzania. Everything was completely well organized, the accommodations were amazing and the driver guides tried to show us as much as possible during the game drives and, if possible, to respond to our requests. We would always book again with African Paradise Safaris and we can recommend this company to anyone who also wants to do a safari tour.
FR
Email Wiljopann | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great trip with great service
Our 14 days Kenya-Tanzania Safari Tour organized by African Paradise Safaris was great and unforgettable!
The itinerary prepared by John Peter for our family trip is so completed. We did enjoy very much!
We had the best guides and drivers: Isa and Salomon. They took care of us and handled everything with care. They are very professional.
They are the ambassadors of Kenya and Tanzania.
Isa and Salomon know all the parks by memory, they brought us to see every animal. We saw National Geographic for real during the game drives.
We recommend their service to everyone!