Booking and cancellation
What confirms a booking, when the balance is due, and what happens if plans change.
1. Confirming a booking
A booking is confirmed when we receive your deposit and send you written confirmation. Until both have happened, no space is held.
Deposit: 30% of the total. Balance: due 60 days before departure. Bookings made within 60 days of departure are payable in full at the time of booking.
If the balance is not received by the due date we may treat the booking as cancelled, and the scale below applies.
2. If you cancel
Cancellation takes effect on the day we receive it in writing. The charge depends on the days between that date and your departure.
| Notice before departure | Charge |
|---|---|
| 60 days or more | Deposit only — 30% of the total |
| 45 to 59 days | 50% of the total |
| 30 to 44 days | 75% of the total |
| Fewer than 30 days | 100% of the total |
| No-show | 100% of the total |
Why the deposit is not refundable. It is spent the day you book. Flightlink seats and camp space are held with money we have already paid out and cannot recover. Serengeti camps are small, and a bed released at short notice in high season rarely resells.
3. Changing your dates
Sixty days or more before departure, we make no charge for a date change, though we pass on any charge the airline or camp makes to us.
Inside 60 days, a date change is treated as a cancellation and a new booking. All changes are subject to availability — peak-season camp space and aircraft seats are limited.
4. If your party size changes
Our rates are per person and fall as the party grows, because the vehicle, the guide and the fees are shared. If someone drops out, the remaining travellers move to the higher band. The vehicle costs the same whether five people travel or seven. We will send you a revised total before acting on it.
A party of eight cannot travel in one vehicle. A safari jeep takes seven. An eighth passenger needs a second vehicle, which doubles every per-vehicle cost and reprices the whole party. We will tell you what that costs before you commit.
5. If we cancel
We will not cancel a confirmed safari except where it cannot be operated safely or lawfully. If we do, you choose: a full refund of everything paid to us, or an alternative departure with any difference refunded or payable.
The northern 4-day runs only for departures between 1 July and 31 October. It is built around the Mara River crossings and cannot be delivered outside that window, so our booking system will not accept those dates.
6. Travel insurance
Travel insurance is a condition of booking, not a suggestion. It must cover cancellation, trip interruption, missed departure and medical evacuation.
We are not liable for costs that insurance is designed to cover, and we will issue whatever documentation your insurer asks for.
7. Flight delays
Covered in full by our Flight Delay and Cancellation Policy, which forms part of these terms. In short: where a delay is nobody's fault we cover your first additional night entirely; where it is our fault we cover everything that follows.
8. Refunds
Refunds are made to the original payment method within 14 days of being agreed.
Where a refund depends on money being released by an airline or a camp, we pass back what we receive and do not promise more than that. Payment processing fees are not refundable.
9. Prices
Prices are per person in US dollars on a sharing basis, and are confirmed at the time of booking. Once your deposit is received the price of your safari does not change, including if park fees rise before you travel.
Prices for unbooked safaris may change without notice.
10. Passports, visas and health
Your responsibility. We will tell you what we know, but we cannot be liable for a traveller refused entry to Tanzania.
11. Complaints
Raise it with your guide at the time. Almost everything can be fixed on the ground and almost nothing can be fixed afterwards. If it cannot be resolved there, write to us within 28 days of returning.
12. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Does not affect your statutory rights.