Who we are and what these conditions cover
We are Botswana Safari Tours, Hazina Trade Centre, Monrovia Street, Nairobi, Kenya. These conditions and your written confirmation form the contract between us and the lead traveller, who accepts them on behalf of everyone in the party. We plan your journey and book its camps, guides, flights and transfers through our ground partners in Botswana.
Making a booking
- Your booking is confirmed when we receive your deposit and send you written confirmation. Until then, prices and availability can change, and camp space is not held unless we say so in writing.
- The lead traveller must be 18 or over. They are responsible for payments and for passing our information on to the rest of the party.
Deposits and paying the balance
- Deposit: 30% of the journey price, due within seven days of accepting our proposal. Some camps ask for more at peak times. If yours does, we tell you before you pay.
- Balance: due 90 days before your journey starts. If you book within 90 days of travel, the full price is due when you book.
- Late payment: we remind you first. If the balance still has not arrived, we may treat the booking as cancelled by you, and the cancellation charges below apply.
- How to pay: by bank transfer in US dollars, to the account on your invoice. Your bank’s charges are yours to pay, so that the full amount reaches us.
We will never change our bank details by email or WhatsApp alone. If you receive payment instructions that differ from your invoice, call us on +254 716 354 396 before you send anything.
Prices and what they include
Prices are in US dollars per person, as stated in your quotation. Every journey includes park, reserve and concession fees; accommodation and meals as specified; game activities; internal transfers by light aircraft, road and boat; professional Botswana guides; all gratuities; drinking water; emergency medical evacuation cover; our 24/7 duty desk; and your pre-departure documentation.
Not included: international flights, visas, travel insurance, premium wines and spirits, personal purchases and optional extras such as helicopter flights. Your quotation lists these too.
Once your booking is confirmed, we do not add surcharges for exchange rates or fuel. The one exception is a new or increased government park fee, conservation levy or tax introduced after confirmation. We pass that on at cost and show you the notice.
If you want to change your booking
Tell us in writing and we will do our best. Changes depend on availability. We charge no administration fee, but we pass on at cost anything the camps, airlines or our partners charge for the change. Reducing the number of travellers, or moving your dates by a long way, may count as cancelling part of the booking.
If you cancel
The lead traveller must cancel in writing. These charges are a percentage of the total journey price and depend on how long before the start of your journey we receive your notice:
- 91 days or more: the deposit
- 90 to 61 days: 50%
- 60 to 31 days: 75%
- 30 days or fewer, or not travelling without telling us: 100%
Some camps have stricter terms, especially for exclusive-use and peak-season bookings. If any part of your journey does, we tell you in writing before you pay the deposit, and those terms apply to that part. This is why cancellation cover matters (see travel insurance).
If we have to change or cancel your journey
- Minor changes, such as a comparable camp or a revised flight time, can happen. We tell you as soon as we know.
- Significant changes, such as a lower-standard camp, fewer nights in a destination or different dates, are yours to decide. You can accept the change, take an alternative we offer, or cancel and receive a full refund of everything you have paid us.
- If we cancel, for any reason other than your non-payment, you receive a full refund. That includes cancellations caused by floods, fire, epidemics, unrest, government action or park closures. We will also offer to move your journey to new dates if you prefer.
Travel insurance
Travel insurance is a condition of every journey we sell. Your policy must cover medical treatment, repatriation and cancellation for the full non-refundable cost of your journey and flights. Buy it when you pay your deposit, and send us the policy details before you travel. The emergency medical evacuation cover included in your journey is not a substitute for insurance. Our travel insurance guide explains what to look for.
Passports, visas and health
You are responsible for travelling with a valid passport, any visas you need and any health requirements for entry. We give you this information in writing for your journey, but rules change, so check them with official sources. Light aircraft limit luggage to about 20kg per person in a soft bag. Extra seats can be booked at cost if you need more.
On safari
Botswana’s animals are wild. Follow the instructions of your guides and camp staff, who may change or end an activity for safety reasons. Camps set minimum ages for some activities, and no sighting can be guaranteed. Tell us before you book about any medical condition or mobility need that could affect your journey. If someone’s behaviour puts others at risk, the camp or guide may ask them to leave, and no refund is due for the unused part of the journey.
Our responsibility to you
We are responsible for arranging your journey properly and for choosing our partners with care. If something we arranged is not provided as agreed, tell us and we will put it right. Where that is not possible, we will offer a fair price reduction or compensation. We are not liable where the problem was caused by you, by someone unconnected with the services we arranged, or by unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances.
Where the law allows, our liability is limited to the price of your journey. That limit does not apply to death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or to anything else the law does not allow us to limit. Airlines’ liability is governed by the international conventions that apply to air travel.
If something goes wrong
Tell our duty desk straight away, by phone or WhatsApp on +254 716 354 396, at any hour. Most problems can be fixed there and then, and a complaint raised only after you get home is far harder to resolve. If something is still not right, write to botswanasafaritour@gmail.com within 28 days of your return. We acknowledge within seven days and reply in full within 28.
Law and disputes
These conditions are governed by the law of Kenya, and the courts of Kenya deal with any dispute about them. If you book as a consumer and live elsewhere, you keep the protections your own country’s law gives you.