Travel Tips

PAYMENTS

You will be invoiced upon making a reservation and full payment is due 90 days prior to the first land day of the trip. Payment is accepted as follows:

• U.S. Dollar check posted to our office
• Wire transfer to our account at the Excellent Guides Tanzania.
• Money order

CANCELLATION AND REFUNDS

Notification of cancellation must be made in writing to Excellent Guides. At the time we receive the cancellation, all moneys will be refunded less the following cancellation charges, deducted from the total land only price:

91 days or more before departure: Cancellation fees equal the amount of your deposit
90 to 61 days before departure: 50% of the package price is non-refundable
60 to 46 days before departure: 65% of the package price is non-refundable
45 days or less before departure: 100% of the package price is non-refundable

Within 90 days prior to departure cancellation fees will apply. You may also be responsible for any fees imposed by hotels, airlines etc., that are over and above your land arrangements, due to your cancellation of your original date bookings.

Excellent Guides is not responsible for expenses incurred by trip members in preparing for the trip (e.g. visa fees, immunizations, insurance, equipment, etc.) or for any necessary additional travel arrangements should you embark from home before the group departure date. Accommodations are subject to change.

TRAVEL INSURANCE

Each person travelling on your booking must have adequate travel insurance cover suitable for the type of trip you’ve booked. In particular, you need cover for any emergencies such as illness or injury that might arise while you’re away and, for your own peace of mind, you should have cover in case you have to cancel your booking before travel. We cannot be responsible for any costs you incur as a result of failing to take out adequate travel insurance. If you haven’t already purchased travel insurance, please visit www.excellentguidestz.com or ask your travel agent for a quote.

 TRAVEL DOCUMENTS AND HEALTH ADVICE

It’s your responsibility to make sure everyone travelling has valid travel documents (e.g. Passport, Visa) and has followed health advice. Please also see our Holiday Information pages and website for more information. We can’t accept any liability for your failure to do this. If we or your carrier are fined because anyone on your booking didn’t have the correct documents/vaccinations, etc., you’ll have to reimburse us.

 ADVANCE PASSENGER INFORMATION

To comply with International regulations on Border Control and Aviation Security, before travel you must provide passport and certain other information, for each person travelling to the airline that is going to carry you (‘Advance Passenger Information’ or ‘API’). Please check your booking documents for details of how and when to submit this information. Failure to provide API by the deadlines stated (which may be several weeks before travel), could mean you can’t travel or, if the airline allows you to submit the information at the airport, you may be charged for this.

 IF YOU WANT TO CANCEL YOUR BOOKING

Only the Lead Name on the booking can ask us to cancel it or to remove any of the named passengers from it. You must put your instruction to cancel the booking or cancel off any passenger in writing and either give it to your Travel Agent or send it to our correspondence address as stated on our confirmation invoice. The cancellation charges shown below

apply from the date we receive your cancellation instruction at our offices or from your Travel Agent.
In order to cover our expected losses from the cancellation there’s a set scale of charges which must be paid by you if you or anyone travelling with you cancels or you cancel any services or arrangements that form part of your booking with us. The charges are a percentage of the cost of the arrangements being cancelled.
Note: The above cancellation charges apply to all bookings, except where a booking includes items or services for which our supplier’s own cancellation charges are more than the ones shown above. In that case, any additional cancellation charges will be advised at the time of booking, or a higher (non-refundable) deposit or full payment will be payable at the time of booking to cover the potential cancellation charge.
If any member of the booking cancels and you can’t fill that person’s place, you may have to pay extra for your accommodation. For example, you may have to pay single or under-occupancy supplements. If you cancel, you must still pay any insurance premiums and amendment charges which arose before the cancellation, and any deposits paid for any pre-booked items or services.
Please ensure you understand what charges you’ll have to pay if you cancel your booking or cancel someone off it, and ask us before you book.
Optional Extras: ‘Optional Extras’, means anything you choose to add to your booking that’s not already included in the price (such as flight extras, flight upgrades, car hire, weddings, park tickets, tours, excursions). If you cancel any Optional Extras for which there’s a cost, we’ll retain any deposit paid for the Optional Extra or we’ll apply cancellation charges (as set out in the table below) if you cancel the Optional Extra after your full Holiday cost has been paid. If you cancel any travel insurance you bought through us your premium will not be refunded, as cover under the policy will have begun when it was first taken out.

CHANGES YOU MAKE BEFORE TRAVEL

If you want to change your travel arrangements before you travel, we’ll try to help but we can’t guarantee it will always be possible, because changes are subject to availability at the time and to the supplier’s terms and conditions. If we can make the change you ask for, you’ll have to pay for any additional services, facilities, or other items you request at the price which applies on the day the change is made. We’ll also apply an amendment charge for each person on the booking and for each item you want to change as shown in the table below. Any booking discount you may have received at the time the original booking was made may be altered or reduced whenever changes are made. If the number of people in your accommodation changes, you may have to pay extra and may lose any free or reduced infant and child places or any free group places. Any change to your departure date, airport, transport, destination, accommodation, or length of holiday must apply to everyone on your booking

CHANGES MADE BY US BEFORE YOU TRAVEL

Sometimes we’ll have to make changes to your booking arrangements.

Significant Changes: If any change will have a significant effect on your Holiday, we’ll tell you about it before you travel (if there is time). The sort of significant changes we’ll tell you about include:
• A change to your destination.
• A change of more than 12 hours to the time you leave your destination.
• If we downgrade your accommodation by one full ‘Tour Operator’ rating, or,
• If the swimming pool will not be available for an extended period during your Holiday and no alternative pool is

available either at the property or nearby.
If you don’t want to accept a significant change that we tell you about before you depart, we will, if we’re able to do so, offer you an alternative Holiday of equivalent or closely similar standard and price at no extra cost, or a less expensive Holiday, in which case we will refund the difference in price. If you don’t wish to take the alternative Holiday we offer you, you can choose another one of our Holidays and pay, or receive a refund of, any price difference. Alternatively, if you prefer, you can cancel your booking and receive a full refund of any money you’ve paid to us, except for any amendment charges which arose before cancellation. We’ll consider an appropriate refund of insurance premiums paid if you can show that you’re unable to transfer or reuse your policy.
Unless the change is as a result of circumstances listed in the paragraph below headed ‘Changes Due To Circumstances Beyond our Control’, we’ll pay you compensation as shown in the table below. If you accept the significant change or amend to a different Holiday offered for sale by us you’ll receive compensation in Option 1 of the table below. If you reject the significant change and cancel your booking, you’ll receive compensation in Option 2. The amounts in the table are by way of guideline only and may, in appropriate circumstances, be increased. Any children not paying the full adult price will receive 50% of these amounts. There are no compensation payments payable to those

travelling on ‘free child places’, ‘free group places’ or for infants
Other Changes: Any change which is not deemed to be significant, as outlined above, will be classed as a minor change. We’ll try to tell you about a minor change before you travel but we won’t pay any compensation for a minor change.
Aircraft Changes: The flights we offer are operated by a range of scheduled or charter airlines, using a range of aircraft. It may not be possible at the time of booking to specify the airline or type of aircraft. Two airlines may share the same services, so a flight may not be operated by the airline whose designated code is shown on your itinerary and travel documents. We’re required to inform you of the identity of the airline operating your flight. Any changes to the operating airline will be notified to you in all cases at check in or at the boarding gate. We reserve the right to change airlines or aircraft types at any time and any changes of this type are not a significant change.
Changes Due To Circumstances Beyond Our Control: Except where we say differently elsewhere in these booking conditions, we cannot pay any compensation, reimburse expenses, or cover losses for any amount or otherwise accept responsibility if, as a result of circumstances beyond our control, we have to change your Holiday or Single Component after booking, or we, or our suppliers, cannot supply your Holiday / Single Component, as we, or they, had agreed. When we refer to circumstances beyond our control we mean any event that we, or the supplier in question, could not foresee or avoid, even after taking all reasonable care. Such circumstances will usually include, but are not limited to, war, threat of war, airport closures, epidemic, natural or nuclear disaster, terrorist activity, civil unrest, industrial dispute, bad weather (actual or threatened), Foreign Office advising against travel to a particular destination and significant building work taking place outside of your accommodation (such as resort development).

CANCELLATION BY US

On rare occasions, we may need to cancel your Holiday and have the right to do so – for example, if there is insufficient demand for your particular Holiday. If we have to cancel your Holiday we’ll tell you as soon as reasonably possible. If we can do so, we’ll offer you an alternative Holiday of equivalent or closely similar standard and price at no extra cost to you, or a less expensive Holiday, in which case we’ll refund the difference in price. If you don’t wish to take the alternative we offer you, you can choose another one of our Holidays and pay, or receive a full refund of, any price difference. Alternatively, if we can’t offer an alternative Holiday that you’re happy to accept, you can have a full refund of any money you’ve paid to us, except for any amendment charges which arose before cancellation. We’ll consider an appropriate refund of insurance premiums paid if you can show that you’re unable to transfer or reuse your policy. We won’t cancel your Holiday within 12 weeks of departure except if we’re forced to do so because of unusual circumstances we could not have foreseen and which we couldn’t have avoided even after taking all reasonable care. (See paragraph 12 ‘Changes Due To Circumstances Beyond Our Control’) No compensation will be payable in these circumstances, whenever they happen, and we’ll only have to offer you the above choices. We can also cancel your booking if you fail to make payment on time.

Please note that where an outward flight isn’t used we have the right to cancel any other arrangements you’ve booked with us and you won’t be able to use your return flight ticket. In these circumstances, no refund can be provided for any unused arrangements.

Travel Policy Updates For Our Guests.

For Travel Scheduled to Travel 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2020

Option #1:If you’ve paid your initial deposit only, we’ll provide you with an added credit of USD $250* per traveler for keeping your funds on account with Excellent Guides Co LTD. We’ll advise you of 2022-2022 prices once they’re available, and in the meantime, we’ll be happy to guarantee your space.

If you’ve already made final payment on your 2020 journey, we’ll honor our 2020 prices and provide you with an added credit of USD $500* per traveler for keeping your funds on account with Excellent Guides Co LTD. You can enhance your next trip by applying those extra funds to your purchase of Safari activates like hot air balloon, Maasai etc.

Option #2: Make alternative 2020 or 2021 travel plans – and earn a credit of up to $500.

You can leave 100% of the funds paid toward your tour, and it will be our pleasure to increase that amount by an additional USD $500* per traveler for guests who have already made their final payment, and $250* per traveler for those guests who have paid their initial deposit only.

When you’re ready to book your next vacation, you’ll be free to apply 100% of those funds to any 2020 or 2021 Tour, giving you flexibility, peace of mind, and the welcome joy of having something wonderful to plan and look forward to.

Thank you for making your travel plans with Excellent Guides Co LTD.

No deposit for new guests planning future travel

We know many of you are still dreaming of Tanzania and are eager to begin planning. We’re just as excited to welcome you to our home, so we want to make the process easier than ever.

You can now book your future safari with no deposit until “November 1, 2020´´

As with any travel, the anticipation and preparation are part of the fun; we want you to enjoy it without the stress that comes with the current unknown. Browse all of our trips through 2021 here. With so many guests postponing travel from this year to next, we’re already seeing many of our Christmas 2020 trips start to sell out, so contact us soon to reserve your spot.

*This policy is valid for new bookings only. To confirm trip participation, guest agrees to pay a 20% refundable deposit on or before November 1, 2020. Once deposit is received, standard Excellent Guides Safaris and Tours Conditions apply. Offer ends December 1, 2020. Please contact us for more details and complete terms and conditions.