Terms and Conditions
World Big Cat Safaris
GENERAL INFO
World Big Cat Safaris (WBCS), part of Natural World Safaris Ltd, organises safaris in Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Malawi and other big cat destinations. Safaris are organised by Natural World Safaris Ltd, registered in the United Kingdom. Please read our Travel Info and Terms and Conditions carefully as these form the basis of our obligations to you and vice versa. In these terms and conditions, “you” means all persons named on the booking (including anyone who is added or substituted at a later date) and “we” and “us” means World Big Cat Safaris. On occasions due to circumstances beyond our control the terms may be amended; please note that the terms that you receive on confirmation of booking are the terms that are valid. Upon payment of deposit it is taken that you understand that in our destination countries service levels, infrastructure, levels of hygiene, safety and security may be lower than you are used to in your country of residence. It is important to adhere to local laws and regulations of the destination country when travelling with WBCS and these are the laws and regulations that will apply to your holiday not those of your country of residence.
ACCURACY OF INFORMATION
All information that we have provided including on our website and in our brochure is given in good faith and is to the best of our knowledge a fair and up to date representation whether it is of a national park, reserve, wildlife, accommodation, food, security, big cat visibility, itineraries or weather. We pride ourselves on our accuracy of information however do not accept liability or responsibility for any errors caused by circumstances out of our control.
IF WE CANCEL
On occasions we have no choice but to cancel confirmed bookings; we make every effort not to cancel but we reserve the right to do so. Cancellations will be made only if we have not received full payment 60 days prior to departure or as a result of circumstances beyond our control. Upon cancellation of your holiday (unless as a result of no payment or force majeure) you will have the opportunity to purchase a holiday from us of the same value as the original holiday. If your alternative holiday purchase is less expensive than the original then we will refund the difference, if it is of greater value than the original holiday booked then you must pay the difference. An alternative to this is to be refunded all your monies; on occasions cost of gorilla permits may not be refunded due to circumstances beyond our control however we will make every effort to reimburse these costs if possible. WBCS is and will not be liable for any costs that you have incurred as a result of the cancellation.
WBCS or our local operators hold the right to cancel the holiday of any person(s) involved in that holiday if they feel that the behaviour of that person(s) is causing annoyance, damage, distress or injury to any third party. In this instance WBCS and our local operator will have no further responsibility to the person(s) involved and the aforementioned person(s) will be asked to leave the vehicle, accommodation, service that is being provided. In this instance WBCS will not be liable or responsible for any costs incurred for the safe passage of the person(s) or for the cancellation of their holiday.
CANCELLATIONS BY YOU
If you or any person that you are travelling with is forced to cancel your holiday you must notify us in writing as soon as possible. Once we have received your notification in writing your cancellation is effective, until this time it is not.
In order to cover any costs incurred by your cancellation as we may be unable to resell your holiday or the services that we have put in place costs and cancellation fees will be charged as follows:
More than 61 Days – Loss of deposit
45 to 60 Days – 50% of entire cost
Less than 44 Days – 100% of entire cost
COMPLAINTS
Any complaints must be reported immediately to our local operator or the service provider in question. All complaints must be sent in writing to the UK office of World Big Cat Safaris and must be reported no later than 31 days after your return from your holiday. Unfortunately any complaints received after this time line and not in the outlined format above will not be accepted.
CONSUMER PROTECTION
ATOL
When you buy an ATOL protected flight or flight inclusive holiday from us you will receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists the flight, accommodation, car hire and/or other services that are financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. Company Name: Natural World Safaris Ltd. ATOL Number 9826. For more information please visit their website: www.atol.org.uk.
ABTOT
As a member of the Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited (ABTOT), Natural World Safaris has provided a bond to meet the requirements of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. In the event of insolvency, protection is provided for non-flight packages commencing in and returning to the UK and other non-flight packages excluding prearranged travel to and from your destination. Please note that packages booked outside the UK are only protected when purchased directly with Natural World Safaris. In the above circumstances, if you have not yet travelled you may claim a refund, or if you have already travelled, you may claim repatriation to the starting point of your non-flight package.
For bookings from clients overseas please contact the Natural World Safaris UK office for details regarding insolvency cover.
FORCE MAJEURE
We are unable to pay compensation or accept liability where the performance of our services are prevented or affected by any event which we or the supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due diligence, prevent or foresee. These events include extreme weather conditions, war, civil war, park closures, mechanical problems with transport, border closures, terrorist activities, fire, flooding, disease or any similar results that are out of our control.
INSURANCEPlease read our travel info section carefully and in particular the section on insurance. We advise that your insurance policy covers the following: repatriation, emergency evacuation and search and rescue, cancellation or curtailment, medical expenses, loss of luggage, death, illness, loss or theft of personal property. All travellers that book with us must have proof that their travel insurance covers the travel period fully and proof of policy must be sent through to our UK office prior to departure, along with the insurer’s details and your policy number.
Please note that more adventurous activities such as tracking wild animals, white water-rafting, scuba diving and crossing canopy walkways should also be covered and may require a higher level of cover, and we recommend checking your policy cover accordingly.
We can recommend World Nomads for all standard insurance policies, who offer a range of policies for residents of all countries and nationalities, with cover levels reflecting different activities that we offer. To find out more about the policies on offer and the level of cover appropriate to you, please see the following link:
For clients whose booking value exceeds £5,000 per person (valid for UK and European residents only), you may wish to consider arranging American Express Annual Prestige cover, which offers the highest levels of cover, including cancellation cover of up to £12,500 per person per trip and up to 120 consecutive days cover.
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/personal/travel-insurance/annual-travel-insurance/prestige
Some of our specialist expeditions cover vast distances in remote locations that are usually outside of standard insurance policy evacuation coverage. For this reason, we also recommend that you source protection for medical and non-medical search and rescue. We have partnered with Global Rescue, the world's leading provider of medical and security advisory and evacuation services, with field rescue units that will come to help you wherever your emergency occurs, by whatever means necessary, and bring you home. To arrange this, please follow the link below:
http://www.globalrescue.com/nws/
The trips that currently require this cover are listed below, although we can recommend the coverage for any of our trips that take place in remote locations. If you are unsure, please contact your consultant for more advice on the matter.
Trips that require medical and non-medical evacuation cover:
- Polar Bear Mothers & Newborn Cubs
- Great Migrations of the Northwest Passage
- Polar Bear Fly-In Migrations Safari
JURISDICTION
World Big Cat Safaris is incorporated in the United Kingdom and it operates under the laws of the United Kingdom. Your contract with us and matters arising out of it will be governed by the laws of the United Kingdom.
LIABILITY
We shall at every opportunity make every effort to ensure that (1) all parts of the holiday supplied are provided as described on our website and in the brochure to a reasonable standard; and (2) our local contractors, suppliers and sub-contractors exercise due care and diligence in carrying out our contractual obligations. If at any stage your holiday is not provided as we have advertised and to an acceptable standard, we shall compensate you appropriately in line with how your enjoyment of the holiday has been affected as long as the correct complaints procedure (as set out in the terms and conditions) has been followed. Our acceptance of this responsibility is subject to the passage above relating to “Force Majeure” and our other terms and conditions outlined in this text. In relation to complaints, our maximum liability is limited to the amount originally paid upon booking by the person(s) affected by the stated services (not including personal injury, death, loss of luggage or illness which are outlined below). The maximum sum will only be paid out if the person affected has not received any benefit from the holiday in question or any of the services that have been contracted. Loss or damage to personal items or luggage will be compensated to a maximum of $30 as it is assumed that the client in question will have taken out adequate travel insurance to cover themselves in respect of such an occasion.
Throughout your holiday we will take all of the necessary precautions and due care necessary to prevent your injury, death or illness caused by any animal or insects at the destination of choice. Please note that it is your own responsibility to take the necessary health and medical precautions in preparing for your holiday and the correct medical advice should be sought from your local GP or another relevant medical authority before travelling. Subject to these Terms and Conditions, we accept responsibility should you or any of your party suffer death, personal injury or illness as a result of any failure to perform or improper performance of the contract by any of our employees, agents, suppliers or sub-contractors (provided they were at the time carrying out work authorised by us) except in the following situations. We will not be liable where any failure to perform or improper performance was due to: (i) the acts or omissions of a third party not connected with the provision of the holiday under the contract and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable; (ii) an event which we or the supplier of the relevant services could not have foreseen or avoided even with all due care. Any claim must be notified to us in accordance with the complaints procedure set out above. Any person to whom any payment is made (and their parent or guardian if that person is a minor) must assign to us and our insurers any rights they may have to pursue any third party in connection with the claim and provide all necessary assistance to us and our insurers that be reasonably required.
PRIMATE PERMITS
On receipt of payment permits for primate tracking in the relevant National Park will be purchased; until this time no permits shall be purchased. Please note that the purchase of permits does not guarantee seeing the primate in question. On occasions local conditions sometimes mean that access to the parks where primates are located is made impossible at short notice. We do not accept liability for any circumstances that might lead to primate viewing being cancelled, whether it is as a result of security issues, National Park/Reserve closures, natural disasters, or absence of primates. Any refunds of permits are at the discretion of the relevant authority; we cannot accept liability for them. We shall make every effort to obtain the refund from the relevant authority and if we do succeed this reimbursement shall be passed directly onto you the client.
QUOTATIOS/BOOKINGS/PRICES
Please ensure that you have read and are happy with the final quotation and itinerary before booking and making payment. Please check, no of people travelling, room allocations, accommodation, no of permits, dates of travel, meal plans, National Parks/reserves to be visited, mode of transport and what is included or excluded.
We reserve the right to correct any published prices, quote and itineraries and will do so when we become aware of such an error.
Once the price of your holiday has been confirmed, subject to the correction of errors, we reserve the right to amend our prices in line with any increases that may have occurred relating to primate permits, accommodation, transportation; these costs will only be payable if the quoted price has increased by 2% or more. If for whatever reason prices increase to more than 10% of the quoted price then you have the right to cancel your holiday in line with our terms and conditions. Please note primate tracking permits may only be reimbursed subject to each individual case. If you wish to cancel under the terms stated above you must do so within 10 days of receipt of increased charges.
PAYMENT
In order to book your holiday a deposit of 30% of the total amount payable must be received before any arrangements are put in place. Please confirm acceptance of our terms and conditions in writing. We will assume acceptance of our terms and conditions if no written confirmation is received. Balance payments must be received no later than 60 days before departure. If bookings are made within 60 days of departure full payment is due.
SAFARI TERMS
Prices INCLUDE accommodation as stated, meals as stated, driver, vehicle, park fees as stated, primate tracking permits as stated, transfers. Prices EXCLUDE tips, laundry, visas, international flights, items of a personal nature. In the event of unforeseen circumstances – security issues, weather conditions, park closures, border closures etc - we reserve the right to amend the confirmed itinerary; please note that we will always try and replace any particular service with something of equal quality and interest, on occasions due to circumstances beyond our control this is not always possible.
TRANSPORTATION
We make every effort to ensure that all vehicles used are in a comfortable and road worthy condition and adhere to the local government transport regulations. Passengers are liable for any damage caused to the vehicle that occurs through their interference with the vehicle.
