Tours and Safaris Booking, Cancellation, Refund Terms & Conditions for Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Congo Holidays

General

These terms and conditions, herewith referred to, are consistent with the laws and standards of the above-mentioned countries in which we operate our tour services.

The information, descriptions, narrations, accommodation details, and security details have been given in good faith. We have taken reasonable care to ensure accuracy. We are not held liable for any errors or omissions resulting from circumstances beyond our control.

Tour / Safari Services Reservations & Payments

Please note that we are quite flexible on most of these if you let us know of your concern.

To confirm your reservation, we need to secure your gorilla permits, gorilla habituation experience permits, and chimpanzee permits. And we are required to make full payment for these permits to fully confirm them and so we also request you to make this payment at the time of booking.

If the tour you are booking is at least 60 days (or more) away, any deposit that should at minimum be able to cover the cost of the gorillas and chimps permits is fine. Each gorilla permit is US$700 in Uganda, $1500 in Rwanda; USD1500 for Uganda Gorilla Habituation Experience; USD250 for Kibale chimps habituation experience. A Chimpanzee permit is $200 in Uganda and $100 in Rwanda.

The rest of the payment can be done anytime before starting the tour, and not later than Day 1 of the tour.

If you have already paid for the permits, you can pay the balance any time within 14 days before your tour begins. This is not so strict but of course, if we lost your preferred hotel/lodge reservation because of failure to pay in time, because of your failure to remit payment, we won't be held responsible.

The standard is we should have your full payment before you start the tour. So you can even pay on the tour start day. Besides, we need money to run your tour. Last-minute payments may lead to late starts for the tour especially if you have to withdraw money from an ATM.

We advise you not to rely so much on ATMs for payment. Often the ATM networks fail, cards get rejected, and a search for a working ATM may take hours. This can cause delays in starting the tour, and you could miss out on some of the tour activities as you try to catch up on lost time.

Full payment at the time of booking is also fine, as well as installments after the permit's deposit.

Payment Methods

Our most preferred payment mode would be by electronic bank transfer (wire)  which takes 1-3 for us to receive the funds.

Payment  by credit/ Debit card 

We have various web-based secure platforms that you can utilize to make payments to us using all major cards. These online platforms provide a real-time, cloud-based processing platform, with state-of-the-art technology that supports multiple transaction types. Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris will send you a payment link and you can choose yourself which payment option to use. This can be either Visa or Mastercard, American Express, or Mobile Money.

Please note that we will not take responsibility for any issues resulting from your payment taking longer than planned. If we receive payment late and miss out on gorilla permits, we will have to either request you reschedule your travel program to available dates or send your money back to you (less the incurred transaction fees).

Accommodations

We offer a range of accommodations including luxury, mid-range, budget, and camping. The accommodations indicated in the itineraries are not conclusive; it is just a proposal subject to your decision. We reserve the right to substitute with the equivalent or a superior one.

While you are booking your holiday with us, kindly quote the tour planned date time for arrival and departure, the number of people traveling, and sleeping arrangements. For your own feeding comfort, please specify your interests like Vegetarian or any feeding allergic cases to make our arrangements with the hotels or lodges your contentment. Children below 12 are not allowed to track chimpanzees and children under 15 are not allowed to trek the gorillas.

Gorilla Permits confirmation process and guarantees of seeing the mountain gorillas

Before you make payment for the gorilla permits, we shall advise you on their availability. If they are available and payment is received on time, we need one more working day (after your payment is received) to pay for them at Uganda Wildlife Authority and guarantee your place on the trek. By the time we request you to make a deposit, however, a provisional booking has been placed for the permit. This helps us keep the permits for 4 days as payment is being processed.

Your gorilla tracking permit accords you a single-day access into the gorilla sanctuary to view them for not less than one hour. You have to be available on the allocated date to enter the National Park to use the permit. Over the past decade (plus) of our practice, none of our visitors who are booked for gorilla trekking has failed to see the mountain gorillas. All our booked visitors for gorilla tracking have successfully seen the mountain gorillas. However, because mountain gorillas are wild animals in their natural habitat, it is obviously illogical for us to give you a 100% guarantee of seeing the gorillas. There are many natural conditions in the national park beyond ours and the national park management's control that could cause your failure to see the gorillas when you track them. Nonetheless, the national parks' management has always worked so hard to ensure that all trekkers see the mountain gorillas.

Just in case you become the first unlucky one- you really trek into the jungles and fail to see the gorillas,  Uganda Wildlife Authority or RDB (for Rwanda) will allow you another chance on the next day, or refund you 50% of the permits money.  In case of a refund of the gorilla permits money, it is subject to a refund by the relevant authority that sells these permits. As soon as we get a refund we are bound to pass it to you.

Transportation

Every effort is made to ensure that vehicles are provided in a roadworthy condition but no liability can be accepted for breakdown, or any damage or delay. Our safari guides are instructed to follow our code of conduct for safari guides, which you must not ask them to break in any way. In the event that a tour guide does not follow the code, please inform the management. Company vehicles must only be driven by the company’s tour guide whose decision on all matters, such as the route taken, is final. You will be liable for any damage caused to a vehicle by any interference by you with the vehicle, including legal and other expenses.

Tour and Safaris' Services Cancellations

By Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris

We seldom cancel bookings by our clients. However, we reserve the right to do so. Any confirmation of fewer than 2 months shall not be canceled unless unexpected/unusual circumstances (such as war within the country you intend to visit) are beyond our control. Where cancellation of your holiday, in case of your failure to pay up or as a result of force majeure, we shall offer you an alternative vacation with a similar standard to the one you had booked before provided there is one available at the time. In case you have chosen one that is more expensive than your original holiday, you will be asked to pay the difference. However, if it is cheaper, we shall refund you the difference.

You are entitled to a full refund except for money paid for gorilla permits, which we can later pass to you in case the Uganda Wildlife Authority/ Rwanda Tourism Board refunds it. We can not whatsoever bear the expenses, costs, or losses resulting from your cancellation.

A cancellation of a vacation in respect of any person in your party is likely, if, in our opinion or the opinion of any other person in authority, the behavior of the person(s) concerned is believed or suspected to cause trouble, annoyance, or distress to the third party. In such a situation we shall uncompromisingly evict such a visitor from any accommodation and require him/her to quit immediately thus forfeiting any of our services. Such a termination of our services does not warrant any refund or any other remedy on our part.

Cancellations by You

In case you intend to cancel your holiday with us, you shall have to write to us an email. Unless we receive a copy of your communication in writing, we can not confirm your cancellation. To avoid losses caused by your cancellation since reselling your holiday may be impossible, cancellation fees, excluding insurance, will be levied per person as follows: Cancellation charge shall be a % age of the total price where applicable.

Cancellation and Refund Policy

Cancellations here below shall be treated against the total cost of the safari booked as follows:

  • 61-100 days 10% of the safari cost
  • 08-60 days 50% of the safari cost
  • 0-7 days 100% of the safari cost

Note: Cancellation fees are effective from the date your written notification is received at Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris.

Gorilla Permits Cancellation and Refund Policy

If for any reason you are unable to travel and utilize your gorillas and chimps permits, we usually advise that you try and find alternative dates to reschedule your visit. That way we have a chance to avoid the cancellation charges.

For Rwanda gorilla permits, you will not get any refund in case of cancellation. But you can use your permit on another date by paying USD150 for rescheduling. Gorilla permits cannot be transferred to another person.

For Uganda Wildlife Authority, permits can be rescheduled at no extra cost only if you have at least 30 days to the travel date.

Refunds for gorillas and chimps permit in Uganda.

Below here is what you are entitled to in refunds (from Uganda Wildlife Authority) when you choose to cancel your gorillas and chimpanzee tracking permits. However, please note that Uganda Wildlife Authority doesn't actually pay any cash refunds. Instead, we receive a credit to be used on future bookings. As such, your refund cash shall only be readily available when we get to use the credit. We have no real guarantees on when this can happen. 

  • 0 – 60 days to tracking date - no refund
  • 61– 90 days to tracking date – 79%  (21% refund to you)
  • 91 days and above to tracking date – 54% (46% refund to you)

Note: The cost of transferring money to you is entirely yours when you cancel your tour and the funds you receive will be less by the bank charges (usually about 20$).

Complaints

We shall attend to all complaints of any nature either directly from you or indirectly from our tour representative or service supplier. Our motto is: “The Client is the king”. We shall be in a position to respond appropriately to any of your complaints or dissatisfaction as long as we can receive your report no later than 21 days after the completion of your holiday. This gives us enough time to investigate your case and respond appropriately. Failure to lodge your complaint within such a time limit, we shall not be held liable.

Force Majeure

It is regrettable that we cannot bear liability or compensation where the performance or proper performance of our obligations is hampered or affected by any event which we or our supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Events such as pandemics, war or threat of war, civil strife riots, unexpected government actions including legislation, ordinances, and decrees; terrorism, industrial disputes, extreme weather conditions, natural or nuclear disaster, epidemics fire, road closures, pilferage, quarantines, dangers incident to sea, land and air travel, and other similar incidents beyond our control.

Some of the services we offer are acquired from independent suppliers who may not be within our control. Services such as hotel accommodations, restaurant services, transportation, medical evacuation services, etc. are supplied by other service providers. Thus we are not liable for any death, property damage, loss, or personal injury resulting from acts or omissions accruing from such independent suppliers who are not within our control.

We reserve the right to make changes in the pricing of an itinerary or service in response to economic changes (depreciation or appreciation of the local currency against the Dollar) as the case may be at any time. We also reserve the right to refuse or fail to retain any member or person in a tour team if his / her presence may jeopardize the security or proper enjoyment of a holiday in question and to pass on to the tour members any loss or expenditure resulting from delays or events beyond our control.

Some of the activities we offer in addition to the agreed-upon itinerary are optional. Some activities carry with them an inherent risk of personal injury. In such circumstances, we don’t guarantee your personal safety. If you choose to engage in optional activities, you do it at your own risk. We merely Endeavour to minimize the risks involved.

Optional activities, we offer to include but are not limited to:

  • Kayaking, bungee-jumping, and white water rafting
  • Mountain climbing adventure
  • Chimpanzee trekking
  • Gorilla trekking
  • Balloon safaris
  • Nature walk
  • Insurance

Before undertaking a holiday with us ensure that you have appropriate insurance for the type of holiday of your choice. Such insurance should comprehensively cover death, medical expenses, personal injury, evacuation in the event of accident or illness or death, and holiday cancellation among others. Adventure safari activities that are highly risky such as gorilla trekking, mountain hiking, chimp trekking, white rafting, and bungee jumping should be taken care of.

Jurisdiction

We are incorporated in Uganda and therefore operate under the Uganda Laws.

Liability

We shall be liable to compensate you for the loss or damage to luggage or personal possessions (including money) to a maximum of US$30 on condition that the client is fully covered by insurance in respect of such losses at the time of booking and is 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 of executing work with our authority).

We will take all due care to prevent your death, injury, or illness from being caused by the fauna of safari destinations. It is your responsibility to take proper medical precautions. We accept liability in case you or any of your party suffer a personal injury, illness, or death, 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 of executing work with our authority) except in the following circumstances:-

  • We shall not be liable where any failure to perform or improper performance was caused by:
  • The unforeseeable acts or omissions of a third party not connected with the provision of the holiday in the contract;
  • An event that we or the supplier of the contracted services could not have anticipated 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 must assign to us and /or our insurers any rights they may have to follow up with any third party in connection with the claim and provide all necessary assistance to us and/or our insurers that be reasonably necessary.

Voluntary Execution

I/we accept to be duly bound by the terms and conditions above. My advancement of a deposit to Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris Ltd demonstrates this acceptance. I certify that I have carefully read and fully understood the contents of the Terms and Conditions, including cancellation and refund policies, limitation of liability, and responsibility borne by tour participants. On the advance of a deposit to Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris Ltd, the depositor, his or her family, and/or representative agree to be bound by the above Terms and Conditions herein specified.