Booking a safari is a meaningful financial commitment, and we think the terms around it should be as clear as the itinerary itself. This page lays out how deposits, balances, cancellations and payment methods actually work when you book with us, so there are no surprises once you’ve committed to a trip.
An overview before the detail
The structure below is built to balance two things fairly: giving you confidence your booking is genuinely confirmed once you’ve paid, and giving us the ability to make real, often non-refundable commitments to lodges, permit authorities and transport providers on your behalf well in advance of your travel dates. Nothing here is designed to trap you into a bad outcome – it reflects the actual, largely non-negotiable terms set by the third parties (UWA, RDB, individual lodges) whose services make up your trip.
Deposit and balance structure
Most itineraries require a deposit to confirm booking – typically 30 percent of the total trip cost – with the remaining balance due a set period before travel, usually 60 days out. Trips that include gorilla or chimpanzee permits are a partial exception: because UWA and RDB now require full payment at the time of permit booking under the current rules, the permit portion of your deposit is often collected earlier and in full, even if the rest of the trip follows the standard deposit structure. We’ll always spell out exactly what’s due, when, before you commit to anything.
Accepted payment methods
We accept international bank transfer and major credit cards for deposits and balances; card payments typically carry a small processing fee, which we disclose upfront rather than folding invisibly into the total. Bank transfer is usually the more cost-effective option for larger payments if your bank’s international transfer fees are reasonable. Cash payment on arrival is not how we structure deposits or balances – by the time you land, your permits, lodges and vehicles need to already be confirmed and paid, which is the whole point of the advance payment structure in the first place.
Cancellation policy
Cancellation terms scale with how close to departure you cancel, reflecting how much of the trip’s cost is already locked into non-refundable third-party commitments – permits especially, but also many lodges’ own cancellation windows. As a general guide: cancellations more than 90 days out typically forfeit only the deposit’s non-permit portion; inside 60 days, a larger share of the total becomes non-refundable; inside 30 days, or after permits have been paid and issued, expect most or all of the trip cost to be non-recoverable from us, since it’s already been paid onward to UWA, RDB, lodges and transport providers on your behalf. We’ll give you the exact figures in writing at the time of booking rather than leaving this page as the only source of truth for your specific trip.
Why permits are the strict part
Once we submit your gorilla or chimp permit booking with full payment, that money is gone to UWA or RDB immediately and is not refundable to us if you later cancel – which is why the permit portion of any deposit is treated as effectively non-refundable from the point of booking, regardless of the rest of your trip’s cancellation terms. This isn’t a policy we’ve chosen to be strict; it reflects the actual rule change both wildlife authorities introduced in 2026, and every operator in the region now works under the same constraint.
Changes to an existing booking
Date changes, itinerary adjustments and traveller substitutions are all possible before permits are booked, generally without penalty beyond any fare or rate difference involved. Once permits are issued in specific travellers’ names, changes become considerably harder – a permit generally can’t be transferred to a different date or person, so a change at that stage often means forfeiting the original permit and purchasing a new one, subject to availability. Tell us about a needed change as early as possible; the options genuinely narrow the closer you get to travel.
Travel insurance and this policy
Given how much of a primate-trekking trip’s cost sits in non-refundable permits, comprehensive travel insurance covering trip cancellation and interruption is worth treating as part of your budget rather than an optional extra – see our health and safety page for the fuller picture on insurance. A good policy can recover costs our cancellation terms don’t, for reasons genuinely outside anyone’s control – illness, a family emergency, a missed connection.
What you get in writing
Every booking comes with a written confirmation covering the full itinerary, exact costs and what’s included, the payment schedule, and the specific cancellation terms that apply to your trip – not just a link back to this general page. If anything here seems to conflict with what you’ve been told directly, the written confirmation for your specific booking is what governs, and we’d rather you ask us to clarify than assume.
Why we ask for a deposit at all
A deposit isn’t simply a formality or a way to lock in your commitment – it reflects real costs we incur on your behalf well before your trip begins. Lodges require advance payment to hold rooms during peak periods, permits require full payment at the time of booking under current rules, and vehicles and driver-guides need to be scheduled and confirmed weeks or months ahead. The deposit structure exists to let us make those real commitments on your behalf with confidence, not to create an artificial barrier to booking.
Currency and exchange rate exposure
Quotes are issued in US dollars, and payments in dollars or a currency pegged closely to it avoid exposing your trip cost to exchange rate movement between booking and travel. If you’re paying from a non-dollar bank account, your bank’s conversion rate at the time of transfer applies, not a rate we control – worth checking with your bank ahead of a larger balance payment if exchange rate timing matters to your budget.
Group bookings and split payments
For group trips, we can invoice the full amount to one person or split it across multiple travellers’ individual payments, whichever is easier to coordinate – tell us which arrangement suits your group when booking. Each traveller in a group booking is subject to the same cancellation terms individually, meaning one person cancelling doesn’t automatically affect the rest of the group’s booking or pricing, though it can occasionally affect per-person costs on shared elements like vehicle hire if the group size changes meaningfully.
If UWA or RDB change their pricing after you’ve booked
Permit prices are set by the respective wildlife authorities and can change with little notice, as happened with Uganda’s 2026 tariff update. If a price increase is announced after your permit has already been booked and paid at the old rate, it does not apply retroactively to your confirmed permit. If it’s announced before you’ve booked but after you’ve paid a general trip deposit, we’ll tell you plainly rather than absorb or hide the difference, and work with you on how to proceed.
Lodge-specific cancellation terms
Beyond our own cancellation structure, individual lodges and camps set their own policies, which can be stricter than our general terms during peak season – some high-demand properties require full pre-payment with no refund inside 60 or even 90 days regardless of the reason for cancelling. Where this applies to a lodge in your itinerary, we’ll flag it specifically at the time of booking rather than let our general terms create a false impression of flexibility that a particular property doesn’t actually offer.
Force majeure and events outside anyone’s control
In genuinely exceptional circumstances – a border closure, a park closure for conservation or security reasons, a natural disaster – cancellation and refund terms are handled case by case rather than under the standard policy above, generally working with lodges, permit authorities and transport providers to recover and pass on whatever is genuinely recoverable, and being transparent about what isn’t. These situations are rare, but we’d rather describe how we’d actually handle one than pretend a fixed clause covers every possible scenario.
Questions before you commit
If any part of this page is unclear for your specific trip – a lodge’s individual terms, how a mixed Uganda-Rwanda itinerary’s permit payments are staged, what happens if you need to change dates after a deposit – ask before paying rather than after. We’d genuinely rather spend the time clarifying upfront than have a guest discover an unwelcome surprise later; a booking works best when both sides understand exactly what’s been agreed.
A worked cancellation example
To make the policy concrete: on a USD 5,000 total trip with a USD 1,500 deposit paid, cancelling 100 days before travel (before permits are booked) would typically forfeit a smaller administrative portion of that deposit, with the remainder refunded. Cancelling 45 days out, after permits have already been booked and paid in full, would typically mean losing the permit cost entirely plus a larger share of the remaining deposit tied to lodge and vehicle commitments already made on your behalf, though the exact figures depend on your specific itinerary’s mix of refundable and non-refundable components – which is exactly what your written booking confirmation spells out precisely rather than this general illustration.
Payment security
Bank transfers and card payments are processed through standard, secure channels – we never ask for full card details over email or messaging apps, only through a secure payment link or direct bank transfer instructions provided in writing at booking. If you ever receive a request for payment that seems inconsistent with what’s described here, or from a contact you haven’t previously corresponded with, verify it directly with your usual planner before sending anything.
Receipts and record-keeping
You’ll receive a receipt for every payment made, itemised against your booking, which is worth keeping alongside your written itinerary confirmation for your own records and for any travel insurance claim that might reference specific payment dates or amounts. If you ever need a consolidated summary of everything paid to date, ask and we’ll provide one rather than making you reconstruct it from individual receipts yourself.
Summary
In short: a deposit (usually 30 percent, with permit costs often collected in full and early given current UWA and RDB rules) confirms your booking, the balance is due around 60 days before travel, payment runs through bank transfer or card, cancellation terms tighten the closer you get to departure and are strictest around already-paid permits, and everything is confirmed to you in writing with the exact figures for your specific trip rather than left to this general page alone.
This page versus your specific booking
Everything above describes our general, standard terms, but your individual booking confirmation is what actually governs your trip – if there’s ever a discrepancy between what’s written here and what your confirmation says, the confirmation takes precedence, since it reflects the specific terms agreed for your itinerary at the time you booked.
Keep exploring
Read more on why book with us, see our gorilla and chimp permits page for the detail behind the permit-specific terms above, or browse our Murchison Falls safaris. When you’re ready to book, use the form below and a planner will walk you through the exact terms for your trip before you commit to anything.