booking
To make a booking, please first read the booking information and booking conditions.
booking information
Inclusive: Tour prices in this brochure include international (from UK) and internal flights, three meals on full days, and other meals as appropriate for part-days, all ground arrangements, accommodation and the services of tour leader(s). Lunches (and other meals on occasion) may be packed and bottled water is supplied as necessary. Excluded are items of a personal nature, e.g. insurance, laundry, telephone calls and tips.
Durations: Dates shown are from arrival in the country to departure inclusive. Please note that the departure day from the UK may be a day earlier, and arrival back a day later than these dates. For clarity, the number of days stated on each tour are only those days where there are birding activities, and exclude transfer-only days often included in other companies’ durations.
Accommodation: Our tours use a mixture of hotels and lodges, but generally
they are of good to excellent quality. The majority of accommodation
has en suite rooms, and shared bathrooms will be noted where this is possible. Where we say a hotel is simple, this refers to clean rooms, mostly with shared facilities, and we only use these types of accommodation where they are in excellent birding locations with nothing else available. Other types of accommodation may be used, and these are stated where appropriate. Prior to each tour, we provide pre-tour information which includes fuller details of accommodation used.
Sole Occupation of a room is usually available at a supplement, which will be
waived if willing to share and a suitable room-mate can be found. Some
properties do not have single rooms, and this will be stated prior to the tour. If
a single room is expected, but unavailable for any reason, a pro-rata refund
of the supplement will be made.
Health, Fitness & Safety: We generally recommend up-to-date Covid19, Tetanus, TB and Polio vaccinations for all destinations. In the tropics there may be additional inocuoations, e.g. Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Yellow Fever and Antimalarial prophylaxis. Consult your GP or family doctor at least 3 months before travel for the latest recommendations.
Some tours are fairly easy-going, but some are more strenuous, so please read the itinerary carefully. Participation in any day’s events is purely optional, with the obvious exception of where activities take place en-route from one location to another.
We take your safety seriously, and do whatever we can to reduce risks. This can mean anything from altering the itinerary, to ensuring we do not drive after dark. The chances of being involved in terrorism are very small compared to the risks of accident or robbery, but we do take UK FCO advice, and if we have any doubts while on tour, we consult the tour party to decide the best course of action.
Documents: A passport valid for at least 6 months from the date of entry is essential. We will provide visa information for British Passport Holders, but if you are from outside the UK, we recommend you contact your local services to find out the requirement.
Flights: The atandard prices include international flights from the UK and internal flights. If you wish to book your own flights, then please refer to the main tour information.
When booking a holiday with us, either with or without flights, please note the following:
- Dates given are from arrival in the destination country to departure from the destination country. Flight-only days are not given. We will provide full information when the flights are booked.
- Flight prices are highly volatile, and we will inform you of any detrimental changes on booking. We advise you to book as early as possible, as flight prices can increase dramatically closer to the departure date, especially during the northern summer months.
Ground Transport is usually by car, minibus or Landcruiser, driven either by the
tour leader or a local driver. Other vehicles (e.g. taxis) may be used if they are more appropriate. Trains and are occasionally used for overnight journeys, where we will use good sleepers if available.
Guides: Wherever possible, we try to use local guides, both for their local knowledge, our philosophy of keeping down prices, and more importantly, providing an income to local people.
In addition to our guides, we often have experienced drivers, who assist in making the tour special, and who are also excellent at finding wildlife.
booking conditions
Below are set out the Booking Conditions of Sarus Travel, of which Christopher Nigel Moorhouse of 12 Walton Drive, Walmersley, Bury, BL9 5JU is the Sole Owner. Signing the Booking Form, or submitting it online, will enter you into a contract with Christopher Nigel Moorhouse, agreeing to these Booking Conditions in full. This agreement is subject to English law, and the exclusive jurisdiction of the
English courts.
Payment: The relevant deposit must be paid at the time of booking. The balance is payable ten weeks before the starting date of the holiday, a reminder of which will be sent. If the balance remains unpaid after this date, we reserve the right to cancel your holiday and retain any deposit paid.
Cancellation: Cancellations by you of a confirmed booking must be made to us in writing, and will take effect from the date we receive this notification. The following scale of charges (payable by the person signing the booking form, expressed as a percentage of the total tour price), based on estimated losses suffered as a result of your cancellation, will be levied.
- Over 60 days before start of tour: Deposit only
- 60-31 days before start of tour: 50%
- 30 days or less before start of tour: 100%
- Day of start of tour or later: 100%
Comprehensive Travel Insurance will usually cover you for these cancellation charges (less any policy excess), excepting where cancellation is due to purely financial reasons or unwillingness to travel.
Tour Cancellation: We reserve the right to cancel any tour eight weeks before the tour departure date, due to insufficient bookings. In these cases, a full refund (including the deposit) will be paid to you. In the event of the necessity of cancelling a tour for reasons beyond our control; for example, technical problems with transport, government action, industrial dispute, war or threat of war, civil strife, terrorist activity, man-made or natural disasters, riot or severe weather conditions; we reserve the right to deduct from your refund, all reasonable expenses incurred by us in connection with your holiday (we shall obviously try to keep any such deductions to the absolute minimum).
Price Change: We shall endeavour to keep prices to those stated in the brochure, and those confirmed to you on booking. Once booking confirmation has been received, we will guarantee that the price of your holiday will not be increased, except in cases resulting from Government action, airfare increases and exchange rate fluctuations. Even in these cases, we will try to absorb small increases. Should
any increase mean payment of 10% or more of the original holiday price, you have the right to cancel the holiday, with full refund of all money paid.
Delays: We cannot be held liable for any delay to your flights, or the consequences thereof. However, we will, at our discretion, provide additional services in such an instance.
Alteration of Itinerary: We reserve the right to change any published itinerary or leader without notice, either before or during the tour. Any such change will usually be due to circumstances such as illness, and uncertainties of travelling in foreign countries, such as adverse weather, local bureaucracy, potential danger etc. In such cases, we will not be held liable for any loss whatsoever as a result of these changes.
Alteration of Accommodation: Unfortunately, hotels may be overbooked or temporarily closed. In such cases, we reserve the right to change from the published hotels to those of a similar standard. This may also affect the itinerary. If accommodation of a lesser standard is all that is available, we shall refund the difference in price between that and the accommodation stated in the itinerary.
Alteration of Tour: We reserve the right to modify the tour details as published, or to cancel and curtail any tour if unforeseen circumstances amounting to force majeure arise. In these cases, we shall make a partial refund if the alteration results in lower costs to us. We accept no responsibility for expenses incurred by delays and changes of transport services, nor weather, strikes, quarantine, acts of God, and other causes beyond our control.
Our Liabilities: You participate in our tours entirely at your own risk. We cannot accept responsibility for the actions and omissions of those involved in your holiday over whom we have no direct control, such as airlines, transport undertakings, hotels and others. We can also assume no responsibility for loss or expense due to force majeure, including, but not limited to; war, riots, strikes, terrorist activity or natural disasters. With the exception of statutory instruments, our maximum liability shall be the price paid to us for the tour.
Complaints: In the unlikely event that you have cause for complaint, you must notify the tour leader, local agent or our office as soon as possible, and we will try to rectify or assist. If the matter is not satisfactorily resolved, then you must refer to our office in writing within 14 days of the end of the tour. The complaint will then be fully investigated. We will not accept any complaints outside of this timescale.
Authority: On tour, you are obliged to abide by the authority of the tour leader(s). If your behaviour, in the opinion of the tour leader(s), is detrimental to the welfare and/or safety of the group, or to their enjoyment of the tour, or you commit any illegal act, they have the right to dismiss you from the tour, with no right to any refund (for that tour, or any other booked tours). We can assume no responsibility for loss or expense incurred by you in consequence of such dismissal.
Privacy Policy: Any personal details which you provide will be used solely for the purpose of making necessary arrangements for a tour on which you are booked. No personal details shall be divulged to any third-party, except where this is necessary to make tour arrangements for you. If you wish your details to be removed from our database, then please inform us, and we shall remove them. We do not store any credit card or banking details.
Your Financial Protection: Our ATOL number is 6563. When you buy an ATOL protected flight or flight inclusive holiday from us you will receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong.
We, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL Certificate, will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where neither we nor the supplier are able to do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those
circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable).
If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees
any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us, the travel agent (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims may be re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.
For bookings without flights for citizens of the UK or EU, in compliance with the The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, Sarus Travel operate a Trustee Account for your consumer protection. This means that all payments for your holiday are held in trust until you return from your holiday, providing full protection in the unlikely event of Sarus Travel’s bankruptcy, or short
notice cancellation by Sarus Travel. For full details, contact the Trustee, Dr. G. H. Heath; 07716 871649.
Once you are happy to proceed
- download our editable PDF booking form below.(This can be filled in and saved with most PDF readers, or can be printed and handwritten)
- complete the form
- send the PDF back to us to the email on the booking form, or send a printed copy by post to the address on the form.