How we work
Seven steps from a first email to a last day, with no payment until the written proposal is accepted.
This page exists because the way a tailor-made safari is priced and paid for is genuinely confusing, and because most operators explain it only after you have asked for a quote.
Nothing here is a term of business — the terms and the cancellation policy are. This is the plain-English version of how the process runs.
The seven steps
From a first email to a last day. No payment before step five.
You tell us the idea
A few lines. When, roughly how long, and what you want out of it. No payment, no card details, no obligation. Use the planner if you would rather answer questions than write a paragraph.
One named planner replies
Within 24 business hours, East Africa Time. The same person stays with you from that email to your last day in the country. If we are the wrong company for the trip, they will tell you so in that first reply.
We talk it through
Email, WhatsApp or a call, in your own time. This is the stage where the itinerary actually gets built, and where we will push back on anything we think will not work — too many parks, too few nights, the wrong month.
You receive a written proposal
The route day by day, the properties by name, every price on its own line, and the access detail with each item marked confirmed or unchecked. It is a document you can take to another operator and compare, which is the point of itemising it.
You accept, and pay a deposit
Nothing is charged before this. The deposit percentage and the balance due date are in the proposal and in the terms. subject to confirmation: confirm both.
We hold the ground arrangements
Camps, vehicles, permits, internal flights. You get a final itinerary and the written access brief before the balance is due, not after.
You travel
Your planner is in Moshi, in the same time zone, for the whole trip. If something goes wrong on the ground, you ring the person who built it rather than a duty desk.
How pricing works
Six things move the number, and only one of them is our margin.
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Season | The same itinerary can differ by thousands between green season and the July-to-October peak. The camps set this, not us. |
| Group size | Park fees and camp rates are per person; the vehicle, the guide and the private charter are per party. A party of six pays considerably less per head than a couple. |
| Fly or drive | A light-aircraft sector costs more than a day's driving and buys back most of a day. On a short trip it is usually worth it. |
| Camp standard | The largest single variable. The same route at three different standards can differ by a factor of two. |
| Park and conservation fees | A large fixed share, set by TANAPA and the NCAA, and not negotiable by anybody. See what it costs. |
| Access provision | A hoist-fitted vehicle, specialist equipment or an extra crew member is a real cost and we will show it as a line rather than hide it in the total. |
Paying
What we can and cannot accept today.
Bank transfer in US dollars is the method we can confirm.
Card payments are not set up yet. subject to confirmation: confirm whether a card gateway will be offered, and who bears the fee.
We do not hold client money in a trust account, and we will not claim the consumer protection that implies. subject to confirmation: confirm whether a trust arrangement will be put in place.
Deposit and balance dates are stated in your proposal before you accept it.
Bank charges on an international transfer are usually split — your bank's fee is yours and ours is ours.
Payment arrangements are not finalised. The lines above marked subject to confirmation are open questions for the founder, not statements of policy. Do not transfer money to anybody on the strength of a prototype website.
If something goes wrong on the ground
Vehicles break, aircraft are weathered off, a camp floods, somebody gets ill. On a two-week itinerary something minor almost always happens.
What we commit to is that you ring your planner rather than a call centre, that we rebuild the affected days rather than leaving you to it, and that anything paid for and not delivered is refunded rather than quietly absorbed. What we cannot commit to is replacing a lost day in a national park, because the day is gone.
We do not currently provide emergency medical evacuation cover. We recommend it strongly and we will tell you so at the enquiry stage rather than in the small print. subject to confirmation: confirm whether a membership scheme will be included.
Tell us what you have in mind.
One conversation with the person who would plan it, and an honest answer about whether we are the right company for the trip.
Free, and with no obligation. A real planner replies within 24 business hours, East Africa Time. No payment is taken to enquire.