The terms of a booking, in plain words.

Your contract is with TopaTanzania (registered company name to be confirmed), Arusha, Tanzania, referred to here as "we". It consists of these terms and the itemised quotation we send you, and it comes into force when we confirm your booking in writing after receiving your deposit.

Nothing in these terms takes away any right you have under the mandatory consumer protection law of the country where you live.

Enquiring costs nothing and commits you to nothing. We reply with one recommended itinerary and the reasoning behind it, and we re-cost changes for free, as many times as it takes.

Prices on the website are indicative "from" rates per person sharing. Your quotation is the price that counts: it itemises every component for your dates, party size and choice of camps, and it states how long it remains valid.

All prices are in US dollars, which is the currency in which the trip is billed. Any conversion shown on the website is an approximation for your convenience only.

A deposit of 30% of the trip price confirms your booking. The balance is due 60 days before your safari starts. If you book inside 60 days, the full price is due at booking.

We accept bank transfer and card. Bank charges on transfers are for your account; we will tell you before you pay whether a card payment carries a surcharge and, if so, how much.

If the balance is not received by the due date, we will remind you; if it remains unpaid we may treat the booking as cancelled by you, with the cancellation charges in section 6.

Exactly what your quotation says, and nothing that it does not. On the website, each safari page lists what is included and what is not; the quotation is the binding version.

Park, conservation and crater fees are set by the Tanzanian government and can change with little notice. If a fee changes between your booking and your travel, we pass on the difference at cost, in either direction, with the official notice as evidence. We do not add a margin to it.

Before you have paid a deposit, change anything you like. After confirmation, we will still make any change that is possible: extra nights, a different camp, a flight instead of a drive, a different month. You pay the difference in cost, if there is one, and any charge a camp or airline makes for the change. We do not add an administration fee of our own.

If you want to change the travellers on the booking, tell us as early as you can; permits and flights are issued in named travellers' names.

Cancellations must be made in writing, by email, by the lead traveller, and take effect on the day we receive them. The charges below are illustrative until confirmed; see the note at the top of this page.

Where a camp, airline or park authority refunds us part of what we paid on your behalf, we pass that refund on to you regardless of the scale above. Travel insurance exists for exactly this situation, which is why we make it a condition of booking.

We do not cancel confirmed safaris for commercial reasons. If we ever had to cancel for a reason within our control, you would receive a full refund of everything paid, or an alternative trip of at least equal value if you preferred one.

Some changes are outside anyone's control: a road or park closure, a river crossing that is not passable, a camp that has closed at short notice, weather, an airline schedule. In those cases we re-route, we tell you as soon as we know, and we refund any park fee we did not spend. If a change is significant, you may accept it, take a comparable alternative, or cancel and receive a refund of the affected part of the trip.

Travel insurance covering medical treatment, emergency evacuation and cancellation is a condition of booking. We will ask for the insurer's name and your policy number before departure. Every safari includes flying-doctor evacuation cover, which gets you to a hospital; it does not pay for the hospital, and it is not a substitute for insurance.

It is your responsibility to hold a passport valid for at least six months beyond your entry into Tanzania, the correct visa, and any vaccination certificate required for your routing. We point you at the official sources and we will tell you what other guests have needed, but we are not an immigration or medical adviser and we cannot be responsible for refused entry.

Your guide's decisions on safety, on where the vehicle goes and on distance from animals are final. National park rules apply to everyone in the vehicle. If a traveller behaves in a way that endangers people, wildlife or the vehicle, we may end their safari without refund, and any costs of doing so are theirs.

No wildlife sighting is guaranteed. We put you in the right place at the right time with a guide who knows the country; the animals do the rest, and they are not consulted.

We are responsible for the services in your quotation being provided with reasonable skill and care, whether by us or by the camps, airlines and other suppliers we contract. We are not liable for loss or damage that results from your own acts or omissions, from a third party unconnected with the services, or from unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures.

Where the law allows, our liability for anything other than death or personal injury is limited to three times the price of the trip. Personal belongings and camera equipment are carried at your own risk and should be covered by your insurance.

If something is wrong during the trip, tell your guide or call the office at once; nearly everything can be fixed on the day. If a problem is not resolved, write to [email protected] within 28 days of your return, and we will answer within 14 days.

A safari that lasts more than 24 hours and combines transport with accommodation is a package. If you live in the European Economic Area, Directive (EU) 2015/2302 on package travel gives you specific rights; if you live in the United Kingdom, the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 do the same. In summary:

• You receive all essential information about the package before you contract.
• We, as the organiser, are responsible for the proper performance of all the travel services included in the package.
• You are given an emergency number and a point of contact for the trip.
• You may transfer the package to another person, on reasonable notice and possibly subject to additional costs.
• The price can only be increased for specific costs, such as government fees or fuel, and only if provided for in the contract; if the increase exceeds 8% you may terminate the contract. No increase is possible in the 20 days before departure.
• You may terminate the contract without paying a termination fee if any essential element of the package other than the price is changed significantly, or if unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances at the destination significantly affect the trip.
• You are entitled to a price reduction or compensation where the travel services are not performed or are performed improperly.
• We must provide assistance if you are in difficulty.
• Your payments are protected if we become insolvent. The protection we provide for this will be stated here before launch; see the note at the top of this page.

We provide the standard information form required by that law with every quotation to a traveller in the EU or UK.

These terms are governed by the law of Tanzania and the courts of Arusha, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer protection, or right to bring a claim in your home courts, that the law of your country of residence gives you.

How we handle the personal data you give us is described in the privacy notice, which forms part of these terms.