Booking a holiday with Expert Africa
All of Expert Africa’s trips are flexible and tailor-made to suit our travellers. We believe in giving you all the information about the options available, so that you can make the right decisions about your trip.Nobody at Expert Africa works on commission, and we don't own shares in any tourism ventures in Africa. This all means that our team can simply guide you with impartial advice and first-hand experience.
Planning your holiday
Most of our travellers will have some idea where they want to go, or will have done some prior research. To get started, we'll almost always direct you to think about the kind of travel you enjoy, and read more about what interests you – in our brochure or this website, perhaps thinking about which of our Trip Ideas are closest to what you're looking for. Then it's best to call us for a no-pressure chat.We'll take time to discuss the 'pros and cons' of all the options that you might be considering, to help you to refine your ideas. We won't rush these discussions, and you shouldn't either. Getting a clear understanding of the choices and options at an early stage is vital if you're going to make the right decisions about your trip.
Itineraries & free quotes
After you've understood your options, together we should be able to decide what's likely to suit you best – and arrive at an itinerary that looks promising. Then we'll swiftly send you a free quote, which will detail the proposed trip, including flights, inclusions and exclusions and precise costs.When you receive this, we'll leave you to think about it; we won't call to chase you or pressurise you!
We will encourage you to call us back to chat about variations or discuss the trip further. Sometimes you may want to alter the trip plan or budget, and if so we'll send you a further free written quote, for the revised trip. In fact, we'll do as many of these as you like – but eventually we'll aim to arrive at one that you're happy with!
Places that we don't feature
Very occasionally a traveller will request some time at a place that we don't know and don't feature. If it's a small part of a larger trip, then we'll normally be happy to incorporate this – but we can't take any responsibility for any of its shortcomings.Making a booking
When you have a quote for a trip that you are happy with, and want to go ahead and book it, we'll ask you to send us a completed booking form with a deposit. This is normally held on file, without the deposit being processed, whilst we complete your reservations.Because of the time it takes to communicate with lots of suppliers in Africa, we don't make overseas bookings without a signed booking form.
Confirming your booking
We'll always work swiftly to confirm all your bookings for you, and slot everything into place. This can take anything from a day to a few weeks (communications aren't easy for all of our suppliers – especially those in very remote corners).If anything on your itinerary isn't available, we will call you to discuss the options which are possible. If you choose higher-cost options, then the price of your trip will increase; if you choose lower-cost options, then it will decrease. As normal, we'll explain the choices, and the pros and cons of the various alternatives. Normally, between our knowledge of Africa, and your knowledge of what you like – we can plan a great trip. However, if you don't like what we suggest then you can cancel at any point and we will return your deposit.
When all the reservations have been confirmed for a trip that you are happy with, only then will we finally process your deposit and issue you with a confirmation invoice.
We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.
