Refund Policy

A trip to Tanzania — a safari through the parks, a climb on Kilimanjaro, a few days on Zanzibar — takes months to plan. We understand that life sometimes intervenes: an illness, a family emergency, a flight cancelled by something outside anyone’s control. When that happens, our first instinct is not to reach for a policy. It is to talk to you and find out what we can do.

This page explains how cancellations and refunds work at African Polecat Safaris, what we can usually put right, and where we work alongside partners who set their own rules.

How we approach it

When you get in touch about a change of plans, you are talking to the same people who planned your trip, not a refund department. Most situations have more than one possible answer, and we look for the one that protects you best.

No one delivers a trip alone, though. Park authorities, lodges and camps, airlines and suppliers have often been paid weeks before you arrive. We are honest about what we can recover and what we cannot.

Kilimanjaro climbs

• Your deposit is non-refundable, but can be moved to a future climb with no time limit.
• Park fees are refundable up to one day before the climb starts. We pay these to the Tanzania National Parks Authority on your behalf and coordinate any refund directly.
• Postponing is almost always better than cancelling. if you reschedule, we hold your payment as credit toward a future trip, with no time limit.

For anything outside these terms — illness, a family emergency, something nobody could have foreseen — talk to us, and we will look at it case by case.

Safaris

A safari is built around the lodges and camps where you stay. Accommodation is one of the largest parts of the cost, and it goes to partner properties that we do not own. Each has its own cancellation policy:

• Postponement. Some partners allow free postponement to new dates. We always check this first, because it is the most common way to recover the cost of an interrupted trip.
• Tiered cancellation charges. Most properties charge more as your arrival date approaches. The general pattern is around 10% more than 90 days before arrival, around 30% between 60 and 90 days, around 60% between 30 and 60 days, around 80% between 8 and 30 days, and the full amount in the final week. We negotiate with partners on your behalf.
• Higher-category camps are usually the strictest, because the most sought-after properties are the hardest to release once confirmed.
• Domestic and light-aircraft flights are often non-refundable, even with plenty of notice.
• Park fees are refundable up to one day before the safari starts.

When you cancel, we go through every line of your booking with the partners involved and work out the most we can recover. Whatever comes back, we pass on to you, minus any bank fees.

Postponing instead of cancelling

If it is your dates that have gone wrong rather than your plans, postpone. It almost always works out better than cancelling.

For Kilimanjaro, your payment stays as credit toward a future climb, and you choose the new dates when you are ready. Park fees can rise over time; if they do before your new dates, the difference is passed on.

For safaris, we contact every partner the moment we hear from you. Many lodges allow deferral without a fee, especially outside peak season, and asking early makes the biggest difference.

Travel insurance

We strongly recommend it. International flight cancellations, illness or injury before departure and evacuation once you arrive are all genuinely unpredictable. A good policy covers them, and can recover costs we cannot refund, such as non-refundable accommodation or flights. We will provide the documents you need to make a claim. Look for trip cancellation, medical evacuation and — if you are climbing — high-altitude cover.

How to reach us about a change

Email info@africanpolecatsafaris.com or message us on WhatsApp at +255 654 592 688. We reply within one working day. Some answers depend on lodges and airlines getting back to us, so the most complicated requests can take a little longer — but we stay with you until it is resolved.