 TOUR INFORMATION AND REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
BEST OF SOUTHERN AFRICA FLYING SAFARIS
This five country safari takes guests through a number of wonderful and contrasting habitats in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and back to South Africa, staying in great camps, and we are able to travel through these varied terrains with the advantage of not having to worry about the airlines and their schedules. The group travels with their own aircraft and pilot throughout.
GROUP SIZE
These safaris are run on either a scheduled departure basis with a minimum of 2 and a maximum group size of 10 guests, or on a private basis where a party organizes their own group departure. Our staff will include a pilot (or pilots for a larger group) who will travel with you throughout the safari, as well as the resident managers and staff in the camps visited. All the safaris are sold on a per person sharing basis. If you are booking onto the safari as an individual, we may be able to pair you with another person of the same sex. If you wish to have a guaranteed single room/tent, or if there is no suitable match, there will be an additional charge.
AGE LIMIT
We have a minimum age of 12 on this safari. For groups with children under 12, we would be happy to quote a private safari. Should it be discovered while on safari that any guest has falsified their age, this will be grounds for immediate removal from the safari with no refund due to the guest for any services. We have no upper age limit, although we need to stress that guests need to be active and mobile
TRAVELLING COMPANIONS
You will be travelling together with other guests for the duration of your safari. These guests come from a range of ages and different parts of the world. To get the most out of your safari experience, co-operation and harmony with your fellow guests is essential. Should any member of the group behave in such a way that it affects either the enjoyment or safety of others on the group, that member will be warned and if need be, eventually taken off the safari. Our safaris are conducted in English and it is therefore required that all participants on the safari have the ability to communicate and understand this language. This is due to safety factors as well as compatibility with others.
JOINING YOUR SAFARI
Each safari will start and end at Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg, usually on a Sunday. If guests are arriving at Johannesburg International Airport on Day 1 of the safari, they will require a transfer from JIA to Lanseria Airport. If guests are flying out of JIA on Day 13 of the safari, an additional transfer from Lanseria to JIA will be required. It is recommended that guests overnight in Johannesburg the night before Day 1 of the safari in order to give them a chance to rest after their international flight. The flight from Johannesburg to Windhoek, and then on to Sossusvlei, can take up to 5 hours (depending on aircraft used and time spent on the ground clearing Customs in Windhoek). Transfers and accommodation in Johannesburg are not included in the cost of the safari.
WHAT IS INCLUDED
The air charter costs from Johannesburg back to Johannesburg, all accommodation on a sharing basis, all activities in vehicles, boats, mekoros, canoes and on foot as specified in the itinerary, all meals, house wines at meals, drinks on activities, mineral water, and laundry.
WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED
The safari fare is fully inclusive as detailed above and in our brochure. However, personal expenditure; insurance; drinks other than specified; gratuities for driver/guides, pilot, camp staff and mokoro paddlers and airport taxes and visa fees are excluded. Botswana banks will only accept US Dollars, Pound Sterling, Deutsche Mark, and South African Rand cash. Therefore, any cash payments to camps for curios, or gratuities to guides or staff, need to be in one of these currencies. Traveller's cheques in any currency are acceptable, and our camps will also accept Visa or MasterCard credit cards. There is a US$ 30 departure tax when leaving Zimbabwe that is not included in the cost of the safari, and this US$30 must be included in the cost and issuing of your air ticket when departing Zimbabwe on a scheduled flight. There is also a US$5 Domestic Passenger Service Fee which applies when departing internally from any registered, manned airport (Harare, Bulawayo, Kariba, Hwange and Victoria Falls) which must be paid direct in US Dollars cash at the airport. Please ensure you have the exact amount of US Dollars in cash before you leave your home country as you cannot get any US$ within Zimbabwe - large denomination bills such as U$50 or U$100 are not accepted. The official foreign exchange policy in Zimbabwe is very unfavourable towards purchases made by credit card, and it is thus recommended that guests pay for any extras using cash or travellers' cheques instead to avoid this. Tipping is not compulsory. If, however, you want to tip because you have received good service, we have enclosed a brief guideline to assist you. We usually recommend that there are three categories of staff members to tip: your guide, the camp staff, pilot/host (if on a Best of Namibia Wing safari) and the mokoro paddlers.
1. Guides and Pilots
We recommend around US$5-US$10 per guest per day if the person has done a good job.
2. The General Camp Staff
Here we recommend about US$5 per guest per day. This should be handed into the communal tipping box to be distributed equally amongst all the staff at a later stage
3. Mokoro Paddlers
Mokoro paddlers in Botswana are great capitalists. We could include a tip for them in your safari cost, but we have found that we get better results if they are being rewarded directly from the guests for their hard work. So tips are not included in the tour costs. The paddlers therefore have the added incentive to put in that extra effort to ensure that your stay with them is a memorable one. We recommend that each paddler receive US$5 per guest per day.
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