Tailor-made safari holidays from the experts. We are small, with a sales team of six, but we pride ourselves on in-depth knowledge and the ability to match the right place to the right person. Owner Christopher Bartlett has been visiting Africa since 1998. He is an internationally published photojournalist, qualified field guide, and dive leader. He has lived and worked in South Africa and Tanzania, and spends three to four months a year on the old continent, exploring and checking out suppliers and service providers. The rest of the year he leads diving and cultural expeditions to Papua New Guinea, the Caribbean, and Mexico, and promotes the business at shows in the USA and Europe.
His Safari Team is led by Ines Moosmann, a twenty-year travel trade veteran and Africa addict and expert. The team of safari specialists under her have an average of over 15 years Africa travel planning experience each, three of them have been doing this for more than 20 years.
Why book with Indigo Safaris?
Unparalleled first-hand knowledge and impartial expert advice for free
- We have visited the vast majority of the properties we send our clients to
- We have been to every reserve and national park we promote
- We have thoroughly vetted every service provider we use
We provide it for free
You buy your trip, at the most, at the same rate as if you put it together directly with the lodges, camps, transfer companies and national park or conservancy fees. There is no consultancy fee, no booking fee. We make our profit by buying at a tour operator rate.
We save you money
With special offers, with only one company to pay limiting your transaction costs and fees, with bank accounts in 5 currencies, and with bank-beating exchange rates. We are an international company, with bank accounts in the USA, the UK, Germany, France, and Australia, and accept card payments.
Your money is safe
Our main operating costs are digital advertising and then salaries. We are debt-free, and have no loans, mortgages, or monthly rent to cover. Client payments, when passing from your account to our suppliers and service providers is placed in an account separate from the one used to cover our operating costs. We back our suppliers, and should one of them fold with money for your future trip in their account, we will replace that service or accommodation with an equivalent one and cover it ourselves.
We’ve got your back
Our network of contacts and suppliers is well-nurtured, and we keep a close eye on the quality and value-for-money of services provided. On the rare accessions that an issue arises, no matter how small, we know who to call. In the event of a serious problem, we can be contacted anytime from early morning to late evening, though an elephant emptying your splash pool at 1AM is best referred to the lodge staff, as are mysterious nocturnal noises outside your tent.
We are travellers ourselves
Our MD, aptly named Christopher (though nowhere near saintly), is a travelholic. From wild camping off-road trips and jungle trips in dugout canoes to luxury lodge fly-in safaris and remote ocean dive expeditions, the wanderlust is strong. We understand what drives the travel bug in us and fully understand both the intricacies of travel in Africa and our clients’ various and differing requirements.
We love the destinations we promote
We are incredibly passionate about all of the places we work with, especially our core areas of Africa and Papua New Guinea; their wildlife, their people and cultures, their histories, and their current challenges. We are a socially and environmentally conscious company. We are involved in wildlife conversation, marine conservation, human development, educational, and humanitarian projects across the continent, giving back around 30% of our net profits to a range of organisations and sponsorship programs. You can find out more about how we give back here https://www.indigosafaris.com/giving-back.html. Or read about our carbon offsetting here https://www.indigosafaris.com/indigoblog/carbon-offsetting
Indigo Safaris Terms and Conditions
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Placement of an order with Indigo Safaris Ltd trading as Indigo Safaris (the company) is taken as acceptance by the customer of these terms and conditions.
1. Introduction
Please remember when reading through these terms and conditions that we would bend over backwards to try and solve any problems that could arise during your trip. We will do our utmost whenever necessary to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible, and 99 times out of 100 it does. Customers are asked to remember that things don't always go quite to plan in Africa, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea as they do elsewhere.
2. Liability
The company takes no responsibility for loss, damage or injury arising from any shortfall, error or omission in the information passed to the customer during the course of the sale or subsequent delivery of the product. The company takes no responsibility nor can be held liable for loss, damage, or injury that occurs on a supplier’s or service provider’s premises or transport, or between two such premises.
Some of the elements sold by us inherently have a risk factor involved for the customer (e.g. diving, safari, walking safaris, trekking, flying, mountain climbing etc.) and we take no responsibility for the consequences of the customer taking on such risks.
3. Insurance
Customers are required to provide for themselves all necessary insurances against personal injury, loss, medical evacuation, medical assistance, hospitalisation, damage, theft, cancellation, delay etc.
3.1. All customers are responsible for ensuring that they have full insurance cover that includes rescue and hyperbaric recompression (if diving) from the moment that they first place their order and covering the whole period before, during and after travel.
4. The Booking Process
Once you have placed a booking with the company, the client will make a non-refundable deposit of a percentage stipulated in the invoice.
If the booking is last minute (less than 60 days in most cases but occasionally 90, depending on the service providers used), it must be paid for immediately.
5. Booking Amendments
5.1. Changes to a booking
Should you wish to make a change to your booking, then we may need to charge an amendment fee to cover additional administration costs. We will inform you of these before making any changes.
5.2. If the changes involve the actual cancellation of any element of the booking, standard cancellation charges will apply. Changes which involve adding to an existing booking can usually be carried out without an amendment charge.
6. Cancellation
We often use, small establishments that book up months in advance, or lodges within national parks that have to pay their park fees in advance. We work with a range of service providers in different countries, and they often have different cancellation policies. We inform you of the cancellation policy applicable on your invoice and this is the one applicable. We will do our best to work with our suppliers and you to ensure that you can make a claim for a full refund from your insurance company.
7. Denied Boarding
If your journey starts in the EU, you must work within the EU denied boarding law. Your airline must cooperate with you. You are however, still liable for the costs of your booked safari/diving/hotels/tours/services etc. The company will make every effort to help re-arrange your journey, but you will NOT be entitled to any refund due to your non-appearance for any sector or sectors or services of your journey.
8. Transfers
The company is not liable for any knock-on effects arising from the failure of any one element of a sale operated by a third-party, such as the non-departure of a boat or plane. It remains the customer's responsibility to arrive and depart and travel between the elements of a trip.
9. Vehicle
Vehicle Rentals and any related insurance products are not provided directly by Indigo Safaris but are arranged through third-party providers with whom the client enters into a contract. Insurance contract details can be passed on at the time of booking, and clients are free to take out their own third-party vehicle rental insurance.
10. Invoicing
Invoicing is generally in US Dollars, but may also be in South African Rand, Australian Dollars, or Euros, depending on the destination. Once a booking is paid for, the price is guaranteed except in the case of surcharges.
11. Surcharges
In some cases, suppliers feel the need to pass on surcharges to us for fuel price increases, extra government park fees, or changes to VAT regulations.
The company reserves the right to pass on to customers any increase imposed on us by our suppliers.
12. If you have a complaint
If you have a problem during your holiday, please inform the relevant supplier (hotel, safari company, dive centre) immediately who will endeavour to put things right. If your complaint is not resolved, please contact us as soon as you can, and email or text message is generally the most efficient.
12.a. You must communicate any complaint in resort to the supplier of the services in question. If you fail to follow this simple procedure we will have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint whilst you were on holiday. Most issues can be dealt with straight away.
12.b. Usually we can act quickly to resolve any such problem satisfactorily. Claims arising from problems through which the customer has suffered in silence and not given the provider or ourselves the chance to rectify, only to issue a complaint well after the event, will not be entertained.
12.c. Post-service complaints procedure
In dealing with an unresolved complaint post trip, you must contact us within seven days of the end of our service. Please bear in mind that when determining whether a refund is due, we will need to negotiate with the supplier in question after your return.
Please also note that placing negative feedback on the internet usually negates any power that we have to negotiate on your behalf.
13. Passport, Visa and Immigration requirements
Your specific passport and visa requirements and other immigration requirements are your responsibility, and you should confirm these with the relevant Embassies and/or Consulates. We do not accept any responsibility if you cannot travel because you have not complied with any passport, visa or immigration requirements.
14. Suitability and behaviour
We are an ethical organisation that wishes to enrich and develop the destinations that we serve through tourism. We are actively involved in supporting projects in many of the destinations we work with. We reserve the right in our absolute discretion to terminate without notice the trip arrangements of any customer whose behaviour is such that it does or is likely, in our reasonable opinion or in the opinion of any operator or any other person in authority, to cause distress, damage, danger or annoyance to any third party, or to cause damage to property.
Some of our trips can be physically demanding. It is your responsibility to disclose an accurate account of any limitations in your mobility and all other relevant information relating to your health and fitness at the time of booking. You must also advise us of any change to your level of mobility or health and fitness between booking and starting your trip so that we can assess its suitability and attempt to modify it. We reserve the right in our absolute discretion to terminate without notice the trip arrangements of any customer who is likely, in our reasonable opinion or in the opinion of any operator or any other person in authority, to be unable to cope adequately with the demands of the trip.
In either of these circumstances, all our obligations to you under this contract or otherwise shall cease, full cancellation charges apply, and we shall not be liable for any refund, compensation or costs incurred by you whatsoever.
We would like to point out that we have never had to do this thus far, but in this sadly litigious age, prefer to be clear from the outset.
Acceptance of Terms and Conditions:
The placing of a booking with Indigo Safaris Ltd for services implies that you accept these booking conditions.
