FAQ ~ the list of most popular questions

Updated March 30, 2020

Please take note: This notice changes some of our regular terms of service.
❗️ Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions, Africa Royal Travel reports that if you are unable to participate in our spring tours for any reason, all payments will be provided with a credit account that you will be able to use to pay for our tours in the future.
❗️ In addition, you can reschedule your planned trip to any dates convenient for you, as well as use your credit to pay for any other tours booked through "AFRICA ROYAL TRAVEL"
❗️ Please note that given the unprecedented scale of current events, we do not refund the payments in the event of a cancellation of the tour. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
❗️ In light of the above, until the end of the global pandemic and the complete stabilization of the situation, the paragraph "If I change my mind, how can I get the advance made back?" of our Terms of Service should be read as follows:
"If the tour is cancelled during the COVID-19 virus epidemic, no refunds will be made. Africa Royal Travel will provide you with a credit opportunity that you will be able to use to pay for future tours on convenient dates."

1. How old is the company?

Africa Royal Travel is an independent travel agency founded in 2012 and has been successfully operating in the travel services market for 8 years. Our specialty is individual and group tours to Africa of any complexity. The range of offers is so wide that each client is given a wide range of holiday options, in accordance with his preferences and opportunities: adventure and exotic travel, safari tours and ocean cruises, diving and fishing in Africa, travel on luxury trains, business travel and much more.

2. Do you have offices in South Africa and/or other countries?

Africa Travel is headquartered in Johannesburg and Cape Town. These key locations allow us to keep a high standard of service quality, and keep reasonable prices fully consistent with the service.

Fully understanding the responsibility that lies with us, we have identified two simple axioms that have become the basis of our activities: "Safety and Individual Approach." In our understanding, these are integral parts of one whole, which helps not only to predict dangerous force majeure situations, but also to think through the course of the program, leaving you with only pleasant impressions of the trip

3. Who do you work with?

Africa Royal Travel, as the host party, has direct contracts with all hotels, we have also secured exclusive rates for tourist services, which saves you from unnecessary overpayments and allows us to set special prices for hotels and organize unique tours at the best rates.

4. Which countries do you service?

We organize group and individual tours in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the Indian Ocean island states. Areas such as Uganda and Rwanda are also available. .

5. Who are your guides?

We pay special attention to our guides. All our guides are licensed, highly professional and have impeccable knowledge of African countries. They also have completed training at the Tour Guide Institute and each possess a unique personal number; have first aid skills under the BLS Medical - First Aid Certificate, and have a passenger transport permit and an insurance policy. guides will introduce you to the history, culture and traditions of South African countries in a pleasant and unobtrusive way, provide you with safety, excellent service and good mood.

6. What kind of transport do you provide to your customers?

Our car pool consists of vehicles to suite any taste and budget:

• roomy minivans for family holidays;
• crossovers for off-road trips;
• luxury representative cars for increased comfort.

What tour can I expect to buy from you?

1. The first thing one has to understand is that Africa Royal Travel is a tour operator, not a travel agency. We do not "resell" other people's tours, we develop our own programs and organize the tours ourselves. All programs are an original product and usually have thematic content, such as adventure and exotic travel, safari tours and ocean holidays, diving and fishing in Africa, yoga classes, active pastime and more.

2. Africa Royal Travel mainly offers package tours, which usually include airport transfers from the airport and back, Hotel accommodation with a chosen type of meals, guided excursions, flights, etc. When buying such ready-made tours, you get a carefully planned program and full support throughout the journey. itinerary is tested by many tourists before you, which guarantees you a coordinated work of guides, drivers, and other services that ensure your comfortable journey!

3. Africa Royal Travel also provides services for organizing and accompanying business travel. We provide reliable quality, take care of the comfort of customers when traveling, help to optimize the costs of business trips and corporate events. Our task is to provide your organization with comprehensive solutions that take into account all organizational details. If your company has a Corporate Travel Policy, we will ensure that business travel and business travel is fully compliant with its requirements.

4. "Africa Travel" has an extensive experience in organizing VIP tours. Many of our clients came to us on the recommendation from their friends and partners, relatives and colleagues. They know us, they talk about us. We successfully organize exclusive holidays for individual tourists, couples and small groups, as well as for larger, corporate clients.

5. We take full responsibility for your holiday in Africa! Our main offices are in South Africa (in Cape Town) and East Africa (in Mombasa. These key locations allow us to keep a high standard of service quality, and keep reasonable prices fully consistent with the service.

Fully understanding the responsibility that lies with us, we have identified two simple axioms that have become the basis of our activities: "Safety and Individual Approach." In our understanding, these are integral parts of one whole, which helps not only to predict dangerous force majeure situations, but also to think through the course of the program, leaving you with only pleasant impressions of the trip

6. Important! All our information material provided on the site, in our programs, as well as in presentations is valid and accurate without any distorted facts.

When and how do I get my travel documents?

1. Once your tour is booked, you will receive confirmation from your personal manager. The first document you get when you purchase a tour is a contract that spells out the main parameters of the tour (travel program), as well as the order of the relationship between the tourist and the operator. In the case of online booking, the contract is entered into automatically on the basis of payment for the tour and is provided at the request of the tourist.

2. You receive a full package of travel documents: e-ticket, accommodation and transfer voucher, invitation and visa documents (if necessary), detailed program with timing within three days after the final payment of the trip (no later than 30 days before the start of the holiday)

3. That's it! You pack your bags and fly to Africa!!!

How do I make reservations and do I need to make a prepayment?

1. After we accept your order (by phone or email), you will be assigned a personal manager who will not only provide timely and complete information on the chosen tour(s), but will also help to draw up an individual travel schedule according to your preferences.

2. After the program has been approved, within 1-2 working days we will provide you with details about the availability and possibility of booking hotels on the chosen route. If there are rooms available in the hotel, a "pre-booking" is made, on the basis of which the final cost of the tour is issued. After agreeing on all the details and cost of the tour, your manager will send you a final deposit invoice to confirm your trip.

3. Deposit is required for pre-booking hotels and lodges, as well as for planning a tour schedule. As a general rule, the deposit size for classical programs is 30%, and 50% for programs on the VIP tariff. The prepayment for domestic flights is 100%. But in most cases, the term of payment of the deposit payment depends on the type of tour and is determined by your consultant.

4. Payment must be made in the currency specified in the invoice unless otherwise stated. Your travel will not be booked and the payment will not be considered made before the funds are available in the account of Africa Royal Travel, of which your manager will notify you by sending a screenshot confirming the availability of funds.

5. The deposit should be made to the calculated account of our company in South Africa:

Bank: ABSA Bank Ltd – Recipients bank
Account Holder: Africa Royal Travel LTD
Branch/Sort code/Routing/BL/BSB: 632005
Foreign currency account: 113209USD105701 - checking account
Swift BIC: ABSAZAJJ
Reference: Africa Travel INVXXX – where XXX is your invoice number
Branch Address: cnr Main & Nantes Street, Paarl

6. The balance of payment is due 6 to 8 weeks before the start of the program. However, if you decide to visit Africa in the "high season" (New Year holidays and October - March), then you need to reserve hotels as early as possible. Therefore, our manager can request a prepayment 4 months before the start of the tour, especially if you are going on a safari. In the case of a corporate tour (20 or more people), prepayment must be made within 4 months, as the number of rooms in hotels is limited, and in order to successfully accommodate the whole group you need early booking, especially in the "high season".

7. Your tour must have been paid in full 30 days before it commences. Please note that the "pay-for-arrival" scenario is categorically excluded. All bills must be paid on time, before your arrival. This is due to the fact that we need to book hotels, pay park fees and bear other related costs. Be sure to notify your manager if you do not have time to make a payment on time.

8. If the full payment is not received before the date specified on your invoice, Africa Royal Travel reserves the right to cancel your tour.

Necessary documents to travel to Africa

In order to enter South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania for tourism purposes, you will need a passport, which must be valid for more than 6 months at the time of crossing the border. The passport must have one-two clean pages for the visas and and border stamps.

Before you leave for the airport, check the following documents:

Passport;
Plane Tickets;
Insurance policy;
Credit card;
Power of attorney from both parents (for children travelling with one of the parents);

Important!

If your minor is travelling with one of the parents, be sure to take documents confirming the kinship, notarized power of attorney from the second parent, and a copy of the child's birth certificate (in English). If the child travels with a relative, acquaintance or with a tour group alone, notarized consent is required from both parents (legal representatives: stepfather, stepmother, guardians) as well as a copy of the child's birth certificate (in English).

If the whereabouts of one of the parents is not established or he is absent for a long time (long business trip, seriously ill, etc.), it is advisable to have a certificate of the relevant institution confirming this fact. In the event of a divorce, parents can produce a divorce certificate and the court's decision to leave the child with the parent who has issued a notarized consent for the child's trip.

Necessary vaccinations to travel to Africa

Africa is a mysterious, beautiful place, beckoning us all with its pristine beauty since childhood. Unfortunately, as much as this continent is tempting, it also scares off travelers. Most tourists are frightened by two exotic diseases: yellow fever and malaria. In this article, we will tell you what vaccinations you need to do and which are only RECOMMENDED.

Yellow fever: To enter most African countries: South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Kenya, yellow fever vaccination certificate is NOT needed. To visit Tanzania, yellow fever immunization is a recommended measure, not a mandatory one. However, vaccination is required if you enter from an epidemiologically dangerous country, which also includes neighboring Kenya.

Malaria: The risk of catching malaria does exist in areas with humid warm climates and a lot of insects, but the chance of encountering a malaria mosquito is close to zero. The vectors of the disease are not ubiquitous: they are "tied" to standing water and do not move away from it further than 8 km. Therefore, the risk of being bitten by a malaria mosquito is high only in their permanent habitat: in tropical forests, lowlands, swamps, near drying bodies of water, etc. But the minimum risk still remains a risk, so if you want to protect yourself 100% you need to follow the following recommendations: use quality repellents; use special drugs. There is no cure for malaria!

How to protect yourself from malaria?

According to the advice of doctors and seasoned travelers, there are two ways to cope with a possible disease:

1. Drink medication for prevention. To prepare the body for a possible encounter with a malaria mosquito, a course of special drugs - Lariam, Doxycycline, Malaron is recommended.

2. It is recommended to start prevention before departure, and to continue for the whole trip and 2-4 weeks after leaving the country. But it should be taken into account that all these drugs are not harmless to health - they have a lot of contraindications that can negatively affect your health. This prevention may affect the liver, gastrointestinal tract, vision organs and nervous system. Therefore, before taking such medications, we advise to consult with your doctor.

3. If you do not want to share the trip with all the charms of possible side effects, the following simple ways will help minimize the risks:

• Wear closed clothes after dark (the ones that don’t expose your skin)
• use repellents: spray or ointment from mosquitoes
• sleep under the mosquito net
• Air conditioners also help - Anopheles mosquitoes are afraid of coolness, and plasmodium does not develop at a temperature below 20 degrees Celsius.

What medications to take with you on safari?

Complete your medkit with the following:

• painkillers and antipyretic;
• indigestion pills;
• antiseptic (iodine, cream that relieves itching and irritation after insect bites);
• bactericidal patches, bandages;
• antimalarial drugs (Malarona, Lariam);
• motion sickness pills (Dramina, Druminex);
• antihistamines (Claritin, Loratadine, Aselastin).

Don't forget the sunscreen! Equatorial sun contains a lot of ultraviolet rays, so some protection from the sun is necessary for everyone, even people who "never burn". It is especially easy to burn on a cloudy or windy day when the heat is not felt. Try to hide in the shade between 11am and 14pm, when the sun’s rays are the most direct, wear a panama or cap, and be sure to use sunscreen if you decide to sunbathe. Sunglasses should have UV protection.

The best seasons to stay in South Africa and the neighbouring countries?

South Africa:

If you are planning a trip to South Africa, it is worth remembering that South Africa is located in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore the seasons are reversed – when it is winter in Europe and US it’s summer here, and vice versa.

South Africa is a country with a mild, pleasant climate, tropical in the north and subtropical in the south of the country, making South Africa a year-round tourist destination, but it is a country with two rather different weather zones:

Spring and summer in South Africa last from October to May, the temperature average in the daytime is 25C to 30C, at night it is 16C. This season is perfect for Cape Town, Wine Valleys, Garden Route, Johannesburg and Sun City.

Autumn and Winter last from late May to the end of September, the temperature average in the daytime of 18C during the day, at night it is 5C-8C. In winter, from May to October, you must have warm clothes with you. This period is ideal for whale watching in Cape Town, as well as animal watching in Kruger National Park, South Africa's hallmark.

Botswana:

Botswana is located in the tropics, but it is far from the ocean, so sunny days are guaranteed almost every day of the year, and rainfall is scarce.

Botswana primarily has two seasons - summer and winter.

The best time to travel to Botswana for a safari is the dry winter season from May to October, when vegetation is at its sparsest and thirsty animals gather at the origins of the Chobe River, the Savuti River and the Okavango River Delta. The rains are over, mosquitoes (mostly) are not present, and wild fauna begins to concentrate in large quantities near reservoirs and rivers. During the day, the temperature usually reaches 25C Celsius, and in the evening the temperature can reach 10C Celsius.

The rainy season in Botswana is during the summer for the southern hemisphere and lasts from November to April, the temperature can reach 38 degrees and sometimes higher, and at night falls to 20-25C

Zambia and Zimbabwe:

In the heart of Africa on the Zambezi river that serves as a border between two countries, Zimbabwe and Zambia, there is an amazing place - Victoria Falls. Thousands of tourists from all over the world come to these countries to see this wonder of the world. Depending on the season, Victoria Falls can be seen in different states. The speed and strength of the waterfall varies depending on the water level in the Zambezi river.

The flow of water becomes powerful and rapid when the water level in the Zambezi rises, which occurs between April and August (the highest in April - May). During this period, extreme sports at the waterfall are limited. From the end of August to December the "dry" period begins. At this time Victoria Falls, which are almost 2 km wide, break down into dozens of separate streams, and in some places just dries up and you can see only one bare rock. The lowest levels are reached in December is January. During this period, the river dries up considerably, its flow becomes less rapid and strong - it is the peak of the season for extreme travelers.

Temperatures are relatively cool, usually around 10 degrees Celsius in the morning and 28 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. In June, July and August we recommend bringing warm clothes, as the temperature on morning and evening safaris can get as low as 10 degrees C. During the day the temperature will warm up to 25 degrees Celsius. September and October are the most optimal months with a pleasant temperature.

Namibia:

The issue of seasonality in Namibia is rather complex and ambiguous.

Winter in Namibia comes from June to August, traditionally a high season. This is due to the drought and its main consequence - the increasing availability of fauna for direct observation. At this time precipitation is minimal to nonexistent, rivers and other reservoirs dry up, the grass dries and becomes much lower. As a result, all animals are easily seen, as they concentrate around the remaining reservoirs and can no longer hide in the grass. On sunny days, the average temperature during the day is about 20-25 degrees Celsius, in the desert it is about 30-35 degrees Celsius, and at night it is 6.5 degrees Celsius. The drawbacks are short daylight hours and cold nights.

Summer - from December to February - low season. During the day the temperature is about 30 degrees Celsius, can reach 40 degrees Celsius, at night - 13-15 degrees Celsius. Benefits of this season: Nature springs back to life and blooms thanks to rains, migratory birds return and it's good time to observe them. Animals are full of energy and active, they are much more interesting to watch. At this time they also normally give birth and you can expect to see the cubs. The most fertile time for photographers, when you get the most picturesque and spectacular pictures. The disadvantages - animals are scattered throughout the savannah. They are hidden by dense vegetation, high grass. Only the fact that the beasts - a lot - helps!