Money timing
Nothing is owed to see a plan
Or to revise it three times. Money moves when you decide to hold space.
| Stage | What it costs | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Sending a brief | Nothing | Gets you an outline and an itemised price within 24 hours |
| Revisions | Nothing | Two or three is normal. This is where the trip gets designed. |
| Deposit | A proportion of the total | Holds the camps. This is the point of commitment. |
| Gorilla permits | Usually in full, early | Secures a capped daily allocation against your passport |
| Balance | The remainder | Typically due some weeks before travel; the quote states when |
| On the ground | Tips, premium drinks, extras | Everything else is usually already paid |
The one payment worth making earliest
The gorilla permit, if your route includes one. It is frequently payable in full well ahead of everything else, and that is not a cashflow tactic — it is because the allocation is capped and centrally held.
Paying it early is what converts "we would like to trek on the 14th" into "we are trekking on the 14th".
What to check before you pay a deposit
- What the deposit holds, and until when
- What is refundable and what is not — permits usually are not
- The balance due date, in writing
- Whether peak dates carry a different schedule
- That your insurance is bought, or about to be — cancellation cover must predate the reason to cancel
Who takes the money
The agency, not us. We publish the guides and pass the enquiry on; they issue the itinerary, hold the bookings, take the payments and look after you on the ground.
If you book, they pay us a commission out of their margin. Camps hold rate parity, so the trip costs the same whether it reaches them through us or not.
More from our Africa guides
Specialist guides across our Africa network
Each of these is a focused guide we publish. Same Africa specialist behind every enquiry.
Ready to turn this into a real itinerary?
Send us your dates, who is travelling and roughly what you want to spend per person per night. Our Africa specialist comes back within 24 hours with a plan built around them and a costed quote.