Gateway to the Pharaohs
PHONE: 1800 025 315
PHONE: 1800 025 315
The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented upheaval for the world, including upsetting the plans of people looking forward to travelling abroad. We are committed to providing safe and enjoyable holidays for our customers, and as a result have suspended tours in most of our destinations departing from 19th March through until the end of December 2020.
We'd like to thank all our travellers whose trips were cancelled for their patience and understanding while we have worked through their bookings and processed any refunds due.
From November onwards however, we were delighted to be able to start running trips in Egypt again, based on the current situation in each country and in conjunction with our Safer Encounters scheme and any updated rules and precautions that local authorities have put in place to ensure that tourist travel within them is as safe as possible. We will continue to add to this list over the weeks and months ahead.
We are accepting bookings for all our tours and destinations following the dates listed above, with our new Flexible Booking Conditions allowing for short notice date change requests and later balance payments. Bookings can also be made for travel to Egypt and Sudan for travel in the remainder of 2020. Please ensure you wait to receive confirmation from us that your trip is going ahead before booking any flights.
Travelling abroad while the pandemic continues is going to involve extra complications for some time; for example Covid-19 PCR tests are currently required before travel to Egypt. Your home country may also require a period of self isolation after returning from some destinations. Detailed information and advice will be provided for all countries which we are running tours in. This will include information on our Safer Encounters procedures in your destination and how they may affect your tour.
Part of this Safer Encounters scheme involves asking all our travellers to complete a medical self-screening declaration before travel to confirm they are free from Covid-19 symptoms. This is part of our duty of care to you, as well as to our local staff and the local population you'll come into contact with during the tour. Depending on the current UK government travel advice to your destination, we may also ask you to sign a declaration confirming that you have read and understood this advice and remain happy to travel. Completing this/these declaration(s) is a condition of booking and joining the tour and we appreciate our travellers cooperation with this and all our new hygiene and distancing protocols during the tours themselves.
We are keen to start running as many holidays as we can, as long as we can do it safely and responsibly. This reflects the fact that we have customers booking with us from all over the world who can have very different circumstances, including their personal availability and desire to travel, as well as the coronavirus situation and government travel advice in their home country.
However, we understand that it is still not the right time for everyone to start travelling again, and we are very sorry for any travellers who are not able to join tours that are operating.
Any travellers with existing bookings on tours that are running until the end of 2020 may therefore change their dates or amend their bookings in line with our Flexible Booking Conditions
All affected travellers who agree to postpone their travel will receive a credit of 110% of all payments made towards their land tour. New bookings should be confirmed before 31 Dec 2021, for travel before 31 Dec 2022. Travel insurance can be adjusted to cover your new date provided no claims have been made.
We will adjust all bookings to show your available credit automatically. You may travel on the same tour, or change itinerary or destination if you wish.
Bookings including international flights will be adjusted subject to your airline's ticket rules. Many airlines are waiving change fees, but some are not allowing full cancellations or refunds and just providing rebooking vouchers. Airlines and flight agents remain swamped with requests for changes and cancellations so please be patient if requesting changes.
Notes on credits and airline fees:
We do encourage as many of our travellers as possible to take up the credit voucher option if their tour is cancelled. This will both enable us to support our own staff and just as importantly our teams of local guides and representatives around the world who rely so hugely on incoming tourism and are being hit hard at the moment. It will also make sure that you have an exciting holiday to look forward to and at a time convenient to you. If this really isn't an option for you, then please do get in touch with our travel consultant team and they will discuss next steps regarding cancellations and refunds.
The suspension of tours is being extended on a rolling basis. This allows us to prioritise our reduced available staff's time on departures due to depart shortly, and to give as many people as possible the opportunity to still enjoy the holiday they've been looking forward to.
For bookings made from 16th March up to 31st December 2020 please see our new Flexible Bookings Policy
If you are looking for a tour and not finding what you are looking for, have a look at our best other related tours to check out for your travel plans. At Encounters Travel, we offer a variety of tours to suit your needs. So sit back, relax, and let us help you plan the perfect getaway.
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