Package travel terms

The trip is sold by Sahel & Fjord AS, company no. 912 345 678, Torggata 12, 0181 Oslo, Norway. We are the organiser under the Package Travel Act, and we are the ones you deal with throughout — including for what the airline, the hotel or the guide on the ground actually does.

The contract covers the trip as described in the confirmation we email you. Anything not written there has not been booked.

The price listed for each route covers accommodation, local transport, guiding and the meals named in the day-by-day plan.

Flights are not included. Every price says “without flights” because most people find cheaper tickets themselves, and because a price with flights would be a price we had guessed at. We are happy to propose a routing; you book it, or ask us to book it for you.

• Not included: flights, visas, vaccinations and malaria prophylaxis, travel insurance, drinks outside meals, and whatever you buy yourself.
• Included: everything listed under the route, and one contact you can reach for the whole trip.

An enquiry is not a booking. You first receive a written proposal with route, accommodation and total price. The contract binds both parties once you have accepted the proposal in writing and the deposit has been paid.

If you are under 18, a guardian must be the booking party.

We take a maximum of 8 travellers per departure. Places go in the order the deposits arrive.

The deposit is 20 % of the total and falls due 10 days after you accept the proposal. The balance falls due 45 days before departure.

If you book later than 45 days before departure, the full amount is due at booking.

If you do not pay by the deadline after one reminder, we may treat the booking as cancelled by you, with the charges in clause 6.

The price in your confirmation is fixed, with three exceptions the Act allows: the cost of fuel for passenger transport, taxes and fees charged by third parties, and the exchange rate relevant to the trip.

Any such increase can never exceed 8 % of the total, and we must notify you no later than 20 days before departure. If it goes above 8 %, you may cancel free of charge.

If those costs fall, you get the money back on the same basis. It runs both ways.

You may cancel at any time. What it costs depends on how close to departure we are — by then the flights, rooms and guides have already been paid for at our end.

More than 60 days before departure

The deposit

60–45 days before

30 % of the total

44–30 days before

50 % of the total

29–15 days before

75 % of the total

Less than 15 days

The full amount

If unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances arise at or near the destination that significantly affect the trip — war, unrest, epidemic, natural disaster — you may cancel without charge and get back what you have paid. What settles it is the situation at the destination, not how you personally judge it.

The Norwegian right-of-withdrawal rules do not apply to package travel. There is no fourteen-day cooling-off period here, online or otherwise — the cancellation terms above apply instead.

You may transfer the trip to someone who meets the conditions, as long as you tell us no later than 7 days before departure. This right is in the Act and we cannot contract out of it.

You and the person taking over are jointly liable for the balance and for the actual costs the transfer causes us. The airline's name-change fee is usually the whole of that cost, and it can be steep.

A departure needs at least 4 travellers. If there are fewer, we may cancel — but no later than 20 days before departure, and you get everything you have paid back within 14 days. Beyond that you have no claim to compensation when the cancellation is down to numbers and you were told in time.

If we have to change something significant before departure, you choose: accept the change, take an equivalent alternative if we can offer one, or withdraw and get your money back.

Smaller adjustments happen. Days can swap places, a lodge can be replaced by a comparable one, and a river trip can move a day because of the tide. That is not a significant change.

• A passport valid for at least six months after your return, and a visa where one is required. We tell you what is needed; getting it is yours.
• Vaccinations and malaria prophylaxis. Yellow fever is required if you arrive from certain countries. Talk to a doctor or travel clinic early — some of it must be started six weeks before departure.
• Being on time. If you miss an agreed meeting point, catching up with the group is at your own cost.
• Telling us about health conditions, allergies or mobility limits that matter for the trip, before you book.

If your conduct is a significant nuisance to the other travellers or to running the trip, we may end your trip on the spot. Getting home is then at your own expense.

Travel insurance is not included in the price and we do not sell it. You need your own, and it should cover cancellation for illness, repatriation and medical treatment in the Gambia and Senegal. The European Health Insurance Card is not valid outside the EEA.

We may ask to see that cover is in place before departure.

Tell us straight away, while we can still do something about it. Your contact is reachable for the whole trip, and a problem raised on the ground can usually be fixed there and then. Wait until you are home and you may lose the right to rely on it.

If we do not put it right within reasonable time, you can claim a price reduction, and damages for financial loss caused by the defect. Written complaints go to post@sahelfjord.no within reasonable time after your return.

We hold the statutory guarantee through the Norwegian Travel Guarantee Fund, registration RGF-2019-4471. It covers money you have paid us and repatriation should we become insolvent. It does not cover flights you booked yourself directly with an airline.

If we cannot agree, you can take the matter to the Norwegian Package Travel Complaints Board. It costs you nothing.

Norwegian law governs this contract. The venue is Oslo District Court, unless mandatory law says otherwise.