The Creative Valleys, Spas & Lakes

• Camps and lodges — Most safari camps accept children from six years, with shared game-drive vehicles usually from eight to twelve. Many properties will take younger children on a privately booked vehicle.
• Walking safaris — Guided walking safaris carry a firm minimum of fifteen or sixteen years across most reserves. This is set by the licensing authority, not the camp, and is never waived.
• Gorilla and chimpanzee trekking — Uganda and Rwanda both enforce a strict minimum of fifteen years. It is a national park regulation and there are no exceptions.
• Hot-air balloon safaris — Operators generally require children to be at least seven, and tall enough to brace unaided in the basket on landing.
• Family and exclusive-use camps — A number of our camps run dedicated family units, child-minding and tailored activity programmes, and will relax their usual age limit for a sole-use booking.
• Talk to us first — Age limits vary from property to property and from activity to activity. Speak to our experts before you book, and we will pre-arrange the details with each lodge around the ages of the children travelling with you.

• Your duffel — A soft-sided Finders & Keepers Safaris duffel, sized for the 15 kg limit on the light aircraft that move you between camps. Rigid suitcases cannot be carried on those flights at all.
• What is inside it — A branded Finders & Keepers Safaris safari hat, a safari vest, and a hooded jumper for cold dawn starts and balloon mornings.
• Yours to keep — The bag and everything in it is a gift, not a loan. Nothing is returned at the end of your journey.
• Packing around it — Soft luggage, neutral colours, and layers. Laundry is included at nearly every camp, which is why 15 kg goes further than it sounds.

Permits for both gorilla and golden monkey trekking are capped daily and should be secured as early as possible, particularly for travel in the June–September and December–February peak windows.

• Early starts — Safaris begin very early in the morning. Your guide will confirm what time you will be collected from your camp or lodge.
• Tailoring this journey — If you would like this package with more or fewer days, arranged for a group, a family or a solo traveller, or with add-ons, reach out and we will tailor it for you.
• Route changes — Your guide or driver may alter the route in certain circumstances, but every destination set out in the itinerary will be covered.

• Passport — Valid for at least six months beyond your arrival date, with at least two blank pages for stamps.
• Visa — Rwanda is among the most open countries in Africa. Most nationalities, including UK, EU, US and Australian passport holders, are issued a visa on arrival. African Union, Commonwealth and Francophonie nationals enter free of charge.
• East Africa Tourist Visa — Where your itinerary covers Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, the US$100 East Africa Tourist Visa replaces three separate visas with one multiple-entry document. It is valid for tourism only.
• Gorilla permits follow your passport — Trekking permits are issued in your full passport name and cannot be transferred or amended. Your passport details must be final before we secure them.
• Yellow fever — A vaccination certificate is required if you are arriving from, or have transited, a country with yellow fever risk.
• We file it for you — Whether you are flying in from overseas or travelling from elsewhere on the continent, we complete and submit your visa application on your behalf. You hand us your documents once. We do the filing, chase the approval, and carry the confirmations in your travel pack so nothing rests on you remembering a reference number at a counter.
• Most of Africa is open to you — The great majority of our African destinations are now either visa-free or issue a visa on arrival, so an embassy queue is rarely in your future at all. Where a visa on arrival does apply, we prepare and lodge the paperwork ahead of you — you reach the desk with a finished file rather than a blank form and a biro.
• Before you travel — Entry rules change frequently and without much notice. Your specialist confirms the current requirements for every passport in your party at the time of booking, and checks them again before you fly.

• Once confirmed, you travel — When your departure date is confirmed, it is guaranteed. We do not cancel, merge or reschedule a confirmed departure for commercial reasons, however the final numbers fall.
• What confirms a departure — A departure becomes confirmed once the agreed number of travellers has been reached and paid for in line with the agreed payment schedule. Places held without payment do not count towards it.
• If the minimum is not reached — Where a group departure has not reached its agreed numbers, we tell you early rather than late, and you choose: move to the next available date, continue at a revised small-group rate, or take a full refund of everything you have paid.
• Solo journeys — Solo and tailor-made itineraries carry no group minimum at all. Your dates are confirmed the moment your deposit is received.