How to Cancel
Cancellations must reach us in writing, by email to info@discoverytoursegypt.com. Please include your booking reference and the name of the lead traveler. A cancellation takes effect from the point at which we acknowledge your request in writing, rather than from the moment you send it — so please make sure you have our acknowledgement, and treat it as the confirmation that the cancellation is under way.
If a request goes astray at our end, that is our problem and not yours: where you can show us when you first wrote, we will treat the cancellation as effective from that date. Tell us what has happened and we will deal with it quickly — this is precisely the situation where we would rather help than stand on a technicality.
Cancellation Schedule
What you get back depends on the notice you give before you arrive in Egypt. These are our standard terms, and they are also our standard terms for Nile cruises:
| Notice before you arrive in Egypt | Refund | Or credit for future travel |
|---|---|---|
| More than 30 days | 75% | 100% |
| 15 to 30 days | 50% | 75% |
| 7 to 14 days | 25% | 50% |
| 2 to 6 days | No refund | 25% |
| Less than 48 hours, or a no-show | No refund | No credit |
You choose: a refund, or credit for future travel. Credit is always worth more. It is valid for 12 months from your original travel date, can be used on any of our trips, and can be transferred to family or friends on request. If your new trip costs more, you pay the difference. Unused credit is not paid out in cash.
Your Deposit
Your deposit is usually 25% of the total vacation cost. Over Christmas, New Year, Easter and some other peak periods it is 50%, and it is also 50% when your trip includes domestic flights or trains. Your confirmation email tells you which applies to your booking, so there is no guesswork.
Two Sets of Terms — Ours, and Our Partners'
The schedule above is ours, and it governs the parts of your vacation we run ourselves: our guiding, our vehicles, our transfers and our own touring days. Most itineraries also include something held for you by somebody else — a cabin on a Nile cruise, a berth on a dahabiya, a hotel room, a ticketed flight. Those elements carry the supplier's own cancellation conditions as well as ours.
Those conditions vary a good deal. A hotel room usually carries more flexibility than the rest of a vacation, though how much depends on the property and how busy your dates are; a small dahabiya with six or eight cabins may need the fare committed a long way ahead, simply because a late cancellation cannot be filled. Peak dates are firmer everywhere — over Christmas, New Year and Easter most operators charge in full from around six weeks out, which is why our own deposit rises to half for those departures.
If you need to cancel, tell us in writing by email and we will confirm it back to you the same working day. We are also happy to provide written confirmation of the cancellation and the charges applied, which is usually what an insurer will ask for when you claim.
Day Tours, Excursions and Transfers
| When you tell us | Credit for future travel | Or a refund |
|---|---|---|
| More than 72 hours before your tour or transfer | 100% of what you paid | 100%, less bank charges |
| Between 72 and 24 hours before | 100% of what you paid | 50%, less bank charges |
| Less than 24 hours before, or a no-show | No credit | No refund |
Credit for future travel can be used on any Discovery Tours Egypt tour, excursion, cruise or stay. It is valid for 12 months from your original travel date, is held in your name, and cannot later be exchanged for cash.
How refunds are paid. Due to local banking regulations, refunds are made by international bank transfer: in Egypt, international card payments cannot be reversed. We'll send you a short form for your bank details, and your refund is sent within 10 working days of receiving it. Banks charge for international transfers and these charges are deducted from the refund. On smaller amounts they can take a large share, so we'll always tell you what to expect before you choose.
These terms also cover airport and city transfers booked with us.
If we cancel, for weather, a closure or a supplier problem beyond our control, choose another date, full credit or a full refund, and we cover the bank charges.
Costs already paid out on your behalf and not recoverable, such as a pre-booked ticket or a balloon flight, can't be refunded. We'll always tell you at the time of booking if this applies.
Changes to a Confirmed Booking
Once your booking is confirmed, it is final. If you would like to change something, just ask: we contact the hotels, vessels and other suppliers concerned and let you know what is possible. Extra fees may apply, and we can't know what they are until we ask, so we will always tell you before anything is changed.
If flight or train tickets have already been issued, we check whether the dates can be changed and what that costs. Sometimes new tickets need to be issued instead, and these are charged accordingly.
Changes to Your Nile Cruise
Occasionally a vessel is replaced by another of the same standard, for example when it is taken out for maintenance. River traffic, water levels and the locks can also change the order and timing of your visits. Whatever happens, everything included in your cruise stays included.
If We Cancel
There are only three reasons we would cancel a confirmed booking: non-payment, force majeure, or minimum numbers. A private vacation — which is most of what we run — goes ahead whether you are two people or twelve, and we will never cancel one for want of numbers. Shared day tours, scheduled group departures and some seat-in-coach arrangements do carry a minimum, and where one applies to your booking we state it in your quotation and on your confirmation rather than leaving you to find it later.
If we ever cancel on that basis you will hear from us as early as we can manage, and never later than 20 days before arrival for a vacation of more than six days, 7 days for one of two to six days, or 48 hours for anything shorter. You then choose: an alternative we propose, at the same price if it is of comparable standard or with the difference refunded if it is not, or every penny you have paid us returned. In practice we would far rather find you another way to travel than send your money back, and we usually can.
If a Supplier Cancels
Sometimes it is not you or us who cancels, but a supplier: a vessel goes in for repair, a sailing is withdrawn, a hotel overbooks. It is uncommon, and it is ours to sort out rather than yours.
Where the supplier offers a replacement we accept it only if it is of the same category or better. Where they offer nothing suitable, we source the alternative ourselves from suppliers we already work with. You never pay more for a replacement of equal category; if the only comparable option is of a higher standard, we absorb the difference; if it is genuinely of a lower standard we say so plainly and refund the difference. And if nothing comparable exists, you choose between an alternative we propose and a full refund of that part of your vacation.
How Refunds Are Paid
Due to local regulations, refunds are made only by international bank transfer, and every refund is sent within 10 business days.
Refunds are made by bank transfer, and we will need your bank details in order to send one — including where you originally paid by card. That is not a preference on our part. Egyptian regulations require a refund to be processed in person at the bank against documentation, so a card payment cannot simply be reversed from this end.
The part that involves you is short. We send you a template to complete; your completed form becomes the official payment request we present to the bank, and the funds are then transferred by SWIFT to the account you have given us. It is the only route open to us legally, and we would rather explain it than have you wonder why we are asking for bank details after you paid by card.
We start the moment your cancellation is confirmed, and we aim to have the transfer sent within 10 business days of receiving your completed form back. The paperwork is what sets the pace, so returning it promptly is the one thing that genuinely speeds a refund up.
No-Show
If you do not arrive for a confirmed service without prior written notice, the full cost of that service is forfeited. No refund is issued for unused portions of a vacation once the program has commenced.
Force Majeure
If something genuinely outside anyone's control stops your vacation going ahead (war, civil unrest, an epidemic, a natural disaster, extreme weather or a government travel restriction), 100% of what you have paid is held as credit for future dates. The credit terms above apply.
Travel Documents
Each traveler is responsible for having a passport valid for at least 6 months and an Egypt visa. The visa fee is not included in your vacation price.