Terms and conditions

Experiences are sold by Lala Wildlife, trading as Atlas Wild Experiences, registered at 1/122H Raliah Dam Road, Bettati, Yeddapalli P/O, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu 643104, India, GST 33AAKFL7707M1ZX. In these terms "we" and "us" mean that company, and "you" means the person who makes the booking and everyone named on it.

The person who books accepts these terms on behalf of the whole party, and is responsible for making sure everyone on the booking has read them.

Your trip is booked once we have sent you a written confirmation and your deposit has reached us. Anything before that — a proposal, an outline itinerary, a date we are holding for you — is not yet a booking. Paying the deposit means you have read and accepted these terms.

A deposit of 50% of the trip price confirms your booking. The balance is due no later than 90 days before the first day of your trip. If you book within 90 days of that date, the full price is due when you book.

We will remind you before the balance falls due. If it still has not reached us by the due date, we may treat the booking as cancelled by you, under our cancellation policy.

Safari with Lala and Safari with our naturalists run as group departures of exactly seven guests, the group the price is based on, and a departure goes ahead only once all seven places are booked. Bespoke trips can be any size. If a departure does not fill, it does not go ahead. We will tell you as soon as we know, and everything you have paid for it comes back to you in full.

Prices are published per person in US dollars and, for Indian guests, in Indian rupees. US dollar prices include GST; rupee prices have GST added at checkout. The 50% deposit can be paid online or by bank transfer; card payments carry a 4% service fee. Bank and card charges are yours to bear, and a price quoted in one currency is not fixed against movement in another until it is paid.

If a government changes its taxes, or a park changes its conservation or permit fees, after you have booked, the difference is passed on at cost, and we will show it to you in writing. Card payments are handled by our payment provider, and your card details never reach our own systems.

Please take out travel insurance on the day you book. Most of what our cancellation schedule cannot give back — a fever the week before, a cancelled connecting flight, a family emergency — is exactly what a policy is for, and it costs a fraction of the trip price.

For trips in India we strongly recommend it for every guest. For trips outside India it is required for every guest: we will ask for your insurer, policy number and 24-hour emergency number before you travel, and cannot take you without them.

Your policy should cover medical treatment, emergency evacuation and repatriation, cancellation and curtailment, personal accident, and baggage and belongings. Check that it covers safari drives and other wildlife activities — some standard policies do not.

If you travel without suitable insurance, you carry the costs it would have covered, including any medical evacuation we have to arrange for you.

These are wild animals, and nobody can guarantee a tiger, a jaguar, a leopard or any other sighting on any given drive. What we sell is the best chance of one — the right park at the right time of year, full-day permits where they exist, and experienced guides — not the animal itself. A trip is not refundable because the wildlife did not appear.

Being close to wild animals, in open vehicles and on boats, in remote places, carries risks that care can reduce but never remove. By travelling with us you accept those risks, and agree to follow the instructions of your guide, the forest department guide and any vehicle or boat crew at all times. This does not take away our responsibility for our own negligence, set out below.

Your lodges, drivers, boat operators and local guides are independent businesses. We choose them with care and name them in your itinerary before you pay, so you always know who is looking after you. Their own terms and house rules also apply to the services they provide.

We arrange and lead your trip with reasonable care and skill, and we are responsible to you if we do not.

We are not liable for loss caused by events outside anyone's control, by your own actions, or by someone unconnected with your trip whose actions we could not have foreseen or avoided. Nor are we liable for indirect losses, such as lost earnings. For any claim that does not involve death, personal injury or illness, the most we will pay is the price of your trip.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded — including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence — and nothing here affects your rights as a consumer under Indian law.