Thus the company that you choose must demonstrate its ability to handle your booking in a professional and reliable manner – this means having a well-staffed back-office operation, as well as knowledgeable enquiry staff. The Away Company Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Broad Court Property Management Ltd, a leading Birmingham residential letting agent, established for nearly quarter of a century, with an exceptionally well developed administration department.
Then the company’s personnel must have direct and up to date personal experience of the products that it has to offer. This means that they must travel regularly to Africa to check that standards are being maintained and that local operational changes have been noted – it’s tough work, but somebody has to do it!
Finally the people involved must have a genuine passion for Africa. As a tourist destination, Africa, above all other places, is about a passion, for its culture, people, wildlife, natural phenomena and so on. If the company which organises your trip does not feel this passion then your own experience may lack this vital spark.
Our aim at AfricaAway is to provide our clients with the ultimate African wildlife experience. We understand your dream – We understand that an African safari for many of our clients is a once in a lifetime adventure. We therefore go to great lengths to plan the smallest details ensuring the highest quality experience for each and every one of our clients.
To ensure this, only the best wildlife areas and lodges have been selected and guests are transferred between destinations by scheduled and chartered aircraft so that you may spend the maximum amount of time in the wilderness. Guests are accompanied by experienced guides and rangers at all times who will be at your service throughout the entire safari.
Unlike many other tour operators and agents, we are an independent, privately-owned company, with no vested interest in working with any particular lodge or camp. Hence we are free to construct your itinerary in a totally objective manner, choosing only those destinations that we believe will best suit your personal aspirations.
There is no substitute for first hand knowledge and personal enthusiasm when it comes to designing your tour. We do not offer any itinerary that is not the result of personal experience, and we can also claim to offer a wider range of camps and lodges within Zambia – our specialist destination – than any other safari consultant. AfricaAway will only deal with reputable service providers, and constantly monitors their performance.
Designing a safari can be a bit like completing a jigsaw puzzle! And that's why you'll find that our many years of collective experience in the tourism industry will be invaluable to you. We know the "ins and outs" - the detailed logistics - that can make all the difference to the success of your trip. Although we publish a number of sample itineraries, in fact each trip ends up being individually tailored to the customers’ specific interests and requirements.
AfricaAway is customer-driven. We strive to meet and surpass your aspirations. And by limiting the scope of the destinations we offer, we guarantee a focus on what we know and what we do best. Our team's mission is to work with each client or group in an individual way, not just take a pre-set package off the shelf. We will take the time to discuss your interests, travel style, budget, and timeframe - all the factors that can influence your trip - to ensure we suggest a tour that's right for you. The benefit of such tailor-made travel is that your complete holiday is designed around your requirements, so you are not tied to the set itinerary of a group. This allows you to explore your own interests and select your own style of accommodation and activity, with our specialist knowledge at your disposal to perfect your travel plans.
The accommodation provided varies from fly tents, with long drop loos and bucket showers, through rustic seasonal bush camps to luxury lodges. In each case we will ascertain the type of accommodation that best suits you, but in all cases can guarantee you beautifully designed accommodation in breathtaking locations, serving delicious food and with charming and attentive hosts. This, indeed, is the essence of the modern-day safari – an experience that, on the surface, is reminiscent of those romantic turn-of-the-century Edwardian safaris, but (usually) with all mod cons, such as flushing toilets and (solar panel powered) fridges to keep that all-important sun downer cool for you.
The difference between a good and a great safari closely depends on the quality of your guide. The wildlife doesn’t queue up to be viewed at your convenience, but the expert guide exhibits an uncanny ability to find it for you. In many countries the guides tend to change frequently, passing through on their way within a career structure. In Zambia, in comparison, most of the guides employed were born locally, and know their area intimately. The ultimate was reached for us on one occasion when our guide said that he was being rather more wary of one particular buffalo, since he didn’t know it!
AfricaAway only chooses those camps and lodges whose guides are of the highest quality, many of whom have become close friends.
Many people nowadays are accustomed to booking the various components of their holiday – flights, accommodation and so on – over the internet, in order to avoid the exorbitant mark-ups that many tour operators and travel agents impose. However this is probably not a good idea in Africa, where internal flights and local ground transport need to be arranged, in addition to a possibly quite complex itinerary involving a number of accommodation providers.
However AfricaAway pledges that, if booking through us, the cost that you will pay is no more than it would have been if you had indeed booked each element directly with the provider concerned – we derive our income solely from the conventional agents’ commission that is made available to us.
Unusually among major safari tour operators, AfricaAway offers the widest possible range of safari accommodation and pricing. This means that we can design a wonderful and worthwhile wildlife experience to suit virtually any budget.
By booking with AfricaAway you also gain the invaluable benefit of our financial bonding (above). Although it will be obvious that there can be risks in booking with a non-bonded African lodge, or small charter airline, how many people realise that a direct booking of your international flight, for example with British Airways, does not carry ATOL bonding protection.
Unique among UK-based travel companies, The Away Company has been the recipient of two of the prestigious Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programs, partly government funded to enable medium sized businesses to work together with a local University-based specialist team (Birmingham City University) in order to develop innovative, cutting edge, IT strategies for promoting and running their operations. These programs are enabling The Away Company to design a new generation of data-base driven travel websites, providing an efficient and accurate information and booking service to our customers.
