Camps international (Camps International)

Member Name: LaurenW

Product:	Camps International
Date:	09/08/09 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: amazing trip, people, activities

Disadvantages: very disorganised

Camps international are a travel company which offer trips for people who are on gap years, career breaks, family trips or school teams. The trips include community project work, wildlife programmes, ocean programmes and mountain expeditions in countries such as Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya and Borneo.
I recently spent two months in Africa which I booked directly through Camps International and although I cannot fault the programme, the people and the camp staff in Africa which were amazing I feel that I cannot say the same for the company themselves.
The whole thing was quite poorly disorganised, for example, after meeting with the group and discussing the 'kit lists' etc which we were all given, we soon found out that we had all received different information prior to leaving. One girl had brought an entire wardrobe of only summer, beach clothes after being told that its very hot and that we would be visiting the beach every weekend, having beach parties. This wasn't the case however as we were hundreds upon hundreds of miles away from a beach and our summer is Africa's winter. When we were met at Heathrow we were told, quite casually, by a Camps international staff member that if your luggage doesn't appear at the other end don't worry they lose luggage often. So when on arrival in Africa and two peoples suitcases have gone missing it was quite disconcerting to hear their laidback 'it'll turn up eventually' attitude.
In order to enter the country you have to obtain a tourist visa either six weeks prior to departure or on arrival in Africa. One week before I was supposed to depart I was sent a number or visa forms in the post which I was told I urgently had to complete and send back to them in order to obtain a work visa on arrival. Having completed all of these forms, changing £120 into dollars and paying for 8 passport photos, I arrived at the airport to find that no-one else had been sent these forms. After contacting camps international and asking which visa I apply for, the $50 tourist one or the $150 work one, I was sent a reply stating that I shouldn't worry, and that everything will sort itself out when I arrive. This was extremely unhelpful and meant that I sat worrying about which visa to apply for the entire plane journey, in the end I just decided to go for the tourist visa. There was also several other problems with the visas such as: others were told the wrong dates to apply for and ended up having to pay an extra £20 to extend their visas and an Irish girl wasn't told she had to apply for a different visa due to her nationality which meant her having to pay an extra $150 on arrival.
Another thing is that if you want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, do not book it through a company here. Camps international charge £1500 to do the climb however others in the group booked the same trip in Africa for $600.
I had an absolutely amazing time and I would definitely recommend the trip to anyone, however to make life easier I just would not recommend booking through this organisation.

Summary: to make life easier, book with a different company