hi we are due to leave for kiffili north of mombasa on the 11th of january..
we rang first choice only to be told as far as they were concerned nothing has changed?????
we are going to ring again tommorow and i have also e-mailed the hotel to see what they say...

Not sure if the advice affect resorts north of Mombassa as you will not go near Likoni or Tiwi but there are many place names that I don't recognise and so don't know their geographical locations.

Hopefully it will calm down soon but the signs don't look good.

Please post any information you manage to glean from your phonecalls.

hi for more information try here ....
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294210-i9512-k1625393-Riots-Mombasa.html

hi scubaman we contacted first choice and they say that they are running as normal and no refunds or change of holiday is available at present..
our hotel e-mailed me and said At the moment in our area in Kilifi everything is still very calm and everything is under control, but the best will be to get the advise of your travel Agent First Choice. I believe you have booked through First Choice.

The travel Advisory advise tourists to do just essential traveling at the moment.

will keep you posted as new developments happen..
mike

Hi Mike

Many thanks for your update.

Here are a couple of pastes which have come from my researches today :-

Much can change in the next week - keep smiling and optimistic

Dick

new news from the fo says now they are advising against all travel to kenya

Sorry, but I have edited a couple of posts in this topic, firstly to remove copyright protected media material, and secondly to remove travel news and advice from the Foreign Office website.

Due to copyright restrictions, media extracts should not be reproduced on our pages, unless we have the express permission of the source.

The Foreign Office has also suggested to us that due to the constantly changing situation in circumstances such as this, news updates and travel advice can very quickly go out of date and should therefore not be reproduced from their pages. It is best to quote weblinks only to the relevant Foreign Office page which is constantly updated, but please do not reproduce the material here as it could be invalid within minutes of posting.

For latest news and advice from the Foreign Office, please click here.

Many thanks
David

FO advises against all but essential travel to Kenya

The Foreign Office has today changed its travel advice to Kenya, advising against all but essential travel to the country.

The advice has been reviewed following the continuing serious unrest in Kenya following the result of disputed elections on Sunday which has reportedly led to up to 300 deaths

The FO said: "We advise against all but essential travel to Kenya.

"There is uncertainty about the security and political situation in the country especially in the light of the massed rallies planned for January 3 and continued unrest linked to the disputed presidential election result."

The change is likely to affect tour operators who yesterday said they were continuing to operate normally to Kenya.

Up to 290,000 British tourists visit Kenya every year.

With permission from Travelmole

Operators suspend tours to Kenya

Tour operators have suspended holidays to Kenya until Saturday (January 5).

The move by members of the Federation of Tour Operators followed advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which has recommended against all but essential travel to the country.

Tour firms are suspending holidays to Kenya with departures due up to and including Saturday due to the current political unrest, the FTO said.

Customers due to fly over the coming days should contact their travel agent or tour operator.

"Alternative holidays for these customers will be offered where available or refunds of moneys paid," the FTO said.

"Customers currently in Kenya are being advised of the Foreign Office advice to travellers and are expected to return home on their planned departure dates."

The situation is being reviewed daily and any changes to departures planned after January 5 will be made over the coming days and customers notified in advance.

With permission from Travelmole

Please note that as this continues to be a constantly changing situation, anyone travelling in the immediate future should seek latest info and advice from the Foreign Office and your tour operator.

David HT Mod

well first choice have told me my holiday on friday is cancelled
one big rush now to find alternative for that weekend.

Hi Mike

I guess that is good news ! although I know we will be disappointed if we can't go to Kenya next month.

2-3 days notice is not really very helpful though as :

a) you will have possibly started to take the wrong malaria prophylaxis and had jabs that are no longer needed
b) you may have bought Kenya visas
c) you will have packed for Kenya and now may well need to repack for a different type of holiday
d) you may have independantly booked Kenyan activities eg safari or excursions or diving etc
e) you may not be able to cancell your holidays at work, so have to find an alternative at very short notice ( this would apply to my wife who is a pharmacist and has to get locum cover weeks in advance which you cannot cancell at short notice )
f) your replacement holiday will have more limited choice than was available when you originally booked
g) you will possibly not be able to get premium seats or if you do you may not get to sit side by side
h) airport hotel/ parking bookings will need changing
etc etc etc

So lots of things to sort out at short notice and no customer care from tour operators. If your holiday is more than 3 days away you cannot cancell/change without incurring large financial penalties. If they were a bit more sympathetic you could avoid all these last minute hassles.

Please post what you decide to do i.e. take refund or alternative offered by First Choice. I think I might be tempted to take the refund and see what last minute bargains I could find on the open market but maybe FC will offer you a much superior alternative.

Whatever you do I hope you enjoy it

Good luck

Dick

yes we were taking the maleria tablets already but lucky enough we did not need jabs.
we did not get the visas here in the uk and decided not to book the saffari till we got there..
however we did have to pay extra £25 to change car parking/hotel stay at gatwick.
first choice had no spaces on flights untill 29th so we made them book us a thomas cook holiday to cuba on 22nd.
luckily my boss was understanding so whereas i was surpposed to be lying on the beach next week i will be working hard.
good luck with yours.

ps first choice did not even bother to let us know our flight was cancelled we found out on the Federation of Tour Operators web site and had to let them know the next morning..

If they were a bit more sympathetic you could avoid all these last minute hassles

I agree that this is a very disappointing and upsetting situation for people who were hoping to go to Kenya at this time and, yes, Frist Choice haven't been as helpful as they could ahve been but no amount of customer care from TOs was going to eliminate all the hassles you list. There will always be the risk of something like this happening when booking a holiday to any country with a potentially volatile political climate but even a lot of experienced political commentators have been wrong-footed by this one. Kenya has been amongst the most stable of economies and political systems in the region for years and if the politocos and diplomats didn't second guess this one accurately then it's no wonder the TOs didn't. And there always has been that caveat that it has been one of the relatively most stable countries in Africa but it still would be considered by many people as being a lot less stable in comparison to eg Europe or the Americas. The only way of eliminating a good many of the hassles on you list would be for people to still go to Kenya but I can't imagine many people deciding - I've bought my visa, done my packing, booked a couple of excursions, had the jabs and started my malaria drug regime so I'm still going to go to Kenya despite the fact that the country is in turmoil! And I'm sure that everybody would be up in arms if the TOs hadn't cancelled and still insisted on sending people out there.

I think that we have to keep a sense of perspective here, let's not forget that the election only took place on the 29th December -less than a fortnight ago - and I doubt that anybody thought that what has happened since then could have been predicted or planned for. Kenya, like most of sub-Saharan Africa, just doesn't have the same sort of social and political infrastructure that we have at home and if we choose to book holidays there then we are taking the calculated risk that the situation can potentially change radically and quickly and that in such circumstances that includes the risk that a TO might cancel at short notice in the light of changing FCO advice. Unfortunately I think that sometimes we tend to forget that the more exotic or different a holiday destination is from home the greater the risk that this could happen - the very things that often attract us to somewhere out of the run-of-the-mill are also the very things that can increase the risk of having to change plans at short notice.

I'm currently planning my next trip to Cuba, fully aware that if Castro dies in the meantime that anything could happen up to and including a US invasion. I took the same gamble last summer and the trip went ahead exactly as planned. I mightn't be so lucky this year but in choosing to travel to a one party Communist state with a very frail old man as the titular head of state and with one of the few remaining superpowers as a sworn enemy I have to accept that I am taking a risk and the holiday might never happen.

SM

Hi SM

I think we are pretty much of one mind on this subject, and yes I do accept that TOs are sometimes forced to cancell holidays because of political or social problems.

The point I was trying to make was that TOs are essentially driven by profit motives and demonstrate little concern for their customers in these situations.

Whilst I accept that they have incurred costs for holidays that depart soon, charging 50% or more cancellation fee for clients who wish to change their destination in the last 4 days to 6 weeks demonstrates no sympathy for their clients situations.

If clients decide to take the full refund when the TO cancells at 3 days notice the TO will make a loss.

If they relaxed their cancellation charges ( which apply if you change your holiday ) and offered the opportunity to rebook to a different destination, then they would at least make a profit on the rebooked holiday which would offset the losses on the potentially cancelled holiday. They would also considerably enhance their reputation with their client base too.

Whilst I am no expert in predicting how and when the Kenyan situation will allow holidays to resume even I can tell from just watching the news that it is going to take more than 3 days. So come on TOs ( and the FTO ), please at least give some consideration to your customers situations, it might just improve your reputations.

Dick

Dick,

I'm a bit confused here - madasharley presumably saw no reason to try and get FC to cancel or change their holiday to a different destination before all this kicked off less than a fortnight ago. So TO charges re the customer wanting to cancel/change their holiday between 4 to 6 weeks of departure aren't relevant to his(?) situation. And having re-read all the posts in the thread I can find no details about whether you have approached FC to request a change in advance of your own planned departure to Kenya on the 18th February or not. Have you asked about transferring your booking to another destination and been turned down by them? I would have thought that if you had got in quick as soon as it became clear that there was social and political unrest in the immediate aftermath of the election that you would have stood a good chance of being able to re-book for another destination on payment of just an admin fee - usually around £50 max with most TOs - because this would have been more than 6 weeks before departure, unlike madasharley who was trying to do this very close to departure. This would have been my first line of action in your situation.

SM

Hi SM

I think you may have misread my post I was talking about 4 DAYS to 6 weeks before departure, not that that makesa huge difference.

Yes, I did contact First Choice to find out what the position was and their response was, unless you are due to depart in the next few days when in accordance with FCO/FTO advice holidays have been cancelled, normal booking conditions apply.

Their ammendment fee, as I understand it, which applies to 55 to 29 days before departure is the total of 50% + £40 to change date + £40 to change accommodation + £40 to change flight, this increases the closer you get to departure date. However this then becomes more than the cost of just cancelling ( which is 50% ) which doesn't seem to make sense now I look at the small print again.

I have Emailed them again for clarification - update to follow when I get a response.

Dick

Hi SM

I have just spoken to First Choice, apparently if our date of departure changes then they will treat it as a cancellation so, at the moment, it would cost us 50% of what we have paid, but if we can find another holiday with FC departing from the same airport on the same day then it will only cost £40 per person admin fee. If the new holiday costs more than our existing booking then we have to pay the difference, but if it costs less we will get not get the difference refunded.

At first glance that gives us Dom Rep or Mexico to choose from should we decide to go down that road.

We have until 29days before departure to decide after which the admin fee increases to £50 up to 15 days before departure, after which it becomes 90% and then 100% in the last 3 days !

Food for thought !

Dick

You'll obviously want to give this some thought but in your shoes I think that I'd be investigating the possible alternative holidays in Dr or Mexico with FC now and making a decision sometime next week. I would consider £40pp a good investment if it meant that I could be much more certain about where I would be going on holiday - it would eliminate virtually all of the hassles you listed in a previous post. And hopefully things will settle down in Kenya and you could go another time. Let us know what you decide.

SM

Hi SM

We have given the options due considerstion ( especially as demonstrations are about to kick off again in Kenya according to SKY news ) and have changed our holiday. We are now going to Mexico on the same date so it has cost us £40 + increase in holiday cost. When we looked at the options more closely ( checking all same day flights from all airports - I was wrong in previous post when I said it had to be same airport ) there were only 3 possible hotels all in Mexico which were of a comparable cost/standard to the one we had booked in Kenya. In the end it has worked out at increasing the total holiday cost by nearly 50% so it had better be good.

Hopefully we can return to Kenya another year when it has re-stabilised.

I will now just need to book the airport Hotel/ car parking - but at least there won't be the Kenyan visa costs !

Dick

Hi Dick,

I'm pleased to hear that you've been able to sort something out. It's pity that in the end you've spent so much more but then, what price peace of mind? From the sound of other people's experiences re the weather this is probably the best time of year to visit Mexico. So try and see this as an unexpected opportunity and I hope that you enjoy your trip.

SM