At Sundowners Overland the safety of our clients is paramount. When world events occur we consult a number of sources and evaluate the situation before making any operational changes to current or upcoming itineraries. These include government advisories and the World Health Organisation appraisals, the expert and in depth knowledge of our local partners who are constantly monitoring condition, as well as assessments by our Tour Leaders who provide an immediate response from our destinations.
We always endeavour to provide an alternative that will not diminish the overall experience of your journey when itineraries have to change. In extreme situations we may choose to cancel departures.
We would encourage you to ensure that you have comprehensive insurance prior to travel and to do some research on the destinations that you are travelling to. Our Travel Advisors will happily provide you with more information as required.
The best way to receive up-to-date government advice on specific countries is to register yourself with your nationality’s government travel advisory website:
Australia: www.smartraveller.gov.au Tel: 1300 555 135 (within Australia) New Zealand: www.safetravel.govt.nz
UK: www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
Canada: https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories
USA: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html
Please note that in order to comply with government recommendations our team are currently working reduced hours from home. As such there may be some short delay in response time. Your patience is appreciated.
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Sundowners Overland has been operating since 1964 with the desire to share Asia Overland with our clients. We are proud of our long history and the journey that we have taken to bring our regions to you all for so long. We could not do this without our wider community; our internal team and tour leaders, our clients, our travel agency partners, our local, in-destination partners as well as the wider communities within which we travel who all rely heavily on travel and tourism. We have seen over the years the positive impact that tourism can bring to these countries and we hope to see that sustained as an impact over the coming months.
Our responsibility as a travel company is to design and deliver amazing journeys to our clients and we recognise that many of you will have had travel plans impacted or disrupted by the outbreak of COVID-19 and by the travel restrictions that have been put in place by governments around the world. However we wish to assure you that we are watching and waiting, as we are sure you are, for the moment when borders open again and we can all get back to doing what we do best, travel. We will be working with you to work through available options as things change and you can be assured of our best intentions at all times.
Our booking conditions are not just to protect us as a viable business with responsibilities to our own team, but they also take into account the conditions of the various local partners we work with, many of whom are small to medium businesses. Many of these we have partnered with for over 10 years and it is vital to us that they too weather this storm. It may therefore take some time for us to work through with them to understand which elements of reservations can be moved or changed or cancelled.
If you are not travelling for 3-4 months or more our recommendation is that you adopt a “wait and see” policy. The situation with COVID-19 evolves daily so it is impossible to predict when the virus may end or how it may progress. We believe it is not critical to make a decision now, but by all means contact us if you require further information.
If you were due to travel imminently or are scheduled to travel within the next 2 months then please contact us to discuss options.
I would like to thank you all for your support of Sundowners Overland and our extended team during this time.
Liz Anderson, Managing Director
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) (Updated 25 June 2021)
COVID-19 is having an unprecedented impact globally with continued border closures and flight suspensions making it increasingly difficult for travellers. The safety and well being of our clients is our first and highest priority. With this in mind we have no choice but to suspend our journeys up until 31 December 2021 due to logistical restraints.
July - December 2021
Tours are suspended for this period.
If you have booked a journey departing between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2021 you will receive a full travel credit (of monies received by Sundowners Overland) to put towards an alternative tour (please refer to your Travel Credit voucher for validity dates). Sundowners Overland will absorb monies that have already been expended or that we are legally committed to spend with our on-ground operators. #Excludes third party payments related but not limited to visas, airfares and/or travel insurance that have independent booking conditions.
We will be working through journeys in departure date order. If your journey is suspended, you will be notified directly by our Travel Advisors or your travel agent.
January 2022 onwards
At this stage journeys departing from 01 January 2022 are continuing to operate as planned and we look forward to welcoming clients back to travel again. If you choose to amend or cancel your booking standard terms and conditions apply as detailed in our Booking Conditions.
Please contact one of our Travel Advisors with any queries. For further information and travel advice visit here.