Booking for the Leopard Trail

How Bookings Work

• Bookings are made per sleeping hut for four people, not per person.
• There are 3 sleeping huts.
• Each sleeping hut sleeps 4 people in two bunk beds.
• All hikers share a single communal cooking hut, regardless of how many huts are booked.

Price

R12 800 for a group of four per hiking hut, which is R3 200 per person.  Price includes:

• 4 days hike
• Slack Packing Service

Excludes

• Catering
• Bedding and towels
• Accommodation the night before and after

Booking Releases

• Bookings open one year in advance, and are released in 3-month blocks. Example: In October this year, bookings for October, November, and December next year will open.
• Bookings are released in 2 stages.

Stage 1

• To secure a start date during Stage 1, you must book at least 2 of the three sleeping huts available for that start date.
• If you want the trail exclusively for your group, you can book all 3 huts for that start date.
• You will need to pay for your booking within 14 days to confirm the booking.
• If you only book 2 huts, you’ll have until the start of Stage 2 (4 weeks later) to book the 3rd hut and secure exclusivity.
• If you don’t book the 3rd hut by then, it becomes available to another group during Stage 2.

Stage 2

• Starts 4 weeks after Stage 1 bookings open.
• Any remaining single huts not booked in Stage 1 become available.
• This allows smaller groups to book one hut and share the trail with those that booked during stage 1.

For Clarity

• When booking you select your HIKING START DATE only. You are automatically booked for the whole 4 day/3night hike.  You do NOT need to book the following nights.
• When booking the system will ask you how many Sleeping huts you are booking, NOT how many people.

The Leopard Trail will likely be sold out within hours of us opening bookings, and so we thought we would share some notes on how to book in a way that increases your chances of getting the dates you want.

• Firstly, we do not give anyone early access or preferential bookings. When we open the bookings to the public, everyone has the same chance to get a booking.  The only dates that may not be available are for our own team’s inspection hikes (usually one booking every quarter).
• All bookings must be made online through our booking system.  We do not take bookings via email or phone.
• The date and time the bookings will open will be publicized on our social media pages – make sure to follow us to keep informed.
• When making a booking, select only the starting date of your hike.
• We use a third-party booking system that follows the same principles as most booking and ticketing services. There are a few things worth noting:
1. The booking system only blocks out a booking as being not available when someone making that booking has completed the booking process.
2. Therefore, if you and another person both start booking a specific date at the same time, the first person to complete the booking will receive the date, while the second person will be told the date is no longer available even if they are in the process of finalising the booking.
3. Given the above, your goal should be to complete your booking as quickly as possible.  The main option to speed up this process is to select paying by EFT, rather than credit card, at the time you are making your booking, as taking time to enter credit card details and complete the payment will take longer to finalise the booking.

Good luck to all our future hikers!