Last updated: 6 November 2026
In short: we use your booking details only to run your hike and keep our records, and we never sell them. Card details go straight to Stripe or PayPal and never reach us. Our booking statistics use no cookies and don’t identify you. You can ask us to see, correct or delete your information at any time.
1. Who is responsible for your information
Hike Lion’s Head, Cape Town, South Africa, is the responsible party (under POPIA) and data controller (under the GDPR) for personal information collected through www.hikelionshead.co.za and our booking channels. Contact our Information Officer at bookings@hikelionshead.co.za or on WhatsApp +27 81 762 5551.
2. What we collect
- Booking details you give us: name, WhatsApp number, email address, pickup location, hike date and time, group size and drink choice, as entered in the booking form.
- Payment information: whether and how you paid, the amount, and payment references from Stripe or PayPal. Card numbers are entered directly with Stripe or PayPal. We never receive or store them.
- Messages: emails and WhatsApp messages you send us.
- 礼品券: the buyer’s name and email address and, if they add them, the name and email address of the person the voucher is for and a personal message, together with the voucher’s code, value and how it has been used.
- Booking statistics: anonymous information about how the booking pages are used, such as which booking step was reached, the type of device and the website that referred you. It uses a random code that only lasts for your browser session, with no cookies, no IP address and nothing that identifies you.
3. How we use it
- To take and manage your booking, arrange your pickup and contact you about your hike, including your booking confirmation on WhatsApp and any weather changes.
- To send you emails about your booking: the confirmation, a reminder the day before your hike, a notice before an agreed card charge, and one request for a review a couple of weeks after your hike (with a link to stop such requests).
- To send a gift voucher to its buyer and, if the buyer asks us to, to the person it’s for.
- To take payments, give refunds and prevent fraud.
- To keep the financial and tax records the law requires.
- To improve our booking process, using anonymous statistics only.
We process your information because it’s needed for our contract with you, to meet legal obligations, and for our legitimate interest in running a safe and efficient business. We don’t use it for marketing without your consent, and we never sell it.
4. Who we share it with
- 您的向导: the details needed to collect you and run your hike.
- Stripe (card, Apple Pay and Google Pay payments) and PayPal, to process payments.
- WhatsApp (Meta), to send your booking confirmation and messages about your hike to your WhatsApp number.
- Our website host and email providers, to run this website and send your confirmation emails.
- Authorities, where the law requires it.
Some of these providers are outside South Africa (for example Stripe, PayPal and WhatsApp). We only use providers that protect personal information to a standard comparable to POPIA, as section 72 of POPIA requires.
5. Services your browser connects to
Some services are loaded directly in your browser. Like any website you visit, they see your IP address: Stripe (the payment form and fraud prevention) and, only when needed, Open-Meteo (the weather forecast, if our own copy is out of date), ExchangeRate-API (currency estimates, if our own copy is missing) and cdnjs (the screenshot tool, when you tap “Take a Screenshot”). PayPal payments happen on PayPal’s own website.
6. Cookies and browser storage
- We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies.
- Stripe sets cookies (
__stripe_mid, __stripe_sid) to prevent card fraud during payment.
- Your browser’s storage keeps your booking details while you pay on PayPal (session storage, cleared when you close the tab), the booking-statistics session code, small settings such as whether you’ve already seen the reviews pop-up, and your language if you pick one from the menu.
7. How long we keep it
- Booking and payment records: up to 5 years, as required for tax and accounting records.
- Gift voucher records: while the voucher can be used, then up to 5 years as financial records. Voucher purchases that are started but not paid are deleted after 3 days.
- Anonymous booking statistics: 13 months.
8. Security
This website uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Payments are handled by Stripe and PayPal, which are PCI DSS certified, and access to booking records is limited to our team.
9. Your rights
You can ask us:
- for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- to correct or update it;
- to delete it, unless we have to keep it by law (for example tax records);
- to stop processing it, or object to how we use it.
电子邮箱 bookings@hikelionshead.co.za. If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za. If you live in the EU or UK, you also have your rights under the GDPR, including data portability, and can complain to your local data protection authority.
10. Children
Bookings must be made by an adult. We don’t knowingly collect information about children other than the number of hikers in a group booking.
11. Changes
We’ll update this page if our practices change. The date at the top shows the latest version.
Last updated: 6 November 2026
These terms apply to every booking with Hike Lion’s Head (“we”, “us”) made on www.hikelionshead.co.za, by WhatsApp or by email. By making a booking you confirm that you have read and accept them, including the risk notice in section 7.
1. Who we are
Hike Lion’s Head is a guided hiking service in Cape Town, South Africa.
Email: bookings@hikelionshead.co.za · WhatsApp / phone: +27 81 762 5551 · Website: www.hikelionshead.co.za
2. The hike
- Guided group hikes up Lion’s Head at sunrise, sunset and full moon, led by a certified guide.
- Included: your guide, hotel pickup and drop-off, headlamps, water and snacks, safety gear and summit photos.
- 不包含:小费、个人徒步装备、旅行保险和餐食。
- Your departure and pickup times are in your confirmation. We may adjust times for daylight, weather or trail conditions and will tell you in advance.
- Pickup is from the address you give when booking. If it’s outside our usual pickup area, we’ll contact you to arrange a convenient meeting point.
3. Prices and payment
- Prices are per hiker in South African Rand (ZAR) and are shown before you pay.
- You can pay online by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay (processed by Stripe and charged in Rand), or with PayPal. PayPal can’t settle in Rand, so PayPal payments are charged in US dollars at the day’s exchange rate, which PayPal shows before you confirm. Your bank or PayPal may add their own conversion fees.
- You can also reserve now and pay your guide on the day, in cash or by card.
- Your card details are entered directly with Stripe or PayPal. We never see or store them.
- 礼品券 are sold in Rand and can be used towards any hike booked on www.hikelionshead.co.za, for any number of hikers, in one or several bookings, until their value is used up. A voucher is valid for 3 years from the day it is bought (Consumer Protection Act, section 63). Its value belongs to whoever holds the code: it can be passed on, but it can’t be exchanged for cash. If a booking paid with a voucher is cancelled in line with section 4, the amount goes back on the voucher.
- Your booking is confirmed when you receive our confirmation email (paid bookings) or reservation email (pay on the day).
4. Cancellations and changes by you
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before your hike’s departure time. Prepaid bookings are refunded in full, and pay-on-the-day reservations are simply cancelled.
- Cancellations less than 24 hours before departure, and no-shows without prior cancellation, may be charged 50% of the booking price. For prepaid bookings we refund the other 50%.
- To cancel or to change your date, time or group size, reply to your confirmation email or WhatsApp +27 81 762 5551. Changes depend on availability.
- Refunds go back to the original payment method, usually within 5–10 business days. PayPal refunds are made in US dollars, so the Rand amount can differ slightly because of exchange-rate changes.
5. Weather, safety and changes by us
- We monitor the weather closely. If it’s raining or very windy, or conditions on the mountain are unsafe, we’ll contact you to reschedule or give you a full refund.
- Your guide may change the route, turn the group back or end the hike early if the weather, trail conditions, darkness or anyone’s safety requires it. If a hike has to be cut short after it starts, we’ll agree a fair partial refund or another date with you.
6. Your fitness and conduct
- The hike needs a moderate level of fitness: about 1.5 hours up and 1 hour down on steep, uneven paths, with an optional section of chains and metal staples near the top (a bypass path is available).
- Please tell us when you book about any medical condition, injury, pregnancy or fear of heights that could affect you on the hike.
- Wear closed shoes with good grip (no sandals or flip-flops) and bring a warm layer.
- Follow your guide’s instructions at all times. Your guide may refuse to take, or turn back, anyone who is unwell, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, unsuitably equipped, or putting themselves or others at risk. No refund applies in that case.
- Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian who is responsible for them throughout the hike.
7. Risk notice and liability
Please read this section carefully. Hiking on Lion’s Head involves risks that careful guiding can reduce but not remove. They include steep and uneven ground, loose rock, chains and ladders, heights, darkness on sunset and full-moon hikes, heat, cold, wind and changing weather, and the possibility of slips, falls and injury.
- You take part voluntarily and accept these risks. You’re responsible for your own health and fitness, and for your personal belongings.
- As far as South African law allows (including the Consumer Protection Act), we’re not liable for loss, injury or damage caused by these risks, by your own conduct, or by events outside our reasonable control. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for our own gross negligence, or anything else the law doesn’t allow us to limit.
- We strongly recommend travel insurance that covers hiking.
8. Pickup and meeting time
- Please be ready at your pickup point at the pickup time in your confirmation, about 45 minutes before departure. The group can’t wait long for late hikers, so if you’re running late, WhatsApp us straight away and we’ll try to help you join the group.
- Self-drive guests meet their guide at the Lion’s Head trailhead on Signal Hill Road at the time we confirm.
9. Photos
Summit photos are included and shared with you after the hike. We only post photos in which you can be recognised on our website or social media with your permission.
10. Cooling-off period
Our hikes are leisure services provided on a specific date, so the seven-day cooling-off period in section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act doesn’t apply to bookings (section 42(2)(j)); our cancellation policy in section 4 applies instead. A gift voucher isn’t for a specific date: you can cancel a voucher you bought on our website within 7 days of buying it, as long as it hasn’t been used, and we refund you in full within 30 days.
11. Privacy
How we use your personal information is explained in our 隐私政策.
12. General
- These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
- We may update these terms from time to time. The version on this page when you book applies to your booking.
- Questions or complaints: email bookings@hikelionshead.co.za or WhatsApp +27 81 762 5551.