General information for Bespoke, Tailor-made and individual-itinerary bookings
The General Information and Booking Conditions on this page relate to bookings made from the Journey Latin America 2007 Bespoke Holidays brochure, or for any tailor-made bookings initiated from our website, or without reference to the brochure.
The nature of the tours
A good many of the tours are hotel based - either in first class or tourist class hotels - or cruise-liner based, and as such require little physical effort. A few involve some hiking, for which you will need to be fit.
However, Latin America is, for the most part, an underdeveloped continent, both as far as basic infrastructure is concerned, and in level of tourist amenities. Nor do the high altitudes of the Andes or the tropical fastnesses of the Amazon rainforest lend themselves to creature comforts. It is important to understand that even the most meticulously planned arrangements can, and do, go wrong. Conditions are such that there may be moments of discomfort, and delays (mañana, señor) are a way of life.
Clients booking package or tailor-made travel arrangements implicitly accept the above. Journey Latin America accepts no liability for the results of delays, or any loss, consequential loss or contingent liability arising therefrom. Clients, their baggage and property travel entirely at their own risk, acknowledging that in participating in the tour, certain risks may occur, including, but not limited to, the hazards of travelling in mountainous terrain, the forces of nature and the limited medical facilities of some regions. Passenger seat belt regulations are not widely enforced. Hard hats are not normally provided for horseriding or mountain biking. We recommend you bring your own.
Flights
Some flights to Latin America are non-stop (eg British Airways and TAM on some flights to Brazil); others are direct - stops may be made en route, but there is no need to change ’planes. Thirdly, some itineraries require intermediate change of ’plane usually at the ‘home’ airport of that carrier - eg Air France involves a change at Paris. Our Invoice/Itinerary will show where a change of ’planes is necessary, but not each touchdown.
Our tariffs
You may sometimes find that excursions or hotels as offered in the brochure are less economical than buying the same arrangement locally; in most instances our rates are offered for the convenience of having arrangements booked and paid for before you leave. In a few cases, local operators or hotels may offer discount rates on the spot in slack periods, but we have no warning of, or access to, these special rates.
Dovetailing
Clients should be aware that in constructing an itinerary which combines two or more excursions it is usually necessary to add a hotel night to dovetail the excursions neatly together; this is particularly true where the excursions are short ones, of only two or three nights’ duration.
Health & age limitations
The majority of arrangements offered are tailormade to the individual, and as such there is literally no age limit. On the few arrangements included here where you join a pre-formed group, we impose only the restrictions that common sense would impose: you have to be fit and able-bodied to go trekking up volcanoes.
Preparing for your trip
Once we have confirmed your booking, you will receive our pre-departure Briefing Dossier and other information to help you prepare for your trip to Latin America: advice on security, insurance, currency, baggage and suggested reading.
Visas
Visa information relates to stays of 30 days or less, and in all cases to clients whose personal and professional circumstances do not preclude their entry to a country, or their transit through it. Passengers intending to enter or transit the United States of America under the Visa Waiver Program must have a valid, machine-readable passport. Visit www.usembassy.org to check requirements and conditions for entry. Your full passport must have at least 6 months’ validity remaining after the date of return travel.
Meals
Meals are not included unless specifically stated. Full-board means breakfast, lunch and dinner. Half-board means breakfast and one other meal. Breakfast may be a substantial buffet, or very occasionally, just one bread roll and a cup of instant coffee.
Tickets and vouchers
After you have paid in full, you will receive (usually a month before departure) your transatlantic airline tickets and any domestic flight tickets that are to be issued at this end. Some tickets are issued electronically, but traditional paper tickets may be necessary on some routes. Our invoice or itinerary is not a travel document. If you do not have a valid ticket or e-ticket, the airline will ask you to pay again.
In addition you will receive vouchers for the services we have contracted on your behalf in Latin America. These vouchers give name, addresses and telephone numbers of the hotels or service providers, so that you can contact them if you need to. The normal procedure is for our vouchers to be exchanged in Latin America by our local handling agents for their own vouchers or tickets. A 24-hour emergency London number, printed in your final itinerary letter, will enable you to contact us quickly if something goes wrong.
It is our policy not to sell in isolation any excursion or tour in this programme whose duration is less than 4 nights.
General information for Classic Tours and Original Adventures bookings
Itineraries
It is very unlikely that the basic itinerary of a trip will be altered unless there is an unavoidable reason for it. However, the itineraries given are a guide to intentions rather than immutable contracts.
Trip dossier
For all Original Adventures, a Trip Dossier is published giving a comprehensive feel for what it’s like to be on a trip, with much additional information. (If there is any contradiction with the brochure the latter is normally more up-to-date, but you should check with our office.) The dossiers may be requested before booking (and are also available on our website) and the appropriate dossier should be sent to all clients after booking.
Meals
Meals are not provided unless specifically stated. Full board means breakfast, lunch and dinner; half board means breakfast and one other meal. Breakfast may be a substantial buffet or very occasionally just a bread roll and one cup of coffee. On Journeys the group generally eats out together once a day, but there is no insistence on this. The Journey Latin America tour leader gives information on restaurants and usually accompanies the group, the evening meal being a good social focal point. Full board is usually included on camping sections of our trips. On Specialised treks, participants are usually left to their own devices on arrival in towns.
The details
A Briefing Dossier with information on visas, inoculations, recommended personal baggage, currency, climate and photography will be sent to you by first class post shortly after your booking has been confirmed. At each stage of the booking you will be sent a receipt or confirmation slip. Many airline ‘tickets’ are now issued electronically, where this is the case your final documents will be sent by first class post. If paper tickets have been issued you may receive documents by Recorded Delivery. Final documents are usually ready for despatch 10 days to 2 weeks before departure date.
Flights and airport transfers
All airport transfers within Latin America are provided if you are travelling on our chosen ‘group flights’, or if you are travelling on another airline but arriving on the trip arrival and departure day. We will try to offer seats on these to clients travelling on the published group tour dates. However this is not always possible and it may be necessary to make alternative flight arrangements for you, at extra cost. If you arrive or depart on flights other than the group arrangements, we will charge extra if you wish us to arrange transfers. (We also provide information on how to reach the contact hotel safely ‘under your own steam.’)
Over 70
Clients aged 70 or over must provide a selfassessment form, attesting fitness to travel on your designated trip. We reserve the right to ask for a doctor’s note if we feel it to be necessary.
Not included in the cost
- Side trips or excursions designated in the brochure as optional. If the brochure does not carry this note, the excursion is included in the cost. We can, on request, give an up-to-date estimate of the cost of optional excursions on a given trip. The actual cost will vary according to the number of clients on the excursion.
- Travel insurance. Please see paragraph 14 of the Booking Conditions.
- Tips and gratuities.
- Food other than stated.
- Entrance fees to some national parks, Municipal taxes and immigration fees which must be paid locally in cash. These include the Galápagos Islands fee, currently around $100.
- Airport Taxes: UK APD and PSC are included in all cases. On Original Adventures and Extensions domestic airport taxes are included where required by the rules of issuance of the ticket; where not you will pay them locally.
- On inbound flights from Latin America some taxes are included on the ticket and others not (and therefore payable locally by the client), depending on country, and current airline or government stipulations. The cost is typically USD$20-40 per person.
Booking conditions
Your contract (other than for Antarctic cruises) is with Journey Latin America Ltd (Reg No. 1474705), a fully ATOL-bonded member of ABTA, trading as Journey Latin America, hereinafter called Journey Latin America. You, the client, are subject to the following conditions, and are deemed to have read and understood the paragraphs above under the heading General information.
1. Deposits and interim payments
A deposit of £250 per person travelling, or appropriate amount as stated in the Tour Tariff grids is required when the booking form is submitted. All moneys paid by you to an appointed travel agent are held by the travel agent on behalf of Journey Latin America. We will issue a confirmation invoice, at which point we have accepted your booking and a contract exists. If you are unsure whether your chosen agent is appointed, please contact Journey Latin America. Some arrangements are booked through companies with whom we are in association, (particularly cruise operators) and there may be a requirement of an intermediate payment. This information is given in the Tour Tariff sections where appropriate, but we will also advise you of any special booking conditions when we invoice you. In the case of Antarctic cruises, Journey Latin America acts as agent, not as principal, and these (and other) cruise operators require you to complete their booking form, and adhere to their booking conditions. We will normally confirm within 5 working days. However, in the case of certain bespoke arrangements, please allow time for us to communicate with Latin America - this sometimes takes a week or more.
If we are unable to confirm you on a tour, we will refund your deposit, in full. However, it is likely that we may not, from the outset, be able to confirm you on the very precise itinerary that the brochure or proposal states. We will, of course, search diligently for what we consider to be an acceptable alternative, and this may be reflected in a higher or lower overall price. Clients should be aware that, if we feel we are proposing a reasonably close alternative to that requested, we will not refund a deposit. In practice, we are sympathetic to a client’s demands, and if you make it clear from the outset that you have a particular requirement that must be fulfilled, we will refund deposits in full if we cannot meet this demand.
2. Acceptance
Journey Latin America reserves the right to refuse any booking from prospective clients whom Journey Latin America considers unsuitable for the type of travel to be undertaken.
3. Final payments
The total cost of any booking shall be paid so as to be received as cleared funds by Journey Latin America not later than 30 days after the date of written confirmation of price and itinerary, except in the case of those bookings confirmed less than 60 days before departure, when full payment is due immediately on receipt of our confirmation invoice. Please note that personal cheques take 9 calendar days to clear into our account. Clients paying within this 30 day period take advantage of our Full Price Guarantee. We don’t like surcharging. It creates ill-feeling, and is a lot of extra work for us. So, we’ll do our best to avoid it, but should payment not be received within 30 days by Journey Latin America, we may choose to re-cost the itinerary in which case we reserve the right to surcharge. See also paragraph 9 (b) (Recostings) and Price Guarantees. In all cases, if clearance of full payment is not received at least 60 days before departure, we may choose to treat the itinerary as cancelled. This also applies to interim payments, where applicable, as stated in 1. Deposits.
4. Child reductions
Children who have not yet reached their 12th birthday on the date of departure from UK are entitled to a reduction on some scheduled flights costs. There are often additional reductions for one child (and sometimes two children) sharing the room of two accompanying adults, but these vary from country to country and resort to resort. These arrangements usually involve placing an extra collapsible bed in a normal double room. Please note that we do not normally recommend that children under 12 go on multi-centre itineraries or safari-style trips; if you wish to take children on this type of trip, please discuss the practicalities with us before booking.
5. Longhaul (usually transatlantic) airline tickets
These may or not be priced separately from the tour cost. We will not issue airline tickets until we have received full payment for them. Many of the airfares we apply to the tours which we arrange are negotiated as special arrangements with the airline concerned, and attract higher than normal cancellation penalties. Certain published airfares are only guaranteed at the time of issue. As a general rule there is no penalty additional to those listed above if an airline ticket is cancelled before it is issued. Once the ticket is issued, each airline imposes its own rules, and the cancellation penalty may be as much as 100%. As implied above in this paragraph the fare that appears on the ticket may be substantially higher than the actual fare paid, and clients should not take this ticketed fare into consideration when attempting to assess potential refunds on unused tickets.
6. Alterations by you before departure
We will try to assist if you decide to change any part of a confirmed booking up to 60 days before departure, but will charge for additional holiday costs incurred, including cancellation charges that may be incurred for sectors cancelled. We reserve the right to make in addition an administration charge of £25 per person, per sector. Alterations within the periods below in para 7 before departure we may choose to treat as a cancellation, and the penalties hereunder will apply.
7. Cancellations by you
Any client who wishes to cancel must do so in writing and the following fees or percentages will be charged based on the date of receipt in writing, by fax or by email by Journey Latin America of notification of cancellation.
a) Standard conditions
| If cancelled: |
Penalty: |
| 90 days or more before departure |
Deposit (and interim payment) forfeit |
| Between 89 & 60 days before departure |
25% of tour cost or interim payment forfeit (whichever greater) |
| Between 59 - 30 days before departure |
60% of tour cost or interim payment forfeit (whichever greater) |
| 29 days or less before departure |
100% tour cost |
b) Cruise conditions
If cancelled: Penalty: 120 days or more Deposit and interim before departure payment forfeit Between 119 & 60 days Interim payment forfeit, before departure or 50% of cruise cost, or 25% of tour cost (whichever greatest) Between 59 - 30 days 100% of cruise cost before departure or 50% of tour cost (whichever greater) 29 days or less 100% tour cost before departure.
c) Alteration or cancellation after commencement of travel
Any alteration that you request after your tour has commenced, Journey Latin America will do its best to implement, but we cannot guarantee that it will be possible. Indeed it is usually unwise to reorganise arrangements that have already been reconfirmed to our local agents, and in some cases paid for, and to expect things to run smoothly. Patchwork amendments after departure are a recipe for disaster. In the event of such amendments being made you will be liable for any cancellation charges that may be levied for the services originally booked, and for the booking of revised arrangements and the arrangements themselves. As a basic principle, no refund will be paid to clients who do not complete a tour, but please see paragraph 10. Refunds, below. See also ‘Flights’ on page 158 of the Bespoke brochure. It is compulsory that you take out travel insurance at the time of booking.
8. Cancellations or alterations by Journey Latin America
a) Alterations
Journey Latin America reserves the right at anytime to make changes to your holiday arrangements (including flights, accommodation, transport or services). Such changes are often minor, but if not, we will advise you or your travel agent before you depart. Flight timings and carriers in the brochure are subject to change as a result of airline procedures, and details given on your Invoice or Itinerary are for guidance only. Even details shown on your tickets may be subject to change locally.
If we make a material change [defined as a change before departure, involving for example a significant change of resort or ground itinerary, a significant - usually more than 24 hours - change of outbound flight time] you may cancel your booking and obtain a prompt and full refund of all money paid by you to Journey Latin America provided that you have given us written notification of cancellation within 7 days of the date on which we notified you of all alterations. Please note that where an airline schedule change causes a potential material change, Journey Latin America may choose to switch flight routings at no additional cost to you, to enable us to fulfil our obligations to you. In these circumstances, if you choose to cancel, normal penalties will apply. Insurance premiums cannot be refunded. If we make a material change within 8 weeks of departure, you will also be entitled to compensation per person in accordance with the scale below.
Period before scheduled departure date within which a material change is notified to you
| Compensation |
| 55 - 43 days £10 |
| 29 - 42 days £20 |
| 15 - 28 days £30 |
| 0 - 14 days £40 |
Payment of compensation shown above will not be made for any change or cancellation caused by war or threat of war, insurrection, riots, strikes, civil action, decisions by governments or governing authority, natural disaster, bad weather, technical ormaintenance problems with transport, changes of schedules or operational decisions of air carriers, or similar circumstances beyond our control. For the purposes of this contract we define the above as force majeure.
b) Cancellations
A number of excursions are based on arrangements involving a given local operating minimum number of passengers. If this minimum number is not reached, we reserve the right to cancel the excursion and offer an alternative date or a refund of all moneys paid by you for the affected excursion. Journey Latin America accepts no liability for compensation beyond this full refund. We may be obliged to cancel all or part of a tour for reasons beyond our control, as described in 8a above (force majeure) or 8c below. In such cases, Journey Latin America shall inform agents and clients who have booked direct without delay, and shall offer an alternative tour of comparable standard, if available, or a prompt refund of all moneys paid. Any such refund shall be sent to agents within 10 clear days and to direct clients within 14 clear days. Journey Latin America accepts no liability for compensation beyond this full refund. If any of the causes for cancellation or amendments occurs after the tour has commenced, we reserve the right to allow our local supplier to amend the planned itinerary and accommodation on your behalf, and where these amendments are made as a result of force majeure, no compensation will be paid. Delays in departure and failed transport connections will sometimes make it impossible for a client to use services contracted and paid for, and in these circumstances Journey Latin America shall be under no liability to pay compensation. However, where amendments are within our control, you will be entitled to compensation of £30 per person.
c) FCO Travel Advisories
If the FCO (www.fco.gov.uk) offers advice against all or non essential travel to a country or area, Journey Latin America will follow the recommendations of ABTA and offer an alternative itinerary or if appropriate, a full refund. ABTA offers only general guidance on when this offer should be made bearing in mind the date of issue of Travel Advisory and passengers’ date of travel. Journey Latin America will be as sympathetic as possible and will use common sense and information from the appropriate British Embassy to make this judgement. For example, if we have information that advice against travel is likely to be downgraded shortly, we may delay the offer of an alternative itinerary, or a full refund. Since most of the arrangements in this brochure are tailor-made in nature, you may decide still to travel against the FCO and Journey Latin America’s advice, and you should be aware that this will affect your personal insurance cover. Please note that the above paragraphs do not apply if the FCO advice is to consider postponing travel.
9. Prices
a) Exchange rates
The tariffs in this Price List are based on exchange rates and scheduled airfares applicable at the time of going to press on 12 June 2006. The price of a tour or any element of it may be varied at any time before we have accepted your booking. After we have confirmed the booking to you, so long as the itinerary does not alter, we will be bound unconditionally by this price for 30 days from date of invoice. If we receive clearance of your full payment on or before the 30th day, we guarantee not to surcharge you.
b) Recostings
If we receive clearance of your full payment more than 30 days after date of invoice, we may choose to re-cost your booking. As stated in paragraph 3, we’ll do our best to avoid surcharging, but in re-costing Journey Latin America reserves the right to pass on to the customer any additional costs associated with currency fluctuation, government action, overflying charges, fuel surcharges, increase in scheduled airfares, or other transportation costs, taxes or landing fees. In this case we will absorb an amount equivalent to 2% of the affected element of the holiday price, which excludes insurance premiums and any amendment charges. Only amounts in excess of this 2% will be charged, but where a surcharge is payable, there will be an additional amount to cover agent’s commission where applicable. If this means paying more than 10% on the holiday price, you will be entitled to cancel your holiday with full refund of all money paid except for any premium paid to us for insurance and amendment charges; you must exercise your right to cancel, if you elect to do so for this reason, within 14 days of the date on the invoice when we recosted your tour. If you ask us to recost a second time, Journey Latin America may choose to treat your original deposit and interim payment as forfeit. It is not our practice to provide a detailed breakdown of costings where we are constructing a multi-sector itinerary, but we will show a separate figure for transatlantic flights if you ask us to do so, and if our contract with the airline permits us.
10. Refunds and compensation
As a basic principle, no refund will be made for any unused hotel accommodation, service or transport. However, where we ourselves are able to obtain a refund from hotels or principals for services not used, we will endeavour to pass this on to the client, less reasonable administration charges. Journey Latin America’s responsibility will not extend beyond this refund (where possible) and no payments will be made, or compensation given in respect of claims for contingent liability or inconvenience experienced by clients. No refund can be made on lost, mislaid or destroyed tickets or vouchers.
11. Variation of conditions of contract
No employee, servant, agent or associate of Journey Latin America may vary the above booking conditions without the written consent of a Director of Journey Latin America.
12. Jurisdiction
All matters concerning the booking shall be subject to English law.
13. Insurance
It is compulsory that every traveller is adequately insured against personal accident and medical expenses. Our invoice will include the cost of insurance, and we will send a proposal form for our recommended policy, which covers the sort of eventualities that need to be catered for in Latin America. You are not obliged to use our insurance, but if you do not, you must send us details of the policy you do take. It is your responsibility to ensure you are adequately covered by insurance. Please ask for details of insurance benefits offered by our recommended policy.
The most expensive element of the travel insurance is cover against cancellation. We recommend that you take out insurance early (our recommended policy covers loss of deposit), so that you get full value for money for cancellation insurance. Once insurance certificates have been issued, premiums cannot be refunded (unless the holiday is cancelled by Journey Latin America).
14. Your responsibilities
Don’t leave your common sense at home. You must ensure that all your travel documents, full passport, visas, vaccination certificates, currency and travellers’ cheques (we recommend US$ for Latin America - except Cuba) are in order. Yellow fever, typhoid inoculations and prophylactics against malaria should be considered essential for all South and Central American countries. We are able to give general advice, but cannot be held responsible for any information not stated in writing as indicated below. If your hotel has a safe, keep your passport there (but always carry a photocopy of the important pages for identification purposes). Use your common sense to judge whether hotel safe-boxes are indeed ’safe’, since, even if we have booked the hotel for you, Journey Latin America will accept no responsibility or claims for contingent liability for theft from hotel rooms or safekeeping. Use your common sense to decide whether food is safely edible.
The name on your airline tickets should be the name that appears on your full passport. Please note that if you believe that we have stated orally that a particular facility or service would be available, we ask you make a brief reference to it in writing so that we may confirm it to you when accepting your booking. The same applies to requests for special diets, or facilities for the disabled. Whilst every effort will be made to meet requests for special diets and disabled facilities, they cannot be guaranteed in Latin America, nor can we accept claims for compensation associated with their non-provision. It is incumbent upon clients to behave in a responsible, restrained and sober manner when dealing with our local suppliers and representatives, with local authorities and with fellow travellers. If you have a complaint, please bring it to the attention of Journey Latin America’s local agents as soon as possible to enable them to do their best to rectify the situation. It is sensible to expect a client travelling in Latin America to be reasonably resourceful if things go wrong; this does not mean spending limitless money and expecting us to pick up the tab, or doing nothing at the time, and writing a letter of complaint on return. If your local agent is a few minutes late in meeting your flight, give him a chance to put things right on the ground - this is far the best solution for you, for us and for our agent. If all else fails, call Journey Latin America in London on our 24-hour emergency line.
15. Our responsibilities
We accept responsibility for death, injury or illness caused by the negligent acts and/or omissions of our employees or agents together with our suppliers and sub-contractors whilst acting within the scope of, or in the course of their employment, as accepted under English law. We accept responsibility for ensuring the holiday you book with us is supplied as described. If any part is not provided as promised, other than as a result of force majeure (see 8a) we will pay you appropriate compensation if this has affected your enjoyment of the holiday. Our liability in such cases shall be limited to a maximum of twice the value of the element not supplied excluding flights. If any client suffers death, illness or injury whilst overseas arising out of activity which does not form part of the foreign inclusive holiday arrangement or excursion arranged through us, we shall, at our discretion offer advice, guidance and assistance to help you in resolving any claim you may have against a third party, provided we are advised of the incident within 90 days of the occurrence. Where legal action is contemplated our authority must be obtained prior to commencement of proceedings and be subject to your undertaking to assign any costs recovered or any benefits received under an appropriate insurance policy to ourselves. Our costs in respect of the above on behalf of you and your party shall not exceed £5,000 in total. In respect of carriage by air, sea and rail, and the provision of accommodation our liability will be limited in all cases by the relevant international convention.
16. Carriage by air and sea
This is subject to the terms and conditions of the carrier with whom you travel, and to international agreements and conventions, some of which limit liability. Air travel is also subject to operational decisions of carriers and airports which may result in delays or diversions. Please note that transatlantic and Latin American carriers sometimes change the departure time of flights at short notice, and in some instances, schedules shown in the computers of transatlantic carriers differ from those actually flown by smaller local carriers. We advise you that it is your responsibility to be meticulous in locally reconfirming directly with the carrier operating the flight. Journey Latin America accepts no liability for the consequences of flights missed owing to the passenger’s failure to reconfirm both the reservations and timings. Clients flying in economy class to longhaul destinations should be aware that flights are often full; you may not be able to get seats together. We also recommend that you check in early for a long flight, and in any case, not less than two hours before scheduled departure time. This brochure is the responsibility of the tour operator, and does not commit the airlines mentioned therein.
Recent (17.02.05) EU legislation has imposed more specific responsibility on carriers to compensate passengers whose flights to or within the EU are delayed, or if an EU carrier, returning to the EU.
17. Arbitration
If you have a problem during your holiday, it is a condition of this contract that you communicate this to the supplier of the services (eg hotel) and to our representative locally in Latin America, and put your complaint in writing. If you fail to follow this simple procedure, we cannot accept responsibility as we have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify the problem. If the problem remains unresolved please write to us within 28 days of your return to the UK; we will acknowledge and investigate, and reply in full as soon as possible. However, please allow for the fact that we have to deal with Latin America, and delays of several weeks are not uncommon. Any dispute between you and Journey Latin America which we have not managed to settle amicably may be referred to arbitration under a special scheme devised by arrangement with ABTA, but administered by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. An alternative scheme arranged through AITO is also available. Full details are available on request.
18. Rooming - singles and triples
It will be evident that many of the arrangements we offer may be undertaken by one person travelling alone. The tariffs shown for one person take into account the considerable extra cost of transfers, transport and excursions that would be met by a client travelling alone. This single-traveller rate is considerably higher than a single-supplement - that is, the extra tariff for, say, each of three people travelling together to have a room to him or herself. These three friends would be sharing the cost of transport, and would only pay a supplement for the single rooms. Please note that it is often the case that the standard and location of single rooms or cabins is not always as good as that of a twin room. A triple room usually means the addition of a third foldaway bed.
19. Rooming - superior ocean view?
Some hotels and cruise ships use descriptive terms which don’t give the whole picture. Superior might be the lowest category of room, and you might ask "Superior to what - sleeping in the corridor?" Similarly, ocean view might mean the waves lapping at your doorstep, or a distant glimpse of the sea through a canopy of foliage. When we make reservations, we have to use the naming convention that the hotel adopts (however misleading), and cannot therefore take responsibility for the veracity of hotels’ nomenclature of rooms. We make no guarantees as to what you might see from the ‘Booby Deck’ of a Galápagos cruise ship.
20. Baggage allowances
On scheduled transatlantic flights we can only give general guidance on baggage allowances (see our Briefing Dossier). Airlines frequently change their baggage allowances to passengers, and there are often inconsistencies in the way airlines handle or charge for excess weight or unusual baggage. Unusual baggage might include, but is not limited to: bicycles, surfboards, scuba equipment, golf clubs, or any bulky or unusually shaped items. Journey Latin America accepts no claims for refunds, compensation or contingent liability associated with any part of airlines’ performance, delivery of service or baggage handling, or for excess baggage charges that may be applied. There are both weight and dimensional restrictions as well as the number of pieces you may carry. Within Latin America, certain excursions and tours have baggage limits as low as 5kg per person. Arrangements can usually be made to leave the rest of your baggage in safe storage. Low baggage limits are indicated in the text. Journey Latin America can accept no claims for contingent liability associated with lost or delayed baggage.
21. Not included in the Tour Tariffs
- Visa fees, international and domestic airport taxes, porterage (unless stated)
- Entrance fees to National Parks or Municipal taxes which cannot practically be collected at the UK end, and which must usually be paid locally in cash. The most significant of these is the Galápagos Islands fee, currently approximately US$100. Many of the parks in Costa Rica and Guatemala also charge for entry.
- Laundry, telephone calls, items of a personal nature, gratuities.
- In some locations the services of a representative are not included, and, particularly if you have so requested, you may have only a driver who speaks little English. In these cases we will always provide a telephone number for the nearest Journey Latin America local agent.
22. Consumer protection, public liability and professional indemnity
Air holidays and associated flights arranged by Journey Latin America are ATOL Protected, since we hold an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence granted by the Civil Aviation Authority with whom we have a bond of £1.4 million. Our ATOL number is ATOL 2828. In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded aboard and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking. For further information, visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk. Arrangements where no flights are included are protected by our ABTA bond. Our ABTA number is V2522. We also carry both public liability and professional indemnity insurance. You should beware of signing any documents (eg through any sub-organiser in Latin America) which absolves a local organiser from the results of his own negligence and reduces your common law rights, since this may invalidate your own travel insurance.
The information contained herein has been compiled with all reasonable care and is accurate to the best of our knowledge; some information may be subject to reasonably foreseeable changes during the life of the brochure.
Our nominated agents for the purposes of accepting proceedings in the Republic of Ireland are Beauchamps Solicitors, Dollard House, Wellington Quay, Dublin 2. Ref: MPKG/MK.
Price guarantees - a summary
1. Price guarantee
When we confirm to you an itinerary and price in writing, this price is guaranteed, and will not be subject to any surcharge, provided you pay in full within 30 days of the date on the confirmation invoice, or immediately if your departure is within 60 days. Rest comfortably in the knowledge that unless you change the itinerary, there will be no extra costs, irrespective of what happens to the £, or an associate supplier imposing a surcharge. This guarantee means Journey Latin America cannot reduce prices if the pound strengthens.
2. Qualified price guarantee
If you do not pay within 30 days, your holiday may be subject to surcharges on a number of items which are detailed in Paragraph 9b of the booking conditions. Even in this case, we are obliged to absorb the first 2% of the affected element, and if a surcharge means you would be paying more than 10% on the holiday price, you are entitled to cancel and obtain a full refund.