Booking your organized tour
When you have chosen your tour, we ask you to fill in the application in block letters and mail it to our address.
In return you will receive our booking confirmation, along with an invoice and the papers of the insurances that are included in the tour price. You will receive a schedule with the precise dates for sending in your passport, passport photos or other documents. It will also include other important facts about the trip and the required preparation, for example the date of the participants meetings prior to tour start.
New as of summer 2019 - Obligatory Information
Prior to your confirmed booking we must inform you about the character and volume of the tour services you will receive. Rather than inflate the tour catalogue we issue this in form of an additional information available online or from us.
The "form”, a sheet stating the rights of the traveller is required as our tour is considered a package tour. We have included this in the catalogue on page 54 as well as an attachment to the booking form.
We are not permitted to process your booking unless you have confirmed that both documents have been acknowledged by you. This is easily done by ticking the specified box on the booking form prior to signing.
The changes include also the "small print" this has to be of larger font and more detailled. This is done to strenghten the rights of the clients. Please get in touch if you have any question concerning these subjects.
Pre-Booking
If your mind is set on a certain tour, we advise that you book in time, as some tours are booked out only weeks after the catalogue is published. In any case you can make a non-committal reservation for any tour, even for future years. We will set a date allowing you enough time to study the catalogue and making your decision for booking.
In case of an illness, the cancellation fees are refunded by the insurance company.
Payment
When booked you are required to pay 10% of the tour price straightaway. If there are visas to be obtained we ask for a second deposit of 10% by 55 days prior to tour start. The remaining amount is due 30 days prior to tour start.
The invoice will guide you accordingly. Payment with credit cards is not possible. You can ask your credit card corporation if the insurances included in the card are valid.
In the case that there is a graduated price on a tour, we will initially charge the highest rate and recalculate 10 days prior to tour start. Considering the final number of booked participants we will issue a new bill with the reduction.
Documents / Visa
The following documents are required for all tours: passport, health insurance for travelling abroad, and break down cover. Please, consider that in some consulates it takes about 4 weeks to obtain a visa. We need to have your original passport, with sufficient validity and blank pages.
Our price includes the cost for visa, but for some foreign countries, there are additional costs for obtaining visa in foreign passports. This we will charge to you. If additional costs occur because you do not submit the required documents in time, these costs will also be charged to you.
Because of the international politics at the moment (terrorist attacks, threats) the regulations regarding the visa applications have become stricter. That means, that it could happen, that we are not able anymore to do the visa for you, because you have to go the embassy personally, e.g. USA. In that case we will still help you wherever we can.
For most visas you need a passport that is valid at least 3, most of the times 6 months after the tour.
Participant Numbers
According to European Law we are required to inform you about the minimum number of participants and the cancellation procedures. However we will always do our best to reach the required numbers or to keep you informed ahead of time if the required number can not be reached.
Sometimes we might decide with our touring partners that it is still be possible to run a tour without reaching the stated sufficient number of participants. However, it is never an option to go above the maximum number.
Key Date
Next to the tour dates you will find a key date. That is the date by which we need to decide if the tour has reached the sufficient numbers of participants and can take place. After this tour you may book still - subject to the minimum numbers having been reached by key date - untile the time we have set for registration to close.
Booked participants will be kept up to date about the status of their tour. This is also available on the relevant pages on our website.
The cancellation of a booked tour through the client may happen any time before tour start, the relevent cancellation fees will be charged.
