Booking Information
  

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Reserving Your Tour
These tours are operated by Andean Treks Inc. of Watertown, Mass. USA, hereafter known as ATI. Purchase our tours either through your professional travel agent or directly with ATI. Your travel agent can provide valuable assistance in choosing appropriate travel insurance and the best international airfare.

How to Book
Contact your travel agent or ATI to confirm space availability. We will normally hold a provisional place for one week with no deposit payment.

Read the booking information carefully. By paying your deposit you acknowledge that you understand and agree to the following terms and conditions.

Complete the Trip Application, sign the Assumption of Risk and Release of Liability, and forward this document along with your non-refundable deposit of US$200 per applicant. If you are making the booking directly, send to Andean Treks Inc. at 32 Russell Avenue, Watertown MA 02472 USA. Checks payable to Andean Treks Inc. must be in US$ funds drawn on a U.S. or Canadian bank. You may also charge your deposit on Visa or Master Card.

Since your deposit is non-refundable, we suggest you purchase travel insurance at the time you book.

Once we have received your deposit, we’ll reconfirm your place on the tour, send you the most current detailed itinerary listing all meals and other inclusions, plus a packing list and other information to help you prepare for your adventure.

Travel Insurance
The cost of our tours includes no travel insurance coverage. We strongly recommend that you purchase a travel insurance policy. Common policies offer financial compensation, refunds and/or other benefits in case of trip cancellation, trip interruption, travel delay, baggage loss or delay, emergency medical expenses, evacuation and repatriation. We include a pamphlet summarizing one policy in our pre-departure information. You purchase the coverage directly from the insurance carrier.

Neither ATI nor its agents will be liable to meet any unexpected travel or medical expenses should your insurance coverage be inadequate in any respect.

Final payment
Full payment is due 8 weeks prior to commencement of your services (PCS). If you book your trip within 8 weeks PCS, full payment is due when we confirm your participation.

If we do not receive payment by the due date, ATI reserves the right to treat the reservation as canceled. Your deposit is forfeited under such circumstances.

To guarantee services for custom itineraries or add-ons, we may require that you pay additional deposits prior to final balance.

Changes and Transfers
After we have confirmed your tour services, each time you request a change requiring us to rework reservations, we reserve the right to levy a US$25 administrative service charge plus the cost of international communications, express mail, and any non-recoverable supplier charges. If you transfer to another trip, cancellation fees apply as detailed below.

Cancellation and Refunds
We must receive written notification of your decision to cancel a trip. Based upon date of receipt, the following charges apply: If you cancel your trip up to 29 days PCS, we retain non-recoverable supplier expenses (such as air tickets, hotel and boat charter pre-payments) plus your deposit payment. Note: we prepay Galapagos boats 8 weeks prior to sailing date, so non-recoverable expenses are high within 8 weeks PCS. From 28 days to 8 days PCS we retain non-recoverable supplier costs plus 50% of the balance of invoiced services. Within 7 days PCS we retain 100% of your trip payments.

Changes, Cancellations and Refunds by ATI
We publish this catalog many months prior to your trip. We do all in our power to avoid increasing the price of our trips. In exceptional circumstances, we reserve the right to amend prices without prior notice. An increase in trip prices shall not be sufficient grounds for cancellation of the tour.

Certain situations may arise during the tour which are beyond the control of the guides or participants. ATI reserves the right to modify or withdraw any tour arrangements when deemed necessary in the best interest of safety and security of participants. In such instances of force majeure, ATI, in its sole discretion, may either offer an optional or alternative activity for any portion that has been canceled, or a pro rata refund. If changes due to force majeure entail additional costs, such costs are the responsibility of the participant.

While we rarely cancel our departures, we reserve the right to do so up to 30 days PCS. In such a case, we will offer you alternative arrangements. If you do not accept these, we will refund all payments you made to ATI. In the event that we are forced to cancel a departure, we are not responsible for your trip preparation expenses such as non-refundable air tickets, doctor's fees, inoculations and medications, passports and visas, and personal equipment.

Airlines typically charge a fee for date changes, ticket re-issues and cancellations, particularly on the lowest cost excursion fares. Before you buy your ticket, consult your travel agent for details of these restrictions and potential charges.

No partial refunds will be given for unused hotel rooms, meals, or other pre-arranged tour services.

Tier-priced Trips
If a trip is tier-priced, your tour cost depends on the number of full-revenue participants traveling. If a group roster grows or shrinks, your final cost may change from your invoiced amount according to our published rate. If the land cost of a tier-priced trip decreases after you have paid your balance, we will refund the difference at the completion of the tour.

Flight Itineraries
We must receive a copy of your international flight routing. You must reconfirm your international flight reservation at least 72 hours prior to your departure.

What's Included in the Land Cost
Complete inclusions for each trip are provided with your detailed land itinerary.

Accommodations on our fixed departures are based on double occupancy for hotels, tents, and yachts. We reserve the right to substitute hotels of comparable quality for those listed in itineraries.

Single accommodation is usually available for supplemental cost. If you are traveling alone and wish single accommodation, please indicate this on your trip application. We will add the single supplement to your final bill. If you indicate you are willing to share accommodation, we will attempt to match you with a room-mate of the same gender. If none is available, we do not charge for "forced" single accommodation on our fixed departure programs. For add-ons and custom services, we bill for all single hotel accommodation as necessary.

What's not included
Airfares unless specified; airport departure taxes; airport transfers on other than scheduled group arrival and departure dates; hotel nights not specified in the land itinerary; tips and gratuities; passport and visa fees, immunizations, laundry, long distance telephone charges, travel insurance and other personal expenses; cost of medical attention, hospitalization or evacuation; expenses incurred recovering lost luggage or belongings left behind on a trip, or shipping purchases home from abroad.

ATI is not responsible for additional hotel nights, transfers, and meals which may be required by individual travel arrangements at variance with our published itineraries. Individual expenses which may be forced by airline scheduling changes, canceled flights, missed connections or by other factors beyond our control are the responsibility of the passenger.

Health and fitness
Being physically fit prior to your departure will greatly enhance your travel experience. We strongly recommend that you visit your doctor and dentist before your holiday. Ask your doctor about current inoculation requirements.

If you are in doubt about your physical capacity to complete the tour, review the itinerary with your physician. Details of pre-existing medical conditions must be forwarded to ATI. Although your trip leader will carry a first-aid kit, medical facilities and personnel capable of attending to serious problems are rarely available in the remote areas we visit. Evacuation can be prolonged, difficult, and expensive. While your health and safety during your trip are our primary concern, ATI is not a medical facility and we assume no responsibility or liability regarding provision of medical care. The trip leader has the right to disqualify anyone at any time for being physically or mentally incapable, or for endangering group safety. Refunds are not given under such circumstances.

Inherent Dangers
You understand and accept that participating in your tour may expose you to inherent dangers among these being the hazards of traveling in remote and/or mountainous terrain, emotional trauma, accident or illness in remote places without medical facilities, the forces of nature, the hazards of war and civil insurrection, and hazards of traveling by air, water, or land by various conveyances, and other hazards of such trip or vacation including but not limited to food, lodging and transportation.

Claims and Complaints
If you are dissatisfied with the services or some other aspect of your tour, you must first inform the tour leader and/or our local representative in order that the tour leader and/or local representative may attempt to correct the situation. Any further complaint must be put in writing to your travel agent or to ATI within 30 days of the end of the tour.