Andante Travels

Booking Conditions

Please read these carefully if you are booking a tour for 2010.  Bookings with Andante Travels Ltd are accepted only in accordance with the terms and conditions set out below. In these Booking Conditions references to "you" and "your" include the lead-named person on the confirmation invoice (who must be at least 18 years old at the time of booking) and all persons on whose behalf a booking is made.
We are ANDANTE TRAVELS LTD, registered limited company no. 1969761. Registered offices: The Old Barn, Old Road, Alderbury, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP5 3AR. Andante Travels is a member of AITO.

1 PAYMENTS FOR YOUR HOLIDAY
A reservation may be made by telephone or via our website. This can either be confirmed by card payment over the phone, or will be held for one week, pending receipt of your deposit per person of:
• £200 for tours costing up to to £2000
• £300 for tours costing between £2001 and £3000
• £350 for tours costing between £3001 and £4000
• £400 for tours costing over £4000
The contract between us comes into existence when we send out our confirmation invoice which confirms your booking. You will have undertaken to pay for the holiday you have booked and we will have undertaken to provide you with the holiday we describe in the brochure.
If you make a booking on behalf of others as well as yourself, we shall take it that you have the authority of each of those other people to enter into that contract and that you and they have agreed to be jointly and severally liable to us. If we are unable to accept your booking, we will of course return your payment to you immediately. The balance payment for all tours is due 8 weeks (56 days) before departure. We will send you a reminder 1 - 2 weeks before the balance due date. If you are making your booking within this period, full payment will be necessary immediately. Post-dated cheques are not acceptable nor will we keep records of credit or debit cards to take payment at the due date. Andante Travels reserves the right to cancel any booking for which full payment has not been received on the due date, and to levy cancellation charges as set out in clause 4 below.

2 INSURANCE
It is a condition of booking that all travellers be covered by comprehensive travel insurance and do not travel against medical advice. You should organise it immediately you book so as to be covered in case of the ill health of yourself, a close relative or your travelling companion. We cannot be responsible for costs you incur as a result of failing to take out insurance suitable for your needs. We do not check insurance policies; however we reserve the right to request written details (insurer’s name, policy number and emergency contact number) of your policy. You are responsible for indemnifying us in full in the event that we incur any losses or expenses arising out of your failure to take out adequate insurance cover.

3 IF YOU WISH TO
make any changes to your holiday arrangements, we will do our best to accommodate you but this cannot be guaranteed. Any change is subject to availability and also to payment of an administration fee of up to £50 per person and any associated costs of the change imposed by our suppliers. You should note that an airline in particular may treat a change to a booking as a cancellation and new booking, and therefore charge a 100% cancellation fee.

4 IF YOU HAVE TO CANCEL
your booking, or if any member of your party on whose behalf you have booked has to cancel their booking, we must be informed in a letter/fax/email from the person who made the booking. The cancellation only takes effect from the date at which the notification reaches our office. In this case, whatever the reason for cancellation, your deposit paid to Andante Travels would be forfeit. A charge will be made which varies with the amount of time between Andante Travels receiving your written cancellation and the tour departure date. The charges made for our tours are as follows:
Up to 56 days prior to departure:
Deposit
55 - 29 days prior to departure: 35% of tour cost
28 - 8 days prior to departure: 75% of tour cost
7 - 3 days prior to departure:  90% of tour cost
48 hours prior to departure: 100% of tour cost

5 TRANSFER OF BOOKINGS
If you are unavoidably prevented from taking your holiday you may, provided that this is not less than 30 days before departure, find another person to take your place. This right of transfer is subject to a fee of £30 per person. You, as transferor of the holiday, and the transferee shall be jointly and separately liable to Andante Travels for the payment of the balance due, together with all additional charges of whatever sort imposed by the suppliers providing the component parts of your holiday.

6 IF WE HAVE TO ALTER
your itinerary, travel or holiday arrangements, any change will be either major or minor. Although it is unlikely that we will have to make any changes to your travel arrangements, we do plan the arrangements many months in advance and as a result we may have to make changes and we reserve the right to do so. Where a change is a minor change, we will, if practical, advise you before departure, but we are not obliged to do so or to pay you compensation. A minor change is any change apart from a major change as defined here. When a change is a major change (and a major change is either an alteration to your flight time by more than 12 hours, or a change in standard of accommodation), we will advise you as soon as is reasonably possible. You will then have the choice of accepting the change, taking an alternative holiday (and where this is of a different price, you or we will refund the difference as appropriate), or withdrawing from the contract and accepting a full refund of all monies paid. In addition, in appropriate cases, we will pay compensation in accordance with the table in clause 7 (on the assumption that the full balance has been paid). In the unlikely event that we become unable to provide a significant proportion of your trip after you depart, we will make alternative arrangements for you to continue the trip at no extra charge, or, if this is impossible, or you do not accept these alternative arrangements for a good reason, we will provide you with transport back to your point of departure. In addition, if appropriate, we will pay you compensation of an amount which is reasonable taking into account all the circumstances. Compensation will not be considered appropriate, for example, in cases where a major change has to be made as a result of force majeure. (See clause 7).

7 IF ANDANTE TRAVELS HAS TO CANCEL
your holiday before the date of departure, you will have the choice of taking an alternative holiday (and where this is of a different price you or we will refund the difference as appropriate) or accepting the full refund of all monies paid. In addition, in appropriate cases, and where such cancellation is not due to underbooking or force majeure as defined below, we will pay you compensation commensurate with your inconvenience. Underbooking is the situation in which the minimum number of bookings required to run a tour is not met. Force majeure is unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which neither we nor our suppliers could avoid, examples of which are war or threat of war, riots, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural or nuclear disaster, fire or adverse weather conditions, flooding or other similar events beyond Andante Travels’ control.
We are not liable to pay you any additional travel or any other costs, expenses or losses which you incur as a result of any change or cancellation by us (such as for connecting flights or other travel arrangements), or for any insurance premiums.

More than 21 days                               Nil
8 - 21 days                                         £10
7 days or less                                      £15
The above sets out the maximum extent of our liability under this clause and we regret we cannot meet any expenses or losses you may incur as a result of inconvenience suffered. Please note: where a holiday with a higher price than the original holiday is offered by us and accepted by you, the difference in price will be deducted from any compensation payable.

8 PASSPORTS AND VISAS
All travellers are responsible for ensuring that they have a valid passport (NB some countries require a passport valid for 3-6 months after travel). We will advise British citizens if a visa is required. A visa might not be issued if the passport is valid for less than four months after the date of your return. It is therefore very important to check and renew your passport in good time. Please note that visas are not always included in the tour cost. If you are not a British citizen you are requested to make sure that you have the relevant documentation. Please contact the embassy concerned. All passports, visas, travel insurance and health certificate requirements are your responsibility. Andante Travels accept no responsibility for any delay or expense incurred through any irregularity in your documents.   If you are unable to travel as a result, you will be liable to pay our normal cancellation charges.
For regular updates on visa requirements or any safety advice for British Citizens planning to travel overseas, see the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) website: www.fco-gov.uk. You should contact the (FCO) before making a final decision regarding your destination.

9 COMPLAINTS
in respect of matters arising during the holiday must be reported to staff immediately so that any problem may be remedied on the spot. Our priority is to give you an enjoyable holiday, and we strive very hard to do so. However, if our staff are unable to help, and you still have a complaint, you should put it in writing at the time and then send it to the company within 30 days of your return. PLEASE NOTE: - Failure to take these steps may hinder our ability to resolve the problem and/or investigate it fully and in consequence, your rights under the contract may be affected.  We regret we cannot accept liability for any claims which are not notified to ourselves and/or our suppliers strictly in accordance with this clause. If you are ill whilst on holiday, you must, in addition to reporting your illness to our representative, consult a local doctor and also consult your GP on return to the UK. Should you then wish to make a claim against us as a result of that illness you must provide us with details of both the local doctor whom you saw, and your GP, together with written authority for us to obtain a medical report from both those doctors.

10 ARBITRATION
If you have a dispute with Andante Travels which you are unable to resolve, you may call upon the low-cost AITO Independent Dispute Settlement Service (details on request). Claims which exceed £2,500 per person or £10,000 per booking or claims which apply principally or exclusively in respect of (or as a consequence of) illness or physical injury are not admissible for settlement under the service. However, the costs under this scheme, should the award go against you, are minimal compared with those in a court of law. Details of the scheme are available upon request.

11 SPECIAL REQUESTS
If you have any special requests, you should inform us of these in writing at the time of booking. We will advise the relevant supplier of such requests but cannot guarantee that they will be met. Furthermore, Andante Travels has no liability to you if such requirements are not met. We regret we cannot accept any conditional bookings, i.e. any booking which is specified to be conditional on the fulfilment of a particular request.

12 CLIENT BEHAVIOUR
When you book a holiday with Andante Travels you accept responsibility for the proper conduct of yourself and your party. Andante Travels reserves the right in its reasonable discretion to terminate your holiday or that of any member of your party whose conduct is disruptive or detrimental to the enjoyment of other clients, or whose conduct may prejudice the reputation of Andante Travels with our suppliers or hotel owners. In that situation, Andante Travels shall have no further responsibility or liability to you. The departure of a coach, ship or train will not be delayed for passengers who are not on board by the stated departure time.

13 YOU MUST BE FIT AND WELL
to take part on one of our tours. Many of our programmes involve a great deal of walking in cities or scrambling over rough terrain on archaeological sites which can be difficult to negotiate and physically tiring.
If you have any reservations regarding your fitness for a trip, please ring us. Under no circumstances should you travel if your doctor has or would advise against it. If you are infirm, disabled or unfit in any way it is imperative that you inform Andante Travels so that we may give you advice as some of the tours would be very unsuitable or even dangerous for you.
If you know that you need help, you should bring a helper with you. Andante Travels reserves the right to refuse to take participants who have not revealed their infirmities or disabilities in advance. Clients’ bookings are accepted on the understanding that they appreciate the possible risk inherent in archaeological travel and that they undertake the tours, walks or expeditions featured in our brochure, on that basis.
It should also be noted that as we travel very often to remote destinations, the general levels of comfort and services are lower than would be found in the UK and the EU. Andante Travels therefore believe that it is essential that you understand exactly the nature of the trips we offer and that you are able to participate in all the activities included in your chosen itinerary. If you have any doubts as to your own physical limitations then this is not the holiday experience for you!

14 BROCHURE ACCURACY.
Andante Travels reserves the right to change any of the prices, services or other particulars contained in this brochure at any time before we enter into a contract with you. If there is any significant change, we will notify you before you enter into such contract. All information is given in good faith and believed correct at the time of printing. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, occasional errors do occur and you must therefore check your holiday details carefully.

15 THE PRICE OF THE TOUR
We reserve the right to vary the price of your holiday for the correction of errors, and in relation to changes in transportation costs, including the cost of fuel, dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as landing taxes or embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports or airports, or the exchange rates applied to the particular package. We will not vary the price of your holiday less than 30 days prior to your departure date, but if variations occur before that time, we will absorb or retain an amount up to the first 2% (excluding insurance premiums and any amendment charges) of your invoiced holiday cost. For variations greater than 2%, we will still absorb the first 2% in the case of increases, but will not retain it from refunds. Where a surcharge or refund is payable, there will be an administration fee of £30 per person. If we impose a surcharge, which means paying more than 10% of your holiday price, you will be entitled to cancel your holiday with a full refund of all moneys paid to us except for insurance premium and amendment charges. Should you decide to cancel because of this, you must exercise your right to do so within 14 days of the date of our surcharge invoice. (NB 2009 was the first - and hopefully the last - time we have ever surcharged in 23 years of business).
We reserve the right to increase or decrease the prices of unsold holidays at any time. For example, we release our flight seat allocations back to the airlines we use no later than 45 days before the departure date of each of our flight inclusive tours. After this time, we may still be able to book the flight element of any of our flight inclusive tours for you (subject to availability) but we may only be able to secure the flight at a price higher than that which would have been payable prior to our contractual release date. This means that the price payable for your flight inclusive tour may be higher than that advertised in our brochure. You are of course free to secure your own flight arrangements and purchase the non-flight elements of the tour from us.

16 FLIGHTS, FERRIES and TRAINS
There is no guarantee that flights, trains or ferries will depart at the time specified, and Andante Travels does not have any liability to you for any delay which may arise. Where such delay does arise, we will use our best endeavours to arrange for the air carrier to provide appropriate meals etc, but we ourselves are not obliged to make any such provision. All passengers using our flight arrangements must use the outbound flight. In some cases a return flight at a later date can be arranged, if this is requested at the time of booking (see para. 3 for administration charge for any such changes). The majority of flights are scheduled and at the time of going to press these are not confirmed, and consequently, the type of aircraft is not yet known. In accordance with EU regulations we are required to advise you of the actual carrier operating your flight/connecting flight/transfer. We do this by listing carriers to be used or likely to be used as follows:
Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, British Midland, Buraq Air, Croatian Airlines,  Easyjet, EgyptAir, Iberia, KLM, Lan, Lufthansa, Middle Eastern Airlines, Olympic Airways, Royal Jordanian, Syrian Airlines, Tunisair, Turkish Airlines.
Please note the existence of a “Community list” (available for inspection at http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/air/safety/flywell_en.htm) detailing air carriers that are subject to an operating ban with the EU Community. Under EU Law, you have rights in some circumstances to refunds and/or compensation from the airline in cases of denied boarding, cancellation or delay to flights. Full details of these rights will be publicised at EU airports and will also be available from airlines. Reimbursement in such cases is the responsibility of the airline and will not automatically entitle you to a refund of the price of your arrangements from us.
Customers booking their own flights should not do so until Andante has confirmed the holiday (at the latest two months before departure) and are responsible for transport to / from the airport.

17 SUPPLIERS’ CONDITIONS
Transport and other suppliers have their own booking conditions or conditions of carriage, and you will be bound by these as far as the relevant transport provider is concerned. Some of these conditions may limit or exclude liability on the part of the relevant provider and they are often also subject to international conventions.

18 MEDICAL REQUIREMENTS
Although we will of course advise you about medical requirements for travellers, you should check with your doctor which inoculations or vaccinations they recommend for the country you are visiting and how long in advance you should have them. Information is also available from the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) website: www.fco-gov.uk. If you are a national of an EC country, you should take your EHIC available from main Post Offices or online. It is your responsibility to ensure that you obtain all necessary inoculations, take all necessary medication and follow all medical advice in relation to your holiday.
Should you be taken ill whilst on an escorted tour we will arrange for professional medical care as appropriate and as quickly as practically possible and, where necessary inform your travel insurers. Please ensure that you provide us with your next of kin details so that we can make arrangements for them to be contacted in an emergency. Please note that all costs incurred by the company in providing this assistance, including payment for any transport and telephone calls must be reimbursed to the company. A receipt will be issued so that you can present this to your travel insurers.

19 LIABILITY
(i) Our obligations, and those of our suppliers providing any service or facility included in your holiday, are to provide them with reasonable skill and care. You must show that reasonable skill and care has not been used if you wish to make any claim. Standards of, for example, safety, hygiene and quality vary throughout the transport and destinations that your holiday may involve. Sometimes these standards will be lower than those which would be expected to be found in the UK. The services and facilities included in your holiday will be deemed to be provided with reasonable skill and care if they comply with any local regulations which apply (such as, for example, those of the Civil Aviation Authority) or, if there are no applicable local regulations, if they are reasonable when compared to the local standards and customs.
(ii) For claims which do not involve death or personal injury, we accept, and will only have, liability, subject to paragraphs (iv) and (v) below, should we or our suppliers fail to satisfy the obligations detailed in paragraph (i) above. If we are liable, we will, subject to paragraphs (v) and (vi) below pay you compensation of an amount which could be reasonably and properly expected, taking into account all relevant circumstances. Any sums received by you from suppliers such as from airlines due to the Denied Boarding Regulations 1992 will be deducted from any sum paid to you as compensation by us.
(iii) For claims which involve death or personal injury as a result of an activity which was part of the package booked with us, we accept, and will only have, liability subject to paragraphs (iv) and (v) below should we or our suppliers fail to satisfy the obligations detailed in paragraph (i) above. If we are liable, we will, subject to paragraphs (v) and (vi) below, pay you reasonable compensation.
(iv) We will be liable in accordance with paragraphs (ii) and (iii) above and subject to paragraphs (v) and (vi) below except where the loss or damage you suffer is either attributable to you, or attributable to someone unconnected with your holiday and is unforeseeable or unavoidable, or is due to unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised.
(v) If any international convention applies to or governs any of the services or facilities included in your holiday arranged or provided by us, or provided by any of our suppliers, and you make a claim against us of any nature arising out of death, injury, loss or damage suffered during or as a result of the provision of those services or facilities, our liability to pay you compensation and/or the amount (if any) of compensation payable will be limited in accordance with that provided for by the international convention concerned. International Conventions which may apply include: in respect of international air travel, the Warsaw Convention 1929 (including as amended by the Hague Protocol of 1955 and by any of the additional Montreal Protocol of 1975) or the Montreal Convention of 1999; in respect of rail travel, the Berne Convention 1961; in respect of carriage by sea, the Athens Convention 1974; in respect of carriage by road, the Geneva Convention 1973; and in respect of hotels, the Paris Convention 1962. This means that we are to be regarded as having all benefit of any limitations of compensation contained in any of these Conventions or any other international convention applicable to your holiday. If your luggage is lost, damaged or destroyed whilst in our reasonable care, and in any circumstance not subject to an international convention the maximum amount of compensation we will pay you will be £500. This sum will be assessed with reference particularly to your loss and the extent to which this has required you to purchase replacements.  
(vii) You must, if we are adjudged to have, or if we accept, liability for a claim that you make, assign to us any rights that you may have against any of our servants, agents or suppliers which is in any way responsible for the failure of your holiday or any death or personal injury you may suffer. You must also co-operate with us in any claim we choose to bring against any third party which we, in our discretion, deem to be so responsible.
(viii) Other than as set out above, and as is detailed elsewhere in these booking conditions, we shall have no legal liability whatsoever to you for any loss, damage, personal injury or death which you suffer arising directly or indirectly from any aspect of your holiday.

20 EXCURSIONS
Our local contacts may, at your request, make arrangements for excursions locally on your behalf. However, please note that excursions or other tours that you may choose to book or pay for whilst you are on holiday are not part of your package holiday provided by us. For any excursion, activity or tour you book whilst you are on holiday, your contract will be with the operator of the excursion, activity or tour and not with us. We are not responsible for the provision of the excursion or tour or for anything that happens during the course of its provision by the operator.

21 DATA PROTECTION
Except where expressly permitted by the Data Protection Act, we will only deal with the personal details you give us in respect of your holiday arrangements, unless you agree otherwise. For example, if we wish to use any of your personal details for marketing purposes, we will tell you this when  we ask for your details and give you the opportunity to say no if you do not wish us to do so. If you make special requests, which include, but are not limited to special dietary, religious or disability-related requirements which constitute sensitive information, the relevant data will be passed to the relevant suppliers and carriers to enable provision of the services requested by you. At the request of many of our guests who travel with us regularly, we keep a note of these details rather than ask that this information is supplied again (all notes are automatically deleted if you have not travelled with us for three years or more).

22 WEBSITE
Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of our website and brochure details may have changed by the time you come to book your holiday. You should not assume that details shown on our website match those shown in our brochure. Please check all details of your holiday at the time off booking.

23 Tour Staff
All Travels in Archaeology tours are accompanied by a Guide Lecturer. For tour with 15 guests or more a Tour Manager will also accompany the tour. For tours with fewer than 15 guests, Andante Travels reserves the right not to send a tour manager.

24 YOUR CONTRACT
With us and any matters arising from it shall be subject to English law and to the jurisdiction of the Court of England and Wales. If you are resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, the Courts of Scotland or Northern Ireland can deal with any disputes.

25 FINANCIAL PROTECTION
When you buy an ATOL protected air holiday package from Andante Travels you will receive a Confirmation Invoice from us confirming your arrangements and your protection under our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number (3552).