Refunds and cancellation

Always returned in full

There are two situations where everything comes back, whatever the date and whatever has already been paid.

One — the traveller is declined after the pre-travel health review. The whole deposit is returned, together with any balance already paid.

Two — the departure does not reach its minimum of eight travellers by the decision date shown on the departure page. It does not run, and every deposit on it is returned in full.

In neither case do you have to ask. The refund goes back to the card you paid with, and we write to tell you it has been sent.

If you cancel

Our costs harden as a departure approaches: hotel blocks, a coach and driver, guides and the group’s flights are committed well before the group flies. The scale below follows those commitments rather than penalising a change of mind.

45 days or more before departure — everything is returned except the deposit.

15 to 44 days before departure — the deposit is not returned. Any balance you have paid is returned in full.

14 days or fewer before departure — no refund is due.

If you are cancelling because the traveller’s health has changed, tell us. That is what the health review exists for, and it is usually handled as a decline, which returns everything, rather than as a cancellation.

If we cancel

If we cancel a departure for any reason other than the minimum not being met, you choose: the same journey on another date, or every dollar back. We do not offer a credit note in place of a refund.

How a refund is made

Always to the card the payment came from, never to a different account, and never as a voucher. We issue a refund within three working days of the decision. Your bank then usually takes five to ten working days to show it, and that part is not ours to speed up.

A foreign-transaction fee your own bank charged on the original payment was charged by them, not by us, and we cannot return it.