Before embarking on your adventure, you must read and understand our necessary legal terms and conditions.
All bookings are made with Cookson Adventures Limited, a trading name of Henry Cookson Adventures Ltd, a company registered in England with company number 7065040 (hereinafter referred to as “the Company”, “us” or “we”) whose registered office is 2 Clearwater Terrace, London, W11 4XL, United Kingdom which falls under the jurisdiction of the laws and regulations of England and Wales.
These Terms and Conditions, together with any other written information we brought to your attention before we confirmed your booking, form the contract made between you (“the Client”) and the Company. Please read them carefully as they set out our respective rights and obligations. In these Terms and Conditions references to “you” and “your” include the first named person on the booking and all persons on whose behalf a booking is made or any other person to whom a booking is added or transferred.
By making a booking, the first named person on the booking agrees on behalf of all persons detailed on the booking that:
- You have read these terms and conditions and has the authority to and does agree to be bound by them;
- You consent to our use of personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and is authorised on behalf of all persons named on the booking to disclose their personal details to us, including where applicable, special categories of data (such as information on health conditions or disabilities and dietary requirements);
- You are over 18 years of age and where placing an order for services with age restrictions declares that you and all members of your party are of the appropriate age to purchase those services;
- You accept financial responsibility for payment of the booking on behalf of all persons detailed on the booking.
Insurance
All trips are made entirely at your own risk. It is a condition of this contract that you are fully insured for your destinations, activities and personal requirements. Please be advised that insurance should have all-inclusive health and repatriation cover including search and rescue for all activities, specifically those deemed hazardous (please check your policy for exclusions). Policies should also include adequate cancellation and personal belongings (whether by theft, damage or loss) insurance to the full value of the trip and activities. You are required to provide documentary evidence of your travel insurance for your entire party to the Company prior to departure. The Company reserves the right to refuse participation on a trip if no proof of adequate, valid insurance for the trip and planned activities is provided. Please note, while we require you to show evidence that you have obtained insurance cover, we will not check your chosen insurance policy for suitability and we make no representations that it is appropriate for your needs.
In case of a suspected or confirmed emergency involving you or the group of which you are a member, the Company reserves the right to arrange (or to make arrangements for its or your insurers to arrange) search, rescue and recovery as it deems appropriate and reasonable. You agree to indemnify the Company and keep the Company indemnified from all losses, apportioned appropriately to you, arising from any such search, any such helicopter usage and any resulting repatriation, for medical or non-medical reasons, including legal costs of making a recovery against you.
Booking, payments and surcharges
A booking is made with us when either (a) you tell us that you would like to accept our written or verbal quotation; or (b) you pay us a deposit. Upon acceptance of a your trip proposal, full payment is immediately due of the total expedition balance; and (c) we issue you with a booking confirmation. We reserve the right to return your deposit and decline to issue a confirmation at our absolute discretion. A binding contract will come into existence between you and us as upon receipt of funds. The total amount received by our bank must be no less than the full amount shown on your final invoice and paid in the invoiced denomination into the Company’s account of that same denomination. If sending money by electronic (bank) transfer, then you must pay all of your own banking fees involved in the transfer.
We advise you to take out your own travel insurance when you book to cover any loss, theft, cancellation and other associated events. Prices quoted are based on costs and exchange rates as of the date of trip proposal presented to you by the Company. Exchange rates are calculated using www.xe.com. We will endeavor to mitigate against any rise in our operating costs.
We reserve the right to amend the price of unsold arrangements at any time and correct errors in the prices of confirmed holidays. Furthermore, the price of your confirmed booking is subject at all times to changes arising from government action such as changes in VAT or any other government imposed changes, and changes in the exchange rates of currency, and we reserve the right to pass on to you any increases in the price of your confirmed booking as a result.
Should any extra costs be incurred during the trip such as additional services provided and purchases made on your behalf that have not been included in the itinerary, these additional costs shall be paid immediately by you, unless an alternative arrangement is made and agreed to by both you and the Company.
The Company and/or its guides may at their discretion postpone, hold back or cancel any prepaid services/ products/ activities from the original itinerary without refunding them if there are unpaid additional activities/services/products engaged in by you and the financial costs for these additional activities are not being met by you. Neither any future complaint, nor perceived dissatisfaction with the level of service, nor with the quality of the itinerary provided shall be deemed adequate grounds to contest or dispute or hold back payment of any extra costs over and above the original agreed final trip cost.
Extensions to itineraries can be purchased separately. The arrangements for extensions are made on an individual basis once a booking is made. Extensions are subject to a separate deposit. We will confirm all of the arrangements to you before you pay your final balance (which will be due at the same time as the final balance for the expedition of which it forms part).
Accuracy
We endeavor to ensure that all the information and prices which we detail to you are accurate, however occasionally changes and errors occur and we reserve the right to correct prices and other details in such circumstances.
Cutting your trip short
If you are forced to return home early, we cannot refund the cost of any services you have not used. If you cut short your trip and return home early in circumstances where you have no reasonable cause for complaint about the standard of accommodation and services provided, we will not offer you any refund for that part of your trip not completed (unless we are able to recover any costs from the third party supplier of your chosen arrangements on your behalf, in such circumstances), or be liable for any associated costs you may incur. Depending on the circumstances, your travel insurance may offer cover for curtailment and we suggest that any claim is made directly with them.
Changes or cancellation by you and transfers of bookings
If you wish to cancel or change any part of your booking arrangements, you must inform us in writing as soon as possible. This should be done by the first named person on the booking. Whilst we will do our best to assist to accommodate changes, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to meet your requested change. You should be aware that these costs could increase the closer to the departure date that changes are requested, and you should contact us as soon as the need arises. Where we are unable to assist you and you do not wish to proceed with the original booking we will treat this as a cancellation by you. In the event of cancellation by you, we shall endeavor to refund any recoverable costs. Please note that in this circumstance, we are unable to return any costs that Cookson Adventures are unable to recover from suppliers, agents, representatives or other parties or entities involved in the design or implantation of the travel plans.
Note: Certain arrangements may not be amended after they have been confirmed and any alteration could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements.
Cancellations by you before departure
If you or any other member of your party decide to cancel your confirmed booking you must notify us in writing. Your notice of cancellation will only take effect when it is received in writing by us at our offices and will be effective from the date on which we receive it. We recommend you use recorded delivery, please retain a copy of the delivery receipt. This may include email. Should you cancel, the following scale of charges will apply: (a) 90 days or more before the Departure Date – loss of deposit plus any non-recoverable costs incurred by the Company; (b) More than 60 days but less than 90 days before the Departure Date – loss of the deposit, plus 30% of total trip cost and any additional non-recoverable costs incurred by the Company; (c) More than 30 days but less than 60 days before the Departure Date – loss of the deposit, plus 60% of total trip cost and any additional non-recoverable costs incurred by the Company; (d) 30 days or less before the Departure Date – unless otherwise agreed in writing, 100% loss of total trip cost less any surplus third party costs that have yet to be paid and the Company are not contractually obliged to pay. Please note that we are unable to refund costs that we are contractually unable to recover from suppliers or contracted 3rd parties.
Changes or cancellation by the Company
If due to circumstances beyond our control it becomes necessary to substitute an alternative supplier, or make any other alterations to your booking we shall inform you of the changes as soon as possible. You may pay an additional cost due to such changes. If the changes are, in our view, so substantial as to significantly alter your booking and you are unwilling to accept said changes then you may cancel your booking and we will give a refund of all moneies you have paid to us less any costs that we are unable to recover from our suppliers. Planning fees associated with the booking may be used by the Company as credit against future travel for you. The Company will make all reasonable efforts to minimise additional costs to you in these circumstances.
We may in exceptional circumstances be forced or legally required to cancel your booking in which case a full refund of all monies paid may be made to you less any non-recoverable costs. In these circumstances, any planning fees associated with the booking may be used by the Company as credit against future travel for you. We regret we cannot meet any expenses or losses that you may incur as a result of a change or cancellation.
Very rarely, we may be forced by “Force Majeure” to change or terminate all or some of your arrangements after departure. If this situation does occur, we regret we will be unable to make any refunds, or meet any costs or expenses you incur as a result except where we manage to recover the same from our suppliers. You must direct all claims to your travel insurance.
Force Majeure
Except where otherwise expressly stated in these booking conditions we will not be liable or pay you compensation if our contractual obligations to you are affected by “Force Majeure”. For the purposes of these Booking Conditions, Force Majeure means any event beyond our or our supplier’s control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Examples include warfare and acts of terrorism (and threat thereof), civil strife, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, weather conditions or any other circumstances which make it impossible to travel safely to the travel destination or remain at the travel destination, the act of any government or other national or local authority including port or river authorities, industrial dispute, labour strikes, lock closure, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, chemical or biological disaster and adverse weather, sea, ice and river conditions and all similar events outside our or the supplier(s) concerned control.
Liabilities and responsibilities
The Company’s responsibilities to you: We have a duty to select the suppliers of the services making up your holiday booking with us with reasonable skill and care. We have no liability to you for the actual provision of the services, except in cases where it is proven that we have breached that duty and damage to you has been caused. Therefore, providing we have selected the suppliers/subcontractors with reasonable skill and care, we will have no liability to you for anything that happens during the service in question or any acts or omissions of the supplier, its employees or agents. We will not be responsible or pay you compensation for any injury, illness, death, loss, damage, expense, cost or other claim of any description if it results from: (a) the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected; (b) the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party unconnected with the provision of the services contracted for and which were were unforeseeable or unavoidable; or (c) Force Majeure.
We limit the amount of compensation we may have to pay you if we are found liable under this clause to:
(a) Loss of and/or damage to any luggage or personal possessions and money: The maximum amount we will have to pay you in respect of these claims is an amount equivalent to the excess on your insurance policy which applies to this type of loss per person in total because you are required to have adequate insurance in place to cover any losses of this kind.
(b) Claims not falling under (a) above and which don’t involve injury, illness or death: The maximum amount we will have to pay you in respect of these claims is up to three times the price paid by or on behalf of the person(s) affected in total. This maximum amount will only be payable where everything has gone wrong and you or your party has not received any benefit at all from your booking.
(c) Claims in respect of international travel by air, sea and rail, or any stay in a hotel: The extent of our liability will in all cases be limited as if we were carriers under the appropriate conventions, which include The Warsaw/Montreal Convention (international travel by air); The Athens Convention (with respect to sea travel); The Berne/Cotif Convention (with respect to rail travel) and The Paris Convention (with respect to hotel arrangements). You can ask for copies of these conventions from our offices. In addition, you agree that the operating carrier or transport company’s own ‘Conditions of Carriage’ will apply to you on that journey. When arranging transportation for you, we rely on the terms and conditions contained within these international conventions and those ‘Conditions of Carriage’. You acknowledge that all of the terms and conditions contained in those ‘Conditions of Carriage’ form part of your contract with us, as well as with the transport company and that those ‘Conditions of Carriage’ shall be deemed to be included by reference into this contract.
When making any payment, we are entitled to deduct any money which you have received or are entitled to receive from the transport provider or hotelier for the complaint or claim in question.
It is a condition of our acceptance of liability under this clause that you notify any claim to ourselves and our supplier(s) strictly in accordance with the complaints procedure set out in these conditions. Where any payment is made, the person(s) receiving it (and their parent or guardian if under 18 years) must also assign to ourselves or our insurers any rights they may have to pursue any third party and must provide ourselves and our insurers with all assistance we may reasonably require. Please note, we cannot accept any liability for any damage, loss or expense or other sum(s) of any description: (a) which on the basis of the information given to us by you concerning your booking prior to our accepting it, we could not have foreseen you would suffer or incur if we breached our contract with you; or (b) relate to any business; or (c) indirect or consequential loss of any kind We will not accept responsibility for services or facilities which do not form part of our agreement or where they are not advertised by us. For example,any excursion you book independently whilst away, or any service or facility which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you.
We will not accept any liability where you act against any official advice or regulation as mandated or recommeneded by any legally governing body or law enforcement. Any liability or repercussion of any decision to do so will be entirely bourne by you. This includes but is not limited to advice or regulations regarding travel permissions or entry clearance.
Your responsibilities and acceptance of risk: Your booking is accepted on the understanding that you are aware that, due to the nature of the trip, there are certain dangers and risks inherent in the execution of certain activities, some of which may include the possibility of physical exertion, weather extremes, remote and inaccessible areas, potential hostile environments, high-altitude and extreme depths, areas where there is poor infrastructure transport methods, disease, discomfort, criminal activity, delay, loss of or damage to property. By accepting these terms and conditions, you acknowledge; (a) that dependent upon the location of your chosen trip, that the general standards of health, safety and hygiene in the countries to be visited may not be comparable to the standards of the country in which you reside; (b) that the nature of this type of travel requires a considerable degree of flexibility and you must allow for certain changes as a result of this during the trip. The Company representative (or local Expedition Leader) may, on assessing the conditions and abilities of the group, decide to change any aspect of the trip if he or she believes that to continue with the itinerary or activities, or any latterly agreed alternatives, would place anyone at undue risk; (c) the Company’s representative’s authority to make decisions on behalf of the group is absolute; (d) that the Company accepts no financial liability that may arise from any enforced change to your travel plans due to any alteration of the expedition or trip dates, the itinerary or its cancellation, howsoever caused. You are advised to book transferable, refundable travel tickets with no penalties should a cancellation be necessary.
Passports, visas and health
It is your responsibility to check and fulfill the passport, visa, health and immigration requirements applicable to your itinerary. We can only provide general information about this. You must check requirements for your own specific circumstances with the relevant Embassies and/or Consulates and your own doctor as applicable. Requirements do change and you must check the up to date position in good time before departure. Most countries now require passports to be valid for at least 6 months after your return date. If your passport is in its final year, you should check with the Embassy of the country you are visiting.
Individuals are responsible for obtaining up to date advice on passport and visa requirements from the Embassy, High Commission or Consulate of your destination or country(ies) through which you are travelling,
We do not accept any responsibility if you cannot travel or incur any other loss because you have not complied with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities. You agree to reimburse us in relation to any fines or other losses which we incur as a result of your failure to comply with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities.
You must notify us via the medical declaration of any medical problems or disabilities. If any medical problems or disabilities are suffered or arise between the medical declaration being submitted and the departure date you must notify us immediately. We reserve the right to decline or cancel a booking without having to pay any compensation if any medical problem or disability you were previously aware of is not disclosed to us on the medical declaration form; or even if it is disclosed before the departure date in our belief such medical problem or disability is likely to endanger your health and safety and/or the health and safety of anyone else participating in the trip.
We may require you to obtain confirmation from a medical professional that you are fit to travel and participate in the trip. You acknowledge and agree that concerning your medical welfare we have a duty to you and to the other participants and, as such, if we reasonably believe that you are not sufficiently fit to take part in the trip, we may decline or cancel the booking at any time at our complete discretion. For this reason, it is essential that insurance is booked at the time of trip confirmation and trip payment.
Where you have come into contact with any infectious disease you must notify us immediately. Where the departure date falls within the accepted quarantine period for transmission of the disease, we reserve the right to cancel the booking as set out above; this shall be deemed to be cancellation arising from an event of Force Majeure pursuant to these terms and conditions and no compensation shall be payable to you.
Excursions
Excursions or other tours that you may choose to book or pay for whilst you are on holiday are not part of your contracted arrangements with us. For any excursion or other tour that you book, your contract will be with the operator of the excursion 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.
Conditions of suppliers
Many of the services which make up your holiday are provided by independent suppliers. Those suppliers provide these services in accordance with their own terms and conditions which will form part of your contract with us. Some of these terms and conditions may limit or exclude the supplier’s liability to you, usually in accordance with applicable International Conventions. Copies of the relevant parts of these Terms and Conditions are available on request from ourselves or the supplier concerned.
Complaints
If you have a problem during the trip, you must inform a Company representative immediately who will endeavour to resolve any issues. If a Company representative is unable to resolve the issue, please refer to the information sheet that you will have been provided with the 24-hour contact telephone number. If the problem cannot be resolved and you wish to complain further, you must send formal written notice of your complaint to us at our office at 2 Clearwater Terrace, London, W11 4XL within 28 days of the end of your stay, giving your booking reference and all other relevant information. This will assist us to quickly identify your concerns and speed up our response to you. Failure to follow the procedure set out in this clause may affect our and the applicable supplier’s ability to investigate your complaint and will affect your rights under this contract.
Jurisdiction
These Booking Conditions and any agreement to which they apply are governed in all respects by English law. We both agree that any dispute, claim or other matter which arises between us out of or in connection with your contract or booking will be dealt with by the Courts of England and Wales only. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of Scotland or Northern Ireland if you are a permanent resident of either country.
