All tours operated by Bella’s Magic Mountains. By booking or participating in a tour and any related products or services (a “Tour”) with Bella’s Magic Mountains the “Trek Organiser”), you (“you”) agree to these Terms & Conditions (the “Terms”).‘Trek’ ‘Tour’ and ‘Retreat’ are all used interchangeably.
By booking a trip you acknowledge that you have read, understand and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you make a booking on behalf of other participants, you guarantee that you have the authority to accept and do accept these Terms on behalf of the other participants in your party. You consent to our use of information in accordance with our Privacy Policy detailed in paragraph 10. You are over 18 years of age.
1. Making a Booking
When making a booking a deposit of at least 20% of booking value will be required. Where applicable an additional deposit payment may be required to cover any extra costs. All payments by credit card are subject to a 1.75% fee. Please note that if you are booking 12 weeks or less before departure then full payment is required at the time of booking
Subject to availability, the Trek Organiser will confirm acceptance of your booking by issuing a confirmation invoice. A binding contract comes into existence between you and the Trek Organiser when a Confirmation Invoice is dispatched to you or your Travel Agent. If the Trek Organiser cannot accept your booking, any payment you have made to the Trek Organiser will be refunded. Special requests should be indicated on the booking email at the time of booking or made in writing to the Trek Organiser as soon as possible. The Trek Organiser will try to arrange for reasonable special requests to be met, but cannot guarantee that they will be, nor will failure to meet any special request be a breach of contract on the Trek Organiser’s part. The applicant will not have access to initial health history consultation prior to fees paid.
2. Your responsibilities
(a) You shall be responsible for ensuring that he/she has a valid passport and such visas (In Nepal available to purchase on arrival at Kathmandu airport for UK citizens), inoculations and vaccinations as they are necessary during the continuance of the Trek and shall provide evidence of this to the Trek Organiser at least 2 months prior to the start of the Trek. Advice on health requirements may be obtained from your GP or alternatively please read the leaflet Advice on Health for Travellers which is available from the Dept of Health.
(b) The Trek Organiser is unable to accept responsibility for any decisions, actions, losses or delays in relation to any failure by you to obtain or carry the correct documentation and the consequential effect it may have on the visit itself, except where caused by the negligence of the Trek Organiser or any of its employees or agents. The Trek Organiser will not be liable for clients missing flights as a result of late check-ins, and no refunds will be given if you fail to take up any component of your arrangement.
(c) If, in the reasonable opinion of the Trek Organiser or of any other person in authority you or any member of your party behaves in such a manner as to cause or be likely to cause danger, distress or annoyance to others or damage to property, your (or the person’(s) concerned) arrangements may be terminated by the Trek Organiser or the supplier concerned. In such an event, you must pay any compensation or meet any costs or expenses which you and/or the Trek Organiser incur as a result. You shall behave in all respects in accordance with the best traditions of sportsmanship and cautious behaviours, in particular, shall comply with the laws of all countries visited during the process, shall conduct himself/herself properly, shall at no time during the Trek be in the possession or under influence of illegal drugs. You shall not react in any way that is likely to bring the name of the Trek Organiser, or any Sponsors or Charity involved with the trek or the Trek itself into disrepute
(d) Travel insurance is mandatory on all of our trips. We require you to let us have evidence of your insurance at least 8 weeks prior to departure or at the time of booking if later. We reserve the right to terminate your booking without refund if you fail to obtain travel insurance cover. Particular care should be taken to ensure that you have adequate cover, in particular for cancellation and emergency repatriation in the event of medical problems.
(e) You are responsible for ay safe keeping of any equipment provided to you during the trek by the Trek Organiser. Any defects to this equipment prior to the Trek must be reported immediately to the Trek Organiser. This equipment must be returned to the Trek Organiser at the end of the Trek, with the list of any defects.
3. The responsibilities of the Trek Organiser
a) Please note, in comparison with more conventional locations, the destinations you choose (which may include very remote areas) may not achieve the level of sophistication and development that might normally be expected. Facilities in some areas will be found to be of a basic nature and more appropriate to the local culture than foreign tourists.
b) Subject to these Booking Terms & Conditions, if we or our suppliers perform or arrange your contracted holiday arrangements negligently, we will pay you reasonable compensation. Please note that it is your responsibility to show that we or our supplier(s) have been negligent if you wish to make a claim against us. 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:- i the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected; ii the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party unconnected with the provision of the services contracted for and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable; or iii unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond ours or our supplier(s) control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised; or iv an event which either ourselves or suppliers could not, even with all due care, have foreseen or forestalled.
c) We do not exclude or limit any liability to our clients which may arise from proven negligence by any person employed directly by us or by our suppliers and subcontractors, servants or agents of the same whilst acting in the course of their employment (other than air and sea carriers performing any domestic internal or international carriage of whatsoever kind) in respect of death, bodily injury or illness. Such liabilities shall be subject to English law and all proceedings shall be within the exclusive domain of the English courts.
d) The Trek Organiser’s acceptance of liability in this clause is conditional upon you assigning to the Trek Organiser all rights you may have against any third party in any way responsible for personal injury, illness, death, deficiency or difficulty in question and upon you giving your full co-operation to the Trek Organiser and/or its insurers.
e) We strongly advise you to only book fully flexible fares, which can be can be cancelled or changed without charge prior to departure. If you have booked your own flight or transportation, the Trek Organiser will not be held responsible or liable should they be cancelled, amended or you fail to reach the point at which the services offered by the Trek Organiser commence.
f) Force Majeure. In the event of the Trek failing to start or having started being abandoned before its conclusion or in the event of a Team/individual withdrawing from the Trek, in each case, by reason of force majeure which shall include (but not by way of limitation) outbreak of hostilities, civil commotion, riot, riotous assembly, storm, hurricane, earthquake, tempest and other act’s of God and other supervening impossibilities not capable of avoidance by the Trek Organiser, then the Trek Organiser shall not be required to refund any monies received under the Contract, notwithstanding the provisions of any other terms and condition hereof and the applicant shall still be liable for the payment of fees on the due date for payment thereof. UK Foreign office advice against travel to an area for the above reasons will be treated as ‘Force Majeure’.
4. Price Policy
(a) After a confirmation invoice has been issued, the price of your arrangements is still subject to the possibility of surcharges in certain limited circumstances. However, subject to the correction of errors, a surcharge will only be levied to reflect increases in transportation costs (including fuel and scheduled airfares), dues, taxes (including a change in either foreign or UK VAT), fees chargeable for services (such as landing taxes and embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports or airports), or adverse variations in exchange rates which have been used to calculate the price of your arrangements. Surcharges will be notified by a Supplementary Invoice sent to you (or your travel agent).
(b) The Trek Organiser undertakes however, not to levy a surcharge within 10 weeks (70 days) of departure except in the circumstances set out in (a) above and:
(c) Even when our costs increase as set out in 5. (a) above, the Trek Organiser will absorb a total equivalent to 2% of the cost of your confirmed arrangements. Only if the increased costs exceed this 2% will the Trek Organiser levy a surcharge. If a surcharge made would increase the total price of your arrangements by 10% or more, you may cancel your booking within 14 days of the date of issue of the supplementary invoice and obtain a full refund of all payments made to the Trek Organiser, except for any amendment charges previously incurred.
5. Amendments & Cancellation
(a) Amendments by you. While the Trek Organiser will make every effort to assist you if you wish to alter your arrangements it cannot guarantee it will be able to meet such requests. Requests for an amendment must be in writing. In the event of an amendment all communication charges and other expenses and all costs and charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers will be payable by you together with an amendment fee of £50 per amendment. If you change your booking less than 10 weeks before departure, this will be treated as a cancellation by you and a re-booking, and the normal cancellation charges detailed in paragraph 6 (b) below will apply.
(b) Cancellation by you. Should you or another member of your party need to cancel your arrangements, you must tell us in writing. Your notice of cancellation will only be effective when it is received in writing at our offices. As we incur costs from the time we confirm your booking the following cancellation charges will be payable. Where the cancellation charge is shown as a percentage, this is calculated on the total cost payable by the person (s) cancelling excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges (which are non-refundable).
Period before departure from when written notification is received by us: Cancellation charge per person cancelling:
141 days or more full deposit 71 days – 140 days 30%
56 days – 70 days 50%
55 days or less 100% charge
Note: Certain arrangements could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements in addition to the charges above. If your cancellation falls within the provisions of your travel insurance policy you may be able to make a claim which must be made direct to your insurance company.
6. Amendments and Cancellations by the Trek Organiser before departure.
The Trek Organiser reserves the right, in an event that it considers necessary to do so, acting reasonably, to cancel the Trek or to alter or reduce the course including the starting and finishing point at any time including the time during which the Trek may is underway. The sole decision as to the cancellation, alternation or curtailment shall reside with the Trek Organiser and in no circumstances shall You have any claim arising from such cancellation, alteration or curtailment under this clause other that a claim that arises out of any matter which is reasonably foreseeable consequence f a breach of this Contract by the Trek Organiser or the Trek Organiser’s negligence. We shall not cancel any tour for reason of political tension or natural disaster unless specifically recommended to do so by the Foreign Office.
7. Group Tour Cancellation
The prices of group tours are based on a varying minimum number of passengers travelling. If this minimum number is not reached, at least 12 weeks prior to the scheduled departure date we will either cancel the tour and offer a refund in full, or we may propose a supplementary charge to enable said tour to operate, subject to the passenger’s agreement.
8. Complaints
If you are unhappy with a service or facility provided in connection with your arrangements, you should address your complaint immediately to the Trek Organiser’s local representative and, if relevant, to the management of the hotel or other supplier whose services are involved, so that the Trek Organiser will have an opportunity to correct the matter whilst you are away.
If the problem cannot be solved locally however, you must write to us within 28 days of your return to the UK giving your booking information and full details of your complaint. If you fail to follow this simple procedure we will have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint promptly and this may affect your rights under this contract.
These Booking Terms & 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 which lie within the United Kingdom.
9. Privacy Policy
The process of booking your holiday requires that we use the personal data you provide such as your name and address. In addition we may need some sensitive personal data such as special needs or dietary preferences etc. This information is passed on to the airlines and hotels and any other suppliers of your travel arrangements on a ‘need to know’ basis. If we cannot pass this information to the relevant suppliers, we cannot accept your booking. In making a booking, you consent to this information being passed on to the relevant persons. The information may also be provided to public authorities, as required by law. You should also be aware that controls on data protection in many of the countries we deal with are not as strong as in the UK. We will however not pass your information on to any person not responsible for part of your travel arrangements unless required to do so by law. Full details of our data protection policy are available upon request.
