Terms and Conditions

All bookings are made with Pelorus Adventures Limited, an England registered company number 11808748 (hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) whose registered office is 126, New King’s Road, London, SW6 4LZ United Kingdom which falls under the jurisdiction of the laws and regulations of England and Wales. These Terms and Conditions refer to the contract made between you (hereinafter referred to as “the Client”) and the Company.

Contract

1. The contract between you and the Company will commence when we receive your initial payment.

2. The contract will continue until the end of the trip, including any booked extension whether arranged prior or during the original booked trip.

Insurance

3. All trips are made entirely at the client’s risk. It is a condition of this contract that all Company clients are fully insured for their destinations and activities. Please be advised that insurance should include all health, repatriation and cover including search and rescue, for all activities, specifically those to be deemed hazardous (please check 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.  

4. 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 activities planned to take part in are provided.

5. 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.

Payments and surcharges

6. 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 the remitter's (your) fees and the beneficiaries (The Company) fees.

7. As there are elements of your deposit that are non-refundable, we advise you to take out your own travel insurance when you book to cover any loss, theft, cancellation, and other associated events.

8. A 50% deposit is required at the time of booking to secure the indicated elements of your itinerary. There may be instances where additional money is due at the time of deposit. We will make this clear in your invoice.

9. All balance payments are due no less than 90 days prior to the commencement date of your trip. If there are elements of your itinerary that require payments before this time, you will be made aware at the time of booking. If the balance payment is not made on time, it is possible that elements of your trip will be lost or changed. Any amendments or additional costs incurred because of this shall be paid solely by the client.

10. Prices quoted are based on costs and exchange rates as of date of trip proposal presented to you by the Company. We will endeavor to mitigate against any rise in our operating costs. In the event that it becomes necessary to amend the price of the trip, the following conditions will apply:

i. Increases arising directly from transportation costs such as surcharges levied by airlines, the cost of fuel, taxes, duties or fees chargeable for services such as landing taxes or embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports and airports and fluctuation in exchange rates may be passed on and you will be invoiced accordingly;

ii. You will not be charged for any increase of up to 2% of the price of the trip and in the event that the price of the trip goes down by more than 2% the difference will be repaid to you (though you should note that owing to the way we pay for our trips, some apparent changes will not impact on the price of the trip, and we try to give you the advantage of any predicted benefit in the exchange rate with a competitive price from the outset).

11. 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.  

12. 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.

13. 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).

Amendments and Cancellations

Client Amendment

14. The Company will make every effort to assist you if you wish to alter your arrangements, including postponement, but it may not always be possible. Requests for an amendment or postponement, must be received in writing.

15. Depending upon the conditions imposed by our partners and suppliers, if it is possible to make the amendment, it will be may be subject to an amendment charge together with any additional charges or other expenses incurred as a result of the change, these include but are not limited to any increases in the price of your trip due to a change of season, accommodation and service availability and/or general annual uplift in costs. This increase will be payable by you. 

16. For any date amendment or postponement, a charge of £500 will charged together with any additional charges or other expenses incurred as a result of the change, these include but are not limited to any increases in the price of your trip due to a change of season, accommodation and service availability and/or general annual uplift in costs. This increase will be payable by you.

17. It will not be possible to make changes within 30 days of your departure date. Your request may be treated as a cancellation and re-booking and the normal cancellation charges detailed in clause 19 below will apply.

Client Cancellation

18. Certain elements of your itinerary may not be amended after they have been confirmed and any alteration or cancellation could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100%. Similarly, some elements of your itinerary may have stricter cancellation conditions. This could be due to, but not limited to, the nature of the experience, certain remote lodges or accommodation, or the period of year for travel. You will be made aware of these elements at the time of booking.

19. Notice of cancellation by you must be given in writing. Should you cancel the following charges will apply:

From payment date

25% of total trip cost plus any non-recoverable costs incurred by the Company including the Pelorus Planning Fee

90 – 60 days before departure date

40% of total trip cost plus any non-recoverable costs incurred by the Company including the Pelorus Planning Fee

60 – 30 days before departure date

60% of total trip cost plus any non-recoverable costs incurred by the Company including the Pelorus Planning Fee

30 – 0 days before departure date

100% of the total trip cost

Cancellation by the Company

20. We may cancel a trip as a result of an event of force majeure, which are events which are unforeseeable and beyond our control including but not limited to war, riot, industrial dispute, terrorist activity, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, epidemics or health risks, closed or congested airports, ports or stations, changes imposed by re-scheduling or cancellation of transport, adverse weather conditions (whether actual or threatened) avalanche, storm, flood, typhoon, hurricane and technical failure with any form of transport or facility.

21. The Company cannot be held liable for any delays due to the weather and any consequent additional charges incurred. Please ensure that your insurance covers such eventualities.  

22. The Company cannot be held responsible for government edicts changing access to areas, territories or changes to permitting criteria.  However, the Company will endeavour to arrange an alternative itinerary within the limits of the restrictions this type of situation may create.

Liabilities and responsibilities

The Company’s liabilities to you:

23.   During a trip, every effort will be made to adhere to the planned itinerary but please be aware that changes to the itinerary may occur. As such, circumstances may arise where we are forced to alter dates, trip duration, flight schedules, trekking routes, mountains to be climbed, locations visited or hotel accommodation, either during or before a trip has commenced, possibly at short notice. Whilst we will try to inform you of any such changes as soon as we know of them, we accept no liability for, or the consequences of, any such changes.

24. 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.  

25. The Company representative’s authority to make decisions on behalf of the group is absolute.  

26. A client leaving a trip at any stage, for whatever reason, will not be entitled to any refund or to compensation.

27. The Company’s trips often involve going to places of extreme weather variations, remote and inaccessible areas, potential hostile environments, high-altitude and extreme depths, in areas where there is poor infrastructure transport methods. By signing these Booking Terms & Conditions you acknowledge these hazards and your acceptance of the associated risks.

28. The Company will not be responsible for any illness, injury or death sustained on our trips, except where such illness, injury or death is caused by our negligence.

29. All flights booked by the Company for you will be subject to the conditions of the carrying airline which, in most cases, limit the airline's liability to the passenger in accordance with international law and conventions. The Company accepts no liability for the consequences of delays, cancellations, change of routing, change of departure or arrival airport or for any other changes to your flight schedule, whatever they may be or howsoever caused (though you may be entitled to make a claim against the airline in question).

30. 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 course 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.

Your liabilities to the Company:

31. Once your booking has been confirmed by the Company, you must promptly submit by post or email, a previous experience questionnaire and a medical declaration form.

32. 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:

i. any medical problem or disability is not disclosed to us on the medical declaration form;

ii. any medical problem or disability is not disclosed to us after the medical declaration form is submitted to us but before the Departure Date; or

iii. any medical problem or disability is not disclosed to us; provided that 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

Complaints

35. If you have a problem during the trip, please inform the Company Representative immediately who will endeavour to resolve any issues. If the 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.  

Privacy and data protection

36. We shall ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to protect your personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998). When you make a booking, you consent to all the information you provide being passed on to our suppliers, agents, sub-contractors, employees or volunteers whether based inside or outside the European Economic Area for the purposes of our providing you with the trip.

37. By agreeing to these Booking Terms & Conditions, you consent to our staff taking photographs and/or video footage over the duration of the trip and that these images may be used by us at our discretion for publicity and promotional purposes including, but not limited to, in brochures, websites material and in the media.

By paying this invoice, you are confirming that you have read and understood these Booking Terms & Conditions, taking full responsibility accordingly.