Terms and Conditions

To make a booking with us, the party leader must complete and sign our booking form. He/she/they must be authorised to make the booking on the basis of these Booking Conditions by all persons named on the booking and their parent or guardian for all party members who are under 18 when the booking is made.

By signing the booking form, the party leader confirms that he/she/they is so authorised. The party leader consents 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). The party leader is responsible for making all payments due to us. The party leader must be at least 18 when the booking is made. All bookings are subject to these Booking Conditions.

The completed signed booking form must then be sent to us together with the appropriate deposit payments (or full payment if booking within 70 days of departure). We reserve the right to return your deposit and decline to issue a booking confirmation at our absolute discretion.

Bookings made by telephone, will only be accepted after we have received verbal agreement by you to accept and abide by our Booking Conditions. Bookings made through our website will be confirmed once your payment has been verified. Once we have received your booking and all appropriate payments, we will, subject to availability, confirm your adventure by issuing a confirmation invoice which will include the details of your booking.

A binding contract will only come into force between you and us once we have issued you with a confirmation invoice which will be sent to the party leader. Please check this invoice carefully as soon as you receive it. Upon receipt, if you believe that any details on the booking confirmation or any other document are wrong you must advise us immediately as it may not be possible to make changes later. It may harm your rights if we are not notified of any inaccuracies in any document within five days of our sending it out.

The deposit is made up of 30% of the tour cost for each person booked.
Where you have paid a deposit, the balance of the cost of your arrangements (including any surcharge where applicable) is due not less than 70 days prior to scheduled departure. If we do not receive this balance in full and on time, we will be entitled to treat your booking as cancelled by you and retain all deposits paid or due at that date. If we do not cancel straight away because you have promised to make payment, you must pay the cancellation charges shown in clause 3 if we do not receive the payment within 72 hours after the agreed time and date, when we will treat your booking as cancelled.

At present, all payments are made by bank transfer to BALKAN EXPEDITIONS LIMITED, Account number: 62843745, Sort code: 04-00-75, Bank: Revolut Ltd, 7 Westferry Circus, E14 4HD, London.

You may cancel your booking at any stage, provided you do so by email. Should one or more members of a party cancel, it may increase the per person adventure price of those still travelling and you will be liable to pay this increase. As we incur costs from the time we confirm your booking the charges set out below will apply. Where the cancellation charge is shown as a percentage, this is calculated on the basis of the total cost payable by the person(s) cancelling excluding amendment charges. Amendment charges are not refundable in the event of the person(s) to whom they apply cancelling.

Cancellation Charges

• Cancelation more than 70 days: Deposit only;
• Cancelation 70-43 days before departure: 50% of total tour cost;
• Cancelation 42-29 days before departure: 75% of total tour cost;
• Cancelation 28 days or less before departure: 100% of total tour cost;

Important Note: We are required to pay for certain aspects of tour arrangements in full, up front, on a non-refundable basis, such as accommodation or equipment rental, for example. Upon cancellation, we retain the right to withhold payment for these services in cases where our non-recoverable costs exceed the cancellation charges above.

Where possible, we will deduct the cancellation charge(s) from any monies you have already paid to us.

Should you wish to make any changes to your confirmed adventure, you must notify us as soon as possible. Whilst we will endeavour to assist, we cannot guarantee we will be able to meet any such requests. Where we can make changes, an amendment fee of £25 per booking will be payable together with any costs incurred by ourselves and any costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers.

If you or any member of your party is prevented from travelling, that person(s) may transfer their place to someone else, subject to the following conditions:

• That person is introduced by you and satisfies all the conditions applicable to the adventure;
• We are notified not less than 7 days before departure;
• You pay any outstanding balance payment, an amendment fee of £50 per person transferring as well as any additional fees, charges or other costs arising from the transfer; and
• The transferee agrees to these booking conditions and all other terms of the contract between us. You and the transferee remain jointly and severally liable for payment of all sums. If you are unable to find a replacement, cancelation charges set out will apply in order to cover our estimated costs. Otherwise, no refunds will be given for passengers not travelling or for unused services.

Important Note: Certain arrangements may not be amended or transferred after they have been confirmed and any alteration could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements.

If you are forced to return home early, or if you cut short your adventure 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 adventure not completed, nor 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.

All Balkan Expeditions’ adventures rely on successfully organising the logistics which can be affected by the adverse weather, the uncertainties of local bureaucracy etc. Consequently, we must always be flexible, and we contract only to aim at a proposed itinerary, not necessarily to fulfil it rigidly. We reserve the right to change an itinerary at any time and will not be held liable for any loss caused by delay or alteration.

We start planning the adventures we offer many months in advance. Occasionally, we have to make changes to and correct errors in brochure and other details both before and after bookings have been confirmed and cancel confirmed bookings. Whilst we always endeavour to avoid changes and cancellations, we must reserve the right to do so.

Changes: If we have to alter your itinerary, travel or adventure arrangements before departure, any change will be either significant or insignificant. Where a change is an insignificant change, we will, if practicable, advise you before departure but we are not obliged to do so or to pay you compensation. An example of insignificant changes includes change of accommodation to another of the same or higher standard.

Cancellation: We will not cancel your travel arrangements less than 30 days before your departure date, except for reasons of force majeure, if the guide leading your adventure is injured and unable lead the adventure, or failure by you to pay the final balance. We may cancel your adventure before this date if, e.g., the minimum number of clients required for a particular travel arrangement is not reached.

If we have to make a significant change or cancel, we will tell you as soon as possible. If there is time to do so before departure, we will offer you the choice of the following options:

• (i) (for significant changes) accepting the changed arrangements; or
• (ii) accepting an offer of an alternative adventure from us, of a comparable or higher standard to that originally booked if available (at no extra cost);
• (iii) Where possible we will offer you at least one alternative adventure of equivalent or higher standard for which you will not be asked to pay any more than the price of the original one. If this adnventure is in fact cheaper than the original one, we will refund the price difference. If you do not wish to accept the adventure we specifically offer you, you may choose any of our other then available ones. You must pay the applicable price of any such adventure. This will mean you have to pay more if it is more expensive and you will receive a refund if it is cheaper.
• (iv) cancelling or accepting the cancellation and accepting a full refund of all monies paid.

You must notify us of your choice within 7 days of our offer. If we do not hear from you within 7 days, we will contact you again to request notification of your choice. If you fail to respond again we will assume that you have chosen to accept the change or alternative booking arrangements.

Please note, the above options are not available where any change made is an insignificant one.

Force majeure: Except where otherwise expressly stated in these Booking Conditions, we regret we cannot accept liability or pay any 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 outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or weather conditions 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, unavoidable technical problems with transport and all similar events outside our or our supplier’s control.

We reserve the right to make changes to and correct errors in advertised prices at any time before your adventure is confirmed. We will advise you of any error of which we are aware and of the then applicable price at the time of booking.

We also reserve the right to correct errors in the prices of confirmed adventures.
If any surcharge is greater than 10% of the cost of your adventure (excluding any amendment charges and/or additional services or travel arrangements), you will have the option of accepting a change to another adventure if we are able to offer one (if this is of equivalent or higher quality you will not have to pay more but if it is of a lower quality you will be refunded the difference in price) or cancelling your booking and receiving a full refund of all monies you have paid to us (except for any amendment charges and/or additional services or travel arrangements).

Should the price of your adventure go down, then any refund due will be paid to you.

You have 7 days from the issue date printed on the surcharge invoice to tell us if you want to cancel. If you do not tell us that you wish to do so within this period of time, we are entitled to assume that you will pay the surcharge. Any surcharge must be paid with the balance of the cost of the adventure or within 14 days of the issue date printed on the surcharge invoice, whichever is the later.

We promise not to levy a surcharge within 20 days of the start of your adventure, nor will any refunds be paid during this period.
Please note, changes and errors occasionally occur. You must check the price of your chosen adventure at the time of booking.

All party members must be covered by insurance before setting out on adventure. This must cover you fully against any cancellation charges, medical care and repatriation should you become too ill to continue with the adventure. It is your responsibility to ensure that the insurance cover you purchase is suitable and adequate for your particular needs.

We do not check insurance policies and cannot be held responsible if your insurance cover is inadequate. If you choose to travel without adequate insurance cover, we will not be liable for any losses howsoever arising, in respect of which insurance cover would otherwise have been available.

If you have any special requests, you should inform us of such requests prior to departure. We will always consider them but we cannot guarantee that such requests will be met. Furthermore, we have no liability to you if such requests are not met. Confirmation that a special request has been noted is not confirmation that the request will be met. Failure to meet any special request will not be a breach of contract on our part unless the request has been specifically confirmed by us. We do not accept bookings that are conditional upon any special request being met.

If you or any member of your party has any medical problem, reduced mobility or disability which may affect your adventure, please tell us before you confirm your booking so that we can advise as to the suitability of the chosen arrangements. In any event, you must give us full details in writing at the time of booking. We may require you to produce a doctor’s certificate certifying that you are fit to participate. By accepting the arrangements you agree to review and consider the levels of difficulty of our adventures set out in the individual adventures’ literature, and ensure it suits your level of fitness and does not negatively impact any medical conditions.

If we reasonably feel unable to properly accommodate the particular needs of the person concerned, we must reserve the right to decline their reservation or, if full details are not given at the time of booking, cancel when we become aware of these details and impose applicable cancellation charges when we become aware of these details.

All our customers are expected to conduct themselves in an orderly and acceptable manner and not to disrupt the enjoyment of others. If in our opinion your behaviour or that of any member of your party is causing or is likely to cause distress, danger or annoyance to any other customers or any third party, or damage to property, or to cause a delay or diversion to transportation, we reserve the right to terminate your booking with us immediately. In the event of such termination our liability to you and/or your party will cease and you and/or your party will be required to leave your accommodation or other arrangements immediately. We will have no further obligations to you and/or your party. No refunds for lost accommodation or any other arrangements will be made and we will not pay any expenses or costs incurred as a result of termination.

When you book with us, you accept responsibility for any damage or loss caused by you or any member of your party. Full payment for any such damage or loss must be paid direct at the time to the accommodation owner or manager or other supplier. If you fail to do so, you will be responsible for meeting any claims subsequently made against us (together with our own and the other party’s full legal costs) as a result of your actions.

We cannot be held responsible for the actions or behaviour of other persons who have no connection with your booking arrangements or with us.

Should you have any complaint whilst the adventure, you must immediately inform your adventure leader who will do his/her best to remedy it.

Failure to follow the procedure set out in this clause may affect our ability to investigate your complaint, and will affect your rights under this contract.

1. We will accept responsibility for the arrangements we agree to provide or arrange for you and as such, we are responsible for the proper provision of all services included in your adventure, as set out in your confirmation invoice. Subject to these Booking Conditions, if we or our suppliers negligently perform or arrange those services and we don’t remedy or resolve your complaint within a reasonable period of time, and this has affected the enjoyment of your adventure you may be entitled to an appropriate price reduction or compensation, or both. You must inform us without undue delay of any failure to perform or improper performance included in this adventure. The level of any such price reduction or compensation will be calculated taking into consideration all relevant factors such as but not limited to: following the complaints procedure as described in these Booking Conditions and the extent to which ours or our employees’ or suppliers’ negligence affected the overall enjoyment of your adventure. 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.
2. We will not be responsible or pay you compensation for any injury, illness, death, loss (for example loss of enjoyment), damage, expense, cost or other sum or claim of any description whatsoever which results from any of the following:
   – the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected or any member(s) of their party;
   – the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party not connected with the provision of your adventure and which were unavoidable and extraordinary;
   – Force Majeure (as defined in clause 6).
3. Please note, we cannot accept responsibility for any services which do not form part of our contract. This includes, for example, any additional services or facilities which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you where the services or facilities are not advertised by us.
4. It is a condition of our acceptance of liability under this Clause that you notify any claim to us and our supplier(s) strictly in accordance with the complaints procedure set out in these conditions.
5. We limit the amount of compensation we may have to pay you if we are found liable under this clause:
   1. (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.
   2. (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.
   3. (c) Claims in respect of international travel by air, sea and rail, or any stay in a hotel.
6. Please note, we cannot accept any liability for any damage, loss, expense or other sum(s) of any description (1) 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 (2) which did not result from any breach of contract or other fault by ourselves or our employees or, where we are responsible for them, our suppliers. Additionally we cannot accept liability for any business losses.
7. You must provide ourselves with all assistance we may reasonably require. You must also tell us and the supplier concerned about your claim or complaint as set out in clause above. If asked to do so, you must transfer to us any rights you have against the supplier or whoever else is responsible for your claim or complaint (if the person concerned is under 18, their parent or guardian must do so). You must also agree to cooperate fully with us if we want to enforce any rights which are transferred.
8. Where it is impossible for you to return to your departure point as per the agreed return date of your adventure, due to “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances”, we shall provide you with any necessary accommodation (where possible, of a comparable standard) for a period not exceeding three nights per person. Please note that the 3-night cap does not apply to persons with reduced mobility, pregnant women or unaccompanied minors, nor to persons needing specific medical assistance, provided we have been notified of these particular needs at least 48 hours before the start of your adventure. For the purposes of this clause, “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” mean warfare, acts of terrorism, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or weather conditions which make it impossible to travel.

It is your responsibility to check and fulfil the passport, visa, health and immigration requirements applicable to your itinerary. 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.
It is the party leader’s responsibility to ensure that all members of the party are in possession of all necessary travel and health documents before departure.

All costs incurred in obtaining such documentation must be paid by you. We regret we cannot accept any liability if you or any member of your party are refused entry into Montenegro or any other country we may visit during the adventure due to failure on your part to carry correct documentation. If failure to have any necessary travel or other documents results in fines, surcharges or any other financial penalty being imposed on us, you will be responsible for reimbursing us accordingly.