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1Agreement to Terms

By registering for an Ecotone Journeys trip - whether online, by phone, by mail, or through a printed registration form - you agree to be bound by this document, along with any trip-specific information sent to you separately (itinerary, general information sheet, and pricing details). If you are registering on behalf of another traveler, you confirm you have the authority to accept these terms for them and will share this document with them directly.

We may revise these terms from time to time. The version posted on our website at the time of your registration governs your booking; later revisions do not apply retroactively to a trip you've already registered for, unless a change is required by law or by circumstances beyond our control.

Travel documents

You are responsible for ensuring your passport is valid for at least six months beyond your planned return date, and for obtaining any visas, entry permits, or other travel documents required for your itinerary. Requirements vary by nationality and destination and can change with little notice; you can check current passport and visa requirements by country at the IATA Travel Centre, and we recommend confirming with the relevant embassy or consulate well before departure. Ecotone Journeys is not responsible for a missed trip, missed portion of a trip, or any related expenses if you are denied boarding or entry due to a missing, expired, or invalid travel document.

2Custom Tours & Set Departure Tours

Ecotone Journeys offers both set departure tours and custom (private) tours, and the following distinction applies throughout this document unless your trip-specific materials state otherwise.

Set departure tours

A set departure tour is a pre-scheduled itinerary, at a published price and fixed departure date, run for a group of registered travelers. Most set departures average eight travelers, occasionally run up to ten, and are sometimes smaller depending on the destination, lodging, and other factors. The registration, payment, pricing, and cancellation policies described in this document apply as written.

Custom tours

A custom tour is an itinerary built specifically for you or your group, priced individually based on your requested destinations, dates, accommodations, activities, and party size. Because custom tours often require earlier commitments to lodges, guides, charters, and other local partners specific to your itinerary, the payment schedule, deposit amounts, and cancellation terms for a custom tour may differ from those set out in this document, and will be specified in your custom trip proposal and invoice. Where your custom trip proposal is silent on a particular policy, the general terms in this document apply.

3Registration & Payment Schedule

A space on an Ecotone Journeys trip is only guaranteed once we've received your signed registration and initial deposit. Full trip cost is collected in three scheduled installments:

If you register within any of these windows - for example, less than 8 months before departure - the corresponding installment(s) are due immediately at registration. Invoices are sent by email; payment is due on the date stated on the invoice.

Payment methods & credit card fees

The deposit carries no credit card processing fee. The second and final installments each carry a 3% credit card processing fee if paid by card. If you'd prefer to avoid this fee, you may pay any installment - including the second and final payments - by check made payable to Ecotone Journeys; our mailing address will be emailed to you along with your invoice. We also accept payment by ACH/bank transfer at no additional fee.

If a scheduled payment is not received by its due date and we're unable to reach you after reasonable follow-up, we reserve the right to treat the booking as cancelled by you, release your space to another traveler, and apply the refund terms in Section 4.

Minimum age & non-transferable registration

Participants must be at least 18 years old to register for an Ecotone Journeys trip. Travelers under 18 are not covered by our liability and insurance arrangements and cannot be accepted, unless otherwise stated for a specific departure. A reservation is personal to the registrant and may not be transferred or reassigned to another traveler without our written consent.

Single Room Supplement (SRS)

Trip pricing is based on double occupancy, with each participant sharing a room and splitting the cost. If you'd like a room to yourself, a Single Room Supplement is available for an additional fee, which reflects the added cost of a single room rather than a shared one. When you register as a solo traveler, you may request to be paired with a roommate of the same gender; if a suitable roommate is available, no supplement applies. If no roommate is available, the Single Room Supplement will be added to your balance.

4Cancellations & Refunds

If you need to cancel your reservation, notify us in writing as soon as possible. What's refunded depends on how much of your trip cost has already been paid out to vendors and partners on your behalf at the time of cancellation:

Cancelling before the second payment (deposit only paid)

A cancellation administration fee of 15% of the total trip cost applies. The remainder of any amount you have paid is refunded to you.

Cancelling after the second payment

The 15% cancellation administration fee applies, and in addition, any amounts already committed on your behalf to our vendors and partners - including but not limited to local operators and guide services, lodging, in-country transportation, boat or vehicle charters, permits, and airfare where airfare is part of your package - are also deducted and not refunded. This applies whether or not those funds have already been spent by the vendor or partner at the time of your cancellation. The remaining balance, if any, is refunded to you.

Cancellations are effective on the date we receive your written notice, not the date you decide to cancel. If a portion of your trip cost was used to purchase non-refundable third-party services (such as internal flights or expedition permits), those costs are excluded from any refund even if your cancellation otherwise falls within a refundable window.

5Trip Pricing & Changes by Ecotone Journeys

Trip prices are set using costs in effect at the time of publication and are subject to change to reflect fluctuations in airfare, fuel surcharges, lodging costs, permit fees, or currency exchange rates. We'll notify you of any price change before it's applied to your balance.

Surcharges for necessary changes

If circumstances beyond our control make it necessary to change part of your trip - for example, substituting lodging, or substantially revising a section of the itinerary due to unforeseen local conditions - and that change increases our cost of operating the tour, we reserve the right to apply a surcharge to cover the increase. We'll notify you of any such surcharge and the reason for it before it's added to your balance.

Occasionally we must adjust an itinerary, substitute lodging or a leader, or - rarely - cancel a departure outright. If we cancel a trip before departure because of insufficient registration, you will receive a full refund of amounts paid to Ecotone Journeys, excluding any non-recoverable third-party costs already committed on your behalf.

If we cancel or substantially alter a trip because of a situation on the ground - safety concerns, political instability, natural disaster, or other conditions outside our control - see Section 8. This is precisely the circumstance trip cancellation insurance is designed for, and Ecotone Journeys does not guarantee a refund in these situations. Ecotone Journeys is not responsible for cancellation penalties on independently booked flights or services.

6Health, Fitness & Trip Suitability

Trip pace & physical activity level

Our trips typically involve early starts - often a pre-breakfast outing or an early departure to reach distant sites - and periods of walking that can run from a couple of hours up to five or six hours across a day, sometimes over uneven, muddy, or steep terrain. Birding and wildlife-watching is generally unhurried and paced around what we're finding, with rest breaks as needed, but reaching good habitat can require sustained walking or standing. Specific pace and terrain details for a given trip are outlined in that trip's General Information sheet; please review them and contact us with any questions about whether a particular itinerary is a good fit for you.

Our journeys often involve early starts, extended time on foot over uneven or remote terrain, variable weather, and long travel days between sites. You are responsible for assessing your own fitness for a given itinerary before registering, and for disclosing - in writing, at the time of booking - any medical condition, mobility limitation, or other circumstance that could affect your participation or require accommodation.

We may ask for written confirmation from a physician that you're fit to travel. If a trip leader determines, in good faith, that your continued participation poses a risk to your health or the group's safety or schedule, we may require you to sit out specific activities or withdraw from the remainder of the trip. Costs associated with early departure, alternative lodging, or medical care in that situation are your responsibility, and are not refunded by Ecotone Journeys.

7Travel Health and Illness

We ask travelers to avoid unnecessary exposure risk in the two weeks before departure and to notify us promptly if you develop symptoms of a communicable illness before or during a trip. A trip leader may ask a symptomatic traveler to mask, rest apart from the group, or, in rare cases, isolate for a period before rejoining activities. We follow current guidance from public health authorities for the trip's destination(s), and these on-tour protocols may be updated on short notice.

Costs tied to isolating, rebooking travel, or seeking care because of illness are the traveler's responsibility. We do not prorate or refund the trip cost for days missed due to illness.

The guidance we follow

In setting our health and safety protocols, Ecotone Journeys follows published guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Recommendations from these agencies may change, including on short notice, and we update our own protocols accordingly.

Not medical advice

Ecotone Journeys and its leaders are not medical professionals. Anything we share about health, vaccinations, illness prevention, or destination-specific risks - whether in writing, verbally, or on tour - reflects our own general understanding and is offered as a courtesy, not as medical advice. It is not a substitute for consulting a physician, travel medicine clinic, or other qualified healthcare provider, and Ecotone Journeys is not responsible for decisions made in reliance on it. Please consult your own doctor for guidance specific to your health and your itinerary.

Smoking

Smoking is not permitted indoors, in tour vehicles, or in proximity to the group. If you smoke, please do so away from other participants and be mindful of local regulations at each destination.

8Assumption of Risk & Limitation of Liability

Travel to remote or natural areas carries inherent risks, including but not limited to wildlife encounters, difficult terrain, water crossings, weather events, and limited access to emergency medical care. By registering, you acknowledge these risks and voluntarily assume them as a condition of participation.

Ecotone Journeys acts as an agent in arranging transportation, lodging, guiding services, and other components of your trip provided by independent third parties. We are not liable for the acts, omissions, delays, or negligence of airlines, coach operators, lodges, local guides, or other suppliers, nor for losses, injuries, or expenses arising from strikes, weather, illness, political unrest, war, pandemic, or other causes outside our reasonable control. We reserve the right to substitute comparable lodging or adjust an itinerary where necessary, and to decline to accept or to remove any participant whose conduct we determine, in good faith, is incompatible with the safety or enjoyment of the group.

Force majeure: if Ecotone Journeys cancels or substantially alters a trip because of events beyond our reasonable control - natural disaster, civil unrest, government action, political instability, pandemic, or a similar situation on the ground - we will work with affected travelers on rebooking where feasible, but Ecotone Journeys is not obligated to issue a refund of any amount paid, including for costs already committed to vendors on your behalf. This is exactly the circumstance trip cancellation insurance exists to cover, and we strongly urge every traveler to carry a policy that includes it (see Section 9).

For more information, see our Liability Waiver.

9Travel Insurance

We strongly recommend purchasing trip cancellation and travel medical insurance, including coverage for medical evacuation, at the time you register. As noted in Section 5 and Section 8, if Ecotone Journeys must cancel or substantially alter a trip because of a situation on the ground - safety, political instability, natural disaster, pandemic, or similar - we do not guarantee a refund, and your trip cancellation insurance is the intended source of reimbursement in that scenario. Ecotone Journeys does not sell or administer insurance and cannot reimburse losses that an appropriate policy would otherwise cover. If you decline insurance, you accept personal financial responsibility for losses arising from trip interruption, cancellation, illness, injury, or evacuation.

For more on what to look for and why timing matters, see our article Travel Insurance for Birders and Nature Travelers: Why the Timing of Your Purchase Matters as Much as the Policy.

10What's Included

Unless your trip-specific materials state otherwise, your trip cost covers accommodations, ground transportation described in the itinerary, park and reserve entrance fees, meals as specified, and the services of your Ecotone Journeys trip leader(s) and local guides. Most major tips are included in your trip cost, guided by local customs - this typically covers your regional and local guides, drivers, and meals, among others. Gratuities for your Ecotone Journeys trip leader(s) are not included and are entirely at your discretion; many travelers choose to tip at the end of the trip, either individually or as a group.

What's not included

• International airfare
• Domestic airfare - this can sometimes be included depending on our in-country partners for a given trip; check your trip-specific materials
• Passport and visa fees
• Departure taxes
• Immunizations
• Travel insurance
• Laundry
• Additional food or beverages outside of set meal times, or beyond what's covered at a given meal (for example, dessert or extra drinks)
• Excursions or activities you choose to do outside the set itinerary

11Privacy & Use of Your Information

We collect the information you provide at registration - including contact details, emergency contact information, dietary needs, and any health information you choose to share - to plan and operate your trip, communicate with you before and during travel, and process payment. We share only what is necessary with the specific vendors, lodges, and local operators involved in delivering your itinerary, and with your travel insurer if you ask us to coordinate a claim.

We don't sell your personal information. We may use your contact details to send you information about future Ecotone Journeys trips; you can opt out of marketing communications at any time without affecting your trip booking. Photographs taken by Ecotone Journeys staff or leaders during a trip may be used in our marketing materials unless you notify us in writing that you'd prefer not to be included.

You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it, by contacting us at the address below, subject to records we're required to retain for legal, tax, or safety purposes.

12Governing Law & Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the state in which Ecotone Journeys is registered to do business, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising from your booking or trip will first be addressed through good-faith direct negotiation between you and Ecotone Journeys before either party pursues formal proceedings.

13Questions

For questions about these terms, an existing reservation, or a specific itinerary, contact your trip coordinator directly, or reach our office at info@ecotonejourneys.com.