Safety & COVID precautions

During this period of coronavirus and appreciating that people want maximum flexibility and security with their money, we are keen to do our best to enable people to book with confidence. We do of course advocate getting insurance cover as soon as possible after booking (and all travel insurers are offering 'covid terms'), but in the event of a cancellation due to covid-19 then we will offer to either postpone the trip or pay a refund.

We want to reassure clients that any money which is paid to the company for a trip is kept in a client account and not touched until the trip is due to depart.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The following booking conditions form the basis of your contract with Steppe Journeys LLC ("we", "us" and "our"). Please read them carefully as they set out our respective rights and obligations. By asking us to confirm your booking, we are entitled to assume that you have had the opportunity to read and have read these booking conditions and agree to them.

These booking conditions only apply to the trip arrangements which you book with us in Uzbekistan and which we agree to make, provide or perform (as applicable) as part of our contract with you. All references in these booking conditions to "trip", "booking", "contract" or "arrangements" mean such trip arrangements unless otherwise stated. References to "departure" mean the start date of these arrangements.

Booking your trip and payment details

1. To make a booking please follow the procedure shown on our website or ask for an offline application form. Where we have already confirmed the availability of your chosen arrangements and you book within any applicable time limit for doing so, your booking will be treated as firm and a contract between us will come into existence as soon as we receive your completed application form and your deposit. We will then send you a receipt for all payments made and our invoice. Where we have not confirmed availability, your booking will be treated as firm and a contract between us will come into existence when we despatch our invoice to you. Where you book through our website without prior confirmation of availability, any electronic acknowledgement of your booking is not a confirmation of it. Please check your invoice carefully as soon as you receive it. Contact us immediately if any information which appears on the invoice or any other document appears to be incorrect or incomplete.

2. A minimum deposit of 40% per person must accompany the booking. We also offer and encourage an installment plan with 40% of the trip payment made by a minimum of 6 months prior to departure. In any case the full balance must be received by us by 8 weeks prior to departure. Bookings made within 8 weeks require immediate full payment.

If, for any reason, the balance (including any surcharge where applicable) is not received by the due date, we reserve the right to treat the booking as cancelled by you. If we do not cancel straight away because you have promised to make payment, you must pay the cancellation charges shown in paragraph 7 depending on the date we reasonably treat your booking as cancelled.

3. The price quoted for any trip covers the cost of the planning, the organization and carrying out of the trip, including group equipment, supplies, accommodation, administration and staff, except for the following, for which the you must be responsible: vaccination fees, travel insurance, cost of travel to and from the start / return point of your trip including your international flights, cost of passport and visas, personal equipment and personal expenses while on the trip and any other expenses specifically excluded on the trip description and/or invoice.

We reserve the right to make changes to and correct errors in quoted prices at any time before your trip 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.

Once the price of your chosen trip has been confirmed at the time of booking, then subject to the correction of errors, we will only increase or decrease the price in the event of any change in our transportation costs or in dues, taxes or fees or in the exchange rates which have been used to calculate the cost of your trip.

4. Travel insurance: It is essential that you arrange your travel insurance before taking the trip in your home country, please contact insurance companies. Note that the majority of our trips do not require the use of climbing ropes and are all supervised. It is important to have adequate insurance which will cover cancellation costs from the date of booking as well as medical expenses (including evacuation and repatriation).

5. Health: Except as disclosed in your medical questionnaire, you are taken to confirm at the time of booking that you are in good health, physically capable of undertaking all aspects of the trip, and unaware of any reason why you may be unsuited to taking part or may be likely to suffer illness or injury during the trip, taking into account its challenges and purposes. If you are unable to give for this confirmation for any reason or have any medical condition or disability which may affect your trip, you must contact us before you submit your application form so that we can assist you in considering the suitability of the trip for you.

Cancellations and changes 

7. Cancellation of bookings must be notified to us by letter or email by the party leader as soon as possible. Your notice of cancellation will only be effective when it is received in writing by us. Except as set out in paragraph 8 below, the following cancellation charges will be payable.

Period before departure within which written

notification of cancellation is received by us

       Cancellation charge per person cancelling (% of total cost)

12 weeks or more

12 - 6 weeks

$150.00

      25%

6 to 2 weeks

       50%

2 weeks to date of departure or later

      100%

 

7. Depending on the reason for cancellation, you may be able to reclaim these cancellation charges (less any applicable excess) under the terms of your insurance policy. Claims must be made directly to the insurance company concerned. Where a part cancellation of a booking affects the basis on which the price was calculated, we will recalculate and re-invoice you accordingly.

8. You may transfer your place to someone else (introduced by you) if you are prevented from travelling, providing we are notified not less than 2 weeks before departure and subject to practicality of changing certain bookings made in your name. All costs and charges incurred by us and/or incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers as a result must be paid before the transfer can be effected. Any overdue balance payment must also be received.

9. Changes to your confirmed trip can be considered depending on practicalities and availabilities, but there might be a cost associated with these changes. We do not charge an amendment fee for doing so and will only pass on any extra costs involved in providing additional or alternative services which are incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers. A change of holiday dates will normally be treated as a cancellation of the original booking and rebooking in which case cancellation charges will apply. Changes may result in the recalculation of the holiday price where, for example, the basis on which the price of the original holiday was calculated has changed.

10. The itinerary is a guide to which we will attempt to adhere, but it may be necessary to alter this at short notice as a result of circumstances or events outside our control such as adverse weather or road conditions or any of those amounting to force majeure (see paragraph 13), or due to the operating conditions imposed by owners and operators of accommodation, facilities and transport. Your itinerary will, however, be the same in content as far as is reasonably possible, unless circumstances beyond our control make this impossible. Should weather conditions involve you in extra costs such as accommodation, transportation and meals, these will be borne by mutual agreement between us.

11. Changes and cancellation by us: As referred to above, we may have to make changes to and correct errors in advertised and confirmed details and also cancel confirmed bookings which we must reserve the right to do. Please note, our trips may require a minimum number of participants to enable us to operate them. If the minimum number of bookings required for a particular trip has not been received, we are entitled to cancel it. We will notify you of cancellation for this reason no less than 28 days prior to departure.

 Most changes are minor. Occasionally, we have to make a "significant change". A significant change is a change made before departure which we can reasonably be expected to have a major effect on your trip. 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:-

1. (for significant changes) accepting the changed arrangements; or

2. purchasing an alternative trip from us, of a similar standard to that originally booked if available. We will offer you at least one alternative trip of equivalent or higher standard for which you will not be asked to pay any more than the price of the original trip. If this trip is in fact cheaper than the original one, we will refund the price difference. If you do not wish to accept the trip we specifically offer you, you may choose any of our other then available trips but you must pay the applicable price of any such trip. This will mean you paying more if it is more expensive or receiving a refund if it is cheaper;

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

If we have to make a significant change or cancel we will, where appropriate, pay you the reasonable compensation depending on the circumstances and when the significant change or cancellation is notified to you subject to the following exceptions. Compensation will not be payable and no liability beyond offering the above mentioned choices can be accepted where:

1. we are forced to make a change or cancel as a result of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control such as force majeure, the consequences of which we could not have avoided even with all due care; or

2. where applicable, we have to cancel because the minimum number of bookings necessary for us to operate your trip has not been reached (see above).

No compensation will be payable and the above options will not be available if we cancel as a result of your failure to comply with any requirement of these booking conditions entitling us to cancel (such as paying on time) or where a change is a minor one.

Very rarely, we may be forced by "force majeure" (see paragraph 13) to change or terminate your trip after departure but before the scheduled end of your time away. If this situation does occur, we regret we will be unable to make any refunds (unless we obtain any refunds from our suppliers), pay you any compensation or meet any costs or expenses you incur as a result.

12. In these booking conditions, "force majeure" means any event which we or the supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Such events may include, whether actual or threatened, war, riot, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, significant risks to human health such as the outbreak of serious disease at the travel destination, adverse weather conditions, fire and all similar events outside our control. Except where otherwise expressly stated in these booking conditions, we regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation where the performance or prompt performance of our obligations under our contract with you is prevented or affected by or you otherwise suffer any damage, loss or expense of any nature as a result of "force majeure".

 

13. Our Liability to you

We promise to make sure that the trip arrangements we have agreed to make, perform or provide as applicable as part of our contract with you are made, performed or provided with reasonable skill and care. This means that, subject to these booking conditions, we will accept responsibility if, for example, you suffer death or personal injury or your contracted trip arrangements are not provided as promised or prove deficient as a result of the failure of ourselves, our employees, agents or suppliers to use reasonable skill and care in making, performing or providing, as applicable, your contracted trip arrangements.

We will not be responsible for any injury, illness, death, loss (including loss of possessions and loss of enjoyment), damage, expense, cost or other sum or claim of any description whatsoever which results from any of the following:

• your act(s) and/or omission(s); or

• the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party not connected with the provision of your trip and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable; or

• 'force majeure' as defined in paragraph

We cannot accept responsibility for any services which do not form part of our contract. This includes, for example, any additional services which any supplier (including any of the regional Steppe Journeys companies) agrees to provide or arrange for you where we have not agreed to provide or arrange these services as part of our contract. Such additional services will include any activities which do not form part of your contracted trip arrangements which a supplier agrees to provide or arrange for you while you are away.

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 including self employed loss of earnings.

 

Delays, behavior, damage and complaints

14. Delay: We regret we are not in a position to offer you any assistance in the event of delay at your outward or homeward point of departure. Depending on the circumstances, if you are flying with an EU carrier, the airline may be required to pay you compensation and/or refund the cost of your flight and/or provide you with accommodation and/or refreshments in the event of a significant delay or cancellation. However, we have no liability to make any such payments to you and you must pursue the airline or other transport operator concerned for any payment which may be due. Please remember that it is your responsibility to ensure you arrive at the departure location for your chosen tour, all costs associated with this are therefore your sole responsibility. This is even the case where we assist you in making any necessary additional arrangements where, for example, your flights were delayed and you missed your pre-booked transfer with us.

15. Conditions of suppliers: Suppliers, including transport operators, provide their services in accordance with their own terms and conditions. These terms may limit or exclude their liability to you in the event of death, personal injury, delay or loss / damage of personal possessions.

16. Decisions of Steppe Journeys, behavior and damage: While the trip is in progress, all decisions are made by Steppe Journeys staff or staff employed by our regional companies and you must act in accordance with all reasonable instructions you are given. The team leader, trip guide or other member of our staff or staff employed by our regional companies may withdraw you from the trip at any time if they are of the reasonable opinion that your continued presence is prejudicing or is likely to prejudice the good order, discipline, safety or successful operation of the trip or the safety or wellbeing of any individual participant(s) or other third party or if you break any law or regulation of any country where the trip takes place.

 You accept responsibility for any damage or loss caused by you. Full payment for any such damage or loss (reasonably estimated if not precisely known) must be made direct to the accommodation owner or manager or other supplier or to us as soon as possible. If the actual cost of the loss or damage exceeds the amount paid where estimated, you must pay the difference once known. If the actual cost is less than the amount paid, the difference will be refunded. You will also be responsible for meeting any claims subsequently made against us and all costs incurred by us (including our own and the other party’s full legal costs) as a result of your actions. You should ensure you have appropriate travel insurance to protect you if this situation arises.

 

17. Our website: The information contained in our website and in our other advertising material is believed correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. However, errors may occasionally occur and information may subsequently change. You must therefore ensure you check all details of your chosen trip (including the price) with us at the time of booking.

Claims: In the unlikely event of Insolvency, you must Steppe Journeys immediately on +98909981723 or by email at tashkent@steppejourneys.com .Please ensure you retain the booking confirmation form as evidence of cover and value. Policy exclusions: This policy will not cover any monies paid for Travel Insurance