These Booking Conditions will form the basis of your agreement with PTG Tours Limited. They apply only to holiday arrangements which you book with us in the UK and which we agree to make, provide or perform as applicable as part of our agreement with you. References in these Booking Conditions to “arrangements” mean such holiday arrangements. Changes to these Booking Conditions will only be valid if agreed by one of our directors in writing. 

1.         Booking and Confirmation
To make a booking, you must send us a completed and signed booking form along with the payments referred to in clause 2 below.  The first named person on the booking will be the party leader and will be responsible for making all payments due to us. He/she must be at least 18, and be authorised to make the booking on the basis of these Booking Conditions by all persons on the booking.  By signing the booking form, the party leader confirms that he/she is so authorised and that all party members agree to be bound by these Booking Conditions.  After we receive your booking form and all appropriate payments, if the arrangements you wish to book are available, we will issue a confirmation invoice.  A binding agreement will come into existence between us when we despatch this invoice to the party leader.  Contact us immediately if any information which appears on the confirmation or any other document appears to be incorrect or incomplete as it may not be possible to make changes later. 

English Law alone will apply to our agreement and to any dispute or claim which arises between us out of it. Any such dispute or claim must only be dealt by the Courts of England and Wales.

2.         Payment
In order to confirm your chosen arrangements, you must pay a deposit per person (or full payment if booking within 8 weeks of departure) as below:

            All holidays not listed below:            £300

            El Transcantabrico: £800

            Non EU holidays: £800 

The balance of the cost of your arrangements (including any surcharge where applicable) is due not less than 42 days prior to departure. If we do not receive this balance in full and on time, we reserve the right to treat your booking as cancelled by you in which case the cancellation charges set out in clause 4 below will become payable.

Credit card bookings are subject to a 1.5% surcharge and debit card bookings to a 1% surcharge.

For flight inclusive bookings, all monies that you pay to one of our authorised travel agents for your arrangements with us will be held by that agent on our behalf until they are paid to us or refunded to you.

3.         The price of your arrangements
The prices shown in our brochure and on our website were calculated on the basis of then known costs and exchange rates of £1 to (1.20 euros to the £, 1.70 USD to the £) as shown in the Financial Times Guide to World Currencies.

We reserve the right to amend the advertised prices of arrangements at any time.  We also reserve the right to correct errors in both advertised and confirmed prices. Special note: changes and errors sometimes occur.  You must check the price of your chosen arrangements at the time of booking.

Once the actual price of your arrangements has been confirmed, no amendment will be made to it unless it is to make a correction to an error, or if our costs change as a result of an increase or decrease in transportation costs or dues, taxes or fees payable for services such as embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports or airports and any other airline cost changes which are part of our contracts with airlines (and their agents) or as a result of any changes in the exchange rates which have been used to calculate the cost of your arrangements.   Only if the amount of the increase in our costs exceeds 2% of the total cost of your arrangements (excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges), will we make an additional charge.  If any additional charge is greater than 10% of the cost of your arrangements (excluding insurance premiums and any amendment charges), you will be entitled to choose one of options (a), (b) and (c) as set out in clause 6 below.   If you do not inform us of your choice within 14 days from the issue date printed on our additional charge invoice, we are entitled to assume that you will pay the additional charge.

Any additional charge must be paid with the balance of the cost of the arrangements or within 14 days of the issue date printed on the additional charge invoice, whichever is the later.  We will not to levy an additional charge nor make a refund within 30 days of departure.

4.         Changes and Cancellation by you
If you need to make any changes to your confirmed arrangements, you must request the change in writing as soon as possible.  Whilst we will try to assist, we cannot guarantee that such requests will be met.  Where we can meet them, an amendment fee of £30 per person/per booking may be payable along with any costs incurred by ourselves and any costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers.

If you or a member of your party needs to cancel your confirmed arrangements, the party leader must immediately advise us in writing.  Your notice of cancellation will take effect when it is received at our offices.  As we incur costs from the time we confirm your booking, we will levy the following cancellation charges.  The percentage cancellation charge detailed is calculated on the basis of the total cost payable by the person(s) cancelling excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges.  Insurance premiums and amendment charges are not refundable in the event of the person(s) to whom they apply cancelling. 

Period before departure within which written                                Cancellation charge per

notification of cancellation is received by us                                   person cancelling

42 days or more                                                                                  deposit

29 – 41 days                                                                                        50%

15 – 28 days                                                                                        60%

5 – 14 days                                                                                          90%

Less than 5 days (or after)                                                                 100%

You may be able to reclaim these charges (less any applicable excess) under the terms of your insurance policy. 

If any member of your party is prevented from travelling, that person(s) may transfer their place to someone else (introduced by you) providing we are notified not less than 14 days before departure and you pay an amendment fee of £50 and meet all costs and charges incurred by us and/or incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers. 

5.         Insurance

We consider adequate travel insurance to be essential. Please read your policy and take it with you on holiday.  It is your responsibility to ensure that the insurance cover you purchase is suitable and adequate for your particular needs. 

6.         Changes and cancellation by us

Because we begin planning the arrangements we offer many months in advance, we must reserve the right to make changes to and correct errors in holiday details both before and after bookings have been confirmed. We must also reserve the right to cancel confirmed bookings. However, we promise we will only cancel your confirmed booking 42 days or less before departure where you have failed to make full payment on time or as a result of circumstances outside our control/“force majeure” as defined in clause 7 below.

Most changes are minor but occasionally, we may have to make a “significant change”. Examples of “significant changes” include the following when made before departure; a change of accommodation area for the whole or a major part of your holiday, a change of accommodation to that of a lower official classification for the whole or a major part of  your holiday, a change of UK departure point to one which is more inconvenient for you, a change of outward departure time or overall length of  your holiday of twelve or more hours and, in the case of tours, a significant change of itinerary missing out one or more major destination substantially or altogether. 

If we have to make a significant change (not including route changes) or cancel, we will tell you as soon as possible and if there is time to do so before departure, we will offer you the choice of the following options:-

(a)       (for significant changes) accepting the changed arrangements or

(b)       purchasing alternative arrangements from us, of a similar standard to those originally booked if available (if the chosen alternative is less expensive than your original one, we will refund the difference but if it is more expensive, we will ask you to pay the difference) or

(c)       cancelling or accepting the cancellation in which case you will receive a full and quick refund of all monies you have paid to us.

Any offer must be accepted within 7 days otherwise we will presume that you are happy with the alternative itinerary and the offer will expire.

If we have to make a significant change (not including route changes) or cancel 8 weeks or less before departure, subject to the exceptions below, we will pay you the following compensation:

Period before departure a significant change                                              Compensation per person

or cancellation is notified to you                                                       (excluding infants)

28 days or more                                                                                  none

15 – 27 days                                                                                        £30

5 – 14 days                                                                                          £40

Less than 5 days (or after)                                                                 £50

We will not pay you compensation where we make a significant change or cancel more than 4 weeks before departure or in the event that we are forced to make a change or cancel as a result of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which we could not have avoided even with all due care.

We will not pay you compensation and the above options will not be available if we make a minor change, route change, change of advertised rail traction, or cancel as a result of your failure to make full payment on time. 

We regret we cannot pay any expenses, costs or losses incurred by you as a result of any change or cancellation. 

Very rarely, we may be forced by "force majeure" (see clause 7) to change or terminate your arrangements after departure. If this situation does occur, we regret we will be unable to make any refunds (unless we obtain any from our suppliers), pay you compensation or meet any costs or expenses you incur as a result.

7.         Force Majeure

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 war or threat of war, riot, civil strife, actual or threatened terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, 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 agreement with you is prevented or affected by, or you otherwise suffer any damage or loss (as more fully described in clause 8(1) below) as a result of force majeure. 

8.         Our Liability to you

(1) We promise that your holiday arrangements will be made, performed or provided with reasonable skill and care.  This means that we will accept responsibility if, for example, you suffer death or personal injury or your contracted arrangements are not provided as promised or prove deficient and that is the result of the failure of ourselves, our employees, agents or suppliers to use reasonable skill and care in making, performing or providing  your arrangements. Further, we will only be  responsible for what our employees, agents and suppliers do or do not do if they were at the time acting within the course of their employment or carrying out work we had asked them to do. It is your responsibility to show that reasonable skill and care has not been used if you wish to make a claim against us. 

(2) We will not be responsible for any injury, illness, death, loss, damage, expense, cost or other claim of any description whatsoever which results from: -

‑ the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected or any member(s) of their party or

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

‑ 'force majeure' as defined in clause 7 above.

(3) We limit the maximum amount we may have to pay you for any claims you may make against us. 

The maximum amount we will have to pay you where we are found liable for loss of and/or damage to any luggage or personal possessions (including money) is £250 per person affected unless a lower limitation applies to your claim under this clause or clause 8(4) below.  

For all other claims which do not involve death or personal injury, the maximum amount we will have to pay you if we are found liable to you on any basis is twice the price (excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges) paid by or on behalf of the person(s) affected in total unless a lower limitation applies to your claim under clause 8(4) below.  This maximum amount will only be payable where everything has gone wron