TERMS AND CONDITIONS EFFECTIVE 10/01/05 SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE!
Culinary Expeditions Tour Company is a booking agent , making arrangements with local tour guides, tour companies, event planners, restaurants, carriers, hotels, planes, aircraft, trains, ships, ferries, buses, cable cars, private cars services, limousine services, taxis, boats, water taxis and any and all modes of transportation; as well as all types of hotel arrangements. Culinary Expeditions Tour Company is not an operator of any vehicle or any of the other modes of transportation. Culinary Expeditions contracts all travel arrangements out to the most qualified and insured operators. Without exception, Culinary Expeditions will not or ever operate a type of transportation needed to accommodate the needs of our passengers. All modes of transport are licensed outside of our company and is bound by local laws, insurance requirements, license requirements and most of all, integrity in the industry. Culinary Expeditions Tour Company, herein called CETC, acts only as an agent for any transportation carrier, hotel, ground, rail or tour and other operators.
Included in your tour price: All accommodations, meals (except free style tours), group transportation, group excursions, activities, classes and other activities described in the brochure or individual trip data. It also includes your tour escorts or concierge on each trip. All gratuities to hotel, restaurants, tour guides, chefs, support staff and drivers are included. We also do offer bottled water on all excursions as well as beverage service during meals and during our night cap events. All travelers will receive an amenity package for each trip they take. Tours with international destinations include airfare from several points in the United States, including New York, Seattle, Los Angles and Atlanta, call for details on other airports. Free Style Tours only include breakfast as inclusive meals and optional included meals are listed in each itinerary.
Not Included: Airfare or transportation from your home to our "hub" airports, or departure ports. Ground transportation from your home or to your home. Personal expenses that you may incur during your trip, ie: laundry, in room services, phone charges, bar and lounge charges, in room bar charges, room service and other in room or extra charges. Liquor, Beer, Wine or other beverages unless during meal times or on an excursion. Medical expenses and related expenses, such as medicines or corrective lenses.
Special note on inclusion & exclusions: All of our tours are fully escorted and have open options, or itineraries have options to make you own plans. Should you have our concierge make plans other then the plans included and listed within each package, the cost associated with these plans are those of the participants and are not included in the package price. Any planned or included excursions, meals, trips or gatherings you elect not to participate in are not refundable nor can we offer you credit on another option you have selected on your own. Any and all excursions, meals, events or trips you take outside of the planned itinerary is at your cost. There is no charge for the services of our traveling concierge or escorts.
Children and young adults: Our tours are designed for the adult traveler. Although our itineraries are educational and you will experience much of what the region has to offer, we feel this tour is best appreciated by adults. The term adults is defined in many variations, our intent to offer our advise on who should participate in this tour. We do not accept children under the age of 12. Young adults from 12 years to 18 are considered case by case. We do not offer child care nor do we endorse, list and / or recommend any agencies for this service, therefore Culinary Expeditions Tour Company, discourages minors or young adults from participating in our tours. The legal age of adulthood varies by the country we are traveling in. For this purpose we consider all individuals of at least 18 years of age, as an adult. Our venues often include restaurants or venues that serve alcoholic beverages, if you are of legal age in the country we are traveling, you will be allowed on the premises, if we are in a country that only allows you entry if your are 21 years of age or older, you will not be able to attend such events, such as wine tasting or other restricted events. Culinary Expeditions and all carriers require positive identification for it's passengers. Beware, local laws and ordinances supersedes any statements list in this category. Participants of all ages pay the same tariff for any and all tours.
Reserving your tour: We require a booking fee of $100.00 per person on the weekend /or 5/6 day tours, all other tours require a $300.00 booking fee at time of reservation. We will hold your booking for 7 days from the time you place your request, this will allow time for your check to arrive at our office. This booking fee is refundable if you cancel your journey within 14 days of booking, from day 15 on, the fee is considered non refundable. Although the fee reduces your trips final cost it is not a deposit. See payment requirements. If you make this payment within the cancellation or within 30 days of the scheduled tour, the fee is not required, due to the fact the entire cost is due at time of reservation. The payment is not refundable in whole or part if booked within 30 days of departure.
Payment and Cancellation Policy: All tours require a booking fee be paid by the participant as explained above, and the fee is refundable up to 14 days from the date of the original reservation, except late bookings. Final payments are due per the following schedule:
Short Breaks or Trips 6 days or less 60 days prior to departure
7 day or longer (North Americas) 60 days prior to departure
International (Europe / Asia) 90 days prior to departure
Booking fees are made payable to Culinary Expeditions Tour Company or CETC for short and payable by US funds. All other payments and final payments are Payable to Culinary Expeditions Tour Company Client Trust Account c/o Washington Mutual Bank , all payments and final payments must be in US funds payable to our client trust account! You are welcome to make partial payments up till the final payment date, however any bookings made within the 60 / 90 windows before departure are due an payable in full at time of booking or bookings are not considered confirmed. If you make a last minute booking within 30 days of departure all funds are non refundable. Culinary Expeditions Tour Company reserves the right to cancel any and all reservations that remain unpaid after the final payment dates have expired.
Cancellation by Vendor or Culinary Expeditions Tour Company: Mentioned elsewhere in our policies, we grant a full refund of all monies including booking fees, if our supplier or we cancel a trip. You have the option to accept an alternative venue or trip. You monies will be refunded within 10 business days of the cancellation. At no time will our company hold funds beyond 10 business days. All refunds as our final documents are mail requiring a signature via DHL. This is not meant to supersede our policy or right to change itineraries. We have to right and will exercise last minute changes due to circumstance that may arise. No refunds or credits are issued for itinerary changes.
Refunds and Insurance: As stated above, there are no refunds on the booking fee after 15 days of booking, nor any refunds within 30 days of departure. There are a couple of other refund policies for you to consider:
If you cancel your journeys 31 days prior to departure you are entitled to a 50% refund of full ticket price. If payment has been made.
If you cancel your journey prior to the final payment date: your are granted 100% refund less the booking fee.
Booking fee would be refundable in the above situation if booked, paid and canceled within 14 days, but outside of the cancellation periods.
You will be offered the opportunity to purchase travel insurance for all trips, it is the opinion of this tour company that all trips, organized, or not, cruise or not, land and air or just land only. It is imperative that you insure you vacation or short break. Culinary Expeditions Tour Company, herein known as CETC is not responsible for any loss you or your traveling companion may incur. See legal responsibility. You will be required to sign an insurance waiver should you not accept the added expense of the insurance coverage. See the insurance documents for limits and exclusions. Culinary Expeditions Tour Company, herein known as CETC in no way describes the insurance inclusions or exclusions. You have shopped carefully to find a reputable tour company, and you should enjoy this journey with little or no stress, so insure it. There are no partial refunds to participants, even if we have not left the local area. If you elect to drop from the tour, the tour is considered sold and there are no partial refunds.
Travel Documents: All travel documents are shipped via our courier service or in person, you will receive your documents once final payment has reached our office. It is important to remember time frames when booking, your documents can be shipped overnight, in the case of a late booking within 30 days, there is a $25 rush document fee. Your travel documents supplied by us including your itinerary and other fun and interesting things, will not include the needed legal paper work that our US government or any other countries may need. It is the travelers responsibility to obtain needed visas, passports, birth certificates and any and all other documents needed to enter the countries we are visiting. Our destinations do not require visas for US citizens, however the laws are currently changing and the US is implementing new rules and requirements on its own citizens as well.
Pricing: Pricing is per person based on double occupancy, we offer limited singles at minimal surcharges. Special tours will offer single exclusive pricing in the near future. We feel our tours are priced accordingly, however; there could be an occasion that the published fares would change. Our print material will not reflect this and we recommend you check our web site on current pricing and price changes. We reserve the right to adjust all and any of our prices. The current fuel surcharges are also subject to being passed on the end user. As a result of possible fuel surcharges or late booking charges you will be billed separately for these additional charges. Our print material is published one year prior to release and prices may not be current. We update our web site daily and do not anticipate a delay in updated pricing and schedules.
Schedules and Tours: We will make every attempt to keep our schedules as advertised, we reserve the right to change any schedule and offer alternative dates to our participants. We feel there is limited exposure to this happening, but reserve the right to change. We also reserve the right to cancel any scheduled tour for lack of interest. You will receive a full refund or credit towards another tour should you decide to accept an alternative tour or schedule. Our itineraries are vague in respect to the printed material on purpose. We encourage our passengers to visit our web site for current restaurants and hotels. See additional information below.
Restaurants and Hotels: Restaurants, Chefs and the food experience is what our tours are all about (culinary tours); for a planner this is a difficult task, so we take time in designing our menu's with the Chefs and Restaurant Operators, this can cause unforeseen difficulties and warrant change with our planned host. Therefore we do not list the Hotels or Restaurants in our printed material. Our web site is updated as changes and improvements in our locations, menus, Chef choices and of course the location of the host Hotel or Restaurant. At NO TIME WILL YOUR EXPERIENCE BE LESS THEN EXPECTED. We are in the same industry and are either Chefs ourselves or have and still operate restaurants and hotels. Unexpected changes will not occur on the tour, only in the final days before departure, main reasons my include, weather patterns or changes, illness, more then expected book the tour or less then expected book and we need a different venue. The meals, wines and other points of importance will be carefully selected in advance to ensure this will be a culinary experience you will not soon forget. It is agreed by all the participants once we begin our tour, the itinerary is subject to change and if we make a change on tour, a very rare occurrence , will not constitute a refund or credit of any kind. There are many acts of God, planned or unplanned war, illness, terrorism and situations unforeseen that may cause a sudden change in our itinerary. We will make every attempt to avoid any disruption in our planned journeys.
Dietary Restrictions: This is a culinary tour, all operations are ran by outside entities, Restaurants, Hotels, Caterers and all means of suppliers available to our company, we offer a planned culinary tour, cooking classes, chef lectures and most of all regional cuisine. We are unable to meet special dietary needs on these tours. We are a exploratory tour operation, which we have given the host restaurant, hotel, caterer an open menu to create what they create best. We will be preparing foods in the cooking class with the guidance and assistance of the host chef or restaurant or hotel. We feel if you have food allergies or food born illnesses or a severe dislike for certain foods, this is not the tour for you.WE ARE UNABLE TO ALTER THE MENU FOR SPECIAL NEEDS. THIS IS A CULINARY TOUR, BASED ON LEARNING DIFFERENT FOODS, PREPARED NOT ONLY BY OUR HOST CHEFS, BUT ALSO BY THE GUESTS, IN AN INTERACTIVE ARENA.
Legal Information: Sending the reservation fee to CETC or Culinary Expeditions Tour Company grants & constitutes consent of the travel to the terms and conditions explained in our print material and on our web site. Our tours begin on your departure flights arranged by us, or your first night at the hotel if you did not travel with the group. Tour end date, is that of the last airplane you board. Should you be arriving independent of group travel or rail or other group mode of transportation, then your tour begins on the first evening at the hotel, and ends at check out of our host hotel on the last morning. We, herein known as CETC or Culinary Expeditions Tour Company, has the right to remove any passenger or traveler without notice, or for failure to follow our guidelines and safety along the route, we will remove any disruptive passenger without notice. A removed passenger is not an agreement of a refund or credit. All funds paid CETC will be forfeited and is not considered refundable. We reserve to right to refuse acceptance of any passenger at our sole discretion without notice or cause.
Culinary Expeditions Tour Company can not be held responsible for acts beyond its control, ie: acts of God or Nature, Acts of War, Planned or Unplanned attacks on us whether on US soil or foreign soil. We are not responsible for damages or losses including loss of income from persons or entities not controlled by CETC, such as Airlines, Rail, Bus, Auto, Ships, Boats, Ferries, Charters, Restaurants, Chefs, Caterers or any provider as well as Hotels. In the event of any claims, disputes arising from our relationship or caused by the tours; all parties consent to having their grievances heard in the jurisdictions and venues of the courts in Seattle Washington, King County, United States of America.
Washington Seller of Travel 602-449-861 CST:#2081113-40 E&O / Tour Operator Liability Policy #EOL-9321142-00