How to Reserve a Trip

Reserving Your Place Trip Application Download Payment Schedule Pricing Single Supplements Cancellations and Refunds Cancellation Fee Schedule Transfers Limitation of Liability Trip Members' Responsiblility

The next step to adventure is easy! Our Area Managers are here to help--from choosing the right trip and checking availability to reserving your place. After you sign up, the same Area Manager will normally be your single point of contact, overseeing all of your arrangements, including air travel and trip extensions, until you arrive home.

Choosing Your Trip

Once you've had a chance to browse our catalog, (if you don't have one yet, click here) be sure to check out our Detailed Daily Itineraries. These are available for downloading from Trip Pages, or they can be sent to you via fax, email, or mail. Our Area Managers can answer any questions you might have, and they would be happy to refer you to someone who has traveled with us before for a reference.

You may sign-up online by clicking on the "Reserve this Trip" button available on every trip page. Early reservations are recommended, since group sizes are limited and airlines often sell out their best fares many months in advance. Once you have submitted this reservation request, one of our travel consultants will contact you during our next business day to confirm your arrangements, and to charge the initial $500 per person deposit to your Visa, Mastercard, or American Express credit card. If you prefer, you can email your request to us, or download a blank Trip Application (in PDF format–30K) and send it to us by mail. For immediate confirmation, please feel free to call us at 1-800-368-2794. Out office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30AM to 5:00PM Pacific Time.

Upon receiving your deposit we will send you a confirmation letter, detailed trip itinerary, visa applications, and a pre-departure booklet with clothing and equipment lists, medical information, travel insurance applications, suggested reading list and general information needed to prepare for your trip. Your air tickets, rendezvous instructions, and final trip details will be sent about 3 weeks prior to departure.

At time of reservation.......................$500
120 days prior to departure................$500
60 days prior to departure..................Balance

*Payment schedules for cruises, private departures, and certain special events vary. These exceptions are clearly indicated in the detailed itineraries printed separately for each of these trips.

Prices are quoted in US dollars and all payments must be made in US dollars whether by check or credit card. All land payments submitted less than 15 days prior to departure must be by credit card or cashier's check. Payment for air tickets is due at the time the tickets are issued. Some special airfares may require payment by check.

In order to offer the lowest possible price, all of our tours are priced according to the number of full-price passengers on the trip. For example:
Land Cost: $2595 (13-15 members), $2895 (9-12 members)

Tier pricing is calculated on the number of full revenue passengers. Wilderness Travel staff, trip physicians, or guests of Wilderness Travel (travel writers, photographers, leaders-in-training) are not included in the tier pricing count. Prices listed on this website are subject to change since the trip dates and prices have often been published more than a year in advance. Between that time and the time of the trip's actual departure, we are occasionally faced with exceptional cost increases or currency fluctuations that we cannot absorb. We do everything we can to keep our prices the same as published. Please note that for trips in certain areas of the southern hemisphere such as Patagonia, New Zealand, and Australia, prices are seasonal. In such cases, the prices quoted on this website are for Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 only, and are so noted in the detailed itinerary. Prices for Fall 2008 would not normally be available until early 2008.

Accommodations are based on double occupancy. A single supplement is paid by participants who specifically request single accommodations, subject to availability. If you are traveling alone and wish to share accommodations, we will try to match you with a roommate. However, if a roommate is not available, the forced single supplement will be charged which is 50% of the regular single supplement unless otherwise noted in the detailed itinerary.

If it becomes necessary for you to cancel your trip, the following fees will apply computed as of the date of receipt of written cancellation notice.

Cancellation Fee Schedule*
Minimum fee.......................................$0
46-90 days prior to departure..............25% of land cost
45 days or less.................................100% of land cost

*Cancellation schedules for cruises, private departures, certain special events, trips to China/Tibet and those trips that involve multiple-day boat or train charters (for example: cruises in the Galapagos Islands) are often more strict. These exceptions are clearly indicated in the detailed itineraries printed separately for each of these trips.

Rates are based on group participation and no partial refunds will be given for unused trip arrangements for any reason whatsoever. Once you have been confirmed on a trip that requires a medical certificate signed by a doctor, normal cancellation penalties apply if your doctor does not sign the certificate. We highly recommend that all clients purchase trip cancellation insurance.

Wilderness Travel, Inc. reserves the right to cancel any trip prior to departure for any reason whatsoever, including insufficient signup or logistical problems that may impede trip operations. The refund of all land payments received shall release Wilderness Travel, Inc. from any further liability. A trip canceled due to insufficient signup would normally occur a minimum of one month prior to departure.

Wilderness Travel, Inc. must normally make substantial payments to its suppliers (hotels, transportation companies, etc.) far in advance of the scheduled embarkation date. If a trip is canceled due to force majeure (acts of God, war, labor strikes, earthquake, flooding, etc.), Wilderness Travel, Inc. will promptly refund the portion of the trip cost not already advanced to suppliers and use its best efforts to recover and refund the balance as promptly as possible. However, Wilderness Travel, Inc. does not guarantee recovery of any or all of the advance payments made, and our use of best efforts to recover these payments will not include the institution of any legal proceedings in foreign jurisdictions.

Wilderness Travel, Inc. is not responsible for expenses incurred by trip members in preparing for a canceled trip (e.g., nonrefundable advance purchase air tickets, visa fees, inoculations, equipment, etc.) or for any additional arrangements should the trip member have embarked prior to the scheduled group departure date. Once you have been confirmed on a trip that requires a medical certificate signed by a doctor, normal cancellation penalties apply if your doctor does not sign the certificate.

You may transfer to another trip without penalty by notifying us of your wish to transfer 91 days or more prior to departure. After that time you are subject to the cancellation fees outlined above. This does not apply to trips with non-refundable deposits.

These paragraphs (together with the Release of Liability section of the Application form) define our responsibility with respect to all our trips. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.

Payment of your deposit represents your acceptance of the following terms and conditions:

Wilderness Travel, Inc. gives notice that services provided in connection with its itineraries, including transportation, hotel accommodations, restaurants, and other services, are purchased from various independent suppliers who are not affiliated with Wilderness Travel, Inc. in any way. Although it endeavors to choose the best suppliers available, Wilderness Travel, Inc. has no right to control their operations and therefore makes these travel arrangements upon the express condition that Wilderness Travel, Inc., and its own agents and employees, shall not be liable for any delay, mishap, inconvenience, expense, irregularity, bodily injury or death to person, or damage to property occasioned through the conduct or default of any company or individual engaged in providing these services. Each of these passenger conveyance companies, tour companies, hotels, restaurants, etc., is subject to the laws of the state or country where the service is provided.

Please be advised that California has established a Travel Consumer Restitution Fund under the California Seller of Travel Law which took effect January 1, 1996. This fund is designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous practices by discount airfare ticket sellers or air charter operators. Unfortunately, this law does not cover non-California residents and, even in the case of California residents, it does not cover any foreign travel where the foreign "providers of transportation or travel services" are not in compliance with the Sellers of Travel Law (compliance being defined as registered as a Seller of Travel in California and a participant in the Travel Consumer Restitution Fund). Thus none of Wilderness Travel's tours qualify and we are required by law to advise each client that they are not covered by the California Travel Consumer Restitution Fund. California law requires sellers of travel to maintain a trust account or bond. This business has a trust account. CST 1007696-40

Wilderness Travel, Inc. shall not be liable for: (a) expenses such as additional hotel nights and meals not specified in the individual trip itineraries that may be required either en route, prior to, or following a trip, when caused by individual clients' travel arrangements, by airline scheduling or airline schedule changes, canceled flights, missed flight connections, or by other factors not under Wilderness Travel's control; (b) expenses incurred in recovering luggage lost by airlines, belongings left behind on a trip, or in shipping purchases or other goods home from abroad; (c) bodily injury or property damage for any reason, including but not limited to acts of God, weather, quarantines, strikes, civil disturbance, theft, default, detention, annoyance, changes in government regulations, terrorism, war, or failure of conveyance to arrive or depart as scheduled, etc., over which it (Wilderness Travel, Inc.) has no control.
Wilderness Travel, Inc. reserves the right to take photographic or film records of any of our trips, and may use any such records for promotional and/or commercial purposes.

Wilderness Travel, Inc. reserves the right to substitute both trip leaders and hotels from those listed in the catalog without notice.

Wilderness Travel, Inc. reserves the right to decline to accept or to restrain from further participation any person it judges to be incapable of meeting the rigors and requirements of participating in the activities, or any person whose actions or deportment impede trip operation or the rights, welfare, or enjoyment of other trip members. A refund based on cost of unused land services is the limit of Wilderness Travel, Inc.'s responsibility in such a case.

Trip members have the responsibility to select a trip appropriate to their abilities and interests. In order to assist you we grade each trip with a Trip Rating. We are also happy to discuss the trip with you, as well as provide you with names of past participants who can discuss their experience with you. Trip members are held responsible for being in sufficient good health to undertake the trip. Trip members are responsible for preparing for the trip by studying the itinerary and pre-departure information packets sent by Wilderness Travel, Inc. and for bringing the appropriate clothing and equipment as advised therein.

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