Fully guided tours to the UK and Europe

Terms and Conditions

Gemmaway Travel Fully Guided Tours

These are the terms and conditions that form the contract between us so please read them carefully. When you make your booking, you must complete a booking form, accepting on behalf of all your party the terms of these booking conditions, and pay a deposit/full payment. A contract is made when your booking is confirmed in writing to you. You must check the details on the Confirmation carefully and raise any queries immediately. English Law governs this agreement and exclusive jurisdiction is conferred on the English courts.

RESERVATION AND DEPOSIT

Reservations must be accompanied by the specified deposit. The deposit is part of the tour price and is non-refundable by GEMMAWAY LTD. Full payment is required if your reservation is made within 28 days of a British tour, and 42 days of a European tour departure date. Please send the Booking form, with your deposit or full payment to GEMMAWAY LTD., P.O. Box 391, Rickmansworth, WD3 5ZD. Upon receipt of the completed Booking form and your payment, we will send you an invoice showing how much your final balance is and when it is due. You must pay this balance by the balance due by date. If payment is not received by the due date, we reserve the right to treat your booking as a cancellation, and charges detailed under the section entitled ‘Cancellation Policy’ will apply.

FINAL PAYMENT IS DUE 28 DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE FOR ALL BRITISH TOURS, AND 42 DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE ON EUROPEAN TOURS.IMPORTANT NOTE; the person signing the Booking form does so on behalf of all persons named on it. He/she becomes directly responsible to Gemmaway Ltd., for the payment of the total holiday price and if applicable, and where appropriate, for the cancellation charges and disbursements.

IF YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOUR BOOKING after our confirmation has been issued, please advise us as soon as possible in writing, or if you wish to change to another of our advertised tours. We shall do our utmost to make the changes, providing that notification is received by us at least 28 days before the departure of a British tour and 42 days before a European tour. An administration charge of £10 per person will apply to any changes plus, in addition, any other charges our suppliers may impose or incur. A change of holiday with 28 days (British) or 42 days (Europe) of departure of the original booking where you wish to travel earlier or later than originally booked, will be treated as a cancellation of the original booking and charges will be levied according to our Cancellation Policy.
NB Insurance premiums are not transferable from one holiday to another (including when you travel earlier or later than originally booked) or from one person to another.

IF WE CHANGE YOUR BOOKING
It is unlikely that we should have to make any changes to your holiday, however we do plan these holidays many months in advance. Occasionally changes may be made, which we reserve the right to do at any time. Most of these changes are minor and we shall advise you at the earliest possible date. If a major change becomes necessary, we shall inform you as soon as is reasonably possible if there is time before your departure. A major change is one that changes your resort area, offering accommodation with a lower official classification than that advertised (except in the case of en-route hotels) or changing the time of departure or return by more than 12 hours. When a major change occurs, provided it does not arise from circumstances amounting to force majeure, (see below) you will have the choice of either accepting the change, transferring to another holiday, or cancelling your holiday with a full refund. If you decide to accept the significant change or the alternative tour offered, we will in addition pay you compensation as follows:
Prior to 42 days nil
42 – 30 days 4% on all tours
29 - 14 days 5% on all tours
13 – date of departure 10% on all tours
Compensation is shown as a percentage of the basic tour price excluding insurance premiums and any amendment/cancellation charges.

FORCE MAJEURE We regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation where the performance or prompt performance of our contractual obligations is prevented or affected by ‘force majeure’. ‘Force majeure’ means any event which we or the supplier(s) 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, terrorist activity, adverse weather conditions, natural or nuclear disaster, industrial dispute, government action, fire, technical problems to transport, closure or congestion of ports, and other events and circumstances beyond our control or the control of our supplier(s).

SURCHARGE POLICY

In limited circumstances the price of your confirmed holiday is subject to surcharges as set out below. Surcharges can arise if transport costs (including the cost of fuel) increase or our costs otherwise increase as a result of currency exchange rate fluctuation, or any new or increased tax levy or other sum imposed by any government or regulatory authority/body. In the unlikely event that your holiday is surcharged you will be notified in writing not less than 30 days before departure. In any event we will absorb increases up to a total amount equivalent to 2% of the total tour price which excludes insurance premiums and any amendment/cancellation charges. If the total surcharge should amount to more than 10% of the total holiday price, excluding insurance premiums, you may cancel your holiday with a full refund, (excluding insurance premiums) provided you notify us in writing not more than 7 days from receiving our information on these surcharge increases. You will be notified of any surcharges as soon as possible, and we shall not impose any surcharges less than 30 days before the departure date. In return for these promises and the applicable risks to us no refunds will be made for decreases in costs. Prior to confirmation, we reserve the right at any time to increase or decrease an advertised holiday price, in which case the revised prices will be made know to you before you book. We reserve the right to correct errors in both advertised and confirmed prices at any time. We will do so as soon as we become aware of the error.

CANCELLATION POLICY

If you, or any member of your party, have to cancel your booking at any time, this cancellation must be telephoned through to us immediately and confirmed in writing by the person who signed the booking form. We begin to incur costs on each booking from the time we receive your booking form. The minimum cancellation charge is the deposit. For any cancellation received less than 42 days before departure, the following charges are applicable.

In addition to these charges, it may be necessary to add under-occupancy supplements to other members of the party. (If, for instance, one person in a twin room cancels, we shall endeavour to obtain a single room for the person travelling (at the applicable supplement), but if a room change is not possible, we reserve the right to pass on the full cost of the twin room to the person using that room.) Note: If you have taken holiday insurance, you may be able to recover the cancellation charges. Check the policy for details.

IF WE CANCEL YOUR COACH TOUR

We reserve the right to cancel a tour if a minimum number of travellers have not made a booking. In the rare event of this happening we will notify you no later than 30 days before the departure date. All payments (with the exception of Insurance payments) will be completely refunded. We regret we cannot pay any expenses, costs or losses you may incur as a result of any cancellation.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE

We accept liability for the proper performance of the tour sold to you. We will further accept liability for claims for personal injury arising as a result of the proven negligent acts or omissions of our staff and suppliers whilst acting within the scope of or in the course of their employment or contract. If our suppliers are able to exclude or limit liability by virtue of any International Convention we will claim the benefit of that exclusion or limitation.
We cannot accept liability in the following circumstances:
if the failure or improper performance is your fault or the fault of any member of your party.
If the failure is the fault of someone else not connected with the provision of the services which make up the tour which we have confirmed to you
Any unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care has been exercised.
Any event which we or the supplier of any service, even with all due care, could not foresee or forestall.

HOLIDAY INSURANCE

You are strongly advised to purchase holiday insurance to cover you against the usual risks of accidents, lost property, cancellation charges, sickness, etc., whilst on tour. Gemmaway has arranged a special policy specially geared towards Coach travel at a reasonable rate.

FINANCIAL PROTECTION & REPATRIATION

To comply with the Package Travel Regulations 1992 all payments made by customers for any coach tour are held in a Trust Account until the customer has returned home from the holiday. Gemmaway Ltd. is unable to withdraw the funds from this Trust Account until this condition is met. This means that your monies are completely safe. In the unlikely event of the Company becoming insolvent, pre-payments will be refunded. We are also members of the BAWTA Repatriation Scheme. This guarantees that you will be returned to your departure area in the UK if we become insolvent whilst you are outside the UK on any coach tour in this brochure, (except where otherwise stated).

DEPARTURE/RETURN TIMES: we will not be responsible in any way if you arrive late for the coach departure time, OR if for any reason you have to return early, nor can we be responsible to you for any financial loss caused by either of the above. However, your holiday insurance may help cover you depending on the circumstances.

LIABILITY OF THE CLIENT: we reserve the right to prevent you from travelling with us, if, in the reasonable opinion of any person in authority, you appear to be unfit to travel or likely to cause disturbance to other passengers. We shall not be responsible for any costs you may incur or make any refunds to you.

HOTEL FACILITIES & TOUR ITINERIES: Please remember that some hotel amenities (e.g. lifts, swimming pools) require servicing and cleaning and we cannot therefore guarantee that they are always available. Other factors, such as weather or lack of demand can effect the provision of entertainment or amenities described in our brochure. The published running times of coach, ferry and other services are estimates only and we shall not be liable for any loss (however caused) arising from delay or failure to operate in accordance with published times.

VISA’S & DOCUMENTS: You must ensure that you and other members of your party are in possession of a valid passport and visas for all countries to be visited and that, where applicable, all inoculations have been carried out and that health certificates are available. Please consult your doctor well in advance of departure.

COACH SEATING: As a general rule a seating plan will be done for each tour, (this is prepared at least 3 weeks in advance). It is our normal practice to put families with young children towards the back of the bus. We also allocate seats to groups wishing to sit together. All seating requests must be put clearly on the Booking form. However we cannot guarantee any seating and can accept no responsibility if your seating is not as requested.

SPECIAL REQUESTS: Special requests must be put on the Booking form. We shall do our best to accommodate these requests, but cannot accept any responsibility if these are not adhered to.

COMPLAINTS: If you have a complaint whilst on our tours, please inform your tour director, who will do their best to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. Any written complaint must be received within 28 days of the tour’s return.