This information supersedes all previously published information, terms and booking conditions.

Last updated March 2009

The price includes

What’s not included

Insurance

Guide dogs

Visually impaired people and sighted guides

Clothing and equipment

Accommodation supplements

Passports, visas and health

Booking conditions

How to book a holiday

Deposits

Payment of balance

Late reservation charges

Credit/debit cards

Cancellation by customer

Cancellation charges

If you change your booking

Brochure and website accuracy

Alterations to your holiday

Surcharges

Our liability to you

Conditions of carriage

Force Majeure

Illness and injury

Problems not connected with the holiday

Medical declaration

Information

Travel arrangements

Information sheet

Complaints

Consumer protection

The price includes

(unless stated otherwise in individual holiday descriptions):

• All meals as stated in the brochure
• Accommodation as described in the brochure
• The services of a Vitalise Representative
• All transport costs, some admission charges and concert tickets as described in the brochure and holiday information sheet
• Essential activity equipment e.g. canoes and tandem bikes

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What’s not included

• Transport from home to the meeting point/accommodation
• Personal equipment such as waterproofs, boots, skis, sleeping bags etc.
• Drinks from bars, cafés or restaurants

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Insurance

As of 19 March 2007 Vitalise Holidays no longer includes travel insurance within the cost of a holiday. This is to enable customers to access more competitive premiums for cover or purchase of an annual policy.

For overseas holidays, it is a condition of booking that you are adequately covered by insurance, which must cover the cost of repatriation and evacuation if you become too ill to continue. Your policy should include cover for any activities you expect to undertake during your holiday and medical cover for at least £2,000,000. However, we recommend £5,000,000 for long-haul holidays.

Although there is no requirement for insurance for UK holidays, we recommend that you have cancellation and curtailment insurance. For activity holidays you may also want to consider personal insurance to cover all eventualities in your outdoor pursuits.

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Guide dogs

Wherever possible guide dogs are welcome on Vitalise Holidays within the UK, however there are some occasions when breaks may not be safe or comfortable for guide dogs, our reservation staff can provide further guidance on this matter.

Owners are required to take full responsibility for their guide dogs for the duration of the break and are asked to provide adequate dog food, bowls, towels and blankets.

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Visually impaired people and sighted guides

Vitalise aims to provide an equal number of guides and visually impaired holidaymakers on breaks. However, some holidays may only be viable with lower ratios. These ratios will not exceed five visually impaired people to four guides without prior notification.

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Clothing and equipment

The final Travel Pack will include a list of any specialist equipment that is required for the holiday.

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Accommodation supplements

We may be able to offer accommodation on a single occupancy basis. Where this is available an additional single person supplement will be payable.

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Passports, visa and health

For overseas breaks it is your responsibility to ensure that you have a valid passport with a minimum of six months validity and obtain any visas or inoculations that may be required.

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Booking conditions

These conditions apply to customers of Vitalise Holidays and set out the terms on which you contract with Vitalise Holidays. They shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law, being subject to the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales. No variation shall be of any effect unless in writing and by the authority of Vitalise Holidays.

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How to book a holiday

Provisional bookings can be made by telephone and secured with a credit/debit card or cheque deposit (received within seven days). A booking form accepting Vitalise Holidays’ booking conditions must be completed and returned within 14 days to ensure confirmation of your holiday.

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Deposits

Deposits for breaks are as follows:

• Holidays priced up to £500 require a deposit of £100
• Holidays priced between £501 and £1000 require a deposit of £150
• Holidays priced over £1000 require a deposit equal to 15% of the holiday price

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Payment of balance

The final payment for the holiday will be due 60 days before the start date of a UK holiday and 90 days before the start date of an overseas holiday (unless stated otherwise in the Information Sheet). If the balance is not received, we reserve the right to cancel your holiday, retain your deposit and apply cancellation charges as stated.

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Late reservation charges

Late reservations received within eight weeks of departure may be subject to additional costs levied by our suppliers.

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Credit/debit card

We welcome payment by credit or debit cards and accept Visa, MasterCard, Delta and Maestro. Payments can be made by telephone for deposits when booking and for final balances.

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Cancellation by customer

Should you be forced to cancel your holiday booking you must do so in writing, and the letter must be signed by the person signing the original booking form. Cancellation charges are set out in the section below, based on the date of the receipt of written cancellation.

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Cancellation charges

More than 90 days before departure – loss of deposit
57–90 days before departure – charge will be 50% of holiday cost
29–56 days before departure – charge will be 75% of holiday cost
0–28 days before departure – charge will be 100% of holiday cost

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If you change your booking

If your booking has been confirmed and you wish to transfer to a different holiday then we will make every effort to accommodate the change, however this may be subject to any cancellation fees levied by our suppliers.

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Brochure and website accuracy

In the event of changes being made to the information contained in the brochure on on this website we will notify you of such changes as soon as possible.

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Alterations to your holiday

Vitalise Holidays reserve the right to make changes or cancellations to holiday arrangements, which may become necessary, and undertake to inform customers when these events occur. All flight details contained in the brochure are provisional and may be subject to change from the airlines. The final Travel Pack should contain up to date flight details.

Vitalise Holidays reserve the right to cancel holidays up to the date when the balance is due if insufficient bookings have been received. Should Vitalise Holidays be forced to cancel arrangements for any reason, except by default of the client, the choice of an alternative arrangement or full refund will be offered.

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Surcharges

The prices quoted in the Vitalise Holidays brochure were accurate at the time it was printed. Vitalise Holidays reserves the right to levy fuel and/or currency surcharges following significant fluctuations. Surcharges, if any, will be requested in writing and customers must pay the increased costs. Failure to pay the surcharges will be treated as a cancellation of the booking by the client and cancellation charges will apply. No surcharge of less than 2% of the holiday cost will be levied. However, if the surcharge exceeds 10% of the price quoted at the time of booking, the client is entitled to cancel the holiday and obtain a full refund.

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Our liability to you

Vitalise Holidays is responsible for ensuring the holiday that you book is provided to the standard described in the brochure. Where air or sea carriers provide services, our liability is limited as if we were carriers within the appropriate international conventions.

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Conditions of carriage

By its contract with you, Vitalise Holidays does not enter into an agreement for carriage by air but only undertakes to reserve on your behalf. Transport on an aircraft, coach, train or ship is subject to the conditions of carriage of that company, some of which limit or exclude liability. These conditions are often the subject of international agreements between countries and copies of the conditions that apply to your holiday journey may be made available for inspection either at our offices or at the office of the carrier concerned.

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Force Majeure

We regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation if we have to cancel or change your travel arrangements in any way due to reasons or circumstances amounting to ‘Force Majeure’. This means any event that we or the supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or forestall. Such events may include (by way of example and not by way of limitation) war or threat of war, riots, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, adverse weather conditions, and all similar events.

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Illness and injury

If you suffer injury, illness or death as a result of any failure to perform or any improper performance of any part of our contract with you, we accept responsibility unless the failure to perform or improper performance was attributable to:

• your own acts and/or omission
• those of a third party not connected with the provision of you holiday and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable
• an event which neither we, nor the supplier of the services(s) in question, could have foreseen or prevented, even with all due care

Please note that in the case of air and sea carriers, liability is limited by the appropriate international conventions. Should any payment be made to you by us in any of the circumstances referred to in this section, we reserve the right to claim, in your place, against the person or organisation responsible for causing the illness, injury or death. This means you must agree to assign that part of your rights to us. You must also assist us, and our insurers, in pursuing any such claim. All claims must be notified immediately to us and confirmed in writing within 28 days.

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Problems not connected with the holiday

Vitalise Holidays will provide non-financial support and advice to the best of our ability should you suffer illness, bodily injury or death through misadventure arising out of an activity, which does not form part of your holiday arrangement.

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Medical declaration

Medical Declaration Forms are issued, as part of the booking form, to all clients for completion at the time of booking. If your medication/medical condition changes after completion, please advise us as soon as possible. A form can be completed over the telephone, or a large print version sent to you. Fraudulent or inaccurate medical declarations could lead to holiday cancellations and loss of deposit.

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Information

Any information given by Vitalise Holiday in regard to visas, vaccinations, climate, clothing, special equipment, topography etc. is done in good faith and without responsibility on our part.

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Travel arrangements

Travel arrangements from home to the holiday meeting point and return are the customers’ own responsibility.

All travel throughout the duration of the holiday is arranged on a group basis. It is the individual’s responsibility to ensure that they are able to comply with the arrangements made for the holiday group.

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Information sheet

This provides an outline itinerary including tour dates, transport and hotel accommodation. We will make best endeavours to inform you of any change before departure. It may be necessary to alter your itinerary at short notice due to adverse weather conditions, or operating conditions imposed by owners and operators of accommodation, facilities, aircraft, vessels and other format of transport. However, your itinerary will be the same in contact, unless circumstances beyond our control deem this impossible.

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Complaints

If you have a complaint whilst you are on holiday, please tell the Vitalise Representative as soon as possible so that immediate action can be taken. In the unlikely circumstance that the complaint remains unresolved you should write to the Vitalise Holidays Manager, within 28 days after the holiday, with full details of the complaint. We will endeavour to resolve any complaint within 28 days of receipt, however complaints involving external suppliers may take longer.

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Consumer protection

Vitalise Holidays is a bonded tour operator and our Air Travel Organisers’ Licence (ATOL) Number is 5544. The air holidays in this brochure are ATOL protected. In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the Civil Aviation Authority will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking. Further information can be found on the ATOL website.

Holidays that do not include air travel are covered under our International Passenger Protection (IPP) insurance.

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