Booking terms & conditions.

01 Your contract with us

A journey is confirmed — and a contract exists between us — once we have received your deposit and issued you a written confirmation. The person who makes the booking ("the lead traveller") does so on behalf of everyone named on it, confirms they are eighteen or older, and is responsible for the full payment due, for passing our correspondence and these conditions to the rest of the party, and for keeping us updated with correct contact details.

These conditions apply to both our private journeys (arranged for your party alone) and our small-group departures (Team Bangkok's Buddhist Path, joined by up to nine guests). Where a term applies to only one of these, we say so.

02 Deposit & confirming your journey

To hold your dates and begin arranging your journey, we ask for a deposit of 20% of the journey price. Because we commit to hotels, guides and experiences on your behalf as soon as you confirm — much of it released to us months ahead and non-recoverable — the deposit is non-refundable. Your place, or your dates, are not secured until the deposit reaches us and we have confirmed in writing.

03 Payment schedule

The balance is paid in one further step. If you book within 60 days of departure, the full price is due when you confirm.

We'll send a reminder before each instalment. If a payment is not received by its due date and we haven't agreed otherwise, we may treat the booking as cancelled by you, with the charges in section 5 applying.

04 Prices & currency

Journeys are quoted in US dollars, per person, based on the party size and arrangements set out in your quotation. On request we can also settle in euros, Norwegian kroner or Thai baht at the prevailing rate on the day of payment.

The price confirmed on your invoice is held for you, with two narrow exceptions: a change in government taxes, tourism levies or entrance fees, or a movement in exchange rates of more than 3% against the US dollar between confirmation and final payment. We absorb minor movements and will only ever pass on the genuine, evidenced difference — never more. If a surcharge would ever exceed 8% of your journey price, you may instead cancel and receive a full refund of what you have paid.

Because our small-group and private prices assume a given number of travellers, if your party size falls after booking, the per-person price may be re-quoted to reflect the smaller group.

05 If you cancel

We understand that plans occasionally have to change. If you need to cancel, please tell us in writing — by email to [email protected] — and the charge is set by how much time remains before departure, counted from the day we receive your notice.

These charges reflect the commitments we have already made to hotels, guides and suppliers on your behalf, which we cannot recover. Before cancelling outright, we will always try to move you to another date or departure instead — on a private journey this is often possible if you tell us early, and on a small-group departure it depends on the seats available. This is exactly why we ask every guest to hold travel insurance with cancellation cover from the day they reserve (section 9): a good policy is designed to return to you what these charges cannot.

If one member of a party cancels and the others travel, any resulting change in the per-person price — for example, the loss of a shared room — may be added to the remaining travellers' costs.

06 If you change your booking

If you'd like to adjust your dates, hotels or arrangements after confirming, tell us as early as you can and we'll do our best to accommodate it. Changes are subject to availability and to any costs our suppliers charge us; a significant change close to departure may be treated as a cancellation and rebooking under section 5.

You may transfer a booking to another person who meets all the conditions of the journey, provided you tell us in reasonable time and cover any supplier costs of the change. Names must match travel documents, so please give us the correct details early.

07 If we change or cancel

We plan carefully, but occasionally an element of a journey has to change. Most changes are minor — a comparable hotel, a re-ordered day — and we'll simply let you know. If we ever have to make a significant change before you travel (for instance, a materially different standard of hotel for much of the trip), we'll offer you the choice of accepting it, moving to an alternative journey, or cancelling for a full refund of what you have paid us.

Our small-group departures run on a minimum number of guests. In the rare event a departure doesn't reach it, we'll tell you at least 30 days before and offer you a new date or a full refund.

If we cancel your journey for any reason other than your own failure to pay or an event beyond our control (section 8), you may choose new dates or a full refund of the money you have paid to us. In every case, our responsibility is limited to the amount you have paid us for the journey — we cannot reimburse separately arranged costs such as flights, visas or connecting travel, which is another reason insurance matters.

08 Events beyond control

Neither of us is responsible for failing to meet these conditions because of circumstances genuinely beyond reasonable control — what is usually called force majeure. This includes war or the threat of it, civil unrest, terrorism, epidemic or pandemic and the public-health measures around it, natural disaster, fire, flood, extreme weather, airport or border closures, strikes, and government action or advice against travel.

If such an event affects your journey before departure, we'll work with you to find the best way forward — rescheduling where we can, and refunding whatever we are able to recover from our suppliers, less any costs already unavoidably incurred. A comprehensive travel-insurance policy is designed to cover much of what falls outside our control here.

09 Travel insurance

Comprehensive travel insurance is a condition of travelling with us, and we ask you to arrange it from the day you reserve — that is when cancellation cover begins to protect you. Your policy should cover, as a minimum, trip cancellation and curtailment, medical treatment and emergency evacuation, and your belongings, to a level appropriate for the destination and activities on your journey.

On our winter Arctic journey, medical and evacuation cover is already built into what we arrange on the ground; you still need your own policy for cancellation, curtailment and personal cover. We may ask for your insurer, policy number and a 24-hour emergency contact before departure.

10 Passports, visas & entry

It is your responsibility to hold a valid passport and any visas, permits or entry documents your journey requires, and to meet any health or entry rules in force at the time you travel. We're glad to point you to the official sources — you'll find the current requirements and official links in the Visa & entry section of each journey page:

• Thailand — The Buddhist Path
• Norway — The Norwegian Landscape
• Norway — Arctic Lights

Entry rules can change, so please check the official sources close to departure. We can't be responsible for any cost or missed arrangement arising from incomplete or incorrect documentation, and any charges from suppliers in that event are yours.

11 Health, fitness & pace

Our journeys are unhurried by design, but they do involve walking on uneven ground, temple steps, boats, and — in winter — cold and short daylight. Please tell us at the time of booking about any medical condition, mobility need, dietary requirement or reduced fitness, so we can advise honestly whether a journey suits you and adapt it where possible. If a condition would make travel unsafe and you've told us before booking, we'll offer a full refund; we can't take responsibility for a condition that wasn't disclosed.

12 Conduct & safety

We ask every guest to travel with respect for local laws, customs and the places of worship and communities we visit, and to follow the reasonable safety guidance of your guide or driver. In the rare case that a guest's behaviour is unlawful, unsafe, or seriously affects others, we or our guides may end that person's participation without refund, and we won't be responsible for their onward costs.

13 Our responsibility to you

We take real care in designing your journey and in choosing the hotels, guides, drivers and operators we work with, and we accept responsibility for arranging your journey with reasonable skill and care. Many parts of a journey are delivered by independent suppliers who run their own services under their own terms; where we've selected them with due care, we aren't liable for their own acts or omissions, and their terms may limit their liability to you.

Except in cases of death or personal injury caused by our negligence — where our liability is not limited — our total responsibility to you for any claim arising from your journey is limited to the amount you have paid us for it. We aren't responsible for losses that couldn't reasonably have been foreseen, for services you arrange independently (such as flights or optional activities booked yourself), or for events beyond reasonable control as described in section 8. Nothing in these conditions removes any right you have under the mandatory consumer-protection laws of your country of residence.

14 If something goes wrong

If anything about your journey isn't right, please tell your guide or the studio at the time — most things can be put right on the spot, and we'd always rather fix them while you're with us. If a concern can't be resolved during your journey, please write to us at [email protected] within 30 days of returning, with your booking details, so we can look into it properly and respond.

15 Privacy

We collect only the details we need to arrange and run your journey — your contact information, travel-document details, and any health or dietary needs you share — and we pass them to the hotels, guides and suppliers involved in your trip solely to deliver it. We don't sell your information. You can ask us at any time what we hold and to correct or remove it.

16 Governing law

These conditions, and any matter arising from your journey, are governed by the laws of Estonia, where the company is registered, and are subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Estonian courts — without affecting any mandatory consumer-protection rights available to you in your own country of residence.