Our Terms & Conditions

Legal note

This document is a shortened translated version of the German “Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen” which represents the legally applicable Terms & Conditions of VolcanoDiscovery.

How to make a booking - your contract with us

When you book a tour, you enter a contract with VolcanoDiscovery. The booking contract follows these steps:
1) You send a booking request. This can be done by fax, mail, email, or using our online forms, and needs to include your full name & address & an alternative contact (telephone or email, preferably both). You are responsible that this information is correct.
2) We reconfirm your booking request along with an invoice. Our reconfirmation will be normally through email, only in exceptional cases through other media.
3) You send us a deposit within normally 7 days, unless otherwise agreed upon. Instructions about how to send the deposit will be found in the invoice sent to you. If you don't send a deposit, we hold the right to cancel your booking without notice.
Only if steps 1-3 are completed in this order, the booking is valid.

The following terms and conditions only apply if a booking as described has been completed:

Deposit and Payment

Deposit
A deposit of at least 20% of the tour price is normally required to make a booking. Unless we agree on something different, VolcanoDiscovery will hold an unconfirmed booking-reservation for a maximum of 7 days from the moment the client informs us (via email or other means) that he or she wants to book a tour. When price includes a significant amount of international flights a higher deposit may be required. In case there are less than 6 weeks left to the start of a tour, a booking requires immediate and full payment. We recommend that all clients provide themselves with comprehensive travel insurance at the time of booking.

Terms of payment
Full payment (less deposit) shall reach VolcanoDiscovery at least 6 weeks prior to arrival of guests. In case of further delay on payments, VolcanoDiscovery reserves the right to treat this as a cancellation and withdraw its confirmation of the services.
Accepted forms of payment include bank wire transfer (preferred) and credit card (VISA, MasterCard). It is the client's responsibility to include all charges from his bank institute when sending money through a wire transfer.

Validity of prices & price increase

During the interval between payment of a deposit and payment of the final balance, the total price of the tour is guaranteed against any surcharge, except in the case where unpredictable events (such as new government regulations, natural forces, or sudden currency changes) make it necessary to alter the price. VolcanoDiscovery will try to absorb such an increase to the extent possible, but VolcanoDiscovery has the right to ask the client up to 5% surcharge until 3 weeks prior to the start of the tour, without any particular rights arising to the client because of this.
If the price increase charged to the client exceeds 5%, the client has the right to cancel his booking with a full refund of the money paid to VolcanoDiscovery so far.

Cancellation by the client

All cancellations must be made by e-mail, fax or letter. In conformity with business practices, VolcanoDiscovery is entitled to charge cancellation fees to clients as follows:

Cancellation by VolcanoDiscovery

VolcanoDiscovery does its best not to cancel a tour. However, VolcanoDiscovery may cancel any tour until 28 days prior to the starting date if the minimum number of a tour is not reached or for other good reasons. After 28 days prior to departure, VolcanoDiscovery can no longer cancel a tour, except in the case of serious events that make it necessary to cancel, e.g. because of serious safety concerns for the clients (examples include war, political unrest, recent terror-attacks, outbreak of diseases in the destination country, natural disasters etc.). The same applies in the case of serious accident, illness or death of a tour guide or another key person involved in the tour and if equivalent replacement is not possible.
If VolcanoDiscovery cancels a trip, the client receives a full refund of all money paid so far to VolcanoDiscovery including all bank charges unless the cancellation was outside's control, e.g. unexpected natural disaster, terrorist attack, outbreak of war etc. In that case, VolcanoDiscovery refunds the client all money paid minus expenses that VolcanoDiscovery already has had in connection with the tour and cannot get refunded.
Alternatively, the client may choose to keep a part of the money at VolcanoDiscovery as deposit for a future trip. In that case, the client will be regarded as returning customer already and (where applicable for the trip) entitled to our returning customer discount.
No responsibility is held by VolcanoDiscovery for cancellation fees of transportation (airfare etc.) booked by the client independently unless otherwise agreed upon.

Flights and transportation to the destination

Most of our tours do not include international travel to the destination by default, although we often can include this on an individual basis for you. This chapter applies if the client books his flight (or other transportation) to and from the destination himself.In the event, VolcanoDiscovery needs to cancel a tour, VolcanoDiscovery assumes liability for cancellation or change fees of the flight / transportation only if the following conditions are met:- The client has booked his flight / transportation on his own AFTER the booking is made with and was confirmed by VolcanoDiscovery.- The client informs and inquires with VolcanoDiscovery about booking his flight/transportation and receives positive confirmation from VolcanoDiscovery prior to booking it.- The flight / transportation serves the exclusive purpose to take part in the tour booked with VolcanoDiscovery. It is not connected to any other activity in the interest or advantage of the client (e.g. conferences, business travel, part of a longer round trip etc.)- No specific individual agreements have been made between VolcanoDiscovery and the client to cover this case.- The cancellation was because the minimum number of participants was not met for the tour.
If these conditions are met and VolcanoDiscovery needs to cancel a trip, VolcanoDiscovery covers cancellation/re-booking fees up to 300 EUR per person for inner-European and 800 EUR per person for intercontinental flights. The reimbursement is processed only if the client provides VolcanoDiscovery with a copy of the airline's or other transportation carrier's cancellation / re-booking receipt no later than 4 weeks after VolcanoDiscovery sends the notice that the tour is canceled to the client by email or fax.
Therefore, if you plan to book your flight independently, we strongly recommend you to consult with us about when it is "safe" to book your flight.

Travel insurance

Travel insurance is mandatory on all our tours that contain at least 1 night accommodation and another item (e.g. an excursion) or strech over at least two days.
This must minimally include appropriate medical travel, rescue and medical emergency treatment insurance abroad.
We also recommend trip cancellation insurance, in the case you must cancel a trip for an unexpected emergency at your side. In cooperation with some recognized insurance companies, we recommend and offer to buy travel insurance directly on our website.

Clients are free to choose their own insurance. In that case, they must provide us with their insurance's name, address, emergency telephone number and their insurance policy number no later than 6 weeks before the start of the tour or at the time of booking.
If we receive no information from the client about his insurance by 6 weeks prior to the start of the tour or at the time of booking, we may buy insurance covering emergency medical treatment abroad, rescue and repatriation for the client from one of the major insurance companies and add the cost to the invoice of the client. 

Program changes

The tour programs are always subject to possible changes due to dangerous volcanic activity, weather conditions and/or restrictions imposed by local authorities. VolcanoDiscovery has the right to alter the program itineraries and times and individual program blocks without prior notice if this becomes necessary.
In such cases, VolcanoDiscovery will try its best to find appropriate, equivalent alternatives; if major parts of a program unexpectedly become unavailable and no equivalent alternative can be found, a reasonable refund will be given to the clients, in form of an amount of money equivalent to the saved expenses.

Liability and exclusion of liability

VolcanoDiscovery assumes no responsibility for any damage, loss, accident, sickness or program change caused by weather, volcanic activity, regulations by local authorities or any other irregularity outside VolcanoDiscovery's control. We advise all clients to have comprehensive travel and health insurance. All activities that clients undertake outside or in addition to the tour program are at their sole own responsibility.
In particular, participants should bear in mind that visiting active volcanoes is potentially very dangerous. The tour leader(s) will use all his/her experience and, where necessary, the experience and assistance of local guides, in order to minimize any risk to participants, in particular in connection with volcanic activity. Nevertheless, all participants will be required to sign an assumption of responsibility form before joining any tour.
Additional or similar regulations apply for tours where other potentially dangerous activities such as trekking at high altitude, technical mountain climbing, remoteness of medical and communication facilities, water sports etc. are part of the program.
VolcanoDiscovery assumes no liability for damage caused by delays, cancellation or other irregularity on the side of transportation suppliers (airlines etc.). This means that if your flight is canceled (for any reason out of our control, such as weather, new flight restrictions etc) and you cannot join a tour at the start time, we cannot take responsibility for any extra costs involved in joining the tour later, or, in case you decide not to take part for this reason, we will have to apply our normal cancellation fees. We strongly recommend to take out appropriate travel insurance that covers you for such cases.

Applicable Law

This tour contract is subject to German law only.

Legal address

VolcanoDiscovery GmbH
Geschäftsführer: Dr. Tom Pfeiffer
Registergericht Saarbrücken, HRB 103744
Heideweg 2, D-66606 St. Wendel
T: +49-6851-9777009
F: +33-170248048
info (AT) volcanodiscovery.com / tours (AT) volcanodiscovery.com
www.volcanodiscovery.com / www.volcanoadventures.com
EU VAT Id: DE 310 395 322
Home > Terms & conditions
Sources: VolcanoDiscovery / VolcanoAdventures and other sources as noted.
Use of material: Most text and images on our websites are owned by us. Re-use is generally not permitted without authorization. Contact us for licensing rights.
Adventure & Study Travel
Tours to Volcanoes and Volcanic Areas: walking tours, photo tours, study tours
Tours & Dates | FAQ | About us
Get our newsletter!
Volcanoes & Earthquakes
VolcanoDiscovery Home
Volcanoes | Earthquakes | Photos | Volcano News | App
Company info
Contact | Legal info | Terms & conditions
Follow us
Follow us on facebook Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Twitter Visit our Youtube channel
EN | DE | FR
VolcanoDiscovery GmbH, Germany, Reg. nr.: HRB 103744, EU Tax Id: DE 297 465 123 owned and created by
Dr. Tom Pfeiffer, volcanologist, volcano photographer, tour organizer member of
IAVCEI
Volcanological Society
Ecotourism Greece
Insured by R+V
Made with love by Virtus+
VolcanoDiscovery © 2004- All Rights Reserved | Privacy - cookie settings