Cancellation Policy
If we cancel a tour for any reason, you can choose to receive your money back or receive a full credit. During the pandemic, we will assess whether to postpone or cancel each tour on a case by case basis based on recommendations from health authorities in the United States and the tour region.
If you cancel a tour, you will receive a credit to a future trip in the same or following year for all funds already paid as long as you have given us 90 days advance notice. After that, your funds are forfeited. Please strongly consider trip insurance.
For private tours, there is a separate cancellation policy.
For certain trips (such as Bhutan, Cuba), your deposit and payments become non-refundable and non-transferable at 90 days from departure. This includes alumni and those with high roller status. For other trips (Ecuador, Peru, Patagonia, South Africa, Tanzania/Kilimanjaro), your deposit and payments are nonrefundable and non-transferable seven days after we send you the Pre-Departure documents because of fixed costs we incur when you sign up. Again, we highly recommend trip insurance.
Please do not ask us to make exceptions. We make decisions based on you signing up in the first place: we assign guides and vans based on tour numbers; we tell hotels how many rooms we need; and our tours are often full and a cancellation often means we have lost the opportunity to give your spot to someone else. Remember you have the option to get travel insurance and if you choose not to purchase this, you are taking a risk.
Deposits & Payments
Registering for an Adventure requires a $500 deposit payable by any major credit card. The remaining amount due must be paid by check 90 days prior to the trip departure.
If you wish to pay the remaining balance by credit card there will be a 3.55% administrative fee.
Please note we reserve the right to treat your reservation as
If you sign up for a trip 45 days or less before the departure date, the entire trip price must be paid by credit card with the 3.55% fee on the remaining balance.
Supplements
1) Our trip prices are based on double occupancy. If you are coming on a trip solo, you have two options: 1) Pay the single supplement (see individual tour pages for amount) to receive your own room. 2) Ask us to try to find you a roommate of the same gender to share a room with; if we are not successful you will be charged the single supplement and receive your own room.
2) You may rent a bicycle on biking trips and most Skating Adventures for an additional $25 per day (25 Euros per day in Europe). These fees reflect our costs of renting the bicycles.
3) Our Bhutan and South Africa trip prices do not include internal airfare that we will book for you and bill to your account.
4) Sleeping bags are available for rent on our Trekking Adventures for $75 per trip.
Discounts
1) If you have a group of friends who would like to join you on a public tour, at five or more persons booking together you will all receive a 10% discount.
2) Alumni (those who have previously traveled with Zephyr) receive a 10% discount on trips booked by October 31 for the following year. Learn more about our alumni benefits.
3) Children aged 14 and under will receive a discount of 15% if they stay in a room with their parent (s). Kids under the age of 2 years old are free unless their presence changes our transportation needs. If this arises, we will work with you on a reasonable added cost. Age is determined as of the start date of the adventure.
4) Discounts cannot be combined and do not apply to Private Adventures, Private Treks, Self-Guided Adventures, or Sonoma Vineyard Walks.
Meals and Drinks
We include dinners and breakfasts on all tours except when indicated. Lunches are generally not included except on certain days of Trekking Adventures. We do not include desserts or drinks (either alcoholic or non-alcoholic) on any Adventures, although all group wine tastings are included on Wine Adventures and beer tastings on Beer Adventures.
Insurance
We highly recommend trip cancellation insurance to protect yourself against unforeseen circumstances. Every year there are unfortunate incidents with dozens of travelers that make it impossible for them to join our Adventures. Many of these people lose their trip and airline payments. Even if you do not think this will happen to you, it can! If you choose not to get travel insurance and know your payment is non-refundable, you are taking a risk! Read more about travel insurance here.
Pre-Departure Information
After we receive your deposit we will send you a confirmation email of your booking. Once the trip has been confirmed (met its minimum number), you’ll receive an electronic packet with detailed arrival and departure information, suggestions for making travel arrangements, packing list, invoice, insurance information, information about the area we will be visiting and liability waiver.