Spanish Highs Booking Terms & Conditions

Terms and Conditions

  • All bookings are made with Spanish Highs Tours Ltd (referred to as the "Business", "we" or "us") whose principal place of business is at Northmoor Farm, Northmoor Road, Scotter, Gainsborough DN21 3HT, UK. Company Number 09960909. Registered in England & Wales with Registered Office at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, England.
    . In these conditions:
    - Richard Hartley, Emma Hartley (together with any other person designated by us as a consultant for the purposes of any trip) are referred to as the "Consultants";
    - the expression "trip" means any expedition, outing, trip, tour or other similar venture of whatever duration offered by us either through our advertising material (including our website) or created on a bespoke basis after discussion and agreement by us with you; and
    - "you" refers to the person or persons who make a booking with us for a trip or a tour.
    The terms and conditions set out in the following conditions apply to all such bookings and to any trip booked with us.
  • To book a place on a trip, send us your required dates using our Contact Form. After confirming availability you can go ahead and book your flights. When your flights are booked we ask you to pay a deposit of €100 to one of the Consultants at the address of the Business set out in condition 1. Unless the trip is full, you will receive confirmation of booking and our Information Pack. If the trip is full, we will confirm this in writing.
  • The balance of the price of any trip is due no later than 2 calendar months prior to the advertised date of departure. Bookings accepted less than 2 calendar months prior to the advertised date of departure can be secured with the appropriate deposit but full payment for the trip must then reach us within 7 days of the Business confirming your booking.
  • If the balance of the price of any trip is not received by us by the date specified in condition 3, we reserve the right to cancel your booking and your deposit will be forfeited, unless a delay in your payment has been agreed by one of the Consultants.
  • Should you cancel your booking with us, the following scale of cancellation charges will apply:
    - cancellation more than 2 calendar months before departure - full refund of deposit (less any charges we have incurred from hotels, transport or other services).
    - cancellation 29 days to 2 calendar months before departure - 40% of total trip cost (less any charges we have incurred from hotels, transport or other services).
    - cancellation 10 to 28 days before departure - 60% of total trip cost (less any charges we have incurred from hotels, transport or other services).
    - cancellation less than 10 days before departure - 100% of total trip cost.
    Such terms are adopted in a similar form throughout the travel industry and cover the costs of advance payments made by us in respect of the trip. Cancellation charges may be covered by your travel insurance provided the reason for cancellation falls within the terms of your policy.
  • Cancellation must be advised in writing and will be effective from the date of receipt by us.
  • Cancellation of a trip by us will entitle you to a refund of the full cost of your trip, unless national emergency, war, prohibitive governmental regulation or any other cause beyond the control of the Business renders the performance of the trip impossible in which case actual costs incurred by us will be deducted from any refund due. No other compensation will be paid or payable by us to you. We undertake to notify you of any situation that may result in the cancellation of a trip as soon as we have knowledge of it.
  • After booking on a trip, you may transfer to another trip for an administration charge of £25, at any time up to the time that the final balance (or, if applicable, the interim payment) becomes due. Any transfers after this point will be treated as cancellations. We will not effect any transfer to another trip from the one originally booked unless and until the administration charge has been received by us.
  • Whilst every effort will be made to adhere to the advertised or agreed itinerary for any trip, you must realise that in this type of adventurous travel, changes to the itinerary after departure may occur for which the Business accepts no responsibility, however caused. In particular it may be necessary to alter your itinerary at short notice due to adverse weather or road conditions, or to operating conditions imposed by owners and operators of accommodation, facilities, aircraft, vessels and other forms of transport. Should weather conditions involve clients in extra costs such as accommodation, transportation and meals, such costs will be borne by you and not by us.
  • Circumstances may arise where we are forced to alter travel dates, duration, or hotel accommodation before departure. You will be informed of any such change as soon as we become aware of it.
  • Our Consultants will do their utmost to ensure that any problems are solved for the benefit of the group undertaking any particular trip as a whole. Submitting the booking form and paying your deposit signifies your acceptance of the authority of the leader of the trip or any of the Consultants to make decisions affecting the group as a whole or particular individuals. For instance, the trip leader may require an individual to leave the group if the leader believes that person's health is at risk, if an illegal act is committed by that person, or if their behaviour becomes detrimental to the safety, enjoyment or well-being of the group as a whole or any part of the group. Should the leader take such action, the person who has to leave the group will not be entitled to any refund. If you decide leave a trip at any time prior to its conclusion, you will not be entitled to any refund unless otherwise agreed by a Consultant.
  • You must understand that there are certain inherent hazards involved in climbing expeditions, which you must accept at your own risk. The Business will not be liable for any illness, injury or death sustained by you during a trip, nor will it be liable for any uninsured losses of your property save where such illness, injury, death or losses arise as a result of our negligence. Our further views on safety matters (which are incorporated by reference into these conditions) are set out in appendix 1.
  • In making a booking with us, you agree to make the Business aware in writing of any disability or illness (past or present) that may affect your ability to travel or to complete the trip you book with us. This is particularly relevant where any disability or illness has previously or might have an impact on your health at altitude.
  • The Business will not be liable to you in any way for the consequences of strikes, industrial action, wars, riots, sickness, quarantine, government intervention, weather conditions, or other untoward occurrences.
  • It is a condition of booking with us that you are adequately covered by comprehensive travel insurance for the full duration of the trip including travelling time, which must cover the cost of helicopter rescue or evacuation by helicopter and subsequent repatriation from the location or locations to or through which your trip is made or is passing if you become too ill to continue. You allow us to inspect your travel insurance at any time on demand.
  • Any air travel that forms part of any trip is subject to the terms and conditions stipulated by the airline concerned and liability is limited in accordance with the relevant International Convention.
  • These conditions, the terms set out in the appendices and any agreement made between you and the Business shall be subject to, and governed by, English law.
  • In making your booking, you agree and accept that you have read and understood all these conditions and agree to abide by them.
  • Spanish Highs is in business to help people realise their goals. We undertake to do all in our power to help make your involvement and any trip you take with Spanish Highs positive and rewarding.

Appendix 1 - Our view on safety.

  • Our trips are aimed primarily at experienced hill walkers who wish to add scrambling, rock climbing and mountaineering skills to the skills they already possess.
  • As a climber, mountaineer or scrambler, we expect and encourage you to be self reliant and to want to accept responsibility for your own safety in the mountain or outdoor environment. We encourage you to discuss with us what is expected of you in terms of all aspects of safety on our trips.
  • Having said that, we do not offer you any kind of choice when it comes to safety. Your views are relevant in terms of any safety discussion but our decision on safety matters has to be final. Safety is our priority.
  • We are not prepared to compromise safety or effective instruction simply to make our trips more exciting than they otherwise are. If individuals on our trips have differing levels of experience, we will conduct the trip at the level of expertise of the least experienced individual on of the trip. Experience has shown us that to push people at a pace, which is beyond their capability in the outdoor environment, is almost certain to result in failure.
  • On certain trips, it may be possible, where we have an adequate number of Consultants along on the trip, to allocate those of you with different levels of expertise between the Consultants, particularly where it is in the safety interests of the trip as a whole to do so.
  • We believe that our safety record spanning 50 years (up to 2008) of UK/Alpine/International climbing is second to none and speaks for itself as to the safety of our tried and tested trips.