True Colombia Travel, S.A.S. is a Colombia-registered company under the Camara de Comercio (Chamber of Commerce) of Eastern Antioquia in Rionegro. The registered address is Kilometro 7 +200, Marinilla, Colombia, in partnership with Caimo Collection S.A.S. We are devoted to providing customized and no-frills travel throughout Colombia.
Contact us anytime: info@truecolombiatravel.com or +1 (646) 569-9196
Application of Terms and Conditions
This website is operated by True Colombia Travel. Throughout the site, the terms “we”, “us,” “our,” and “TCT” refer to True Colombia Travel. All services are offered to you, the clients, upon your acceptance of all terms, conditions, policies and notices stated herein. Specific trip terms and conditions will be included in customized proposals sent to each client and will be considered binding upon verbal or written agreement to a proposal and receipt of a first payment (“deposit”). At that time, we will issue a booking confirmation with deliverables agreed upon in the proposal. Our contract with you is also subject to any airline terms and conditions, which you will agree to as part of the contract. All other terms of service and copyrights apply to all users of the site, including, without limitation, users who are browsers, vendors, customers, merchants, and/ or contributors of content. Use of any photo content found on the True Colombia Travel website or social media sites is strictly prohibited without written consent of True Colombia Travel.
Please read these Terms of Service carefully. By accessing or using any part of the site, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If these Terms of Service are considered an offer, acceptance is expressly limited to these Terms of Service. If any part of our service terms are found to be invalid or unenforceable then the remainder of the terms will remain valid and enforceable.
Colombian Law
As we are a Colombia-registered company, our contracts will be governed by Colombian law, although all contracts will be offered in the English language. Any dispute will be resolved in good faith with the customer but ultimately by Colombian arbitration and courts. Our terms do not affect clients’ statutory rights.
Website terms
By agreeing to these Terms of Service, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your country and state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority in your state or province of residence and you have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this site.
You may not use our products for any illegal or unauthorized purpose nor may you, in the use of the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright laws).
You must not transmit any worms or viruses or any code of a destructive nature.
A breach or violation of any of the Terms will result in an immediate termination of your Services.
Financial Terms
All payment terms and conditions are laid out in customized proposals. Initial deposits are not refundable, but subsequent payments are refundable based on terms within the travel agreements and payment terms may be negotiated based on agreement of terms by True Colombia Travel.
Protection of Personal Data
We absolutely will not use any personal data related to clients for any purposes other than the creation of client documents and proposals and for internal database use. True Colombia Travel will not share or sell any client data to third parties except when related to the booking of necessary reservations in connection with the compliance of our service contracts or wherein explicitly permitted by you. Any further inquiries about personal data obtained or used by TCT can be sent to info@truecolombiatravel.com
Website Content
We are constantly monitoring and improving our website and content. We hope to maintain consistent, accurate, and clear information, and we reserve the right to modify the contents of this site at any time. As prices for certain services (like hotels and flights) are often in flux we reserve the right to modify information as becomes necessary. In the case of any ongoing conversations with active and potential clients we will commit to alerting to any change of services or price in the swiftest reasonable amount of time. We do not use framing and are not responsible for any content, policies, nor services of any sites linked to or accessible from our website.
Services
Clients may purchase one of three products: (1) A bespoke and customized travel package that includes more than one full day of travel, including hotel and transport; (2) a planned package detailed on the website, which includes all internal travel, overnight accommodations, breakfasts and lunches, and activities; (3) a short-term menu of bespoke activities and/or transport negotiated between the client and True Colombia Travel and agreed upon in a bespoke contract. In the case of the third option detailed, our obligation is to provide reasonable accommodation and service. Your contract will be with True Colombia Travel, not a third party supplier.
Booking Terms
All trips are subject to availability. All bookings agreed upon are considered an offering to purchased discussed services. True Colombia Travel reserves the right to accept, refuse, and/or cancel services at any time. All agreed upon contracts and services will be executed in accordance with our highest standards, services, and reasonable skill to complete our obligations to you as stated in our Terms and Conditions. Bookings will only be considered valid and respected if made by persons aged eighteen years or older. For groups of two or more, payment terms must be met for each person in order to comply with terms and conditions. The initial deposit payment will be treated by us as confirmation that you have read, understand, and accept all of our Terms and Conditions. It is important that you provide us with all requested information and documentation and it is your responsibility to ensure that the information you provide us is correct.
Visual Data Release
By booking with True Colombia Travel you agree, unless expressly stated otherwise, that you allow True Colombia Travel to use any photos or video taken by TCT staff and representatives during your trip, in which you appear, for any and all media, promotional, and commercial materials including but not limited to our website, social media accounts, newsletters, and printed materials. We will only use your first name and country of residence as identifiers. We will never use your full name or personal information unless written permission is otherwise given. Additionally, any statements you provide to us by email, in writing, in response to surveys and questionnaires or on public review websites like TripAdvisor can be used by us on our website and in promotional and commercial materials with due effort made to protect your privacy and identify.
If you do not wish to be included in any of these materials you must write to us stating your wishes not to be included. After reception of your request we will remove your photos or information in the fastest reasonable manner. This request must be made within 30 days of your trip to prevent future printed materials or 30 days of posting on the internet.
Payment and Account Accuracy
A price for each bespoke tour will be given at the time of proposal. In the case in which you choose one of our suggested itinerary tour packages, a price will still be given after an initial conversation with the client. Depending on activities added or subtracted we reserve the right to adjust the price with the client’s knowledge until the time at which the proposal is agreed upon and deposit is placed. In order to secure a booking you will be required to pay us a non-refundable deposit of between 33% and 50% of the proposal price for each traveler. Dates for subsequent payments will be fixed within the final proposal and payment instructions. Depending on the amount of days booked before travel, we may require a deposit in excess of 50%. This is because several Colombian service providers (hotels, airlines, specific guides) often require a 100% up-front payment to secure a reservation. In order to secure many of these reservations we will also require legible copies of the passports of all travelers in your party at the time of the initial deposit. A scanned e-mail copy is fully acceptable. These documents will not be made available to anyone outside of our office staff, except where necessary to complete a reservation or activity. We will under no circumstances sell, share or otherwise compromise this information.
If due dates for payments are not adhered to nor otherwise and previously advised, we will treat the booking as cancelled by you and you will be liable to our cancellation fees as noted in our payment document (see changes or cancellation sections for more details). We accept payment via PayU (Visa, Mastercard) and transfer via PayPal’s international service Xoom. For any special or late delivery of documents for part of the client, an administration charge will be applied at cost of delivery or minimum of USD $35 per booking. Additional costs may be applied to any changes carried out by us at your request (see changes or cancellation sections for more details).
Booking
Should any change of pricing occur, clients will be notified prior to payment of the initial deposit. Any changes thereafter to the itinerary may include additional charges for which the client will be notified prior to confirming the itinerary. Proposal prices can be stated in United States Dollars ($ USD), British Pound-Sterling (£), Euros (€), or Colombian Pesos (COP).
We guarantee the price and itinerary agreed upon in the final proposal upon receipt of the initial deposit. However, any additional charges that result from increased transportation costs, itinerary changes, port fees, or fluctuations in the exchange rate may be passed on to the client. No additional charges will be passed on within two weeks of the scheduled date of departure.
We reserve the right to pass along any additional charges incurred during the trip as a result of client action including, but not limited to: extra luggage charges and other unforeseen transportation charges, extra charges incurred at hotels such as mini-bar usage, additional guide services not scheduled and agreed to in the proposal.
Our proposals include almost all costs except international travel, dinners, and visa fees.
Our proposals do not include personal client expenditures, hotel extras, extra transport of fees incurred by clients outside of scheduled tour events (free time), taxes of compulsory charges paid to the government at point of travel (apart from certain applicable port fees), regulatory bodies or airlines after you have booked, security charges, or extra travelers insurance by your part.
Final price and inclusions will be sent to you and confirmed by us at the time of booking.
Note: prices fluctuate depending on the number of people in the travel party. Different prices may be offered by True Colombia Travel to you depending on the number of people you may include in the booking. Certain numbers of people change certain price breaks so not all discounts will be equal. We reserve the right to apply further charges where the number of people booking falls below the amount required to offer a discounted rate. We also reserve the right to cancel or change the rate of travel if the number of people in a group lowers prior to the third and final payment.
Changes Made By the Client
In the case in which a member of your travel party cannot travel for any reason (including illness or death) we will gladly transfer their reservation to another person of your choosing as long as you notify us in writing and the person sends us travel information and a passport copy in reasonable time to make reservation changes. Should you request other changes to the itinerary after the initial booking process has been completed we will make a reasonable effort to meet your request but cannot guarantee the availability of changes. If a person from a booked group backs out after initial bookings are made, the group will still be responsible for fixed fees associated with the booking. All changes to the itinerary and/or travelers involved must be received in writing prior to making changes. Changes to groups will be authorized by a group leader, responsible for coordinating with True Colombia Travel. Changes to itinerary may cause extra fees that will be applied to the client(s). If a change is requested to an airline ticket or other transportation that cannot be changed, the client(s) will be responsible for the cost of the original ticket as well as the cost of a new ticket.
Cancellations Made By the Client
If you wish at any time to cancel all or part of your trip or that of anyone in your group after the initial deposit has been made, you must provide us your wishes in writing. A group leader must do so in the case of a group.
Unless otherwise stated, we will assess the following rules to payments:
- The initial non-refundable deposit
- A second payment that is 50% refundable as long as the trip is canceled 60 days or more ahead of travel date.
- A final payment that is 75% refundable as long as the trip is canceled 30 days or more ahead of travel date.
We must assume costs of reservations as soon as you make your deposit. For that reason you must compensate us for any losses and expenses incurred as a result of cancellation by your part as outlined by the bullet points above. We recommend that you purchase insurance to cover cancellation.
Cancellations Made By True Colombia Travel
We will do everything within our reasonable power to ensure the trip which we have contracted with you. As operational norms in Colombia are often unpredictable, we may be faced with unforeseen closures of certain attractions, faced with particular holidays that affect travel and availability, and other changes that often affect travel in the country. As we work to make your reservations as much in advance as possible it is not uncommon for us to be faced with the necessity to alter parts of the itinerary. We reserve the right to make these changes in the best interest of the client, and will keep the client abreast of changes that occur.
Changes that occur are often minor but at times may create “major” shifts to the itinerary. A “major” change is any one which results in a fundamental change to the itinerary and terms of the contract, including but not limited to: price changes, departure airports, destination changes, downgrade in hotel, decrease or increase of trip times by more than 12 hours. Any “minor” changes include everything else that does not fundamentally change the contract. We will attempt alert you to any changes as soon as reasonably possible, although we withhold the obligation to alert clients as some changes are minor and alerts would be cumbersome or a potential nuisance to the ease of conversation.
We are not obligated to compensate you for any minor changes made. However, if we have to make a major change we will notify you as soon as possible and offer the following options:
- Agree to any changes and price shifts and continue as planned;
- Change the itinerary altogether, change parts of the trip or change the dates (based on availability);
- Reduce the length or scope of the trip and receive a partial refund;
- Cancel the trip altogether and receive a refund on all funds paid by you to us above the cost of the initial deposit.
In the event that the trip must be canceled for reasons within our reasonable control, we will refund to you the full price paid for the trip.
We will not compensate or accept liability for changes that occur beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to: strikes, lock-out or labor disputes, natural disasters, war, riots, civil unrest, malicious damage, change in laws, shutting of transportation systems, accidents, adverse weather conditions or fires that affect airports or travel links and operations, flight delays, air traffic control issues, siege or acts of terrorism or other security alerts.
True Colombia Travel’s Liability to Clients
First and foremost we accept full responsibility for ensuring the terms and plans outlined in the proposal and itinerary arranged with each and every client and written in the final proposal and in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. In the case in which your actual trip does not meet your expectations or as you believe expectations created by the proposal, please alert us as soon as possible both in writing with specific details and via telephone: +1 (646) 569-9196 or +57 (300) 807-653 0. Where an international call will create an extra cost, writing will suffice.
We will make our best effort to keep our website up to date, however we cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. In cases in which itinerary details or proposal details are in conflict with information on the website, itinerary and proposal details will prevail.
As long as our service providers and local representatives are acting within our authority and following instructions, we accept responsibility for their actions. However, we do not accept responsibility for the actions of conductors, drivers, and/or pilots (airline pilots, boat captains, etc.) who are not directly contracted by us. We do not accept responsibility for any activities that are arranged by a third party. We also do not accept responsibility for losses that occur due to behavior of that are outside of our control (e.g. theft by an unknown).
We do not accept responsibility for physical ailments including injury, illness, death, income loss during a trip, damage, expense, cost claims that result from fault of someone in the travel party, fault of a third party unconnected to True Colombia Travel or the services contracted by us, or those actions beyond our suppliers’ control.
The total value of our liability to you in respect of all losses that might arise under or in connection with your trip booked through us, whether by breach of contract, tort, or otherwise, shall not exceed the value of your booking including taxes. Furthermore, nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall limit or exclude our liability where such exclusion is not permitted under applicable law.
Clients’ Liability to True Colombia Travel
Clients should check with their respective countries to find out which vaccinations are recommended before travel to Colombia. We recommend at minimum, Yellow Fever. It is the responsibility of each and every client to receive any vaccination on their own and at their own expense, and in certain cases, including, but not limited to, travel to the Amazon, to demonstrate proof of vaccination or written waiver of refusal to True Colombia Travel. It is also the responsibility of each client to have a valid and good standing passport with appropriate visas and ample free pages. Several countries require your passport to have two blank pages for a visa stamp and that your passports have at least 6 months left prior to expiration. If you are traveling to more countries on your trip other than Colombia, you may need to have even more pages blank. If you are unsure about the number of pages needed we recommend calling your local passport office or applying for a new passport. Women who are at least 28 weeks pregnant at time of travel must have a signed doctor’s certificate confirming that they are secure to travel. We are not liable for any costs, delays, or illness that may result from your failure to meet these requirements.
If you have existing medical conditions, disabilities, or dietary requirements, we request that you let us know during the proposal stage so that we can better plan the trip based on your convenience and so that we can be prepared in the case of emergency. If a new diagnosis should come up that may affect your trip or your safety you should tell us before departure. We are not responsible for any refusal by any purveyor of transport who refuses service to you as a result of any medical condition or disability.
You and your travel party are responsible for your behavior and attitude. We and anyone we work with reserve the right to refuse service, booking, boarding, the right to travel, the right to continue travel or transport, accommodation or any other part of the trip if you or any member of your party is out of control, abusive, or under the influence of excessive alcohol or drugs; if you are, or we believe you are, in the possession of illegal drugs, are behaving violently, disruptively, dangerously or otherwise irresponsible in any manner whatsoever which presents a risk to others or is causing an unreasonable distraction or annoyance to others. In such cases, no refund or compensation will be paid and no costs or expenses for which you incur or are found responsible and liable will be covered or paid by True Colombia Travel. You may also become the subject of police investigation and liable for any criminal offense in Colombia or any other country with jurisdiction with respect to the alleged activity. You must fully cooperate with and follow any safety instructions or steps given by any guide or organization responsible for the activities you do during your trip. For some extreme sports or activities, the host organization may require you to sign a waiver form.
Although we will do everything in our power to ensure a safe and wonderful trip, accidents and problems can happen. If you experience any issues that are not immediately resolvable by the hotel or guide you are with, please contact your accompanying representative of True Colombia Travel, or contact one of the owners whose numbers are programmed into the cell phone you are given at the beginning of the journey. And you can always reach us within Colombia, 24-hours a day, at (+57) 300-807-6530. We ask that you please do tell us issues as they arise so we can work to improve your trip. If you tell us afterwards we will be unable to help. With any medical emergency you should first notify your travel insurance company on their 24-hour emergency number. If you cannot reach them please let us know and we will work to reach them as soon as possible. In some cases we will take out additional medical insurance for you. In case of emergency or need let us know and we will contact the service on your behalf.
As the economy and terrain of Colombia changes immensely throughout the country, some destinations will provide drastically different local conditions than others. In some places local customs are not as punctual and detail oriented as we are. We do our best to ensure that every plan is followed as closely as possible including several calls to each place and sending someone early to confirm in person. That said, culture and mistake at times win out and may cause delays or slight changes to plan. We ask that you have a positive attitude and take everything in stride as we promise in the end a very memorable and fun trip.
Dissatisfaction and Complaints
If you feel that the service provided is not meeting your expectations, you are not satisfied, or you have a general issue with the service, please immediately inform the local representative traveling with you or call co-founder Brian Schon directly at (+57) 807-6530. You can also reach us via our New York line at +1 (646) 569-9196. We will do everything in our power to improve and find a satisfactory solution for your issue(s). We believe that it is unreasonable to withhold a complaint until after your trip and then write a letter of complaint without trying to resolve the issue in person at the time of the problem. If you attempt to solve the issue and cannot, or if the issue cannot be resolved locally, and you still wish to file a complaint, you must send full details in writing to True Colombia Travel within 30 days of your return along with any relevant booking information. Please keep your letter pithy and direct and communicate any complaints to any local providers as well as to our representatives at TCT without delay. If you do not complete this process we will not have the opportunity to directly investigate the issue and solve the problem during your trip. If we do not have this opportunity it may affect your rights under this contract, meaning we may reduce or not compensate you if it was merited.
Insurance
True Colombia Travel will not provide you with travelers insurance nor medical extraction unless in the case where explicitly and otherwise stated. You are responsible for fully insuring your trip with us and must make sure that all of the activities you will be doing are covered by your insurance election. At the time of booking we will provide you with recommendations for travel insurance companies. The insurance you elect should include adequate cancellation insurance up to the value of your trip, emergency evacuation and repatriation costs covering your activities. If you choose insurance services provided by your credit card, please check the terms. Many services only offer minimum coverage and have many excluded activities. Some insurers offer specific insurance related to cancellation, delay, and abandonment due to natural causes. You can purchase this insurance as a stand-alone policy or as an add-on to other policies.
Updates
We will update our Terms and Conditions over time. Those which apply to any booking you make with us are those that will apply to your trip. At times, we may apply other Terms and Conditions to special promotions or prices. These will be notified to clients at the time of booking.
Copies
You can always find our Terms and Conditions here on our website via links off our main pages: www.truecolombiatravel.com where you are free to print off a copy for your records. By continuing with any booking you state that you have read and agreed to our Terms and Conditions. © True Colombia Travel, S.A.S. 2017. All rights reserved. Date of issue: February 2017.