Booking
Terms & Conditions
Terms and Conditions
for Individual Travelers (FITS)
- Who you are contracting with
Your contract is with Academie des Arts de Vivre Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17348779), whose registered office is at 10 Barley Mow Passage, Chiswick, London W4 4PH, United Kingdom (“AAV”, “we”, “us”, “our”). All bookings are made with, and paid to, AAV in the United Kingdom. “You” and “your” mean all travelers named on the booking. The person who makes the booking (the “Lead Traveler”) confirms that they are authorized to accept these Terms on behalf of everyone in the party, that everyone named is aged 18 or over or has parental consent, and that they are responsible for all payments due.
- Your package and our responsibility
The combination of travel services we arrange for you is a package within the meaning of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 (the “Regulations”). AAV is the organiser of your package and is fully responsible for the proper performance of all travel services included in your contract, as required by the Regulations. When you are ready to book, we will email you our invoice, our Booking Form, these Terms and the standard information form required by the Regulations.
Flights to and from Europe or the United Kingdom are not part of our packages. You arrange these flights yourself, and their terms and conditions are a matter between you and the airline. Where we include a flight within Europe or the United Kingdom in your trip, it will be listed in your Itinerary and forms part of your package.
- Quotations and how your contract is formed
Our quotations and draft itineraries are proposals only. Accommodation, guides, drivers, restaurants and other services shown in a quotation are not reserved or held until your booking is confirmed. To book, please return the completed and signed Booking Form to us by email and pay the deposit shown on our invoice. A binding contract is formed only when we have received both your signed Booking Form and your deposit. We will then confirm your booking to you by email. Your contract consists of these Terms, your signed Booking Form, our invoice and the Itinerary.
Please check your Booking Form and Itinerary carefully and tell us immediately if anything is incorrect.
- What is included
Accommodation, room types, meals, transfers, ground transportation, guides, entrance tickets and other services are as specified in your Itinerary. Anything not listed there is not included.
The trip price does not include passports, visas and other travel documents; flights and excess baggage charges; travel insurance; gratuities for guides, drivers, hotel staff and others (which are at your discretion); and personal expenses such as drinks not specified, laundry, telephone calls and minibar items.
City or tourist taxes charged by hotels are included in the trip price.
- Special requests and accessibility
Please tell us about any special requests at the time of booking, including dietary requirements, room preferences or celebrations. We will pass these to the relevant suppliers and do our best to meet them, but cannot guarantee them unless we have confirmed them to you in writing.
If you or anyone in your party has a medical condition, disability or reduced mobility which may affect your trip, please tell us before you book so that we can advise on the suitability of the itinerary and make any reasonable arrangements.
- Prices and payment
Our trip price is quoted as a single total covering the services listed in your Itinerary, including our planning,
handling and operating costs. Prices are quoted in euros for trips in mainland Europe and in pounds sterling for trips in the United Kingdom.
A deposit of 50% of the trip price is payable to confirm your booking. The balance is payable no later than 60 days before your departure date. If you book within 60 days of departure, the full trip price is payable at the time of booking. If we do not receive the balance on time, we may treat your booking as cancelled by you and apply the cancellation charges in clause 9.
We accept payment by credit card (Visa, Mastercard or American Express) and by bank transfer. We will advise you of the most suitable payment method when you book. If you pay by bank transfer, please email us the date of payment. Where the law allows, a credit card fee of 3% will be added to payments made by credit card, to cover the charges we pay to the card companies; this fee will not exceed our actual cost and will be shown on your invoice before you pay. No fee is charged for payment by bank transfer. You are responsible for any bank charges and currency conversion charges made by your own bank or card issuer.
- Price changes after booking
Once your booking is made, we will only increase the price as a direct result of changes in taxes or fees imposed by third parties not directly involved in providing your package, such as tourist taxes. We will absorb, and you will not be charged for, any such increase up to 2% of the trip price; if the increase is more than 2%, you will be charged only the amount above 2%. In the same way, if such changes reduce our costs by more than 2% of the trip price, you are entitled to a reduction of the amount above 2%, less our actual administrative costs.
We will not increase the price within 20 days of your departure date. We will notify you of any increase on a durable medium, with an explanation and calculation. If an increase exceeds 8% of the trip price, you may accept it or cancel your booking and receive a full refund of all money paid, within 14 days. - Changes to your booking
Changes you request. If you wish to change your booking after it is confirmed, we will do our best to help, but
cannot guarantee that the change will be possible. You must pay any costs charged by our suppliers as a result.
Transferring your booking. You may transfer your booking to another person who meets all the conditions of the trip, provided you give us written notice at least 7 days before departure. You and the new traveler are jointly responsible for any balance due and any reasonable additional costs, which we will confirm to you.
Changes we make. Your trip is tailor-made and depends on many independent suppliers, so we may occasionally need to make changes. Minor changes, such as replacing a guide or a restaurant with one of equivalent standard, may be made at any time and we will tell you as soon as possible. If we have to make a significant change to a main feature of your trip before departure, we will tell you without undue delay and you may: accept the change; accept a substitute trip of equivalent or higher quality if we offer one; or cancel and receive a full refund of all money paid, within 14 days. If the change results in a trip of lower quality or cost, you are entitled to an appropriate price reduction. You may also be entitled to compensation (see clause 11), except where the change is due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances.
Schedule overruns. Your guide and driver hours are as set out in your Itinerary. If you ask to extend services
beyond these hours during your trip, additional charges may apply, which we or your guide will agree with you
beforehand. - If you cancel
You may cancel your booking at any time before departure by notifying us in writing. Cancellation takes effect on the date we receive your notice. Because we commit to suppliers on your behalf once your booking is confirmed, the following cancellation charges apply, calculated on the total trip price.
Where a supplier’s own non-refundable terms apply to a specific item, such as a flight within Europe once ticketed or tickets for special events, and we have told you so in writing before you booked, the cost of that item is non-refundable in addition to the charges above. You may cancel without paying a cancellation charge if unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at or near your destination significantly affect the performance of your trip, for example where the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against all but essential travel to your destination. In that case you will receive a full refund of all money paid, within 14 days. We strongly recommend travel insurance with cancellation cover (see clause 15).
| Notice received before departure | Cancellation charge |
| 91 days or more | 25% of the trip price (half of your deposit) |
| 90 to 61 days | 50% of the trip price |
| 60 to 46 days | 75% of the trip price |
| 45 days or less | 100% of the trip price |
- If we cancel
We may cancel your booking before departure if you fail to pay any amount due, or if we are prevented from
performing the contract by unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, in which case we will tell you without undue delay. If we cancel for any reason other than your non payment, we will refund all money you have paid within 14 days. Compensation will be payable unless the cancellation is due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances.
- Our liability to you
We are responsible for ensuring that the travel services included in your contract are performed as agreed, whether we or our suppliers provide them. If any service is not performed in accordance with your contract, we will remedy it unless that is impossible or would involve disproportionate cost. You may be entitled to an appropriate price reduction and compensation for any damage you suffer as a result.
We will not be liable where the failure is: attributable to you or a member of your party; attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of the travel services included in your contract, and the failure is unforeseeable or unavoidable; or due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances.
Except in cases of death, personal injury, or damage caused intentionally or negligently, our liability to you will not exceed three times the total trip price. Where an international convention or EU or UK regulation limits the amount of compensation a supplier of a travel service must pay, our liability will be limited in the same way. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees or suppliers, or any liability which cannot be limited or excluded by law.
For the purposes of these Terms, “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” means a situation beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, such as war, terrorism, civil unrest, natural disaster, serious health risks, adverse weather or industrial action by third parties.
- Problems during your trip and complaints
If you experience a problem during your trip, you must tell your guide, the relevant supplier and us without undue delay, so that we have the opportunity to put it right. Our contact details, including an emergency number, are in the email we send when your booking is made and on your Itinerary. If you do not report a problem at the time, it may affect your rights, as we will not have been able to resolve it.
If a problem cannot be resolved during your trip, please write to us within 28 days of your return. We will
acknowledge your complaint promptly and aim to respond in full within 10 days.
Refunds are not made for services which are available to you but which you choose not to use.
- Assistance
If you are in difficulty during your trip, including in unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, we will give you appropriate assistance without undue delay, such as information on health services, local authorities and consular assistance, and help with alternative arrangements. We may charge a reasonable fee for this assistance if the difficulty is caused intentionally or negligently by you.
- Your responsibilities
You are responsible for: holding a valid passport, with at least six months’ validity beyond your return date and
sufficient blank pages, and any visas or entry authorizations required for every country you visit, including any
electronic travel authorization required for the UK or the Schengen area; seeking advice from your doctor on any health precautions; checking current travel advice from your own government before you travel; and behaving in a way that does not cause danger, distress or damage to others. We may end the trip of anyone whose behavior puts others at risk or causes serious disruption, without refund, and you will be responsible for any resulting costs.
- Travel insurance
We strongly recommend that every traveler takes out comprehensive travel insurance before booking, covering at least cancellation and curtailment, medical expenses including evacuation and repatriation, personal baggage and personal liability.
- Your baggage and belongings
Baggage handling is provided only where stated in your Itinerary. You are responsible for your baggage and personal belongings at all times, except where loss or damage is caused by our negligence or that of our suppliers.
- Photographs and your personal data
We would love to share photographs from your trip, but we will only use photographs in which you can be identified for promotional purposes with your prior written consent, which you may withdraw at any time.
We handle your personal data in accordance with UK data protection law and our Privacy Policy, available at
www.aavluxurytravel.com/privacy-policy. We share your details with suppliers only as needed to provide your trip.
- Law and disputes
These Terms and your contract are governed by the law of England and Wales. If a dispute arises, please contact us first so that we can try to resolve it. If we cannot resolve your complaint, we will give you details of a certified alternative dispute resolution provider and tell you whether we agree to use it. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with your contract or your trip, except that if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in your local courts.