Travel Essentials

When you are preparing to travel with us the following information is essential

Airport Parking

Airport parking is now made easy thanks to Imaginative Traveller and Holiday Extras who have joined forces to bring you cheap airport parking online.
You can choose from all the UK main and regional airports and search for the best quote available to match your tour and flight dates. Book in advance and benefit from the special discounted prices brought to you courtesy of Imaginative Traveller and Holiday Extras.

Insurance

Imaginative Traveller can offer you comprehensive travel insurance cover specifically tailored to our travellers. This covers ALL our trips and activities.

All Imaginative Traveller clients must ensure they have adequate travel insurance cover before they embark on their tour. A suitable insurance policy should provide cover for medical expenses arising through illness or accident prior to or during your holiday and loss of holiday monies through cancellation or curtailment of the holiday for insurable reasons. For this reason it is important that you are insured from the moment you confirm your place on a trip so that your non-refundable deposit is also covered.

Please ensure that any insurance policy covers ALL activities you are likely to partake of during your travels. Imaginative Traveller’s policy covers ALL our trips and activities. On arrival at your destination you will be required to provide your Tour Leader with a copy of your insurance policy covering your period of travel with us. Without this information your Tour Leader will be unable to allow you to travel with the group. Please keep your insurance policy and emergency contact details with you at all times.

Imaginative Traveller also offer an annual multi-trip insurance – perfect for travellers taking more than one trip a year. Premiums are per adult or special rates for couples.

Note: Credit Card insurance.

Some Credit Card issuers provide insurance cover for their customers, however Imaginative Traveller is unable to accept this type of insurance cover as adequate enough to cover the requirements of the adventure traveller.

Visas

All travellers must research their personal visa requirements and obtain a visa in advance of travelling. We provide a useful visa chart showing which nationalities require visas to the destinations we operate in. Use this chart as a guideline only and please contact your own embassy for current visa information. Imaginative Traveller recommends www.travcour.com for all visa processing.

Your Financial Security

To ensure that your holiday arrangements are fully protected in accordance with EU regulations, all monies received as payment for holidays booked with Imaginative Traveller are immediately deposited into a 'Clients Trust Account'. They remain there until your holiday has been completed, or the service comprising your holiday has been paid in full by Imaginative Traveller. For Flight Inclusive holidays Imaginative Traveller holds an ATOL (Air Travel Organisers License (ATOL3986)

Imaginative Traveller provides you with financial security in partnership with Barclays Bank for all our online transactions. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Switch, Solo and Delta.

Booking in Advance

There are many reasons to book early not least because if you book 6 months or more in advance you qualify for a 5% discount!

Many of our more popular tours do get fully booked far in advance, especially those departing during peak seasons such as Christmas, Easter and the summer holidays.

Flights are also very busy during those times as well as other months specific to certain destinations – for example Nepal in October. Additionally, Jewels Of Brazil and Tango & Samba require airpasses which need to be booked early. Destinations with rather limited flight services from the UK include; Accra for Kingdoms Of Gold, Dakar for Treasures of Senegal & Gambia, Bamako for The Road to Timbuktu and Sanaa for Yemen Discovery. Usually the most economical fares sell out first so the earlier you book the cheaper the flight.

There are also certain trips which for operational reasons are often unavailable closer to departure – the Inca Trail in Peru, for example, has a limited number of permits which operate on a first come first served basis and are often sold out 6 months in advance. Other tours to book in advance would be Kilimanjaro in the summer, any Rio Carnival departures, the Nadaam Festival in Mongolia and Mali’s Festival au Desert.

Basically if you know the tour you want to join and have a specific date in mind then to avoid disappointment we urge you to book early.

Deposit

We require a deposit of £100.00 per person to hold a seat on any tour or flight inclusive package (with certain exceptions which may require higher amounts). An additional deposit of £100.00 is required if flights are booked outside of a flight inclusive package. Our booking conditions apply. The deposit can be paid securely online, by telephone, post or fax using debit, credit (surcharge applies), cheque or bank transfer.

Age Limit / Fitness Level

Within reason there is no age limit to travel with Imaginative Traveller although persons over 60 years of age may be asked to provide medical evidence of fitness to travel on certain itineraries. Unless booking our 'Family Adventures' the group adventure tours of Imaginative Traveller accepts no unaccompanied minors (those under 18 years of age). However, older teenagers (16 and older) may be considered provided they are accompanied by a parent or guardian who accepts full responsibility for them. Our booking conditions apply.

All clients are expected to satisfy themselves prior to booking that they are fit and able to complete the itinerary of their chosen tour as described in our itineraries. It is safe to say that our tours are designed for the more active traveller - but by no means are our tours strenuous. Some of the activities we include will require some form of medium fitness level. All trips which include trekking are graded easy to strenuous so you can check in advance if the trip is suitable for you.

What to Bring

To pass on our experience and suggestions on packing and many other aspects of preparing for your tour, we have designed 'trip dossiers'. They are intended to give you more insight into the tour itinerary and contain helpful information on subjects like packing, money, visas etc. You can find all trip dossiers tailored to each tour on the individual tour pages.

Medical Supplies

All our staff carry a First Aid kit for use only in emergencies. However this kit DOES NOT include any kind of oral medications. We recommend that you bring your own First Aid kit for your personal use. You can investigate this and other safety travel accessories at www.travelwithcare.com. Further information can be found on the FAQs pages.

Best Time to Go

Most of the destinations we offer are available year round. Some like Africa, India, and China are seasonal. Use our FAQs sections within every trip for further information.

Book Online

When you book online all correspondence is done via email. Please ensure you keep all correspondence relating to your online booking. Online bookings are directed to our Pre-Departure Information online. In line with our environmental stance we do not issue invoices and keep our paperwork to a minimum.

Flights

Imaginative Traveller tours are usually LAND ONLY and do not include flights. However, as an ATOL licensed one-stop tour operator we are very happy to book your flights for you as part of your booking and thus act as the link between your tour and flights. We have access to some superb discounts on airfares. We also advertise ‘flight inclusive’ deals via our monthly etracks – another reason to join our ever growing emailing-list.

Local Payment

This is a portion of the tour cost paid to your tour leader in cash at the start of your tour rather than being paid in advance. When added to the price you pay at the time of booking it makes up the total tour price. It is used by the Tour Leader for 'on the road' expenses. No local payment is required on our Special Adventures & Honeymoons or our Independent Tours & Extensions. Please see our FAQs section for more details.

Free Arrival Transfer

A large number of our tours include a free arrival transfer if you are arriving on Day One of the tour or have booked extra accommodation prior to the start of your trip.
If your tour does not include a free arrival transfer and you would like to book one to remove any stress out of your arrival please visit. To check if you are entitled to a free arrival transfer please refer to your trip dossier.

If you have not booked a flight inclusive package through us please email your full arrival information to bookings@imtrav.net. Once we confirm receipt we will meet you on arrival at your destination and provide your free arrival transfer (if applicable).
Note: If you do not provide us with your arrival details 30 days prior to your arrival date penalties will be incurred as per our Booking Conditions.

Booking Conditions

Our booking conditions form the basis of our contract with you. When booking online or with our sales team it is important that you have read the booking conditions and accept them on behalf of all members of your party by whom you are duly authorised to make this agreement. We would like particular attention to be given to clause 10 of the booking conditions where you certify that you and members of your party’s health and level of fitness are sufficient to complete the itinerary.