Booking Terms & Conditions

A journey is reserved on receipt of a signed booking confirmation and a deposit of 35% of the journey price. The deposit becomes non-refundable upon our written booking confirmation, which we issue when your arrangements are confirmed with our partners. All arrangements are subject to availability until the deposit is received. Quoted prices are guaranteed for 14 days from the proposal date; after 14 days we will gladly re-quote at prevailing rates. Airfare on the Kathmandu–Paro sector remains adjustable until ticketing, per §3.

Where a booking is made through a marketplace partner or travel platform, that platform's payment schedule applies to the collection of funds, and these terms apply to cancellation except where the platform's own guest terms expressly provide otherwise for that booking.

The balance is due 90 days before departure. Bookings made inside 90 days are payable in full at confirmation. If the balance is not received when due, we will notify you in writing and allow 5 business days to complete payment; if payment is not received within that period, the booking is treated as cancelled by you under §4.

Prices are in US dollars, per person, double occupancy, as published — identical across every channel. Included and excluded items are exactly as your journey's itinerary document states. Bhutan's Sustainable Development Fee is included and stated plainly. After confirmation, prices adjust only for government-imposed changes (SDF, park fees, taxes) or airfare changes on the Kathmandu–Paro sector before ticketing — never for our own costs. Government-imposed increases of less than $100 per person are absorbed by us and never invoiced.

All cancellations must be in writing and take effect on receipt. The following amounts are retained, per person:

These amounts are a genuine pre-estimate of the losses we incur when a private journey is cancelled: committed supplier and permit costs accrue progressively from confirmation, and a private departure — built for your party, on your dates — becomes progressively harder, and finally impossible, to resell as departure approaches. We reserve the right to state stricter cancellation terms for festival-window departures in the journey proposal.

There is no refund for unused services, late arrival, or voluntary departure from a journey in progress. A descent or evacuation directed by your expedition leader for safety reasons (§8) is not a cancellation by us, and services unused as a result are treated under this section.

One date change per booking is free of our fees when requested more than 90 days before departure, for a new departure within 12 months of the original date, subject to availability and to any difference in supplier or airfare costs. Further date changes and any name changes are re-bookings, accommodated at our discretion and at any cost difference.

If we cancel a journey before departure for reasons within our control, we will refund every payment you have made to us in full. That refund is your exclusive remedy for such a cancellation.

If a named lodge or service becomes unavailable, we will substitute one of equivalent category. Substitution of equivalent category is not grounds for cancellation under §4.

Your journey is delivered with independent local suppliers — lodges, airlines, helicopter operators, and ground teams — whom we select with care but do not own or control. To the fullest extent permitted by law: our total liability for any claim arising from a booking is limited to the amounts you have paid us for that booking; and we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, including international airfare, visa costs, or lost income. Nothing in these terms limits liability for gross negligence or willful misconduct, or excludes rights that applicable law does not allow to be excluded.

Helicopter operations are weather-dependent and flown under Nepal CAA protocols. The Everest Base Camp/Kala Patthar morning and the Everest View breakfast are scheduled early in each journey's window so that a weather-lost flight can be rebooked within the journey at no charge. If weather defeats every window, we refund the helicopter component's published value.

If events beyond anyone's control — closures, strikes, natural events, government action — affect a journey before departure or in progress, we first re-route or re-schedule. Where neither is possible, refunds are limited to the amounts we recover from suppliers on your behalf.

Comprehensive travel insurance including helicopter evacuation cover is required for every journey we operate, in Nepal and in Bhutan. Cover must include emergency medical expenses of at least US$100,000 per person, helicopter evacuation and repatriation, and must extend to the maximum altitude stated in your itinerary. Your insurer's name, policy number, and confirmation of evacuation cover must be on file with us before final documents are issued. We hold these details for operational use only. Trip-cancellation cover is strongly recommended and priced for exactly the schedule in §4. A signed Assumption of Risk & Release (§12) is likewise a condition of travel.

Each itinerary states its journey's physical character plainly, including altitude profile and daily demands. Before final documents are issued, each guest completes a short medical questionnaire, which we review individually; where questions arise we may ask for physician confirmation rather than decline a booking. Our altitude protocols — pulse oximetry, supplemental oxygen, evacuation coordination — are safety measures, not medical care. The expedition leader's decisions on altitude and safety are final and are applied individually, based on conditions and each guest's presentation. A leader-directed descent or evacuation is not a cancellation by us (§4).

Passports must be valid 6 months beyond return. The Nepal visa is the guest's responsibility (we provide guidance); the Bhutan visa is included and processed by us. Guests are responsible for reaching the journey start, and we recommend arriving a day early. Domestic flight disruption within Nepal is managed and re-booked by our Kathmandu operations at no charge — re-booking costs are ours; where disruption forces changes to the journey itself, those changes are addressed under §6.

Curated Ascents LLC (Carmel, Indiana) is the tour operator; services are delivered with our long-standing partners in Nepal and Bhutan. Where a booking is made through a travel advisor, the advisor acts as the guest's agent for the booking, and these terms apply to the guest identically; advisor commission does not alter guest pricing. Where a booking is made through a marketplace platform, §1's collection provision applies.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Indiana. Before formal proceedings, tell us the problem in writing — we commit to responding within 5 business days and to trying, in good faith, to resolve it directly within 30 days. Any legal action arising from these terms or a booking must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Hamilton County, Indiana, and both parties waive trial by jury. If you dispute a card charge, we ask that you contact us first; we cooperate fully with card-network processes and will provide complete documentation of the booking.

Conditions of travel. Evidence of insurance (§7) and each guest's signed Assumption of Risk & Release are conditions of travel; final documents issue only when both are on file.

Entire agreement & precedence. These terms, your journey's itinerary document, and your signed booking confirmation are the entire agreement. If they conflict: the booking confirmation governs the commercial particulars of your booking (journey, dates, party, price); the itinerary document governs inclusions and exclusions; these terms govern everything else.

Electronic dealings. A booking confirmation, questionnaire, or release signed or accepted electronically has the same force as ink.

Refunds. Any refund due is made to the original payment method within 14 business days of our written confirmation of the amount.

Amendments; assignment; notices. Changes to these terms bind a booking only if agreed in writing. You may not assign a booking without our consent (see §4 for name changes). Notices are valid by email — to us at the address on your booking confirmation; to you at the address you provide.

Severability & survival. If any provision is unenforceable, the remainder stands. Sections 4, 5, 11, and 12 survive completion or cancellation of a journey.

No third-party beneficiaries. These terms benefit only you and us.