Booking Terms & Conditions
Last updated 26 July 2026
These Terms govern the sale of our expeditions. They sit alongside the Expedition Participation Agreement that every traveler signs individually. In short: a 50% deposit confirms your booking, the balance is due 45 days before departure, and cancellations are charged as set out in Section 6. Please read Section 6 and Section 8 carefully before you pay.
1. These Terms
These Booking Terms & Conditions ("Terms") govern the sale of expeditions and related travel services by Waypoint Journeys, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company ("Waypoint," "we," "us"). By paying a deposit or any part of the trip price, you ("you," "the traveler") confirm you have read, understood, and accepted these Terms on behalf of yourself and every traveler in your booking. These Terms work alongside our Expedition Participation Agreement, which each traveler signs individually; if the two conflict on a legal matter, the Participation Agreement controls, and these Terms control on booking and payment matters.
2. How Booking Works
We do not sell through an online checkout. A booking begins with a conversation — by email at info@wpjourneys.com or by WhatsApp — and is only confirmed when: (a) we send you a written confirmation and invoice for a specific expedition and departure, (b) you pay the deposit, and (c) every traveler returns a signed Expedition Participation Agreement (and any destination-specific acknowledgments we identify, such as the Pacific flight-delay acknowledgment or, for travelers aged 70+, the physician certification and senior addendum). Until all three are complete, no space is held and no contract exists.
3. Prices
Prices are quoted per person in US dollars and are confirmed on your invoice. Published "from" prices reflect the lowest available configuration and may change until you book. Once you have paid your deposit against a written invoice, the price of the services on that invoice is fixed, except for: (a) government-imposed taxes, fees, permits, or fuel/carrier surcharges introduced or increased after booking, and (b) changes you request. What each price includes and excludes is stated on the relevant expedition page and your invoice — international airfare to the start city is generally excluded, and some expeditions carry separately-stated charges (for example, the Socotra Jeddah charter and visa fees).
4. Payment
- Deposit: 50% of the total trip price, per person, due to confirm your booking.
- Balance: the remaining 50%, due 45 days before departure. For bookings made inside that window, full payment is due at the time of booking.
- Card processing fee: payments made by credit or debit card carry a 3% processing fee, applied to the amount being paid and shown separately on your invoice. Payment by bank transfer carries no fee.
- Accepted methods: bank transfer, or major credit and debit cards paid through the secure payment link on your invoice. We never take card or bank details by email or WhatsApp message; payment is made only through the secure link or instructions on your invoice.
- Missing a balance payment deadline may be treated as a cancellation by you (Section 6).
5. Changes You Request
If you ask to change your departure date, itinerary, or party after booking, we'll do our best to accommodate it and will quote any difference in cost plus a $150 per change administration fee, which we may waive at our discretion. Some frontier services (charters, permits, fixed departures) cannot be changed once secured; where that's the case, the affected amount is non-refundable.
6. If You Cancel
Cancellations take effect on the day we receive your written notice (email is fine). Because our expeditions run to remote destinations on small-group economics — permits, charters, and local partners are committed well in advance and cannot be resold — cancellation charges are unavoidable and apply as a percentage of the total trip price:
| Days before departure you cancel | Cancellation charge |
|---|---|
| 90 or more days | 50% of the total trip price — that is, your deposit |
| Fewer than 90 days | 100% of the total trip price |
In no case will the cancellation charge exceed the amount you have already paid us.
In plain terms: your deposit is not refundable, and once you are inside 90 days of departure a cancellation carries no refund. This is why we ask every traveler to consider cancellation insurance before booking — see Section 8.
Some charges (secured charter seats, non-refundable permits, single-supplement commitments) may be non-refundable earlier than the tiers above; we identify these on your invoice. If one traveler in a shared booking cancels, a single-supplement or reduced-group-size adjustment may apply to those who continue.
7. If We Change or Cancel
Minor changes and on-the-ground adaptation. Our destinations are remote, high, or weather-exposed, and conditions change. As our expedition pages state, the published day-by-day is the intended plan, not a fixed guarantee: when a route or activity isn't safely accessible, our local teams adapt and substitute an equally worthwhile alternative. This is a normal feature of expedition travel and is not a cancellation.
Major changes or cancellation by us. If, before departure, we must make a significant change (for example, a material change in the start or end city, or in the core experience) or cancel your expedition, you may choose: (a) to accept the alternative we offer, (b) to transfer to another expedition, paying or receiving any price difference, or (c) to receive a refund of the recoverable portion of what you have paid. Where we cancel for reasons within our control, we refund amounts paid for services we can still recover from suppliers; we are not able to refund amounts already committed and unrecoverable, and we are not liable for your independent costs such as international flights or visas — which is, again, why insurance matters.
Force majeure. We are not liable for failure to perform, or for changes or cancellation, caused by events beyond our reasonable control — including war, civil unrest, terrorism, government action or advisories, border or airspace closures, epidemic or pandemic, natural disaster, extreme weather, or supplier failure. In these cases refunds are limited to amounts we can recover from suppliers.
8. Insurance
Travel insurance is not required to join our expeditions. We recommend it highly, and we will say so more than once — but it is not a condition of travel. Choosing to travel without it will not stop you from joining a trip.
We suggest coverage in this order of priority: first, emergency medical treatment abroad and medical evacuation and repatriation — on remote routes this is the layer that matters most; then trip cancellation and interruption. For some destinations we will point out specific cover worth having, such as war-risk cover where it applies.
If you would rather travel uninsured, that is your decision and we will respect it. Signing the insurance declination election in the Expedition Participation Agreement simply records that choice and confirms you accept financial responsibility for costs the coverage would have met — evacuation from the places we travel can run into five or six figures. It is a record of your decision, not a hurdle we put in front of it.
One exception. Travelers aged 70 and over are subject to the Senior Participant Addendum, under which medical-evacuation and repatriation insurance is mandatory and cannot be declined.
We are not insurance brokers, we sell no policies, and we take no commission. We will tell you plainly what we think you need, and then leave the choice to you.
9. Passports, Visas, Entry & Health
You are responsible for holding a valid passport with sufficient validity and blank pages, and for meeting all visa, permit, vaccination, and entry requirements for your itinerary. We provide guidance, invitation letters, and permit support where we can (and for some destinations we arrange the entry approval that lets you board), but requirements and their processing times are set by governments and can change. Some destinations have firm entry rules we cannot override — for example, Syria refuses entry to travelers whose passports show evidence of a visit to Israel. Certain destinations require proof of specific vaccinations, such as yellow fever. If a missed requirement prevents you from traveling, cancellation charges under Section 6 apply.
10. Acknowledgment of Risk & Advisories
Many of our expeditions visit destinations that are the subject of government travel advisories, including, for some, "do not travel" advisories. We describe the security picture for each destination honestly on its expedition page and in our field guides, and we plan, monitor, and adapt accordingly — but travel to frontier destinations carries inherent risks that cannot be eliminated. The detailed assumption of risk, release, and limitation of liability are set out in the Expedition Participation Agreement each traveler signs; nothing in these Terms limits or replaces that agreement.
11. Conduct & Our Right to Decline
We may decline or remove a traveler whose behavior, health, or fitness, in our reasonable judgment, endangers the group, the traveler, our staff or partners, or the trip's viability, or who fails to meet a condition of travel (such as a signed Participation Agreement, or the evacuation insurance required of travelers aged 70 and over under Section 8). No refund is due in these cases, and any resulting costs are the traveler's responsibility.
12. Complaints
If something isn't right during your expedition, tell your guide or our on-the-ground team immediately so we can try to fix it in the moment. If it isn't resolved to your satisfaction, write to us at info@wpjourneys.com within 30 days of your return so we can look into it properly.
13. Liability
Our liability to you is as set out in the Expedition Participation Agreement, including its limitations and exclusions. To the extent any liability arises under these Terms and is not addressed there, it is limited to the amount you paid us for the specific service that gave rise to the claim, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses. Independent suppliers (airlines, hotels, local operators) are independent contractors, not our agents; we select them with care but do not operate them.
14. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your expedition that is not resolved informally will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable rules, seated in Wilmington, Delaware, on an individual basis only. You and Waypoint waive any right to a jury trial and any right to participate in a class or representative action. This mirrors the dispute-resolution provisions of the Expedition Participation Agreement; if a court finds any part of this section unenforceable, the remainder stays in effect and the balance of these Terms is unaffected. The English-language version of these Terms controls.
15. Privacy
We handle your personal information as described in our Privacy Policy.
16. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. The version in effect when you book is the version that applies to your booking.
Contact
Waypoint Journeys, LLC — info@wpjourneys.com
Legal notices: Waypoint Journeys, LLC, c/o Legalinc Corporate Services Inc. (registered agent), 131 Continental Drive, Suite 305, Newark, DE 19713, New Castle County, Delaware.