Insurance Matters
Extreme Bike Tours ‘Terms & Conditions‘ state that it is mandatory to have an insurance to join a motorcycle tour (point “3.4 Insurance”). Here’s is the extract: “It is mandatory to have a comprehensive insurance policy cover for your tour. The following should be covered by your insurance policy travel, trip cancellation, medical expenses, personal accident and repatriation cover, general liability and damage or loss of luggage, money and public liability before registering for the tour.” You should therefore purchase a travel insurance policy as soon as you confirm your booking. We usually recommend worldnomads.com – which is the one we personally use – but you don’t necessarily need to use the same company and their policy may not apply to you. Regardless of the company you decide to use, you need to know that there are plans with different types of coverage. Here are the most important and that we strongly suggest to have: Emergency Medical Evacuation – covers evacuation to the nearest hospital in case of emergency. Travel Medical Insurance – covers costs for medical needs. Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) – covers any cost incurred in case a trip has been cancelled for any reason, whether by you or the operator. An important note: recently we wrote about deposits and refunds on an article and although we are very reasonable, the Terms & Conditions state that deposits are non-refundable and therefore being covered with the CFAR option is the best way to ensure you don’t lose your money in case of cancellation. If you are a frequent traveler it might be a good option to sign up for an Annual Travel Insurance which covers multiple trips in the same year. MAKE SURE that the insurance covers motorcycle trips. In a particular situation, you might not be able to travel due to a negative travel advisory. For example, Australia – like many other countries – has currently warned against traveling to China. Our tour in Tibet is in part of China and if by the time of the tour the travel advisory has not been lifted and you decide to cancel your trip, your insurance should cover the cancellation. So when you sign up, make sure you have this option included. World Nomads for example offers this coverage. Here’s an extract: “Am I covered if the published warning is ‘Do Not Travel’ Here’s a guide to give you an idea: 1. A warning is in place before you buy a policy (whether you have travel expenses or not):No cover 2. A warning is published after you buy a policy and before you have booked travel or incurred expenses: No cover 3. A warning is published after you buy a policy and after you have booked travel or incurred expenses (before you leave home): There is cover for cancellation or rearrangement costs for affected travel services which were purchased before the warning was issued, under the terms of your policy. 4. A warning is published after you buy a policy, and if you are already travelling in an affected area and have incurred expenses: There is cover for cancellation or rearrangement costs for affected travel services which were purchased before the warning was issued, under the terms of your policy. 5. If you choose to travel to a region despite published warnings:No cover” If you would like to read the whole article click here: “Am I covered by travel insurance if there’s a travel warning in place?“ Questions? Leave a comment below.
What happens to my deposit if….
Unpredictable events, tour cancellation, security deposits & refunds Unfortunately this year we are witnessing the spread of the Coronavirus. Quite rightly, some of our customers raised a few concerns and asked about the situation with upcoming tours. Last year in April we had a terrible event in Sri Lanka – where we are based – and this affected all the tourism in the country as well as some of our tours. Luckily, nothing else has happened and Sri Lanka has returned to its normal island life in a very short period. This time we cannot yet say what’s going to happen but we are optimistic and all the 2020/2021 scheduled tours are confirmed. These kind of events are unpredictable but if we take a look at the recent global history, there has been precedents that were contained (SARS, MERS, etc.). Nevertheless, we have to be realistic and any of the tours could be cancelled last minute or you could not feel comfortable enough to travel. The question is: What happens to the deposit? Since this is a very important topic, we’d like to take the opportunity to explain how we handle deposit refund requests. By our Terms & Conditions (“Point 3.6 Booking charges, cancellations and refunds”), generally deposits are non-refundable unless we cancel a tour. However as many of our customers can confirm, we are very reasonable and evaluate case by case. Here are the main scenarios: We cancel the tour. We will refund the deposit in full but if you are still keen to do a different tour or the same the next year with us, we will keep the funds as deposit for the tour of your choice and offer you a discount on the second tour. You decide to cancel your trip. Cancellation with 4+ months in advance If you notify us 4 or more months in advance, most likely we haven’t yet made payments to hotels, logistics, etc. and we will be happy to listen to your reason for the cancellation and decide whether to refund you or not. In general if there are all the conditions for you to do the ride and it’s just a personal decision, we won’t be able to refund you but we will propose you to use the same deposit for another tour. If the reason for cancelling the tour is something out of your control we will refund you (eg. Travel insurance will not cover your trip due to unpredictable events such as the current Coronavirus situation). Alternatively you can keep the funds with us for another tour or the same tour next year. Naturally the latter would be our preferred option: we would still love to have you on a tour with us. Cancellation with less than 4 months in advance If you decide to cancel with less than 4 months in advance, we will not be able to refund you. By then we would have most likely done all the arrangements and it will not possible to obtain refunds from hotels and other parties that make our motorcycle adventures possible. To compensate however, we will offer you a discount on a different tour and that will cover part of the original deposit. Extraordinary Scenarios Unfortunately we are not able to foresee all possible scenarios and there might be situations which are not covered by our refund policy. In such a case just contact us and we will do our best to find a solution, whether that is a full or partial refund, a discount or even a flight fare. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and we will reply as soon as we turn off our bike engines. Ps. Don’t forget to have a look at our upcoming motorcycle tours
Bhutan: A few important points to consider
As we regularly receive questions regarding the nature of our Bhutan motorcycle tour and what differs from the motorcycle adventures offered by other tour operators, we decided to put together this article to answer some of the frequently asked questions. “Why do we start in India?”, “why is this tour so expensive?” or “what kind of accommodation do we use?”. So if you are considering a ride in Bhutan and evaluating your options, hopefully you will find this useful. Starting from New Delhi, India Many other motorcycle tour operators start directly in Paro which is the only Bhutanese international airport. This would add additional cost to a customer’s international flight, and limit the flexibility of the schedule due to the number of flights available. If flying in and out of Paro it would also constrain the route and miss out on some great riding from the border. As we ride in a large group with people coming from different corners of the world, it could really become difficult for everyone to get to Paro at the same day/time and within budget. For these reasons we start our Bhutan Motorcycle Tour in Delhi. There are flights from everywhere in the world and the internal flights to Bagdogra near the border are plentiful should we need to change them for any reason. There are also many flights to Delhi from Guwahati, having ridden across Bhutan from West to East, allowing us a certain amount of flexibility. All of these internal flights are covered by us. Also for those of you who have not experienced India it does also allow a possible extension to the trip to explore Delhi or further a field… Accommodation We grade the Bhutan tour as “Intermediate”. We ride an average of 4-6 hours a day on different type of roads, sometimes these are very good while in other instances they can become a bit bumpy. After a long day riding you would definitely want to spend your evening having a beer and relaxing before dinner in a nice comfortable hotel or guesthouse getting a good night sleep and being ready for the next day’s ride. A lot can be said about the hotels but what is better than having a look? So here are a few images of the hotels/stays of our choice. *Note: hotels may change depending on availability however we always have backup solutions of the same level. Bhutan is Expensive Bhutan has been historically a country closed to foreigners until 1974, when the government decided to promote tourism in an effort to disclose the Bhutanese culture and traditions while improving the country’s economy. The government however did not simply open the doors of Bhutan and implemented a particular rule – unique in the world – by charging visitors a daily fee of US $200 in off-season and US $250 in peak-season. If you wanted to do a 10 days tour, you would end up spending US $2000 or US $2500 depending on the season. Here is a video of Drew Binsky who is currently travelling the world and explains the reasons behind this expensive tax: The fee however is not simply a “tourist tax” or a “visa fee” as standard accommodation and meals will be provided by the local tour operator of your choice, they might not be the best but you can always decide to do a paid upgrade for more quality. Independent travel is prohibited in Bhutan and anyone keen to visit the country must go through a local operator or an international partner of the Bhutanese recognized travel agency. On a side note, while the daily fee is quite high it is definitely a good initiative of the government as most of the revenue contributes to keep free education and healthcare. “Gross National Happiness” is the philosophy of this country and these services are certainly helping to achieve the national goal. Going back to why touring in Bhutan is expensive, if you think about it, putting together a motorcycle tour in Bhutan is definitely more expensive than a normal bus tour with a group of another 20-30 tourists. On top of the daily fee you need to add all the other involved costs: bike rentals & fuel, support vehicle, tour guide, mechanic, water & refreshments, internal flights and so on. Remember our tour is “all-inclusive”, everything is covered. On the other hand until last year our Bhutan Motorcycle tour rate for rider was US $6,950. After reviewing our itinerary and negotiating with our local partner we were able to reduce the price of US $1000, taking the price of this incredible adventure down to US $5,950. Real Riding & Exploring Have you checked out the itinerary? There is only one rest day on which we still ride out for a sightseeing tour really off the beaten track and one of our favorite days. For the rest of the tour we don’t stop more than one night in the same place. We keep riding and exploring this beautiful Himalayan Kingdom. This is a very important point because wherever you are flying from, you definitely want to use the available days to ride and see as much as possible and not simply ride around the same places for a few hours a day. If you have had a look at other tours you would notice that some itineraries are organized to stay more than one day in the same places. This means that on these tours you would probably be riding in the same area and eventually spend more time sightseeing rather than on the bike. Nothing wrong with that but we simply prefer to explore while riding and if that’s what you are looking for… look no further and get in touch if you have any questions! Check out the Bhutan motorcycle tour gallery!
