The following booking conditions together with the 'Essential Information' section, form the basis of your contract with Great Rail Journeys Limited. Please read them carefully as they set out our respective rights and obligations. By asking us to confirm your booking, we are entitled to assume that you have read these booking conditions and agree to them. References to "you" and "your" means all persons named on the booking (including anyone who is added or substituted at a later date), or any of them as applicable. References to "holiday", "booking", "tour" or "arrangements" means the holiday arrangements which we agree to make, provide or perform (as applicable) as part of our contract with you, unless otherwise stated.

The party leader is responsible for making all payments due to us as referred to in clause 2. Once we (or one of our authorised travel agents) have received all appropriate payments, we will, subject to availability, confirm your holiday over the telephone (where you or your travel agent make the booking by telephone) or by e-mailing or otherwise sending a booking confirmation letter/invoice to the person who makes the booking ("party leader"). Where you book through one of our authorised travel agents, the booking confirmation letter/invoice and all other communications will be sent to your agent and you should also contact us through the agent. Alternatively, you can book online via our website in which case your holiday booking will be acknowledged by e-mail and a booking confirmation will follow. The acknowledgement of your booking is not a confirmation of it. All references in these booking conditions to the confirmation of your booking means the booking confirmation letter/invoice. A provisional booking can be made by phone but you must send the applicable payment within 7 days, or the provisional booking will automatically lapse.

You are required to send us the appropriate deposit per person (as detailed on the relevant tour page) or full payment if booking within 60 days of departure (70 days for cruise and private train holidays) and all applicable insurance premiums (if our insurance is required) at the time of booking. In addition to the deposit applicable to the holiday, a further deposit is required of a minimum of 20% of the additional cost for any booking variations including flight and hotel upgrades. Please note, deposits are not refundable except where expressly stated in these booking conditions. The balance of the cost of your holiday must be paid no less than 60 days before departure (70 days for cruise and private train holidays). If you are paying by credit card, a charge of 2% will apply (no charge will be applied for payments made by cheque or debit cards). If a cheque payment is declined by your bank for any reason, a charge of £30 will be made. If you return your payment counterfoil before the date that payment is due, this authorises us to take payment early. If we do not receive all payments in full and on time, we are entitled to assume that you wish to cancel your booking. In this case, we will be entitled to keep all deposits paid or due at that date. If we do not cancel straight away because you have promised to make payment, you must pay the cancellation charges shown in clause 8 depending on the date we reasonably treat your booking as cancelled. Except for flight inclusive bookings, all monies you pay to one of our authorised travel agents for your holiday with us will be held by the agent on your behalf until a contract between us comes into existence. After that point, your agent will hold the monies on our behalf until they are paid to us. For flight inclusive bookings, all monies paid to such agents for your holiday with us will be held on our behalf until they are paid to us.

A binding contract between us comes into existence when we dispatch our confirmation invoice to the party leader or your travel agent. English law (and no other) will apply to your contract and to any dispute, claim or other matter of any description which arises between us ("claim") except as set out below. We both also agree that any claim (and whether or not involving any personal injury) must be dealt with under the ABTA or AITO Arbitration Schemes (if the Scheme is available for the claim in question - see clause 13) or by the Courts of England and Wales only unless, in the case of Court proceedings, you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland. In this case, proceedings must either be brought in the Courts of your home country or those of England and Wales. If proceedings are brought in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may choose to have your contract and any claim governed by the law of Scotland/Northern Ireland as applicable (but if you do not so choose, English law will apply).

Please note changes and errors occasionally occur. We reserve the right to increase/decrease and correct errors in advertised prices at any time before your holiday is confirmed. Before you make a booking, we will give you the basic price for your chosen holiday. You should check all details before you make your booking. Upgrades or additional facilities which you have requested are on a request basis with our suppliers and prices for these will only be confirmed once the prices have been confirmed by our suppliers. For all holidays, once you have accepted the basic price and a booking has been made, that price is fully guaranteed and will not be subject to any surcharges.

When we (or one of our authorised travel agents) receive all appropriate payments we will, subject to availability, reserve your chosen holiday and confirm your booking by sending our confirmation letter/invoice to you or your travel agent. It is very important that you check your confirmation letter/invoice when you receive it in order to ensure it is correct. Contact us immediately if any information which appears on the confirmation letter/invoice or any other document appears to be incorrect or incomplete as it may not be possible to make changes later. We regret we cannot accept any liability if we are not notified of any inaccuracy in any document within 14 days of our sending it out (5 days for tickets). We will do our best to rectify any mistake notified to us outside these time limits but you must meet any costs involved in doing so. The only exception to this requirement to meet costs is wherethe mistake in question was made by us and there is good reason why you did not tell us about it within these time limits.

Please notify us in writing if circumstances arise whereby you wish to transfer to another available holiday in this brochure, depart on a different date or make other alterations to your confirmed holiday. Any alterations requested 60 days or more (70 days or more for cruise and private train holidays) prior to departure will be subject to a minimum alteration fee of £40 per person together with costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers. Any alteration to your booking requested less than 60 days (70 days for cruise and private train holidays) prior to departure will be regarded as a cancellation and cancellation charges as set out in clause 8 will be payable. Name changes can be made up to 21 days prior to departure for an alteration fee of £40 per person together with any costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers.

Should you wish to cancel your holiday, notice can be given verbally but must be followed up in writing by the party leader. Where the cancellation charge is shown as a percentage, this is calculated on the basis of the total cost payable by the person(s) cancelling, excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges. Insurance premiums arranged through us are not normally refundable. Amendment charges are not refundable. The amount of the cancellation fee depends upon the date when the written notice of cancellation is received by us. The scale of cancellation charges is as follows:

Depending on the reason for cancellation, you may be able to reclaim these cancellation charges (less any applicable excess) under the terms of your insurance policy. Claims must be made directly to the insurance company concerned. Where any cancellation reduces the number of full paying party members below the number on which the price, or any concessions agreed for your booking were based, we will recalculate these items and re-invoice you accordingly. Any such additional costs are not cancellation charges.

We start planning the holidays we offer many months in advance and occasionally, we have to correct errors and/or make changes to the information contained in our brochures, our website and other details, both before and after bookings have been confirmed, and also cancel confirmed bookings. Whilst we always endeavour to avoid changes and cancellations, we must reserve the right to do so.

Minor Changes by Us: A minor change is any change which, taking account of the information you have given us at the time of booking or which we can reasonably be expected to know as a tour operator, we could not reasonably expect to have a significant effect on your confirmed holiday.

Significant Changes by Us: Occasionally, we have to make a "significant change" before departure such as a change of accommodation to that of a lower official classification or standard for the whole or a major part of the time you are away, a change of accommodation area for the whole or a major part of the time you are away, a change of outward departure time or overall length of time you are away of twelve or more hours, a change of UK departure point to one which is significantly more inconvenient for you or a significant change of itinerary missing out one or more major destination substantially or altogether.

Cancellations by Us: All our escorted holidays are organised on the basis of a minimum number of clients (usually 15). In the unlikely event the holiday has to be cancelled because of insufficient numbers, you will be informed at least 60 days (70 days for cruise and private train holidays) prior to departure.

If we have to make a significant change or cancel, we will tell you as soon as possible and if there is time to do so before departure, we will offer you the choice of the following options:

a) accepting the changed arrangements; or

b) purchasing an alternative holiday from us, of a similar standard to that originally booked if available. We will offer you at least one alternative holiday of equivalent or higher standard for which you will not be asked to pay any more than the price of the original holiday. If this holiday is in fact cheaper than the original one, we will refund the price difference. If you do not wish to accept the holiday we specifically offer you, you may choose any of our other, then available, holidays. You must pay the applicable price of any such holiday. This will mean your paying more if it is more expensive or receiving a refund if it is cheaper; or

c) cancelling or accepting the cancellation in which case you will receive a full and quick refund of all monies you have paid to us.

Please note, the above options are not available where any change made is a minor one.

If we have to make a significant change or cancel we will, where appropriate, pay you reasonable compensation depending on the circumstances and when the significant change or cancellation is notified to you. Compensation will not, however, be payable and no liability, beyond offering the above mentioned choices, can be accepted where;

a) we are forced to make a change or cancel as a result of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which we could not have avoided even with all due care; or

b) we have to cancel because the minimum number of client bookings required to run your holiday has not been reached and we have notified you at least 60 days (70 days for cruise and private train holidays) before departure; or

c) we cancel as a result of your failure to comply with any requirement of these booking conditions entitling us to cancel (such as paying on time).

In any of the circumstances referred to above we will not therefore be liable for the cost of any service (such as, but not limited to, flights, hotels and connecting rail travel) which is purchased in connection with any holiday but which is not booked through us, or for any related expenses such as cancellation charges or amendment fees, which cannot be used or has to be cancelled or amended as a result of our having to cancel or make a significant change to any holiday.

Except as set out above, we will, where appropriate, pay you any reasonable proven costs and expenses you incur as a result of a cancellation or significant change.

Very rarely, we may be obliged as a result of "force majeure" (see clause 10) to change or terminate your holiday after departure but before the scheduled end of your time away. This is extremely unlikely but if this situation does occur, we regret we will be unable to make any refunds (unless we obtain any refunds from our suppliers), pay you any compensation or meet any costs or expenses you incur as a result.

Except where otherwise expressly stated in these booking conditions, we regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation where the performance or prompt performance of our obligations under our contract with you is prevented or affected by or you otherwise suffer any damage or loss (as more fully described in clause 11(2) below) as a result of "force majeure". In these booking conditions, "force majeure" means any event which we or the supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Such events may include (whether actual or threatened) war, riot, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, adverse weather conditions, fire and all similar events outside our control.

(1) We promise to make sure that the holiday arrangements we have agreed to make, perform or provide as applicable as part of our contract with you are made, performed or provided with reasonable skill and care. This means that, subject to these booking conditions, we will accept responsibility if, for example, you suffer death or personal injury or your contracted holiday arrangements are not provided as promised or prove deficient as a result of the failure of ourselves, our employees, agents or suppliers to use reasonable skill and care in making, performing or providing, as applicable, your contracted holiday arrangements. Please note, it is your responsibility to show that reasonable skill and care has not been used if you wish to make a claim against us. In addition, we will only be responsible for what our employees, agents and suppliers do or do not do if they were at the time acting within the course of their employment (for employees) or carrying out work we had asked them to do (for agents and suppliers).

(2) We will not be responsible for any injury, illness, death, loss (including loss of possessions and loss of enjoyment), damage, expense, cost or other sum or claim of any description whatsoever which results from any of the following:

a) the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected or any member(s) of their party

b) the act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party not connected with the provision of your holiday and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable or

c) "force majeure" as defined in clause 10 above.

(3) Please note, we cannot accept responsibility for any services which do not form part of our contract. This includes, for example, any additional services or facilities which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you where the services or facilities are not advertised in our brochure or on our website and we have not agreed to arrange them as part of our contract and any excursion you purchase during your holiday. Please also see clause 16 "Excursions, Activities and Brochure/Website Information". In addition, regardless of any wording used by uson our website, in any of our brochures or elsewhere, we only promise to use reasonable skill and care as set out above and we do not have any greater or different liability to you.

(4) Where we are found liable for loss and/or damage to any luggage or personal possessions (including money), the maximum amount we will have to pay you is £1,000 per person affected unless a lower limitation applies to your claim under this clause or clause 11(5) below. For all other claims which do not involve death or personal injury, if we are found liable to you on any basis the maximum amount we will have to pay you is twice the price (excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges) paid by or on behalf of the person(s) affected in total unless a lower limitation applies to your claim under clause 11(5) below. This maximum amount will only be payable where everything has gone wrong and you have not received any benefit at all from your holiday.

(5) Where any claim or part of a claim (including those involving death or personal injury) concerns or is based on any travel arrangements (including the process of getting on and/off the transport concerned) provided by any air, sea rail or road carrier to which any international convention or EU regulation applies, the maximum amount of compensation we will have to pay you will be limited as set out below. The most we will have to pay you for that claim or that part of a claim if we are found liable to you on any basis is the most the carrier concerned would have to pay under the international convention or regulation which applies to the travel arrangements in question (for example, the Warsaw Convention as amended or un-amended and the Montreal Convention for international travel by air and/or for airlines with an operating licence granted by an EU country, the EC Regulation on Air Carrier Liability No 889/2002 for national and international travel by air, the Athens Convention for international travel by sea and COTIF, the Convention on International Travel by Rail). Please note: where a carrier would not be obliged to make any payment to you under the applicable International Convention or Regulation in respect of a claim or part of a claim, we similarly are not obliged to make a payment to you for that claim or part of the claim. When making any payment, we are entitled to deduct any money which you have received or are entitled to receive from the carrier for the complaint or claim in question. Copies of the applicable international conventions and regulations are available from us on request.

(6) Please note, we cannot accept any liability for any damage, loss, expense or other sum(s) of any description (a) which on the basis of the information given to us by you concerning your booking prior to our accepting it, we could not have foreseen you would suffer or incur if we breached our contract with you or (b) which did not result from any breach of contract or other fault by ourselves or our employees or, where we are responsible for them, our suppliers. Additionally we cannot accept liability for any business losses including, without limitation, self employed loss of earnings.

In the unlikely event that you have any reason to complain or experience any problems with your holiday whilst away, you must immediately inform your Tour Manager and the supplier of the service(s) in question. Any verbal notification must be put in writing and given to your Tour Manager and the supplier as soon as possible. Until we know about a problem or complaint, we cannot begin to resolve it. Most problems can be dealt with quickly. If you remain dissatisfied, however, you must write to us within 28 days of your return to the UK giving your booking reference and full details of your complaint. Only the party leader should write to us. If you fail to follow this simple complaints procedure, your right to claim the compensation you may otherwise have been entitled to may be affected or even lost as a result.

Many of the services which make up your holiday are provided by independent suppliers. Those suppliers provide these services in accordance with their own terms and conditions. Some of these terms and conditions may limit or exclude the supplier's liability to you, usually in accordance with applicable International Conventions (see clause 11(5)). Copies of the relevant parts of these terms and conditions are available on request from ourselves or the supplier concerned.

If you have any special request, you must advise us in writing at the time of booking. Although we will endeavour to pass any reasonable requests on to the relevant supplier, we regret we cannot guarantee any request will be met unless we have specifically confirmed this. For your own protection, you should obtain confirmation in writing from us that your request will be complied with (where it is possible for us to give this) if your request is important to you. Confirmation that a special request has been noted or passed on to the supplier or the inclusion of the special request on your confirmation or any other documentation is not confirmation that the request will be met. Unless and until specifically confirmed, all special requests are subject to availability. We regret we cannot accept any conditional bookings, i.e. any booking which is specified to be conditional on the fulfilment of a particular request. All such bookings will be treated as "standard" bookings subject to the above provisions on special requests. If you have any medical condition or disability which may affect your holiday or any health or fitness concerns which may affect your ability to cope with the tour, please give us full details before you confirm your booking so that we can advise as to the suitability of the chosen arrangements. In any event, you must give us full details in writing at the time of booking. You must also advise us as soon as possible of any change in any disability or medical condition or your health or fitness or if any medical condition or disability which may affect your holiday develops after your booking has been confirmed. Please also see clause 6.

The information contained in our brochure and on our website is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of the brochure going to print / at the time of publication on our website. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the brochure and prices at the time of printing / publication, regrettably errors do occasionally occur. You must therefore ensure you check all details of your chosen holiday (including the price) with us at the time of booking. We may provide you with information (in our brochure, on our website and/or when you are on holiday) about activities and excursions which are available in the area you are visiting but cannot be pre-booked with us. We have no involvement in any such activities or excursions which are not run, supervised, controlled, inspected or endorsed in any way by us. They are provided by local operators or other third parties who are entirely independent of us. They do not form any part of your contract with us even where we or your tour manager suggest particular operators/other third parties and/or assist you in booking such activities or excursions in any way. We cannot accept any liability on any basis in relation to such activities or excursions and the acceptance of liability contained in clause 11(1) of our booking conditions will not apply to them. We do not however exclude liability for the negligence of ourselves or our employees resulting in your death or personal injury. We cannot guarantee accuracy at all times of information given in relation to such activities or excursions or about the area(s) you are visiting generally (except where this concerns the services which will form part of your contract) or that any particular excursion or activity which does not form part of our contract will take place as these services are not under our control. If you feel that any of the activities mentioned in our brochure or on our website which are not part of our contract are vital to the enjoyment of your holiday, write to us immediately and we will tell you the latest known situation. If we become aware of any material alterations to resort/area information and/or such outside activities which can be reasonably expected to affect your decision to book a holiday with us, we will pass on this information at the time of booking.

In accordance with EU Directive (EC) No 2111/2005 Article 9, we are required to bring your attention the existence of a "Community List" which contains details of air carriers that are subject to an operating ban within the EU Community. The Community List is available for inspection at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/list_en.htm. We are also required to advise you of the carrier(s) or, if the carrier(s) is not known, the likely carrier(s)) that will operate your flight(s) at the time of booking. Where we are only able to inform you of the likely carrier(s) at the time of booking, we shall inform you of the identity of the actual carrier(s) as soon as we become aware of this. Any change to the operating carrier(s) after your booking has been confirmed will be notified to you as soon as possible. We are not always in a position at the time of booking to confirm flight timings which will be used in connection with your flight. Where flight timings are given at the time of booking or detailed on your confirmation these are for guidance only and are subject to alteration and confirmation. The latest timings will be shown on your tickets which will be dispatched to you approximately two weeks before departure. You must accordingly check your tickets very carefully immediately on receipt to ensure you have the correct flight times. It is possible that flight times may be changed even after tickets have been dispatched. We will contact you as soon as possible if this occurs. Any change in the identity of the carrier(s), flight timings, and/or aircraft type (if given) will not entitle you to cancel or change to other arrangements without paying our normal charges except where specified in these conditions. Regardless of any information given in good faith, operational changes may be made by an airline at any point and we cannot be responsible for these. If the carrier(s) with whom you have a confirmed reservation becomes subject to an operating ban as above as a result of which we/the carrier(s) are unable to offer you a suitable alternative the provisions of clause 9 (Changes and Cancellations by Us) will apply. Prices quoted in this brochure and on our website are based on special airfares offered to us by the airlines for group travel. These represent a reduction on the normal IATA fares which entitle passengers to privileges and flexibility that our clients do not normally require as part of the holiday. Should you wish to book our holiday using a flight other than that shown in the brochure/on our website, a flight variation charge from £40 per person will apply in addition to the difference in cost between our special fare and the normal IATA fare for the flight(s) required. Tickets at our special fare are valid only on the airline and dates shown and do not automatically entitle passengers to switch to another carrier in case of a flight cancellation, delay or technical problem with the aircraft or the reservation. Please note that most airlines now operate 100% non-smoking services.

We request rail reservations many months in advance but occasionally there are insufficient First Class seats available. In these situations we will book Standard Class seats and refund the difference to you. Although we do our best to follow the routes noted on the itinerary there might be occasions when a different routing and/or departure time is necessary due to timetable variations or seat availability. Increasingly, trains are 100% non-smoking, and reservations are requested in non-smoking accommodation, although at busy times we may be allocated some smoking seats. We cannot make specific requests for smoking seats. Prices quoted in this brochure and on our website are based on special fares, negotiated with our rail partners for group travel. Should you wish to travel on any Eurostar or other rail service, other than that included as part of your group holiday, a rail variation charge of £20 per person per service plus any additional cost will apply. Any change involving sleeper services will be quoted on an individual basis.