Cancellation Policy

1. The free cancellation window

You may cancel any booking free of charge up to 21 days before the departure date. There is nothing to refund because there is nothing to pay in advance — write to the desk or send a WhatsApp message and the booking is released.

The only exception is a government permit already filed in your name. Restricted area permits for Manaslu and Upper Mustang are usually filed several weeks ahead, and those fees are not recoverable from the issuing office. If we have filed one, we will tell you the exact amount before you confirm the cancellation.

Changing dates costs nothing in the free window either, subject to availability on the new departure and any difference in season pricing.

2. Cancelling inside 21 days

Inside the 21-day window we have already committed money on your behalf, and those third parties do not refund us. You remain responsible for costs we cannot recover:

• government permit fees already filed in your name — never refundable;
• domestic flight seats to Lukla, Pokhara or Jomsom, which are sold on non-refundable terms in the trekking season;
• lodge or hotel nights held on a non-refundable rate;
• crew retainer where a guide or porters have already been engaged and turned other work down — capped at three days' wages per crew member.

Everything else is cancelled at no charge. We itemise the unrecoverable costs and show you the counter receipts; we do not apply a percentage penalty and we take no cancellation fee of our own.

Cancellations take effect from the moment we acknowledge them in writing, so send it to expeditions@your-domain.com or message the desk rather than telling a guide informally.

3. No-shows and leaving early

If you do not arrive for the pre-trek briefing and we have not heard from you, the booking is treated as a no-show and released after 24 hours. Because nothing was paid in advance, you owe only the unrecoverable third-party costs listed above.

If you leave a trek part-way through for any reason other than a safety decision made by us — you change your mind, you are called home, you would rather sit out the last three days in Pokhara — the unused portion is not refunded. The crew, the permits and the lodges are already committed for the full itinerary.

If a guide instructs you to descend on medical grounds and you leave the trek as a result, see the next section: that is our decision, not yours, and it is treated differently.

4. If we cancel

We will cancel or cut short a departure when we judge it unsafe — a loaded snowpack on a pass, a landslide closing the approach road, a political strike, a grounded air link, a serious illness in the group, or a government closure of the area.

When we cancel before departure you receive a full refund of everything you have paid us, minus only permit fees already filed with the government, which no operator can recover. Alternatively we will move you to another departure or another route of equivalent value, and refund the difference if the new trip costs less.

When we cut a trek short on safety grounds we refund the unused portion of the services we control — remaining crew days, unused lodge nights and unused transport — within 14 days. Permits, flown sectors and nights already taken are not refundable.

Costs that belong to your insurer rather than to us — evacuation, hospital treatment, a rearranged international flight, extra accommodation in Kathmandu after an early descent — are why the insurance requirement in our terms exists. We will give you every document your insurer asks for.

5. Permit fees, plainly

This is the point most people miss, so it gets its own heading. TIMS cards, national park and conservation area entry permits and restricted area permits are paid to the Government of Nepal, issued in your name for fixed dates, and are not refundable, transferable or extendable once filed — not by us, and not by anyone.

We therefore hold off filing permits until as late as the office deadlines safely allow, and we tell you the day we file. Up to that point a cancellation costs you nothing at all.

6. How to cancel

Email expeditions@your-domain.com with your booking reference, or message the desk on WhatsApp. Tell us the reference and the departure date — you do not have to tell us why.

We acknowledge every cancellation in writing within one working day, with a statement of any unrecoverable costs. Refunds owed by us are paid by the original method within 14 days.