From first email to final documents
There are five steps and two payment dates. Nothing is held until a deposit clears, revisions are free until the itinerary is right, and every hotel is named before you transfer anything.
The sequence
The same five steps whether the journey is nine days in Cambodia or twenty-eight across four countries. Steps one to three cost you nothing and carry no obligation.
- You enquire. Send the month, the countries or the journey that caught your eye, how many of you are travelling and anything fixed at either end — a flight already booked, a wedding in Bali, a Tuesday you must be home. A budget per person per day, if you have one, saves a whole round of drafting.
- A first draft itinerary comes back within two working days. Not a brochure: a day-by-day route with named hotels, drive times, the meals included and a price for your actual party size. If your dates are inside six weeks or the request crosses four countries, we will say on day one that it needs longer, rather than sending something thin on time.
- Revisions until it is right. Free, and there is no limit on them. Most journeys settle in two or three rounds; some take six. This is where the trip is actually made, and where we will push back if what you have asked for will not work — the reasons we push back are set out on tailor-made.
- A 30% deposit holds it. We place hotel and internal flight bookings only once the deposit clears; nothing is held before that, and we will tell you if a particular room is going to be gone by the time it does. The balance falls due no later than 45 days before arrival. A booking made inside 45 days is payable in full at confirmation.
- Documents. Within 48 hours of the balance clearing you get hotel vouchers, internal flight tickets, the names of your guide and driver in each country, and a 24-hour number that reaches a person rather than an inbox.
The price on your confirmed quotation is fixed in writing before you pay anything and does not move afterwards, whatever hotel rates do in the meantime. The account details, the fees at cost and the payment-fraud signals worth knowing are on how to pay. The contract itself is booking terms, and it takes effect the moment the deposit reaches us.
What we need from you, and when
Five things, at four different moments. Late passport details are the single commonest cause of a rushed week before departure, because internal flight tickets cannot be issued without them and Asian domestic carriers will not always reissue a misspelled name for free.
| What | When we need it | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Full names exactly as printed in each passport, plus passport number, nationality, date of issue and expiry | With the deposit | Internal flight tickets and Bhutan or Nepal permits are issued against the passport, not against your email signature |
| A copy of your travel insurance certificate showing the policy number and the medical limit | Before the balance date | We require cover and do not sell it. Named-storm cover matters for central Vietnam between September and November; cover above 4,000 metres including helicopter rescue is a legal requirement in Nepal |
| Dietary needs, allergies and anything about mobility, stairs or heat | As early as you know | A gluten-free traveller in Japan and a wheat allergy in northern China are different problems; a knee that will not do 500 steps changes which days we build |
| International flight numbers and arrival and departure times | As soon as they are ticketed | Airport transfers, the first night's room and the last day's departure margin are all built around them |
| Visa confirmations where the country needs one | Two weeks before departure | You apply direct at the government price; we check the copy so that a wrong entry date is caught in Europe rather than at the desk |
Most of Asia wants six months' validity beyond your arrival date, and Jordan and Oman are explicit about it. Check the expiry the week you book, not the week you fly. A renewal takes longer than a visa.
Paying
Two payments, two methods, no hidden charge on either.
| Method | How it works | Fee | Clears in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer | To our corporate account, details on your invoice | Your bank's charge only | 2 to 4 working days |
| Card | Visa or Mastercard through a payment link we send | About 3%, shown separately and passed on at cost | Immediate |
Bank transfer is cheaper on the sums involved here and is what most travellers use for the balance. Where a peak-date hotel demands non-refundable prepayment, it appears as its own line on the quotation and is explained before you pay, not after you cancel.
If you cancel
Cancellations must be in writing. The band is set by the date your written cancellation reaches us, not the date you decided. These are the bands exactly as they appear in your contract.
| When you cancel | What you get back |
|---|---|
| More than 90 days before arrival | Everything except supplier deposits already committed, itemised line by line |
| 90 – 61 days | Everything except the 30% deposit |
| 60 – 46 days | 50% of the journey price |
| 45 – 31 days | 25% of the journey price |
| 30 days or fewer, or no-show | Nothing, except recoverable government fees and unused flight taxes |
Two things are worth reading twice. The first band is not a full refund and never pretends to be: if a Kyoto ryokan or a Bhutan permit has already been paid for on your behalf, that money is gone and we will show you the invoice. The last band still returns what is genuinely recoverable — an unused Angkor pass is not, an unflown ticket's taxes usually are.
Changing the departure date is treated as a cancellation and a rebooking under the same bands. This is not a penalty we invented; it is what the hotels do to us. Ask early and outside peak season and it is often absorbable.
The full wording, including force majeure and the complaints procedure, is on booking terms.
If we cancel, and if a supplier fails
We cancel a confirmed private journey only for reasons outside anyone's control: an advisory that moves to do-not-travel, an airspace closure, a natural event that makes the route unrunnable. In that case you are offered an alternative date, an alternative route, or a full refund of everything paid to us. There is no third option in which we keep the deposit.
A supplier failing mid-journey is the more likely event, and it is what an operator is actually for. Bamboo Airways stopped scheduled flying in August 2026 with passengers holding tickets; hotels close for refurbishment at four weeks' notice; a road washes out in the wet season. When that happens the replacement is ours to find and ours to pay for, at the same standard or better, and you are told what changed before you discover it at a desk.
This is also why we hold refundable rates on the weather-exposed nights rather than the cheapest prepaid ones. Central Vietnam in October is the clearest case: the Hue and Hoi An nights are booked flexibly so that a confirmed storm becomes a re-plan northwards rather than an argument about a refund.
We cover the failure of what we booked. Your insurer covers what happens to you: illness, a cancelled long-haul flight, a family emergency at home, lost baggage. Neither of us covers the other's half, which is why we ask for the certificate before the balance date.
How long a good itinerary takes to plan
An honest answer, because the industry's answer is usually "as fast as you like".
- Two working days to a first draft with named hotels and a price. That is a promise, not an average.
- Two to three weeks from first email to a deposit, for most travellers. The time goes on revisions, not on our end — the drafts turn round in a day or two and then sit while you talk to the people you are travelling with.
- Six to twelve months ahead for Japan in blossom season, the Christmas and New Year weeks anywhere in Asia, Bhutan in October and November, and anything that needs a specific ryokan or a particular boat. In those windows the good rooms are gone before the flights are cheap.
- Three to four months is comfortable for most of Southeast Asia outside the peaks, and is when the widest choice of hotels is still open at sensible rates.
- Inside six weeks is possible and we do it, but the itinerary is shaped by what is available rather than by what is best, and we will say so plainly rather than pretend the compromise is a design decision.
None of this is a reason to delay the first email. An enquiry six months out that turns into a deposit two months later is a normal shape, and it costs nothing to find out early whether the month you have chosen suits the country you have chosen. That question is answered on when to go, and the visa position for every country we sell is on visas and entry.
Start with a month and a number
The month you want to travel, how many of you there are, and the part of Asia you have in mind. That is enough for a first draft itinerary with named hotels and a real price, back with you inside two working days.
Questions travellers ask most
How much is the deposit, and when is the balance due?
Thirty per cent of the journey price confirms the booking, and the balance is due no later than 45 days before arrival. A booking made inside that 45-day window is payable in full at confirmation.
The deposit is what lets us commit to hotels and internal flights in your name. Nothing is held before it clears, which is why a room we flagged as tight can genuinely be gone in the days between the quote and the transfer.
Do I have to pay to get an itinerary?
No. Drafting and revising costs you nothing and carries no obligation, however many rounds it takes. You are under no commitment until you pay a deposit, and the contract begins at that moment rather than at the quotation.
What we ask in return is that you tell us if you have decided against the trip. A one-line email closes the file and stops the follow-ups.
Can you hold a booking while I confirm my flights?
For a few days, usually, and we will tell you honestly which parts of the itinerary are at risk during the hold. Hotels in peak weeks and small boats are the two things that cannot be held on a handshake.
The safer order is often the reverse: agree the land itinerary, pay the deposit, then book the long-haul flights around fixed ground arrangements. Long-haul seats to Asia are rarely the scarce thing.
What if one of our party drops out after we have paid?
The per-person price is calculated on the party size, so a party of four becoming three moves everyone else's price upwards — the car and the guide cost the same either way. We reprice and show you the difference before anything is charged.
The departing traveller's own position falls under the cancellation bands above, and this is exactly the situation their travel insurance exists for. Tell us as early as you can; the earlier band is materially kinder.
Read next
Tell us about the journey you have in mind
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.