Reservation & Cancellation Policy
Getting this deep into the Amazon requires an astronomical amount of planning, work and community coordination. These terms exist so you know exactly where you stand — before you pay anything.
Getting this deep into the Amazon requires an astronomical amount of planning, work and community coordination. These terms exist so you know exactly where you stand — before you pay anything.
The three numbers that matter most. The full terms follow below.
Paid at booking. This confirms your dates and holds your space on the expedition.
The remaining 50% balance falls due no later than 30 days before you travel.
Up to 60 days before departure you may move your trip to a new date within one year. We hold your reservation fee and wait for the balance until 30 days before your new departure date. Price differences may apply, and postponement is subject to our availability.
A 50% reservation fee confirms your booking, secures your dates and holds your space on the expedition. Nothing is reserved until this payment is received.
The remaining 50% balance is due at the latest 30 days before departure. Bookings confirmed less than 30 days before departure are payable in full at the time of booking.
All prices are quoted and settled in United States Dollars. Any bank, card, transfer or currency-conversion fees are borne by the traveller.
If the balance is not received by the 30-day deadline, we will contact you before taking any action. Where we receive no response, we reserve the right to release your space and treat the booking as cancelled under the terms in section 3.
Booked and paid directly through the Book Now function on our website. You will receive immediate written confirmation of your dates.
Because every private itinerary is built from scratch, these are confirmed differently. We send you a detailed itinerary and an invoice, together with a secure online payment link. Your reservation is confirmed once the reservation fee has cleared against that invoice.
All cancellations must reach us in writing. The date on which we receive your written notice — not the date you decided or the date you posted it — determines which terms apply.
| Written notice received | What you forfeit | Of total trip value |
|---|---|---|
| 60 days or more before departure | Nothing. Your reservation fee is refunded in full, less any non-recoverable transaction fees. | 0% |
| 59 to 30 days before departure | Half of the reservation fee. | 25% |
| 29 to 15 days before departure | The reservation fee in full. | 50% |
| 14 days or less before departure | The whole value of the trip. Charged in full, with no refund and no right to claim a change of dates. | 100% |
These figures are stated as a percentage of the total trip value so there is no ambiguity. On a $5,000 trip with a $2,500 reservation fee, cancelling 45 days out forfeits $1,250; cancelling 20 days out forfeits $2,500.
Why the timeline is firm. Our expeditions run in remote, permit-controlled territory on indigenous community land. Guides, boat crews, park permits, provisioning and community fees are all committed and paid well ahead of your arrival, and a released space this deep into the calendar cannot realistically be resold.
Anything we book on your behalf from a third-party supplier is non-refundable from the moment it is issued, regardless of how much notice you give us. This includes but is not limited to:
These amounts sit outside the cancellation ladder in section 3 and are additional to it. Where a supplier does issue us a partial credit or refund, we will pass on to you whatever we actually recover.
If you do not present yourself at the agreed meeting point on the agreed date, the trip is charged in full, with no right to a refund and no right to claim a change of dates.
Missed or delayed flights, buses and connections are treated as a no-show. Please build a buffer day into your travel plans before the expedition start date — the Amazon is not a place where a same-day connection can be relied upon.
No refund or credit is issued for services left unused because you leave a trip early, for any reason. This includes unused nights, meals, guiding and excursions.
Where an early departure requires a dedicated boat, crew or transfer outside the scheduled itinerary, the cost of arranging it is payable by the traveller.
Up to 60 days before departure you may postpone your trip to a new date, subject to our availability and to any difference in price. Your new date must fall within one year of the original departure date.
When you postpone, we hold your reservation fee against the new booking — you do not pay it again. The remaining balance then falls due 30 days before your new expedition date, on the same schedule as any other booking.
We charge no administrative fee to postpone. Where the new dates fall in a higher season or a revised rate applies, the price difference is payable; where they fall in a lower one, we will credit the difference.
Postponement requests received less than 60 days before departure cannot be accommodated and are treated as a cancellation under section 3.
A trip may be postponed once under these terms. A second change of dates is treated as a new booking.
You may transfer your booking to another person, with notice, at no charge. The replacement traveller takes on the booking as it stands, including all payments already made and all remaining deadlines.
We need the substitute traveller's full name, passport number, nationality and date of birth at least 15 days before departure, because entry to the reserve requires a passenger manifest to be filed in advance with the park authorities. Transfers requested inside 15 days depend on whether that manifest can still be amended, and we cannot guarantee it.
The replacement traveller must be able to meet the same fitness, health and documentation requirements as the original traveller for the expedition concerned. Any outstanding balance remains due on the original schedule — a transfer does not reset the payment deadlines.
Occasionally events outside anyone's control make a departure impossible — natural disaster, road closures, civil unrest, and similar circumstances.
In those circumstances we will review each case individually with our team, and the outcome will depend on the type of trip (private, shared, scheduled or bespoke), the reservation modality, and what we are able to recover from the suppliers and communities already committed to your departure. Our aim in every case is to move you to new dates rather than to keep your money: wherever the situation allows, we will offer you a credit for the full value paid, valid for one year, as the first option.
If something outside your control prevents you from travelling — illness, injury, bereavement, a visa refusal — contact us as early as you possibly can. We will look at your case individually and do what the timing and our committed costs genuinely allow. Please understand that this is a goodwill review and not an entitlement: the terms in section 3 remain the contractual position, and the closer to departure you reach us, the less room there is to help.
This is precisely what travel insurance is for. See section 10.
We strongly recommend comprehensive travel insurance for every traveller, arranged at the time you book rather than later. Cover taken out after a booking is made will usually not respond to a cancellation.
Your policy should include, as a minimum: trip cancellation and interruption, medical treatment and hospitalisation, and emergency evacuation. The latter matters more here than on most trips — our expedition areas are hours by river from the nearest road and a medical evacuation is expensive.
Send all cancellations, postponements and transfer requests in writing to info@traveltheamazon.com. Please include the lead traveller's name, the departure date and your booking or invoice reference.
We will acknowledge your request in writing and confirm which terms apply. The date we receive your notice is the date that counts — a request made by telephone or social media is not effective until it is confirmed in writing.
Refunds, where due, are returned by the same method used for the original payment, normally within 14 business days of our written confirmation.
If anything here is unclear, or your circumstances don't fit neatly into these terms, tell us. We would much rather answer the question now than have you discover it later.