To make a booking we need, for every participant: full name written as in valid identification document, age, contact details, an emergency contact, and any health condition, allergy or limitation that could affect participation, or any other information requested by a booking system or our team.

You confirm this information is correct. We pass on what our partners need to run your tour safely.

Your booking is confirmed as soon as your payment is completed and received a confirmation email from us or from a third party in our name.

If the confirmation email does not arrive, check your spam or promotions folder first. If you still cannot find it, contact us by email or WhatsApp before your tour date.

In rare cases we may need to cancel or modify a confirmed booking — for example if the date is unexpectedly full, if a price or tour detail was displayed incorrectly, or if the tour cannot be run safely for you based on the information you have given us. If this happens we will contact you as soon as possible to define a suitable solution.

Full payment is required to confirm a booking. We can hold places without payment for a limited amount of time. All prices are in US dollars (USD).

We can hold a place for you for a short period without payment. Your travel agent will tell you exactly how long the place is held and when payment must be received. If we do not receive payment by that time, the place is released and becomes available to other travellers.

If you pay a deposit rather than the full amount, we will confirm your tour on the basis of your commitment to pay the outstanding balance within the timeframe agreed with your travel agent. If the outstanding balance is not paid within that timeframe, we reserve the right to cancel your booking and apply our no-show cancellation policy.

You can pay:

• by card on our websites: daytoursecuador.com, eldaytour.com, daytourecuador.com, eldaytourecuador.com
• by bank transfer, using the details we send you
• in cash at our Quito office, Monday to Friday 09:00–16:00, by appointment
• in cash on the day of the tour, but only if agreed with us in advance

Card payments are handled by a third party platform, which adds a service fee to the tour price. Fees are transparent and informed beforehand. Any fee your own bank charges you for a wire transfer or a currency exchange must be covered by you.

The dates shown as available on our website are dates we are able to operate.

Our group tours are guaranteed departures and run with a minimum of 1 person. When a tour requires a minimum number of participants, this is stated on the tour page.

Every departure has a limited number of places. Once a date is full we close it, and it will no longer be available to book. On rare occasions if a date fills through another selling channel quicker than when we can close the departure on our website, section 6 applies and you may choose a new date or a full refund.

If you need to move your tour to a different date, contact us by email or WhatsApp with your booking reference. New dates always depend on availability, and we cannot guarantee a specific date.

The rules below, and the cancellation rules in section 5, are split between group tours and private tours.

Group tours — you can change the date free of charge up to 24 hours before the tour start date.

Exception. The following tours are sold as group tours but follow the private tour rules, because they depend on external partners to make reservations in your name ahead of the date:

• Cotopaxi Horseback Day Tour
• 2-Day Andes Explorer (Cotopaxi & Quilotoa)

Private tours — you can change the date free of charge up to 96 hours (4 days) before the tour start date.

Deadlines are counted back from 00:00 on your tour start date.

Example: Your group tour starts on Wednesday 21 October. Counting back 24 hours from Wednesday at 00:00 gives you until the end of Monday 19 October. A request sent at any time on Tuesday 20 October after midnight is too late

Requests made later than the indicated times, may carry extra costs, which we will tell you about before they take place.

Your first date change is free. Each further change has an USD 25 administrative fee per booking.

A date change takes effect only when we confirm it in writing.

If you change your tour date and later cancel, cancellation fees are calculated from your original tour date, not the new one.

A place can be transferred to another person free of charge up to 24 hours before your tour start date, counted in the same way as above. Contact us by email or WhatsApp with your booking reference and the new participant's full name, age, contact details, emergency contact, and any health condition, allergy or limitation that could affect participation.

The person transferring the place is responsible for passing on all tour information to the new participant, including the meeting point, start time, what to bring, and any requirements for the tour. We are not responsible for information that is not passed on or is communicated incorrectly. The new participant is bound by these terms in the same way as the original booker.

A change of participant does not change your tour date, and does not affect the deadlines in section 5. This does not apply to the Multi-Tour Pass in section 7, which is linked to the person who bought it.

We strongly recommend travel insurance to cover cancellations you cannot avoid. The cancellation fees below apply per person, not per booking.

When you cancel	Fees
More than 24 hours before the start date	Full refund
Less than 24 hours before the start date	100% cancellation fee and no change of date
No-show	100% cancellation fee and no change of date

— including the Cotopaxi Horseback Day Tour and the 2-Day Andes Explorer, as explained in section 4

When you cancel	Fees
15 days or more before the start date	Full refund
14 to 5 days before the start date	50% cancellation fee
4 days or less before the start date	100% cancellation fee and no change of date
No-show	100% cancellation fee and no change of date

Deadlines are counted back from 00:00 on your tour start date, in the same way as section 4.

No-show means you do not arrive at the agreed pick-up point at the agreed pick-up time.

If you decide to leave part-way through, we cannot refund the remaining part of the day, and you are responsible for your own return transport.

Email or send a WhatsApp with your booking reference and a clear statement that you want to cancel. Your cancellation takes effect at the moment we approve it and based on the cancellation deadline — we will confirm in writing and tell you which cancellation fee applies.

In the unlikely event that we have to cancel your tour, this will be for one of two reasons: a Minor Event or an Extraordinary Event.

A Minor Event affects your tour on a specific date, and we are able to operate again shortly afterwards (up to 5 days). Examples include a road closure or landslide, a local strike or roadblock, a temporary closure of a park or attraction, or any other situation where your tour cannot run safely on the date you booked.

You can choose between:

• a new date, at no extra cost, subject to availability, or
• a full refund of everything you paid, including the service fee

We will contact you as soon as we know, by email and phone. Please tell us your choice within 2 days.

Example: Heavy rain causes a landslide and the road to Quilotoa is closed on the morning of your tour. We cancel your tour and you choose a new date or a full refund.

An Extraordinary Event prevents us from operating for an extended period (6 days or more) and forces us to cancel a large number of bookings at once. Examples include a pandemic, a national emergency, a natural disaster affecting a whole region, or a prolonged closure of an area or of the country.

In that situation, all payments made will instead be converted into a Travel Credit Note. Your credit note is valid for 24 months, can be used for any of our tours, and is fully transferable to friends or family if you prefer to gift it. If exceptional personal circumstances make travel impossible for you within that window, contact our team and we will look at it case by case.

Example: A volcanic eruption closes the central highlands for several weeks and all tours in the area are cancelled. Because we cannot offer new dates and a large number of bookings are affected at the same time, bookings are converted into Travel Credit Notes.

If a tour has already started and we have to end it early, or we cannot deliver part of it, we will offer you a proportional refund or a credit note for a different tour, based on the part of the tour that was not provided. Where most of the tour was delivered, a refund may not apply.

We are not responsible for other costs you may have — flights, hotels, connecting travel. This is one of the reasons we recommend travel insurance.

A cancellation by us is not the same as a change to the tour. Where we change part of a tour rather than cancelling it, section 12 of our Terms & Conditions applies.

This section applies exclusively to the Multi-Tour Pass. For all other bookings, sections 1 to 6 apply.

Validity. Your pass is valid for one year from the date of purchase. Any credits not used within that year expire and are not refundable.

Booking each tour. The date shown at checkout is a placeholder only. To use a credit, contact us by email or WhatsApp at least 48 hours before the tour you want. Each tour is subject to availability and to our weekly schedule.

Changing a date. You can change each tour date once, free of charge, if you tell us at least 24 hours before that tour's start date. Further changes to the same tour cost USD 25 each time.

Cancelling the pass. You can cancel the whole pass for a full refund up to 24 hours before the date of your first confirmed tour.

Once you have taken your first tour, the pass is non-refundable. Remaining credits cannot be cashed in, refunded, or cancelled individually.

No-show. If you do not arrive for a confirmed tour, that credit is used and cannot be recovered.

Personal to you. The pass belongs to the person who bought it and cannot be transferred, shared or resold. We check ID against the booking name.

Deadlines are counted back from 00:00 on your tour start date.

We process approved refunds within 5 working days, to the payment method you originally used.

A full refund covers the tour price that you paid and the third platform service fee.

After we process a refund, the money might take to arrive:

• card: 5 to 7 working days, sometimes longer depending on your bank
• bank transfer: 3 to 5 working days
• cash: collected at our Quito office during office hours and with an appointment

If a refund has not arrived 10 working days after we confirmed it, contact your bank first, then us. We cannot control how long your bank takes.

Refunds are primarily made in USD for the amount you paid us, when possible we will try to refund you in the same currency that you paid us in. We cannot compensate for exchange-rate differences between the day you paid and the day you are refunded.