Please read the below information to ensure that you understand the terms and conditions for booking a tour with us:
Booking Policy
After finalizing the itinerary with your travel consultant, a 20% deposit is due to confirm your booking. No reservations will be made until we receive the deposit. If you would like us to make airfare or train reservations, we require full payment upfront before those reservations are made. Final payment is due 30 days before your departure date. If you book a tour less than 30 days before your departure date, full payment will be required to confirm your reservations.
Payment Policy
We accept the below payment methods, please see our payment policy for more details
- WeChat Pay
- Online Payment via PayPal (credit card or debit card)
The quoted price for a tour is not guaranteed until a deposit is made. Old Road Tours reserves the right to alter the price of the tour up until we receive the deposit if running the tour at the quoted price is no longer economically feasible.
Cancellation Policy
If you need to cancel your tour after booking, please refer to the below cancellations terms:
- 60 days+ before departure, we will retain the deposit plus the cancellation fees for any train tickets/airfare
- 31-59 days before departure, we will retain 50% of the tour cost plus the cancellation fees for any train tickets/airfare
- 7-30 days before departure , we will retain 70% of the tour cost plus the cancellation fees for any train tickets/airfare
- If you cancel less than a week in advance, we will retain the full cost of the tour plus the cancellation fees for any train tickets/airfare
If for any reason you do not complete any portion of the tour or leave the tour after departure, no refund will be given unless Old Road Tours makes an exception.
If we need to cancel a tour up to 30 days before departure due to natural disasters, political instability, or any other external events that makes the tour not viable for us to operate, we will make a full refund minus any cancellation fees levied by hotels, airlines, train ticket offices, local government offices for permits, local suppliers, etc. where we cannot get a refund. If we need to cancel a tour less than 30 days in advance due to any of the above reasons, it is up to our discretion about the refund amount. We highly encourage purchasing trip insurance to protect yourself in the unlikely case that this does happen.
Last Minute Bookings
We are happy to make last minute bookings and we try to be as flexible as possible, but due to the difficulty of making last minute arrangements, we will add a 300 RMB fee to your tour cost for any arrangements made less than a week in advance (excludes walk-ins to our office in Kashgar).
Tour Itinerary
Due to the unpredictable nature of travel in China, and especially in Xinjiang Province, Old Road Tours reserves the right to make any necessary changes to the itinerary before or during the tour. If we need to make changes to the itinerary prior to your arrival, we will do our best to notify you and discuss suitable alternatives. During the tour, if changes need to be made, we will also let you know and discuss suitable alternatives. Traveling in China is always an adventure so please prepare to be flexible!
Train tickets are subject to availability. We reserve the right to change the ticket type or mode of transport depending on availability. If your requested train or train ticket class is not available, we will let you know and present you with alternatives.
Purchasing Airfare or Train Tickets
While we are happy to purchase the airfare and train tickets for you, you are also welcome to book your own airfare and train tickets. Airfare prices fluctuate throughout the year but it is generally cheapest to book 1-3 months in advance. The summer months (July-August) will be the most expensive. If you are booking on your own, we recommend you use Chinese booking websites like Ctrip as international sites such as Expedia, Kayak, etc. often charge much higher prices.
Train Ticket prices in China never change but train tickets can be more difficult to purchase and availability is often limited, especially during busy travel times such as July and August, Chinese New Year, and the first week of October, which is a national holiday and many local Chinese are traveling. Tickets can be purchased 30-60 days in advance depending on the route. Generally, overnight sleeper trains can sell out very quickly, even on the first day they are available. High speed train tickets can often be purchased very last minute as the prices are higher than the normal trains and many locals will opt for the cheaper options. If you request for us to book a certain seat or sleeper class on the trains, we will do our best to fulfill your request, but due to the unpredictable nature of the train ticket system in China, we will inform you if we cannot and offer alternatives. We recommend booking your tour at least 60 days in advance to ensure we can make proper reservations for the train tickets.
Requests for Changes to the Itinerary
If you want to make any changes to the itinerary prior to paying the deposit, we are happy to do that. After you pay the deposit, we will confirm all the reservations, i.e. hotels, guides, drivers, etc. If you want to make any changes to the itinerary after this, you will need to pay a fee of 100 RMB per request plus any fees charged by the hotel, train ticket offices, and other service providers for making these changes, which we will outline for you. If you would just like to add a day or more to your trip, then no fee will be charged unless it means having to change an already confirmed reservation.
Travel Documents and Visa Application
Most international travelers will need a visa to travel to China and it is the traveler’s responsibility to obtain the visa. We will help you in any way we can and provide a letter of invitation along with advice for the application, but as we are not a visa agency, we can only advise you on the application process. You will need to check with the embassy in your current residence about required documentation and steps. As we have Americans on our team, we are most familiar with the application process for Americans, but we do also have lots of experience assisting Europeans, Australians, and other nationalities. If you would like to use a visa agency to assist you in the visa application process, we can make recommendations.
Once you obtain your Chinese visa, you can also enter Xinjiang, no other permits required. There are certain areas like the Karakoram Highway where we do need to obtain a simple permit for travelers to visit. In these cases, we will need you to send a copy of your passport and any other members in your group. Failure to do so, will result in us not being able to arrange the trip for you and no refunds will be made.
If you ask us to purchase train tickets or airfare, we will also need clear, high quality copies of the passport for each member of the group.