Terms and Conditions

The words below have the same meaning in every section of this document.

• Tolira, we, us: Tolira, a travel agency licensed in Turkey, trading at toliratours.com.
• You, the Customer: the person who makes a booking, and everyone travelling on it.
• Booking: all the services covered by your deposit or full payment. Together, these services form one agreement.
• Tour start: the moment you begin using the first confirmed service, normally an airport transfer or a hotel check-in.
• Supplier: an independent business that delivers part of your trip, such as an airline, a hotel, a museum or an activity operator.
• Confirmation: the email with your reservation details that we send after your payment is complete.
• Voucher: the document you show to suppliers during your trip.

There is no contract until we have your deposit or your full payment and have sent you a confirmation. Adding a tour to the cart, asking for a quote or using the trip planner does not create a contract. At that stage, neither you nor Tolira has a booking obligation.

Once the confirmation is issued, the contract is between you and Tolira for the services we operate, and you also accept the conditions of any supplier whose service is part of your booking.

The person who books must check that every traveller's details are correct. They must also share our confirmations and documents with everyone on the booking.

We organise guided touring, ground transport and our own vehicle services directly. For hotels, flights, cruises and third-party activities we act as a booking agent, and the service is delivered by the supplier rather than by us.

The distinction matters when something goes wrong. Where we operate the service, the responsibility is ours. For services we arrange through a supplier, we choose that supplier with care. We do not guarantee their performance. If there is a dispute, we will raise it with the supplier for you and act in good faith.

Prices are set in Euro. The site also displays prices and takes payment in US Dollars and Pounds Sterling. The currency you choose is used for your quote, invoice and all booking payments.

A price shown on the site is live for the dates, travellers and options selected, and holds until you complete the booking. The price may change before you complete the booking because supplier rates can change.

Once we have confirmed your booking we do not raise its price. Government taxes, airport charges and fuel surcharges introduced or increased after confirmation are the one exception, and we tell you what has changed and why before asking for anything further.

If you pay in a currency your bank does not hold, that bank sets its own conversion rate and may add a foreign transaction fee. You are responsible for those bank charges. They appear on your bank statement and are not part of our invoice.

• Deposit. A deposit confirms the booking. It is normally between 30% and 40% of the total, varying by tour and by season, and the exact figure for your booking is shown in the booking form before you pay.
• Cards. We accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Every card payment passes through 3D Secure, where your own bank confirms the charge. There is no card surcharge and no booking fee: the total in the booking form is the total.
• Bank transfer. The deposit may be sent by international transfer instead. Ask us before checkout and we will send the account details. You pay all transfer fees, including fees charged by banks that handle the transfer along the way. If we receive less than the required amount, you must pay the difference before we confirm the booking.
• The balance. The remaining amount is paid in cash, to your guide in Turkey, in the currency you booked in. Your documents show the exact amount to pay. Your guide gives you a signed receipt when you pay it. You may also pay the whole tour online when you book, in which case nothing is left to settle.
• Late bookings. If your trip starts soon, we may ask you to pay the full amount when you book. There may not be enough time to reserve the services with a deposit. We say so before you pay.
• Unpaid balance. If the balance has not been paid by the time it falls due, we may suspend or cancel the remaining services, and the cancellation fees below then apply.

We do not sell travel insurance, so please arrange it at home. We strongly recommend it, and buying it when you book gives you the most cover.

Check that the policy covers cancellation, medical treatment and the activities you plan to do. Some policies do not cover hot air ballooning unless you add that cover.

You are responsible for having a valid passport. You must also have any visa or entry permit required for your nationality. Entry rules change, and the Turkish government publishes the current position at evisa.gov.tr. Most nationalities need a passport valid for at least 150 days from the day they arrive, and some need six months.

Give us each traveller's name exactly as it is printed in their passport, middle names included. Domestic flight tickets are issued against that name and an airline will not correct it for free.

If details you give us are wrong or incomplete, you pay any resulting costs. This includes denied boarding, a new ticket or a replacement booking. If we made the error, we pay those costs.

We are not responsible for refused entry, detention or deportation by any authority, and no refund is due for services missed as a result.

Domestic flights

Where a tour includes flights inside Turkey, the tickets are bought by us and named in the itinerary. The allowance is 15 kg checked and 8 kg cabin baggage per person, which is less than most international tickets carry. Extra weight can be added, and it costs less bought in advance than at the airport.

International flights

We do not sell international flights. You must arrange your own travel to Turkey and your return journey home. Send us your flight numbers and times as soon as you have them, because every transfer is planned around them.

Check-in

Meeting the airline's check-in deadlines is your responsibility, online or at the airport.

Disruption

Airlines control their own schedules. We are not liable for delays, cancellations, missed connections, overbooking, denied boarding, rerouting, lost baggage or service quality on a flight, whether we bought the ticket or you did.

We will help adjust the tour around the disruption. Tell us as soon as you know. Where possible, we will change the transfer, guide timing or order of the days. Where a delay makes part of the tour impossible, the hotels, guides and tickets already paid for that day cannot be refunded, and this is one of the situations travel insurance exists for.

Hotels are booked in one of three comfort classes, and the class you choose applies to every night of the tour. We do not describe them by star rating: many of the best places we use in Cappadocia are restored cave and stone houses that carry no star rating at all.

Room types are Single, Double, Triple and Family. A Triple is normally a double room with a third bed added. You can request a particular bed setup, connecting rooms, a cot or a quiet floor. We pass these requests to the hotel, but we cannot guarantee them.

Hotel names are confirmed in your final documents rather than at the moment of booking, because rooms in a class are held across several properties. If a hotel becomes unavailable we move you to one of the same class or better at no extra cost, and we tell you before you arrive.

You may also arrange your own accommodation and take the touring only. Choose the own-accommodation option in the booking form and send us your hotel addresses. The cost of the hotel nights is then removed from the tour price.

Damage caused to a hotel room or a vehicle by a traveller is charged to that traveller by the supplier.

Changes you ask for

Ask as early as you can. There is no fixed amendment fee. A change depends on whether hotels, flights and guides are available on your new dates. If a supplier charges us for the change, you pay that charge. We do not add anything to the supplier's charge. Airline reissue fees are the usual one, and some hotel rates cannot be moved at all.

If the new dates fall in a more expensive season, the difference applies. A change requested so close to departure that it cannot be arranged is treated as a cancellation, and the schedule above applies.

Changes we make

Itineraries are planned months ahead and occasionally have to move. A site or road may close, or a supplier may be unable to provide a service. If this happens, we change the order of the days to keep as much of your programme as possible. We tell you about the change before you reach the affected stop. Replacing a service with one of a similar standard does not break this contract.

Where we cancel a booking for a reason of our own, you choose between the same tour on new dates and a full refund. No cancellation fee applies, because the cancellation is not yours.

Group departures need a viable number of travellers. Where one cannot run, we offer the private version, alternative dates or a full refund.

Each tour page has its own Included and Not included lists. Those lists apply to your booking. The lists below explain what is usually included and excluded.

Group size

Group departures, including Southeast Turkey tours, are capped at 15 travellers. On a private tour nobody else joins you.

No forced shopping

Our tours contain no obligatory shopping stops. Nobody is taken to a carpet showroom, a leather outlet or a jeweller and left to wait through a sales pitch. Where a workshop visit is part of the programme, such as the pottery workshop in Avanos, it is named in the itinerary and you are free to leave having bought nothing.

Timekeeping

Pickup times are in your documents. A group vehicle waits about fifteen minutes before leaving. It must keep to the schedule so the other travellers can reach sites during opening hours. If you miss a departure, we will help you rejoin the group if possible. You pay the cost of doing this. If you cannot rejoin, that day counts as a no show.

Behaviour

We may end a traveller's participation, without refund, where their behaviour endangers others, causes serious offence, or makes it impossible for a guide or driver to do their job safely. This is a last resort and we have rarely needed it.

Your belongings

Personal belongings remain your responsibility throughout. We are not liable for loss, damage or theft of luggage, cameras, documents or valuables.

Tell us before you book about reduced mobility, a chronic condition or anything else that affects how you travel. We will explain which days are suitable as planned, which need changes and which stops you should skip. This helps you avoid booking a tour you cannot use. Additional costs may apply, and we may decline where a requirement cannot be met safely.

Some sites cannot be made accessible. Underground cities have low, narrow passages where you need to bend down to walk. They do not have a wheelchair route. Balloon baskets are entered unaided over a wall around a metre high. Where a stop cannot be done, it is skipped and the rest of the day continues.

Vegetarian and vegan meals are straightforward and we arrange them on request. We do not guarantee gluten-free catering: many dishes contain bread or wheat. Kitchens outside the larger cities cannot rule out contact with gluten during food preparation. Tell us about allergies in writing when you book, and travel with your own medication.

We are not liable for loss, damage or delay caused by events that we cannot reasonably control: earthquakes, floods, fire, severe weather, epidemics, terrorism, war, civil unrest, strikes, border or airspace closures, government restrictions and utility failures.

Where such an event prevents a service, we will offer alternative arrangements or refund what has not been used and cannot be recovered from a supplier. We cannot refund what a supplier keeps, and we do not cover consequential costs such as international flights or accommodation booked separately.

We are responsible for the services we operate ourselves, and for choosing our suppliers with reasonable care. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of a supplier beyond that, nor for anything you arrange independently while in Turkey.

Where we are liable, our liability is limited to the value of the booking. We are not liable for indirect losses or other resulting costs. These include missed onward travel, lost earnings and the cost of arrangements you made outside this booking.

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or in any other way the law does not permit. These terms do not override the rights Turkish consumer protection legislation gives you.

We work with licensed operators, licensed guides and transport companies that meet the safety standards Turkish regulation requires of them.

We work with approved professional partners, including travel agencies and accommodation providers, to promote and sell our tours. Participation is by approval and is not open automatically. We may approve, refuse, suspend or close a partner account, and we may correct tracking errors, duplicate commissions or wrongly credited balances.

A commission is not earned when a booking is made. It becomes payable only after the booking is fully paid and completed. The booking must not have been cancelled, refunded, disputed or charged back. If any of these happen later, the commission is reversed.

Commission rates, payment thresholds and payment timing are set out in the partner agreement rather than here, so that they can change without changing this contract. Partners are responsible for their own invoicing and tax obligations, and may not advertise our tours below our published prices or in a misleading way.

Tell your guide first, on the day. Most tour problems can be fixed while you are still there. It is much harder to provide a useful solution after everyone has gone home. Anything urgent should reach us immediately through the contact details in your documents.

If it is not resolved on the spot, write to us within 28 days of the end of your tour with your booking reference, the date, what happened and any photographs. We investigate with the guide, the hotel or the supplier involved and reply in writing with what we found and what we will do.

Raising a complaint only after the tour, when it could have been fixed during it, limits what we are able to put right and may affect any compensation.

We collect what a booking needs and pass it only to the suppliers who have to have it: the hotel holding your room, the airline issuing your ticket, the guide meeting you, the bank taking your payment. Card numbers are handled by the bank and never reach us.

Our privacy policy explains in full what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it and who receives it. It also explains your rights under the GDPR and Turkish data protection law.

The text, photographs, itineraries and page designs on toliratours.com are ours or are used with permission, and may not be copied or republished without our written consent.

We keep the site accurate and occasionally get something wrong. An obvious error in a price or description does not require us to provide the service on those mistaken terms. If the error affects a booking you have already made, we tell you promptly. You may then cancel that booking without a fee.

Itineraries produced by our trip planner are proposals until they are booked and paid for, at which point everything in these terms applies to them exactly as it does to a tour from the catalogue.

These terms and every booking made under them are governed by the law of the Republic of Turkey, and the Turkish courts have jurisdiction. This does not remove the mandatory protections available to you where you live.

If any part of these terms is found to be legally unenforceable, that part cannot be enforced. The other parts still apply.