Sent to travellers on 14Feb22

Dear Travellers,

We hope this finds you well and looking forward to the coming of spring and to your travels this year.

We’re writing today with an update from ‘base camp’ here at 491 King Street East in Toronto. We’re happy to report that our tours have begun for the year with groups in the Galapagos, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Belize in February and trips to Uzbekistan, Holland, Greece, and Paris coming up. Like you, we’re excited to be back to travel.

We very much appreciate your patience and understanding over the past months as we all adapt to shifting circumstances. We’ve been encouraged by improvements in the travel regulatory landscape, by safeguards that have been instituted by our partners in Canada and overseas, and by enhancements to cancellation and medical insurance coverage now available.

With this spirit of growing confidence, our travellers are asking us to confirm tours at our usual three months prior to departure so that they can proceed with flight arrangements and scheduling their activities around the tour.

We are writing to you today with an update to the terms and conditions which will apply to our fall 2022 land tours. What’s changed? For all land tours from September 1 – December 31, 2022, we will be requesting an interim payment of $1000 per person at six months prior to travel with the balance of payment due at 90 days prior to travel. Should you choose to withdraw from a tour you have booked, you may transfer the full amount of your deposit and any interim payments without penalty up to 90 days prior to travel. Our usual terms and conditions will apply for 2023 tours. We will be sending you an updated invoice reflecting these changes within the next few weeks.

Several factors have influenced this review of our terms and conditions, and we would like to share our assessment with you.

Most importantly, updated travel insurance coverage (for trip cancellation and Covid Pandemic plans), now allows our travellers to insure for contracting Covid prior to departure, for any medical expenses related to contracting Covid while travelling, and for reimbursement of quarantine expenses.

We select our hotel properties very carefully, and being very desirable, these properties are in high demand globally. As the demand for travel increases, our partners around the world are asking us to secure our bookings with non-refundable deposits at the latest by three months prior to our arrival. We therefore need to confirm our group size and room requirements at that time.

Our focus remains on the well-being of our travellers, staff, and the communities we visit. We have established our own standards for our tours which will only proceed when all the following Tour-Ready criteria are met:

1. The Canadian government does not have an ‘Avoid All Travel’ advisory to the country or region within a country for any part of the tour.
2. No region of the tour has any significant COVID-19 related restrictions.
3. There is reliable airline access for arrival and departure.
4. Worldwide Quest and our in-country partners are confident that your trip can operate safely and enjoyably.

Should a tour not be ‘Tour-Ready’, we will transfer your payments without any fee or penalty to another tour. You can read more about our ‘Tour-Ready’ guarantee here.

All our travellers, guides, drivers, and other service providers are fully vaccinated. We are committed to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s #SafeTravels protocols covering operational and staff preparedness and the delivery of a safe experience.

The decision to travel is a personal one. You can count on Worldwide Quest and our local partners to take all measures possible to ensure your health and safety and to make your trip interesting and fun.

Please be in touch with us to discuss any concerns you may have. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss our assessment and the steps we are taking to make sure that your trip is up to the high standards you expect from Worldwide Quest.

Please look for your updated invoice by email. We very much appreciate your continuing support and look forward to seeing you on tour this year.


Laurielle, Lewie, Justin

P.S. Look for live tour updates on our Instagram and Facebook page!