Charter Trips

Private trips can be scheduled to operate on any of our regular routes (or on a route you create), subject to availability: ours, and those of the hotels and trains. If you have already decided that you are going to set one up, jump directly to the “How To...” section, below.

Trips can be operated for any number of people, but the per-person price of the trip will vary with the total number of participants.

If your group is small, the cost of a private trip may be prohibitive. In that case, you may wish to consider a “Guest-Initiated” new departure of one of our regular trips, open also to other riders, instead. Follow this link for details.

In general:

• Trips of 10 riders or more, following one of our regular routes, will operate at our regular published prices. Trips operated for fewer travellers will generally cost more per person, this additional cost to be negotiated in function of the number of participants.
• Commercial discounts (student, educator, etc.) apply if the group has 12 or more riders.
• A modest “group” discount may be available if the group has 12 or more travellers, operates on the same days of the week as the scheduled departures on that route, and if no extraordinary arrangements (the hiring of new personnel, or the purchase of new or non-standard bikes, for example) are necessary to operate it.
  The “group” discount is not cumulable with other commercial discounts, but each rider will receive whichever discount is more advantageous.

Itinerary deviations (or the creation of a new itinerary) are possible for Charter Trips.

This facility can be used to make longer or shorter stops in some towns, to truncate routes, to change the level of lodging and / or meals, or simply to schedule the trip on other days of the week than those on which it usually operates. Route research charges will be factored into the cost of the trip. Their amount will depend on what you require of us. In general, charter trips are more economical the more closely they follow our regular routes.

Interested? When you are ready to move forward in the creation of your charter trip, here is how:


How to Set Up a Charter Trip

There are three necessary steps.

1. Tell Us What You are Thinking
2. Obtain a Detailed Trip Proposition
3. Sign Up for the Trip

1. Tell Us What You are Thinking
A quick e.mail will suffice for this.

For example:
“10 - 15 of us; somewhere in the south of France; some time in June, or maybe early July; mostly confirmed riders, but a couple of novices, and one ‘training partner,’ who wants to follow the trip, but not on a bike.” [The “training” in this context refers to the eponymous vehicle, and not to any sort of athletic preparation.]

If appropriate, you could add something like:
“Your ‘Gorges of the Cévennes’ route looks appealing, but we are worried about the hills.”

We reply with our availability, and with any suggestions.

An example of our reply at that stage might be:
“We could do this in our regular conditions (routes, prices) at any time except for the week of June 23rd, where we are already fully booked. We suggest the Dordogne or Provence routes rather than the Cévennes, since public transit is absent in the Cévennes, and both the ‘training partner’ and the novice riders (who might want to shorten a given day) could suffer from this.

If you really like the looks of the Cévennes, we could offer van support, but it would add about 150€ / person to the trip cost. Or we could reroute the trip on the two hardest days, such that the hills would not be as much of a factor. This would cost about 600€ for the creation of the two new routes, to be shared amongst the participants, using whatever formula you see fit.”

We might add a couple of questions or comments to further help you make your selection.

If you like what we tell you, and can get your group to agree on a first choice, then your next step is to...


2. Obtain a Detailed Trip Proposition
Four things are necessary from you to do so:

1. The name and contact information of a designated “Ring Master,” someone mandated by the group to communicate the group’s needs to us, and to whom we can address any questions about those needs.
   
   Ideally, this person should be authorized to make at least minor decisions on behalf of the group. Each, individual member of the group is our guest and client, and is welcome to communicate with us directly, at any time, and on any topic. But the “Ring Master” should be copied on correspondence of a non-personal nature between us, such that one person in the group has an overview of what is going on as the trip advances.
   
   
2. The minimum number of participants that you would like to set in order for the trip to operate.
   
   Since trip price varies with the number of participants, this number may have an influence on the price that you quote to the members of your group.
   
   Example: you are hoping for 15 riders. We have quoted a price of 1,500€ per person for a minimum of 12, instead of the usual quoted price of 1,650€ (which would be valid for a trip of 8 - 11). In this example, you could choose to set the minimum number of riders required to run the trip at either 8, or at 12.
   • If you chose 8, you would tell prospective participants, “the price is 1,650€, but if at least 12 of us go, we each get 150€ back.”
   • If you choose 12, you would say instead, “the price is 1,500€, but we need 12 people, otherwise the trip does not go.”
   
   A rule of thumb: at least 30% of the people who were “absolutely sure” to go will drop out when it comes to actually making a trip deposit. Nothing focuses people on their offsprings’ soccer tournaments like pulling out a credit card!
   
   
3. The date for which you would like to schedule the trip.
   
   
4. A $500 (US or C) / 350 € deposit. This deposit is for the group, not per-person.
   
   To avoid putting one person’s funds on the line, it may be wise to set a per-person deposit, of (say) $75, or your currency’s equivalent (so long as the total comes to at least the total required for the group). There is no better way to gauge serious interest than to ask people to contribute to the creation of the itinerary! Indeed, you may wish to set the amount of the individual deposit such that the total needed is reached even if one person suddenly drops out.
   
   These individual deposits can either be collected by the designated Ring Master, and forwarded to us, or be sent to us directly. Any amount collected over the required total deposit will be returned to the Ring Master in the event of the non-operation of the trip, to distribute as s/he sees fit.
   
   
   

An additional deposit is required before new route research can be undertaken, the negotiated amount of which is dependent on the research required.

Both deposits are deductible from final trip cost. In addition, they are fully refundable if we cannot operate the trip as you have specified it (it is thus wise to make your specification as precise as possible, to avoid a hidden “deal breaker”). Neither is refundable if we are able to operate the trip as you described it to us, but you choose not to go.


We now return a Detailed Trip Proposition (or your deposit, if we cannot make one). This includes...

• ...confirmation of our availability on your requested date, which is then scheduled and reserved for you.
• A 30-day option for you to confirm the trip (reduced to 15 days if the scheduled departure is within 90 days).
• A price guarantee valid for this period (after which the price will be subject to currency fluctuation).
• A route description with projected night stops.
  
  

If the proposition pleases you, your next step is to...


3. Sign Up For the Trip
Once we have returned our “Detailed Trip Proposition,” the members of your group have 30 days to sign up (reduced to 15 days if the scheduled departure is within 90 days), using our usual trip application. As soon as the requisite “minimum” number of participants (set by you) is attained, the trip is definitively scheduled, and the trip’s operation is confirmed to all those who have subscribed.

If, at the end of this 30 (or 15) day period, the trip has not attained the minimum number of participants, all individual trip deposits are refunded in full. Or (at our discretion) the trip is confirmed and operated for the number of people who have joined, at the agreed price, without any additional cost to the participants.

Cancellation Conditions for Charter Trips
Our usual conditions for signing up and canceling apply, with the following modifications:

• The trip deposit required to schedule the trip shall be whichever is less of our Standard Trip Deposit, or half of the quoted trip cost.
• This deposit, whether our standard trip deposit or an amount that is half of the total trip cost, is nonrefundable (except through one of our Cancellation Waivers, or as provided in “Conditional Refund of Deposits,” below). Under some circumstances, however, it may be transferred to another party (see “Transferring Deposits,” below).
• Cancellation Waivers, if desired, must be subscribed simultaneously with trip application. The terms of the waivers are the same as for regularly-scheduled trips.
• Transferring Deposits. Should a rider sign up, and then need to cancel, all but an administrative charge (corresponding to the charge normally assessed when participation in one of our regularly-scheduled trips is cancelled 8 or more weeks in advance) may be transferred to any other person of his or her choosing travelling on the same trip, by simple written instruction. Transferred payments can only serve as a payment for a newly-registering traveller. They cannot be transferred to someone already registered for the trip, nor to someone who has been previously registered, and cancelled.
• Conditional Refund of Deposits. Should the number of actual participants on the trip equal at least the minimum number required to obtain the lowest quoted price, plus 2, the standard trip deposits of those who have found it necessary to cancel their participation will be partially refundable, per the conditions that apply to our regularly-scheduled trips. Any refunds are made only after the trip has operated. Their amount is based on the date of the cancellation.
  
  

And that is it! Your trip is under way. You will receive our standard confirming information, information on reaching and leaving your trip, an account statement reflecting your payments... all the things we send to riders on our regularly-scheduled trips. Bon voyage!