Terms of Service

These terms apply to the website at elatripo.com and to every trip we plan and run. “We” and “us” mean Ela Tripo. “You” means the person making the booking, who accepts these terms on behalf of everyone travelling under it.

If you are booking for other people, please make sure they have read this too — particularly sections 7, 9 and 11, which place real obligations on each traveller rather than just on you.

How we handle the information you give us is set out separately in our Privacy Policy.

Nothing on this website is an offer or a fixed price. Itineraries and day plans shown here are illustrations of routes we run; the trip you actually take is the one written in your own itinerary.

A quote we send you is valid for the period stated on it, and holds nothing until it is paid. Prices depend on season, group size, vehicle and availability, all of which move.

A booking exists only when we have received the advance payment and confirmed the booking to you in writing. Until both have happened, dates, rooms and vehicles remain unreserved.

Every itinerary states its own inclusions, and that document governs. As a general guide, our quotes normally include accommodation, transport with a driver, permits we obtain for you, and the guides and entries named in the itinerary.

They normally do not include:

• flights or trains to and from the start point;
• travel insurance;
• camera fees, monument and park charges not named in the itinerary;
• meals not specified, drinks, laundry, tips and personal expenses;
• anything arising from a delay, diversion or evacuation outside our control.

If something matters to you and you cannot see it listed, ask before you pay rather than assuming either way.

An advance is required to confirm a booking. The amount and the due date for the balance are stated in your itinerary and quote; the balance is payable before the trip begins.

Bookings that involve flights, permit fees or fixed-departure seats may require a larger advance, because we pay those costs out before you travel and cannot recover them.

If a balance is not paid by its due date, we may treat the booking as cancelled by you, and section 5 applies.

Cancellations must reach us in writing — email or WhatsApp is fine. The date we receive that message is the date we use.

• More than 30 days before travel: 90% refund.
• 15 to 30 days before travel: 50% refund.
• Less than 15 days before travel: no refund.

Airfares, permit fees and any third-party booking that is itself non-refundable are deducted before the above is applied, because that money has already left our hands. Refunds go back by the route the payment came in.

Changing dates, upgrading a vehicle or adding travellers is usually possible and we will always try. Whether it costs anything depends on what our own suppliers charge us, and we will tell you before we commit you to it.

A traveller who leaves a trip part-way through, for any reason, is not entitled to a refund of the unused portion.

Fixed group departures need a minimum number of travellers. If we do not reach it, we will tell you as early as we can and offer you either a place on another departure, a private-trip price, or a full refund of everything you have paid us.

We may also have to change or cancel a trip for reasons no one controls — an earthquake or landslide, a flood, snow closing a pass, a strike or bandh, civil unrest, an epidemic, a border closure, or a government withdrawing permits for an area. In those cases we will re-route the trip if there is a sensible alternative, and refund whatever we can recover from our suppliers.

What we cannot do is refund money already spent on your behalf and not recoverable, or pay for your flights, missed connections or onward arrangements. This is precisely the risk that travel insurance exists to cover, which is why section 10 asks you to buy some.

Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland restrict entry. Indian nationals require an Inner Line Permit; foreign nationals require a Protected Area Permit, and border sectors such as Bumla, Kibithu and Walong need further clearance. Some of these are refused to certain nationalities regardless of who applies.

We apply on your behalf and we know the process well. But the decision belongs entirely to the issuing authority, and a permit can be refused, delayed, or revoked after issue.

• You must give us accurate documents and photographs by the date we ask for them. A permit that fails because details were wrong or late is treated as a cancellation by you.
• Every traveller must carry original government photo identity for the whole trip — permits are checked at posts along the route, not only at the boundary.
• If an authority refuses or revokes a permit despite a correct and timely application, we will re-route where we can, and refund what we can recover. We are not liable beyond that.

Distance here is measured in hours, not kilometres. Two hundred kilometres can take nine, and the road is the trip as much as the destination is.

Passes close for snow. Monsoon brings landslides that shut a highway for hours or days. Bridges wash out, convoys get held, and army movement takes priority over tourism on border roads. None of this is unusual — it is the ordinary condition of travel in this region, and we plan buffers for it.

We may therefore change the order of an itinerary, substitute a comparable stay, or drop a stop for safety. We will always tell you why. Changes made for weather, road or safety reasons do not entitle you to a refund, and we would rather bring you back late than take a risk on a broken road at night.

Our routes reach 4,633 m. Acute mountain sickness is a genuine risk above roughly 2,500 m and it does not care how fit you are. Medical facilities in these valleys are basic and a long way apart; an evacuation can take many hours.

• Tell us in advance about any heart or lung condition, high or low blood pressure, diabetes, pregnancy, recent surgery, mobility need or serious allergy. We will plan around it — extra acclimatisation nights, a gentler route, or honest advice that a particular circuit is not a good idea.
• Carry your own regular medication in sufficient quantity. Pharmacies in the interior stock very little.
• Our guide or driver may require a traveller to descend, rest, or leave an activity if in their judgement it is unsafe to continue. That decision is final on the road.
• The cost of medical treatment, hospitalisation or evacuation is yours. See section 10.

Where a traveller conceals a material condition and it causes harm or disruption, we are not responsible for the consequences.

We strongly recommend travel insurance for every traveller, and for high-altitude routes we consider it essential.

Cover it properly: medical treatment and hospitalisation, emergency evacuation from remote areas up to the altitude of your route, trip cancellation and curtailment, delays, and loss of baggage and documents.

Arranging it is your responsibility. Travelling without it means carrying every one of those costs yourself.

Most of where we go is somebody's home, not a resort. Villages host us on trust built over years, and that trust is easy to spend and slow to rebuild.

• Ask before photographing people, especially elders, and accept no as an answer.
• Respect monasteries, sacred groves and festival ground protocol. Where a place asks you not to enter or not to photograph, that is not a suggestion.
• Carry your waste out. We run clean-up drives in these valleys ourselves and we are not going to leave more behind than we found.
• Do not offer money or sweets to children, buy wildlife products, or press alcohol on hosts — Nagaland and parts of the region also have their own restrictions on alcohol.
• Follow the driver and guide on timings and safety. Late starts on mountain roads compound all day.

We reserve the right to end a traveller's participation, without refund, where their behaviour endangers others, breaks the law, or is seriously disrespectful to hosts. This has effectively never happened, and we would like to keep it that way.

Parks including Kaziranga, Manas and Nameri set their own opening seasons, safari timings, entry fees and rules, and they close for the monsoon. Zone allocation and vehicle assignment are made by the park authority, not by us.

Sightings are not something anyone can promise. A safari that produces no rhino is not a service failure and is not refundable — the fee buys entry and a vehicle, not an animal.

We are responsible for planning your trip with care, for choosing suppliers we know and use ourselves, and for running the parts of the trip our own team runs.

For hotels, homestays, airlines, park authorities and other independent suppliers, we act as your agent in making the booking. Their own terms govern their service, and we are not liable for their acts or omissions.

We are not liable for loss, delay, injury or damage caused by events beyond our reasonable control — the weather, road and border conditions, government decisions, strikes, or the acts of third parties. Nor are we liable for your own possessions; keep valuables, documents and cash with you.

Where we are found liable, our liability is limited to the amount you paid us for the affected trip. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

We sometimes ask travellers whether we may use a photograph from their trip, or a review they wrote, on this site or on social media. We ask first and we take no for an answer. If you agreed and later change your mind, tell us and we will take it down.

The text, photographs, route descriptions and design on this site belong to us or are used with permission. Please do not reproduce them commercially without asking.

We keep the information here as accurate as we can, but seasons, permit rules, road conditions and prices change. Nothing on this site should be treated as a guarantee of availability, price or condition — for that, ask us.

Tell us while you are still on the trip. A cold room, a driver issue or a meal that was not what you expected can usually be fixed the same day, and almost never can be fixed a month later.

If it is still unresolved when you get home, write to us at contact.elatripo@gmail.com with your booking reference and what happened. We will look into it properly and reply.

These terms are governed by the laws of India. Any dispute arising out of them is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts having jurisdiction over our principal place of business.

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

We may update these terms; the current version always lives on this page with its date at the top. The terms that apply to your trip are the ones in force on the day we confirmed your booking.

Questions about any of this: +91 91013 18234, +91 80990 83845 on WhatsApp, or contact.elatripo@gmail.com.