From Enquiry to Departure: How Your Booking Works

You may have found a tour on our website and want to check a date. You may know where you want to go but be unsure which trip to choose. Or you may have an itinerary in mind and want help arranging it. Any of these is a useful starting point.

A Simple Enquiry Is Enough to Begin

Start with where you would like to go, roughly when, how many people are travelling, and how much time you have. You can use the contact form to send your enquiry. If a listed tour has caught your eye, include its name or link. An approximate budget helps too, but if you would prefer to discuss it by email, Mano can follow up with you.

You do not need a detailed brief before asking about a tour. Share what you already know, including any dietary or mobility requirements that affect your choice. If your trip includes accommodation, tell us how many rooms you need and how you would like them arranged. A party of three, for example, might want a double room and a single room, or a double room with an extra bed if available. You can include these details in your message and clarify them in the conversation that follows.

For a trip designed from scratch, how to brief a travel curator offers more guidance on sharing your interests and preferences.

Finding a Tour That Fits

The itineraries on our website are a curated selection of established tours. Mano chooses which trips to include and recommend, giving you a considered selection to explore before any individual planning is needed.

For many travellers, a listed tour already fits. The enquiry is then about the practical details: dates, availability, what is included, and whether the route and format suit the people travelling. In Colombia, this will often mean joining an existing group tour with a set route and schedule. That can be exactly the right choice for someone who likes the itinerary and is happy to share the experience.

Other travellers want to adapt a tour, perhaps by extending a stay or exploring a private version. Some need a more individual itinerary. The amount of planning follows the request.

Checking What Can Be Changed

If something in a listed itinerary does not suit you, it is worth discussing before booking. We can explore what is possible and how it affects the price. Some requests may fit within the available options; others require a private or more substantially personalised trip.

The distinction between shared and private travel matters here. A shared tour has arrangements for the whole group, so its departure time, sequence of visits, or accommodation may be fixed. A private arrangement offers more scope for changes, although availability and practical constraints still apply. Services arranged for your party alone generally cost more than shared ones. Our guide to what affects the price of a curated tour explains the choices involved.

The guiding included is described in the itinerary. If you need a particular language or subject specialism, raise it when you enquire.

Where a request does arise, a language is usually the most straightforward kind. Guiding in French or German can normally be arranged, and a specialist language guide carries an additional cost. A subject specialism is less predictable. If you want architecture covered from a more in-depth angle, for example, a suitable guide has to be sourced, which depends on who is available and also carries an additional cost.

A request becomes part of your booking once it has been checked, confirmed, and written into your itinerary. Until then, it remains a preference we are looking into.

Reviewing Your Recommended Itinerary

The Recommended Itinerary sets out the trip you are considering. For an existing tour, the route may be unchanged from the one you first read. For an adapted or individual trip, it should reflect the changes discussed, alongside the price and what is included and excluded. Anything still being checked is identified as such, so you can see which parts of the trip are settled and which are awaiting confirmation.

Read it as a set of days you will actually spend travelling. Check the dates, the amount of walking or moving between places, and any free time that matters to you. Where accommodation, transfers, or particular activities form part of the booking, check those details too. If a special request was important to your decision, make sure you understand whether it has been confirmed.

Questions and revisions are welcome where changes are possible. Seeing an itinerary may help you decide that you would like an extra night somewhere, or that a shared tour suits you better than a private alternative.

Peru offers a good illustration. Machu Picchu is visited on set circuits, so check which circuit is included in your itinerary. If you would prefer a different circuit, we can explore it subject to ticket availability. Additional nights in Cusco, the Sacred Valley, or Aguas Calientes also need to be checked and quoted. Raise these preferences while reviewing the itinerary so we can explain the options and any change in price.

Acceptance, Payment, and Confirmation

Once you accept the Recommended Itinerary, we issue an invoice for a deposit of 50% of the total. After receiving the deposit, we book and confirm the services with the operators. We then confirm all arrangements to you, and the balance becomes due. The deposit starts the booking process; it does not by itself confirm that every service has been secured.

If your plans change between the deposit and confirmation, we check any effect on the total. Adding nights or services carries an additional cost; reordering days or leaving out a segment on a private trip does not normally carry an additional charge. Changes to the route or party size may also affect the price. Any price difference is quoted and agreed with you before the changed arrangements are confirmed.

Availability can change between quotation and booking, because not everything can be held in advance. Some services have limited capacity, such as the train to Aguas Calientes, and a seat available when your itinerary was quoted may be taken by the time we book. If that happens, we explain the alternatives and their prices for you to consider.

Before paying the deposit, read the payment and cancellation terms for your trip alongside the itinerary and our tour terms. Check that essential requirements, including dietary or mobility needs and room arrangements, have been recorded and that you understand what has been confirmed and what is still being checked.

Before You Travel

Before departure, make sure you have the practical details: where the tour starts, when to be there, what to bring, and whom to contact if you need help. On a trip with several stages, check the relevant accommodation and transfer details too. If any instructions are missing or unclear, ask us before you travel. Your itinerary will show whether hotel collection or airport transport is included.

If your plans or requirements have changed since booking, let us know before departure. A change in arrival time, for example, may affect a transfer you have arranged. A new request may need to be checked against the confirmed itinerary and could affect the price.

Getting Help While You Are Travelling

The itinerary gives the trip its shape, but the details of a day may need to change. Traffic, weather, or an unexpected closure can affect timings or make a planned visit impossible. Where an included element cannot go ahead, a suitable substitute is offered if possible; an alternative may not always be available.

If something needs attention while you are away, contact Coromandel Tours by the quickest available channel. For an urgent problem with your tour arrangements, use WhatsApp or the telephone if that is faster for you. Email is preferred when there are details to explain. We contact the local operator as soon as possible, arrange an alternative where one is available, and let you know the outcome.

Some disruption is outside anyone’s control. National strikes, for instance, can begin at short notice in parts of Latin America. Where possible, we arrange an alternative. We also try to negotiate a refund where the booking terms and supplier’s conditions allow one, although a refund may not be available. If you miss a service for a reason within your control, such as missing a coach departure, it will not be refundable.

Ready to start planning? Get in touch with what you know so far, and Mano will help you work through the next steps.