Terms & Conditions
Please read carefully before booking
Who you're contracting with
These terms are an agreement between you and The Socotra Quest, a tour operator based on Socotra Island, Yemen ("we", "us"). The business, its trips and its records are in Yemen, and that is who you are contracting with. Our published telephone number is a Canadian line answered by a family member who handles enquiries on our behalf; she is a point of contact, not the operator and not a separate company. By submitting an inquiry or making a booking you agree to these terms.
Please read §09 carefully. It requires most disputes to be resolved by binding individual arbitration rather than in court, and it waives class actions and jury trials. You may opt out within 30 days, and it does not apply where the law of your home province or country does not allow it, including for consumers resident in Québec.
Booking through this website
You can reserve dates directly on our booking page. Doing so is a request to travel with us on those dates. Depending on how we are running bookings at the time, you will either see your place held straight away or see that your request is waiting for us to review it; either way you receive a booking reference by email.
A reference means we are holding your dates. It is not a completed contract and it is not a confirmed price. The trip itself is agreed once we have written to you with the itinerary, the total price and what it includes, and we have received your deposit. Until then, either of us may withdraw without penalty. We may decline or release a reservation at our discretion, including where a date turns out to be unworkable, where the details given are incomplete or wrong, or where a visa is not granted.
A 30% deposit secures your dates once we have confirmed them in writing. The balance is due 30 days before departure. If a deposit is not paid by the date we give you, the dates are released.
No payment is taken on this website. There is no checkout, no card form, and no card details are ever entered here. Payment is arranged directly with us, for example by bank transfer, after we confirm availability. No price shown or implied anywhere on this site is an offer; prices, currency and inclusions are confirmed with you in writing at the time of booking.
You are responsible for giving accurate names, dates and contact details, and for telling us promptly if they change. Passports, visas, permits, vaccinations and travel insurance remain your responsibility; we help where we can, but we cannot be responsible for a refusal or a document that is missing or out of date.
Cancellations
The scale below applies once a trip is confirmed and a deposit has been paid. A reservation made on the booking page that has not yet reached that point can be cancelled at no charge: email us with your reference and we will release the dates.
- 60+ days before departure: full refund minus administrative fees
- 30–60 days before departure: 50% refund
- Less than 30 days: no refund unless we can fill your spot
- Weather-related cancellations: handled case-by-case with rescheduling options
Travel insurance is strongly recommended, and should cover cancellation, medical care and repatriation. Where the law of your home country gives you a cancellation or withdrawal right that is stronger than the above, that right applies and nothing here takes it away.
Health & fitness
Some trails involve hiking and physical activity. Participants should be in reasonable health. Please inform us of any medical conditions, allergies, or dietary requirements before your trip so we can make appropriate arrangements.
Itinerary changes
Routes may flex with weather, terrain, group dynamics or guide discretion. We follow known routes, with room to discover. Alternative activities of equal value are provided where possible.
Liability
Travel on Socotra involves remote terrain. By booking you acknowledge the inherent risks and confirm you are in adequate health to participate. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for acts of nature, the acts or omissions of independent third-party providers, or loss of personal belongings.
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything that cannot lawfully be excluded. Some jurisdictions (including parts of Canada and the US) do not allow certain exclusions, so some of the above may not apply to you. We strongly recommend comprehensive travel and medical insurance for your trip.
Respectful travel
Socotra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We ask all travelers to respect local customs, dress modestly in town, and follow leave-no-trace principles throughout the trip. Collection of natural specimens is strictly prohibited.
Website content, photography & AI assistance
AI disclosure: some of the written copy on this website was drafted or edited with the help of AI writing tools. Everything published here is reviewed and approved by a person on our team before it goes live, and the facts about our trips, prices and the island are ours, not the tool's. There is no AI chatbot on this site, and replies to your inquiry are written by a person.
Photographs are representative of Socotra and of the trips we run. Light, weather, seasonal vegetation, sea state and wildlife vary, so no image is a promise that you will see the same scene on your dates. Descriptions of trails, durations and inclusions are accurate at the time of publication and are confirmed in writing when you book, and the written confirmation governs if it differs from the site.
Any quotes shown on this site are our own words unless a real named traveler is credited. We do not publish invented, incentivised or AI-written reviews.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Québec and the laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. This does not deprive you of the mandatory consumer-protection rights of your own country or province of residence where those cannot be waived by contract.
Disputes, arbitration & class-action waiver
a. Talk to us first. If something goes wrong, email socotraquest@gmail.com with a short description of the problem and what you would like us to do. Most issues are resolved quickly and informally. Neither of us may start arbitration or a court claim until 30 days after that notice is sent, and that 30-day period is a genuine attempt at resolution, not a formality.
b. Binding individual arbitration. If we cannot resolve it, any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these terms, our website, or any trip you book with us will be settled by final and binding arbitration rather than in court, except as stated in paragraphs (d) and (f) below. The arbitration will be administered by the ADR Institute of Canada under its Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator, seated in Montréal, Québec, and conducted in English. The arbitrator decides the merits and also any question about whether a claim falls within this clause. Judgment on the award may be entered by any court of competent jurisdiction. Where the amount in dispute allows it under those rules, the arbitration may be held on documents alone or by videoconference, so you do not have to travel.
c. No class actions. Claims may be brought only in your individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any form of representative proceeding, and may award relief only in favour of the individual party seeking it and only to the extent needed to satisfy that party's own claim. Each of us also waives any right to a trial by jury.
d. What is carved out. Either of us may still bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies there, and either of us may ask any court for an injunction or other equitable relief to stop actual or threatened infringement or misuse of intellectual property or confidential information. Nothing here prevents you from reporting a matter to a consumer-protection, privacy or travel regulator.
e. Opting out. You may reject this arbitration and class-waiver provision by emailing socotraquest@gmail.com with the subject line "Arbitration opt-out", together with your name and booking or inquiry reference, within 30 days of first agreeing to these terms. Opting out costs you nothing, does not affect your booking, and leaves the rest of these terms in force. If you opt out, disputes go to the courts described in paragraph (g).
f. Where this does not apply. This arbitration and class-waiver provision applies only to the extent the law allows. It does not apply to consumers resident in Québec, whose Consumer Protection Act prohibits clauses requiring a consumer to arbitrate, and it does not apply where the mandatory consumer law of your own province, state or country makes a pre-dispute arbitration agreement or a class-action waiver unenforceable, including for consumers in the United Kingdom and the European Union. Nothing in this section limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.
g. If arbitration does not apply. Where this provision is unenforceable or you have opted out, the dispute will be submitted to the courts of Québec, Canada, without prejudice to any mandatory right you may have to bring a claim where you live. If the class-waiver in paragraph (c) is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim alone leaves arbitration and proceeds in court, while the rest of this section continues to apply to the remaining claims.
Last updated: September 2026