ATOL
Andean Trails has nearly two decades of experience of dealing with South America holidays.
We also offer ATOL (Civil Aviation Authority) protected holidays to give our customers peace of mind when booking and travelling.
We pay a fee to the CAA for every licensable passenger we book since we hold an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence granted by the Civil Aviation Authority. In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking.
When you buy an ATOL protected air holiday package from Andean Trails Ltd you will receive a Confirmation Invoice from us confirming your arrangements and your protection under our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number 6275.
What is ATOL?
The CAA’s ATOL scheme offers protection to your money and your holiday if you book with us. Not everybody is covered (see ‘Who is covered?’ for more), as you must purchase an ‘air package holiday’ with Andean Trails to be protected.
And ‘air package holiday’ is defined as including a flight and some ground services (hotel, transfer, trek etc). This is also known as an ‘ATOL-protected holiday’.
Who is covered?
To be covered by ATOL, you must book a flight and some ground services with us and be from the UK. If you are from the UK and only book ground services and no flights, you are not covered by ATOL (see below for more on how non-ATOL clients are covered).
If you are outside the UK and buy flights with us, you will be ATOL protected IF any of the flights booked with Andean Trails touches/stops in the UK at any point during your holiday package booked with us.
If you buy your flights elsewhere, please check with that agent if you are ATOL protected. Be careful with online flight purchases and make sure you know what protection you have, if any, before paying for flights.
Not all holiday or travel services offered and sold by us will be protected by the ATOL scheme. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking.
For land only holidays not involving any air travel, in accordance with “The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992”, all UK passengers booking with Andean Trails Ltd. are fully protected for the initial deposit and subsequently the balance of all money paid to us, arising from cancellation or curtailment of travel arrangements due to the insolvency of Andean Trails.
I’m not ATOL covered, what protection do I have?
If you are not ATOL covered, any payments you make to us go to a Trust account.
We can only access this money once your tour has been completed, meaning that if anything happens to Andean Trails Limited while you are on holiday, then your money is secure and you can either complete the trip or be able to make it home.
If you pay for your holiday with a credit card, some offer payment protection – please check with your cardholder.
You also should have cancellation protection written into your insurance (which we recommend you have at the time of booking) in case you need to cancel.
Need more information?
Contact us for more and with any questions.
Testimonials
M. Cook and D. Heyburn, UK. Jan 2025, Paine Circuit Self-Guided.
My friend & I recently did the 8 day O Trek self guided which was organized by Andean Trails. We are so pleased we paid the extra to have all the camps set up & food included rather than carrying all our camping equipment & food. The camps were run by two different companies. One company looked after Seron, Frances & Central where we had tents on stilts. These came with a very comfortable mattress that filled the whole tent, sleeping bags & pillows. The other company looked after Dickson, Los Perros, Gray & Paine Grande where the tents were on the ground with individual mattresses & sleeping bags. I was very impressed with the tents on stilts & found them to be more comfortable & spacious.
The included food was very good & sometimes excellent! We appreciated having a welcome drink which we had before our three course dinner, either a glass of wine or a pisco sour! Very civilized especially as we were in the mountains.
We received plenty of information from Kathy at Andean Trails before the trek began & we received all our vouchers for the transfers into & out of the park & the camps. It was all very well organized.
We also received a welcome pack at the bus station in Puerto Natales which included a sleeping sheet liner, a large travel towel & a water bottle. I had brought my own but I need not have done although it was handy having two water bottles. I filled one with water & one with a fruit tea.
I have wanted to go trekking in Torres del Paine for many years & choose to do it as part of my 60th birthday celebration whilst I'm still fit & able! We are very pleased we choose the O Trek rather than the W Trek as we explored the whole circuit & the first four days from Central to Gray were much quieter & we made friends with some lovely people from all around the world. It was very special. The trek from Gray to Paine Grande was the busiest day on the trail as many people doing the W Trek were doing a day walk there & back. We were also there during peak time. We started the trek on 26th January.
We were very lucky with the weather. We only had one day of rain although it was on the longest day when we trekked over the John Gardner Pass from Los Perros to Gray. We were able to dry our wet clothes by pegging them up in the back porch of our tent & they dried overnight thanks to the wind!
My friend & I enjoyed taking our time every day except on the longest day as we had to be at El Paso ranger hut by 14.00 plus it was raining! We took our time to enjoy the scenery, take photos & we made our packed lunches last most of the day!
We also appreciated having a hot shower every evening except at Los Perros camp which is the most basic camp. Originally we were advised there would be no food provided there but we were offered a simple dinner which consisted of rehydrated food. It was better than nothing!!
It would have been good to have had an extra night at Frances then we could have had a more leisurely trek up to the Mirador Britanico although it would have been backtracking but it was less than 2kms to the Valle del Frances.
The last trek up to Mirador Base Torres was quite emotional. We saw many of the friends we had made on the O Trek plus it was goodbye to an Amazing Memorable Adventure. Thank you Andean Trails for your organization. We have been recommending you to all our friends!
M. Cook and D. Heyburn. Jan 2025, Paine Circuit Self-Guided. UK
» Paine O Circuit Full Trek: Self-Guided
Deb O. and Lisa B., USA, Self-guided Tailormade Patagonia, Feb 2025. There were so many highlights! The summits and glacier excursions were magnificent. We were blessed with great weather most of the time. Having our own guide in Chalten was great and our guide was fantastic! There were a lot of details to this trip and they all came together nicely. The accommodations were very good. Very clean -no complaints. Guides were wonderful. Food was amazing -everything homemade. I think we benefited the local people. We acknowledged their services with appropriate tips and we patronized many local establishments while there. I can’t think of anything right now that I would do differently! Patagonia has been a “bucket list” trip for me. I will turn 60 and retire this year so it was my treat to myself. It was everything I hoped it would be. I hope it doesn’t change with the ever increasing tourism. It’s such a special place. They are very proud of their heritage and it deserves to be preserved. We found Andean Trails online and the e reviews were good and prices reasonable. It was a leap of faith that paid off. Thank you so much for bringing this experience to me.
» Patagonia Highlights Trekking Trip
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