Douro Valley self-guided bike tour

Terms and conditions agreement

The terms and conditions set forth below (the “Terms” or “Agreement”) constitute the entire understanding and agreement between you, the tour participant (individually or collectively “you” or “the client”) and Vinitur – Turismo, Vinho e Gastronomia Lda, doing business as “Authentic Trails” (or “we” or “AT”), its owners, employees, shareholders, with respect to any and all bookings, trips or transactions made with “Authentic Trails”.

Vinitur – Turismo, Vinho e Gastronomia Lda, doing business as Authentic Trails, is a travel agency and an activity tourism company combining leisure, cultural and outdoor adventure activities and licensed by the Portugal National Tourism Organization, with licenses RNAVT and RNAAT.

By completing the Tour reservation, you confirm agreeing to these Terms, and you accept all Terms herein and direct us to perform services on your behalf. All persons named in the Tour Booking Form (“Participants”) are subject to this Agreement. By signing these Terms, you affirm that you have made all other Participants listed in the Tour reservation aware of these Terms – regardless of how final payment is made – and that all Participants accept these Terms.

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1. Registration

The registration is done by completing and submitting the Tour Booking Form, fully completed. Registration will be accepted only with a confirmation deposit per person according to the conditions of the tour. The balance of your payment is due 45 days prior to the check-in date, with the remaining payment. If enrollment occurs 45 days or less from the date of the program, the total value of the program must be paid upon registration, leaving you with a pre-confirmation subject to availability by all service providers involved in the program. Once your deposit has been received, we will send a confirmation proforma invoice. Tour documents will be sent to the tour leader after the balance payment.

Payments are in Euros, by wire transfer or optionally by Visa, Mastercard or PayPal. The wire transfer should be done with a reference to the client’s name, tour and date.

With the registration the client assumes:

-  the obligation to know and accept the terms and conditions of participation as well as specific conditions contained in the program that he is going to participate;

-  to be in good health conditions to participate in the program as it is part and accepts the possibility of running all the risks inherent to their nature;

-  to be aware of the type of physical demands, psychological and cultural activities they involve, and materials including personal injury, illness, inconvenience and accept them, and accept that they could produce unforeseen events.

Authentic Trails reserves the right to consider invalid any registration for which payment has not been made under the conditions mentioned.

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2. Booking terms and conditions

Booking confirmation is performed after our reception of the fully completed Tour Booking Form and payment of the deposit. Our group programs have a limited number of participants and bookings will be registered in a first-came first-serve basis.

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3. Prices

Once a tour is under deposit, the tour and its price is guaranteed unless force majeur conditions have been noted.

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4. Cancellations

If a client wishes to withdraw its tour must do so in writing or by e-mail and will have to bear the costs of dropping out according to the following scale:

- Prior to 31 days before tour start: administrative fee of 50 Euros per person will apply

- 30 to 8 days before tour start: 25% of total

- 7 days or less or no show: 100% of total

There are no exceptions to this cancellation policy, including reasons related to weather, terrorism, strike, civil strife, personal, family or medical emergencies or any other circumstances beyond our control. Authentic Trails encourages all travelers to purchase travel insurance including trip cancelation, interruption, delay, and baggage to protect their financial investment. Our experience shows that guests who purchase travel insurance including trip cancellation, interruption, delay, baggage and personal effects loss travel more assuredly.

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5. Booking change policy

If, after Tour Booking Form and deposit have been received by Authentic Trails, you make a change to your existing booking, we will charge an amendment fee of 50 Euros per booking for each change. If you wish to change to another of our tours or change departure date, we will try to make the changes subject to availability, if notification is received in writing at our offices from the lead name at least 60 days before departure and you pay 50 Euros per person to cover administrative costs.

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6. Change of names

If you are unable to travel you can transfer your booking to another person, subject to the following:

a) you must notify us in writing at least 60 days before departure; and

b) your request is accompanied by the Tour Booking Form with the name and details of the transferee; and

c) the transferee must fulfill any conditions that apply to the booking; and

d) payment of the administrative cost of 50 Euros per person.

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7. Force majeure

Refunds and compensation payments are not liable in circumstances beyond our control or our supplier’s control. This includes but is not limited to changes due to war, threat of war, acts of terrorism, civil strife, strikes, natural disaster, fire, adverse weather or similar circumstances.

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8. Itinerary changes and flexibility

You understand that the amenities, lodgings, routes, and itinerary may change without prior notice due to local circumstances or events, which may include weather, road works and other unforeseeable factors. We reserve the right to make changes to your itinerary. Should this be necessary we will do our utmost to ensure that any such changes do not substantially alter the nature of the tour.

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9. Responsibilities during tour

Tour starting date: it is your responsibility to go at the departure city and hotel at the specific tour departure day and time. Authentic Trails is not responsible for any losses due to cancelled or missed flights, strikes, changed flight itineraries, late arrivals, or early departures.

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10. Degree of difficulty

It is the client's responsibility to verify the degree of difficulty of the program that fits and whether it is appropriate to their capacities. Authentic Trails clarifies all the doubts and questions during the application but cannot be held responsible for the fact that the participant does not have the skills or physical condition to complete the activity.

11. Health requirements

All clients are expected to satisfy themselves prior to booking that they are healthy, fit and able to complete the itinerary of their chosen tour as described in the program. By agreeing to these Terms, you certify that you do not have any physical or mental health condition that would create a hazard for you or other Participants or affect other people's enjoyment of the tour.

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12. Security

Safety is our first priority for all persons involved in its activities, clients, guides or anyone who assists in organizing the activity. The equipment used in the activities of the Authentic Trails is approved. In guided activities, Authentic Trails’ guides and monitors are trained and at least one of the guides is trained in first aid and mechanical cycling. The client of a guided tour should respect the decisions and directions of the guide. The use of helmets is required. The client agrees to wear a bicycle helmet at all times as well as any other required safety equipments.

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13. Equipment rental conditions

Bicycles are rented from Authentic Trails on the condition that the hirer assumes full responsibility for the bicycle during the rental period. There is no insurance for bicycles. When a cycling tour is booked, bicycle and helmet are included as a rental part of the service. The client is held responsible, in financial and moral terms, for their equipment during its use. If some type of excessive damage is observed in the bicycle, the client will have to pay for parts replacements or for repairs as the degree of damage is evaluated by Authentic Trails. 

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14. Bicycle technical support and responsibility

When a client books a cycling tour he must know how to ride a multispeed bicycle or e-bike. Bikes are delivered in good shape but small problems can arrive due to the continuous use. Clients booking a self-guided tour are expected to solve minor problems on the bicycle like changing a flat tire or tuning the gears or brakes. Bikes are equipped with rear rack, lock and front bag or 1 pannier. In self-guided tours Authentic Trails will deliver per group a repair kit for flat tires, a pump, spare inner tube and a multi tool kit. If the client needs assistance during the tour to solve problems in the bicycle, an additional fee of 45 euros will be charged. If you book a guided trip the guides will take care of all problems. 

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15. Accommodation

The lodgings booked by Authentic Trails are carefully chosen according to the level of accommodation selected by the client and are chosen based on proximity of the route. We favor sites that have a character and a special atmosphere, either by location, comfort, friendliness of the owners, or the rustic way they integrate into the landscape in order to provide a pleasant stay, adequate rest and activity. However, this is not always possible and sometimes to maintain the integrity of the route lodging is in regular hotels. All accommodation of the tour will be informed upon final payment, with our confirmation. 

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16. Food, wine and experiences with local products

Authentic Trails provides in the tours’ experiences with traditional quality food and products, which include wine, olive oil, cheeses or other local specialties, depending on the availability in the region. It will be given to the client a list of possible choices for meals and tastings along the itinerary. During the tours, lunches can be provided by typical cafes or restaurants nearby most of the routes, or the client can choose to have a picnic provided by the hotel. Dinners can be provided at the lodging or at a nearby restaurant. Not all selected accommodation provides meals, and some request a reservation in advance. AT will provide all information about meals upon request. Note that we do not have half-board options. 

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17. Logistics support

The transport of baggage between the clients’ accommodation at the end of one stage and the following is included in the Authentic Trails services. The client must have the luggage ready before starting the next stage, AT recommends to never put in the luggage to be transported values such as money, credit cards, personal documents (identity card, airline tickets, etc.). Or any other document that its loss can lead to complications in the normal course of the journey. AT is not responsible for failure by the client of this recommendation. The client must inform organization if he has some object fragile and pack it properly. All luggage, equipment and personal belongings will be on the client's responsibility.

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18. Insurance

The price of the tour includes a basic travel insurance mandatory by the Portuguese law, at the insurer Victoria SA and Allianz SA This insurance covers:

Civil liability: 50 000 Euros.

Personal accident - death or permanent disability: 20 000 Euros.

Personal accident - treatment and repatriation expenses: 3500 Euros.

Authentic Trails strongly recommends clients to obtain a travel insurance with a minimum medical coverage of 150 000 Euros while travelling with the AT and this insurance must cover personal injury and emergency medical expenses. It is strongly recommended the coverage be extended to include other expenses that might arise as a result of loss, damage, injury, delay or inconvenience occurring to the client. AT shall have no liability for loss, theft of or damage to baggage or personal effects. 

Authentic Trails encourages all travelers to purchase travel insurance including trip cancelation, interruption, delay, and baggage to protect their financial investment. Our experience shows that guests who purchase travel insurance including trip cancellation, interruption, delay, baggage and personal effects loss travel more assuredly.

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19. Personal requirements

Our mission is to provide you the best vacation, so we will do everything to meet any special needs such as vegetarian diets. Please inform us when filling your Tour Booking Form.

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20. Equipment needed

The specific equipment is usually included in the activity. For details about the equipment required / recommended, refer to the program.

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21. Travel documents

Pre-departure documentation:  After we receive your final payment, you will receive by email a variety of documentation, including confirmations and tour information. Please read these documents carefully as soon as you receive them and contact us if any information seems to be incomplete.  We cannot accept any liability if we are not notified of any inaccuracy in any document within 10 days of us sending time to you.

Flights, Passports and Visas:  You are responsible for ensuring that all necessary travel documents are valid and effective and in your possession for the entire trip to Portugal and during the tour. You are responsible for any passport requirements, and we suggest you plan early to apply for or renew a passport. You assume complete and full responsibility for checking and verifying any and all passport, visa, vaccination, or other entry requirements. You are also solely responsible for any adverse consequences resulting from missing or defective documentation.  

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22. Use of photographs, images and testimonials

Any client's image, captured by the monitors or employees of Authentic Trails at any of our tours, can be used by Authentic Trails in the illustration of promotional material and advertising company such as brochures, slides, videos and the Internet, without remuneration. No images shall be used when the image of a person is equal to or larger than 50% of the photograph size. Also, clients agree that AT may use any testimonials regarding services rendered for promotional and/or commercial purposes without any remuneration.

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23. Complaints

If you encounter any issue during your tour, you must promptly notify Authentic Trails (for self-guided tours) or tour leader (for guided tours) and they will do their best to assist you resolve the matter there and then. Failure to notify us immediately may forfeit or reduce your ability to claim any future compensation or refund from Authentic Trails. Further, if you make any changes on your own without notifying us, as described above, you shall assume sole responsibility for any added costs you may incur and forfeiting any potential refunds. If Authentic Trails cannot resolve your complaint at the time of occurrence, you should make a written record of your complaint and send it to Authentic Trails within 30 days of the end of the tour via email at: [email protected] or via postal mail at: Rua Afonso Cordeiro, 679, 1E, 4450-007 Matosinhos, Portugal. Authentic Trails will not accept any claims received beyond this period.

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24. Liabilities and limitations: responsibility-limitation of liability

Authentic Trails act only in the capacity as an agent for the hotels, bus companies, railroads, and/or any supplier providing accommodations, transportation or other services to the Participant. The Participant is advised that Authentic Trails purchases such transportation, accommodations, meals and other services from various suppliers who are not affiliated with Authentic Trails. AT makes every effort to select the best suppliers of the aforementioned services, however, AT does not control the operations of these agents and as a result, cannot be held liable for any personal injury, property damage or other claim which may occur as the result of any and/or all of the following: (1) the wrongful, negligent or arbitrary acts, errors or omissions on the part of the independent supplier, its agents, its employees or others who are not under the direct control or supervision of AT; (2) defects or failures of any vehicle or other instrumentality which is under the control of an independent supplier; (3) collisions with bicycles, pedestrians or automobiles, road conditions including or not limited to lack of shoulder and roadway surfaces affected by weather conditions; or (4) loss, injury or damage to person, property or otherwise, resulting directly or indirectly from any Acts of God, fire, breakdown in machinery or equipment, or wars (whether declared or not), hostilities, civil disturbances, strikes, riots, thefts, pilferage, medical epidemics, quarantines, or customs regulation, defaults, delays or cancellations or alterations in itinerary, or from any causes beyond AT’s control.

You agree that the sole remedy for any default by AT arising under these Terms shall only be the return of the paid tour cost. To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, AT shall not be liable for any special, consequential, indirect, incidental or other damages arising out of these Terms, including lost profits, whether such damages arise in contract, negligence, tort, under statute, in equity, at law, or otherwise, even if AT has been advised of the possibility of such damages. You expressly waive any right it may have to recover such damages. 

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25. Information privacy policy

Your privacy is important to Authentic Trails. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices. We use the information you provide when placing a booking only to complete that order. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to fulfill that booking. We use your email address only to communicate with you. Your email address is not used for any other purpose and is not shared with outside parties. We never use or share your personal information except as essential for producing your tour. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. Should you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, please call us at +351.222 410 015 or send us an email to [email protected].

Authentic Trails follows the EU General Data Protection Regulation such as below.

Personal data

Our company maintains a database with the registration of its clients, being collected and processed automatically. The collection of user identification data may be done via the Internet (on the website itself), telephone or printed and will be processed, under the terms approved by the National Data Protection Commission of Portugal. All data collection will operate according to the strictest security rules and no entity outside the company has access to or can consult this data.

All employees are bound by a duty of confidentiality and confidentiality with respect to the data, being duly informed of the importance of complying with this legal duty of secrecy and requiring the corresponding responsibility.

In no case shall information be requested on philosophical or political beliefs, party or trade union affiliation, religious belief, private life and racial or ethnic origin, as well as data on health and sex life, including genetic data.

The processing of personal data is carried out strictly in compliance with the legislation on the protection of personal data, all in accordance with the provisions of European Directives 95/46 and 2002/58, Law no. 67/98 of 26 October and / or any legislation that regulates, adds or replaces the "Regulation on Protection of Personal Data" (hereinafter referred to as the RPDP).

Any personal data that the USERS may disclose to the company will be understood as obtained, processed and transmitted under the strict compliance of the RPDP.

The Agency declares and warrants that it has implemented and will continue to implement the security measures of a technical and organizational nature necessary to guarantee the security of the personal data in order to prevent its alteration, loss, unauthorized treatment and / or access, taking into account account the current state of the technology, the nature of the data stored and the risks to which it is exposed.

All data collected through the site are entirely confidential and are intended for the management of customers and services, as well as for the company's marketing actions.

Treatment of Personal Data:

The Personal Data obtained through our website, telephone, email or through print is incorporated into computer application. The access to the information on file by the employees is only possible with the insertion of access codes being the documented record. Changing the existing data in the files is possible by keeping a record of the date and the user code responsible for the change.

Personal Data is treated with the legally enforceable degree of protection to ensure its security and to prevent its alteration, loss, treatment or unauthorized access, taking into account the state of the technology, being the user aware and accepting that the measures of Internet security are not impregnable. Our company is equipped with peripheral control technical infrastructures, namely by network firewalls, private circuits and VPNs that respect the safety requirements. The computer servers are housed in a datacenter operator which performs a service of protection of digital information of the hosted servers. The service includes the backup of files, their conservation according to the defined policy and the restore on demand.

For customer safety, we use the SSL - Secure Socket Layer security certificate that is used to improve the security of data transmission over the Internet: this technology encrypts and protects data transmitted using the HTTPS protocol. SSL guarantees to site visitors that the data provided will not be fraudulently intercepted. For safety reasons applicable to certain countries, the information on data such as name, passport number, sex, age, nationality, etc., is mandatory in flight reservations. The information contained in the reservation may be consulted by the customs authorities of the countries of origin or destination.

Our company accessing any personal data, undertakes to:

• To safeguard them by means of legally enforceable security measures of a technical and organizational nature that guarantee their security, thus preventing their alteration, loss, treatment or unauthorized access, in accordance with the current state of technology, the nature of the data and the possible risks to which they are exposed;

• To use or apply the data exclusively for the purposes foreseen;

• Ensure that the data are handled only by workers whose intervention is necessary for the provision of the service and they are bound by the duty of secrecy and confidentiality. Should the information be disclosed to third parties, they should be required to keep the confidentiality in accordance with the provisions of this document.

Cookie Policy:

Our site uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and for marketing purposes. This document explains what they are and what they are for.

What are cookies?

"Cookies" are small text files that are stored on your computer or on your mobile device through the browser, retaining only information related to your preferences, not including your personal data. Placing cookies will help the website recognize your device the next time you visit it.

The cookies used do not collect information that can identify you. Cookies collect generic information, such as the way you arrive and use the website or zone of the country through which you access the website.

Cookies only retain information related to your preferences. At any time you can, through your browser, decide to be notified about the receipt of cookies, as well as block their entry into your system.

However, the refusal to use cookies on the website results in the impossibility of having access to it.

What are cookies for?

Cookies serve to help determine the usefulness, interest and number of uses of the agency's website, allowing faster and more efficient navigation, as well as analyzing traffic in order to improve our service.

Cookie settings can be changed in your browser preferences.

For other browsers, please look in the "help" menu of your browser or contact your browser vendor.

We guarantee to the data subject the exercise of the rights of access, rectification, cancellation or opposition legally foreseen. If the data holder wishes to exercise the rights of access, rectification, cancellation or opposition that the RPDP grants them, it should send through our contacts.

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26. Merger

This Agreement is the final, complete and exclusive statement of the parties' agreement on the matters contained in this Agreement. It supersedes all previous negotiations and agreements.

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27. Applicable law and choice of forum

This Agreement is governed by the laws of Portugal. You agree that any dispute concerning, relating, or referring to this Agreement, tour programs, or any other materials that concern my tour, or the tour itself - whether such dispute arises in contract or in tort or otherwise -- shall be litigated and determined, if at all, exclusively before a court of the Judicial District of Porto - Portugal.

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28. Disclaimer

Travel is an adventure for those who enjoy adventure travel adventure is indicated for active and adventurous feel good with the discovery and the unexpected! Provide unique moments of conviviality, more direct contact with nature, good humor and camaraderie, yet has very specific characteristics that can jeopardize your satisfaction. So we recommend that you inform yourself carefully about the degree of difficulty of the program intended to ensure that you have the physical and psychological level sufficient to participation. Do not hesitate, put us all your questions! They can also occur in unexpected route developed, changes to the environment or unforeseen adverse weather conditions may necessitate changes in the program during the trip. Participants should have a positive outlook and be flexible enough to face these changes in a pleasant way.

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29. Acceptance of Terms

I have read all information provided by Authentic Trails regarding the tour and activity information and agree to all terms and understand them completely. In case of having any type of doubts regarding this contract I have the right to contact Authentic Trails at any time. I acknowledge that this is a contract between me and Authentic Trails and by proceeding with the reservation, I accept the contract under my own agreement and will.