It is in the interest of all members of the group that everyone should be capable of fully participating in the activities of their chosen tour.

The tour dossier, which we provide for all our tours, is a good place to start when deciding on how active your trip should be.

Many people book on the more active trips as an opportunity to meet a challenge - for instance cycling the South African Cape or climbing Kili or taking the Inca Trail to Macchu Pichu. There's no better motivational technique for getting fit.

For ease in choosing our more active tours, we have a grading system in place. Walks and treks are graded from Easy to Tough and for cycling Easy to Moderate.

Walking and trekking grades

Cycling grades

With this in mind, please be aware that if it is felt that any customer is either not sufficiently fit, healthy or able to complete a tour without affecting its safety, comfort or happy progress, the tour leader has the right to remove them from the tour at any stage.

To ensure that this is never necessary, please make sure that you have fully understood the level of fitness and ability required to complete the tour on which you are booking.
It is your responsibility to let us know if you have any concerns related to this subject.

If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you must inform your travel insurance company of this and ensure that you receive written confirmation that your condition is covered. Failure to do so may result in any associated claims being refused and may mean that we are unable to accept you on tour (either before travel or on arrival).

A number of our tours reach elevations of 3000 metres or more.

Normally the body acclimatises well to extended periods above this altitude and we allow time on our tours for acclimatisation. No one can really predict who is at risk from altitude sickness and who will not be affected by it. If you have a heart or respiratory problem, however, you should definitely not risk extended travel or trekking at high altitude.

Trekking tours - please note that for certain tougher trekking tours, we may contact you beforehand to discuss fitness levels and to confirm that all group members are able to enjoy the trek.

Insurance - if not using an Explore policy, please ensure that your insurance is valid for high altitude.

We feel that age should not be a barrier to booking your Explore holiday. However, in certain circumstances and on certain tours we may require you to provide proof of medical fitness prior to travel. Tour dossiers are quite specific about the level of fitness and ability required on any given tour. However, if you still have concerns about your ability to participate, it is imperative that you contact us. Someone in either our Reservations or Operations teams will be glad to talk through any of the issues mentioned above.