Travel Alerts

This page is where you’ll find all the latest travel advice so please check for any updates that might relate to your upcoming tours with us.

Last updated 27 May 2020 - still current as of 02 Jun 2020

A message from the CEO, Jackie Willis

To all our valued customers in 2020

In these challenging times for each of us individually and for the travel industry, I wanted to set out our position with regard to your holiday bookings for the remainder of the year.

As a medium-sized travel company, we are dealing with the impact of an unprecedented situation on hundreds of tour departures and thousands of customers. It will take time to do this, and we need to be sure that we are following the latest UK Government advice at all times. As such, we are working through our tours strictly in date order and initially only those departing up to 30 June 2020.  If you are booked on a tour departing after 30 June 2020, please be assured that we will be in contact with you, but I would respectfully ask for your patience so that we can we can deal with the most urgent matters first.

From a personal perspective, I’ve been in the travel industry for more than 30 years and I have never experienced a situation like this. It is genuinely unprecedented, and changing all the time. We are doing everything we can to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our travellers, and to offer you the most convenient alternative arrangements if COVID-19 results in the postponement of your tour. Please bear with us and we will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your custom, and best wishes from Andante Travels.

Jackie Willis CEO,
Specialist Journeys

  • We are in the process of identifying which tours within this date range need to be rescheduled.
  • We will be in touch with you at least seven days before you were due to depart – please only call us if your tour is due to depart within seven days and you haven’t yet heard from us.
  • Guests travelling from 8th June to 30th June will receive communication from us week commencing 01st June
  • We will outline new dates of travel when we contact you. There will be no admin fee to transfer to the new dates, we will match your 2020 price (or refund the difference in the event that the 2021 price is lower) and issue you a voucher to the value of 10% of your booking value to use against any Andante Travels tour. This credit is valid for bookings up to 31 January 2021 (if flights were included in your original package) or 31 March 2021 (if flights were not included) and may be combined with any other offers.
  • If you wish to transfer to any other Andante Travels tour departing in 2020 or 2021, we will match the 2020 price of that tour for you and you can also take advantage of the 10% credit offer. Many 2021 tours may now be found on our website, and you should also have received your 2021 Preview brochure (if not, you can request your copy here).

  • We will make the decision whether to reschedule these tours based on UK Government advice and any travel restrictions imposed by applicable countries in due course.
  • If it does become necessary to reschedule your tour, there will be no charge to transfer to the new travel dates and we will match your 2020 price (or refund the difference in the event that the 2021 price is lower). Alternatively, you may choose to transfer to any other 2021 tour (with no admin fee to pay) and we will match its 2020 price. Many 2021 tours may now be found on our website, and you should also have received your 2021 Preview brochure (if not, you can request your copy here).
  • If you wish to transfer to a different 2021 tour before we contact you, there will be no charge to do so and we will match the 2020 price of that tour.
  • If you wish to cancel now, normal booking conditions would apply.
  • As a result of travel uncertainty in this period and for your peace of mind, your holiday balance for non-UK holidays will not now be due until 42 days prior to departure (previously 84 days). Holiday balance due dates for UK tours remain at 84 days.
  • If your holiday balance is due, it would still be payable, and not to do so would result in the cancellation of your booking and retention of your deposit. Please note: there is no risk in paying your balance – your holiday booking/monies will be fully protected as part of our ATOL/ABTOT accreditation.
  • We reserve the right to cancel your tour within 12 weeks if the number of late customer cancellations make the tour commercially unviable.

  • We are currently operating on the assumption that these tours will go ahead as planned.
  • For your peace of mind, your holiday balance for non-UK holidays due to depart up to 31 October 2020 will not now be due until 42 days prior to departure (previously 84 days). Holiday balance due dates for all UK tours and overseas tours departing from 1 November 2020 remain at 84 days.
  • If you wish to transfer to any 2021 tour now, there will be no charge to do so and we will match the 2020 price of that tour.
  • If you wish to cancel now, normal booking conditions apply.
  • We reserve the right to cancel your tour within 12 weeks if the number of late customer cancellations make the tour commercially unviable.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) statement

UPDATED 17 MARCH

We appreciate that the Coronavirus is causing uncertainty around travel at the moment.  Please rest assured that the safety and health of Andante Travels guests is always our top priority, and we are monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation carefully and continuously. As you will be aware, all tour operators and holiday insurance providers take their guidance from Foreign & Commonwealth Office advice and, with the latest recommendation to avoid all non-essential travel, we are in the process of rescheduling all tours which were due to depart up to 30 April 2020. Clearly the situation is fluid, and it may be necessary to reschedule tours departing after that date, but our current focus is on April. We are working through tour-by-tour in date order – if you are booked on an April tour, we will be in touch with you very soon to discuss alternative arrangements.

Here at Andante Travels we also take seriously the government recommendation to work from home. Having anticipated this development a couple of weeks ago and planned for the eventuality, as a protective measure all of our staff will be home-working from Tuesday 17 March. This will not impact your experience in any way, and you can still contact us in the usual ways.

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