EUROPEAN

RIVER

CRUISES

2004

Travel Conditions:

Underlying the contractual relationship between you and the Tour Operator are the Tour Operator’s general terms and conditions of travel, which are described below in an abridged version. The complete terms and conditions of travel, which you accept when you make a booking, are available for inspection at your travel agency or can be requested from the Tour Operator. You receive these terms and conditions of travel with the confirmation of your travel booking, if not earlier. For your information at the time of your application, the Tour Operator particularly brings your attention to the variations of them, necessitated by the particular form of travel (cruises), in the following paragraphs number 1 to 10. Please read through carefully the following paragraphs, and the general terms and conditions of travel.

1. PAYMENT

Please pay $300 USD deposit per person at the time of making the contract booking. You are kindly asked to settle the balance, without special request for payment 60 days prior to departure date. The travel documentation will arrive about 30 days before the tour begins. Surcharges for changes in or cancellations of bookings are payable immediately.

2. CANCELLATION BY CUSTOMER, TRANSFER OF BOOKING, REPLACEMENT PARTICIPANT(S)

2. 1. CANCELLATION

If you withdraw from the travel contract or do not embark on the tour, the Tour Operator can demand reimbursement for the travel arrangements and expenses, which have been incurred. This claim for reimbursement is made at an estimated flat rate, taking into consideration the expenses normally saved and other possible applications for them. For the basis on which claims for reimbursement are calculated, please see Paragraph 10 of these terms and conditions.

The precise moment at which the Tour Operator can be proved to have learned of the cancellation is decisive in deciding on these time periods. Sundays and official holidays are counted when calculating them. Not joining the tour, including for reasons involving the absence of necessary travel documents (visa, etc.), for which you are yourself responsible, counts as cancellation. If you have to cut short the tour prematurely, any refund for services not received can only be made, if these in turn are not invoiced to the Tour Operator by its contractual partners.

2.2 TRANSFER OF BOOKING

If, after booking the tour, you wish to make changes in respect of the timing of the tour, its destination, its starting point, the accommodation or the mode of transportation, then as a rule the same costs arise for the Tour Operator as in the case of cancellation by you. It must therefore charge costs to you, to the same extent as if a cancellation had occurred at the time of changing the booking. In the case of otherwise minor changes, the Tour Operator however charges only a handling fee of € 26,--.

2.3. " IN WRITING", PLEASE

While cancellations, or arrangements to make transfers or changes, can in principle take place informally, it is in your own interest always to confirm them in writing for the sake of good order.

3. CANCELLATION AND NOTICE BY THE TOUR OPERATOR

The Tour Operator can withdraw from the travel contract before the tour has begun, or give notice to terminate the contract after the tour has begun, in the following cases:

a) without any notice at all, if the traveler, despite being formally cautioned, repeatedly disrupts the organization of the tour or if his behavior is in breach of the travel contract to such an extent, that the immediate breaking-off of the contract is justified. If the Tour Operator gives notice, he continues to have claim on the price of the tour, but must have the value of the expenses saved calculated, as well as any advantages which may be obtained by application elsewhere of the services not involved in the claim, including any sums of money refunded by service providers.

b) up to two weeks before the departure of the tour, in the case of the minimum number of participants advertised not being reached, namely 80 passengers per cruise or 20 people for excursions on land, that is to say providing a minimum number of participants for the service concerned has been indicated in the advertising for that tour. The Tour Operator is obliged in each case to advise you accordingly, immediately the pre-condition for the tour not going ahead has been met, and to forward to you immediately an explanation for the cancellation. You will receive back the tour price paid immediately.

c) up to four weeks before the departure of the tour, if, after all opportunities have been explored, it is unreasonable for the Tour Operator to carry out the tour, because the booking income for it has been so small that if it was carried out the costs arising would entail that particular tour operating at below its break-even point: in that case the Tour Operator must supply the main reasons in justification. If the tour is called off for this reason, then you receive back the tour price paid immediately. Furthermore, your expenses in making the booking, estimated at a flat rate of € 16,-- will be reimbursed, that is unless you take advantage of any possible replacement tour offered.

4. TOUR OPERATOR’S LIABILITY

4.1 ITS OWN SERVICES

• The Tour Operator, assuming a duty of care and acting with proper commercial rectitude, is responsible for:

• The conscientious preparation of the tour;

• The careful selection and supervision of service providers;

• The accuracy of the description of services, but not for details about places, hotels or other concerns given in brochures not published by it, which may be distributed by the booking agents or attached to your tour documentation;

• The proper provision of the contractually-agreed travel services.

4.2 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN FULFILLING OBLIGATIONS

The Tour Operator is responsible for any fault on the part of persons entrusted with the provision of services.

4.3 OUTSIDE SERVICES

If transportation is effected by scheduled service, in the context of a tour or by way of addition to it, and if you are issued with a corresponding travel document for it, then the Tour Operator is thereby supplying an outside service, providing it has expressly so indicated in its tour advertising. The Tour Operator is not therefore itself responsible in this case for the provision of the transportation service. A possible liability applies in such cases, according to the transportation stipulations of these enterprises, to which your attention is expressly drawn and which will be made available to you if you wish. The Tour Operator is also not responsible for disruptions or shortcomings in connection with sundry services, which are arranged simply as outside services (for example conferences, musical, sporting or theatrical events, excursions) and which likewise are expressly designated as outside services in the tour advertising.

5. GUARANTEE, REMEDY AND DUTY OF CO-OPERATION

If the tour is not provided according to the contract, then you can demand remedy. This necessitates your co-operation, regardless of the priority of the duty of the Tour Operator to perform. You are therefore obliged to do everything you could reasonably be expected to do, to contribute to overcoming the difficulty, and either to avoid altogether any damages arising from the difficulty, or to keep them as small as possible. You are obliged in particular to make your complaints known immediately. Please turn first of all to our local representative in the respective destination area (see travel documentation). If the travel documentation does not contain any indication of a local representative, please then make direct contact with the Tour Operator.

6. CHANGE OF PROGRAM RESULTING FROM RIVER LEVELS

Very low water levels and/or strong full river conditions can cause changes in itineraries, possibly transfer to another boat or part of the journey being made by bus or train, or even a curtailment of the duration of the tour. These decisions sometimes have to be taken at short notice by the Tour Operator or the captain of the boat. Understandably enough, such measures cannot justify cancellation. Neither can any claims by passengers against the Tour Operator arise from them, especially for compensation in the form of damages.

7. PASSPORT, VISA, CUSTOMS, CURRENCY AND HEALTH REGULATIONS

The Tour Operator will inform you, as far as it possibly can, about the most important regulations, before the tour begins. Even if you have commissioned the Tour Operator to obtain them, it is not responsible for the timely issue and delivery of the necessary visas by the diplomatic office concerned, unless the Tour Operator itself is responsible for the delay. You are yourself responsible for complying with all the important regulations for going on the tour. All disadvantages arising from not complying with them are entirely your responsibility, unless occasioned by false information provided, or information lacking, through fault on our part.

8. TRAVEL AGENCY INSURANCE BOND

Dr. W. Lüftner Reisen GmbH is registered in the Tour Operators’ Directory at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Business Affairs, under number 1998/0188.

In accordance with the official ordinance covering insurance for travel agencies, Dr. W. Lüftner Reisen GmbH is insured by the European Travel Insurance Company (see below), under Policy Number 099600009876. Risk under § 8 is covered by the Company’s membership of the "Organisation for the protection of common interests of package tour operators".

An individual traveller may make a claim directly on:

Europäische Reiseversicherungs Ag,
Augasse 5-7, 1090 Wien, Austria
Tel: 0043 1 3172500, Fax: 0043 1 3172500-199

The liability of the above Company to the customer is limited to the price of the tour he has paid, and in the case of damages to the total sum insured.

Should the sum insured be insufficient to satisfy all claims, then customers’ claims will be met by equal shares of what is available.

All claims should be lodged with the European Travel Insurance Company, with supporting evidence, within 8 weeks of the occasion giving rise to the claim, claims lodged any later having no validity.

9. TRAVEL INSURANCES

For your own peace of mind, we recommend you take out in good time a travel insurance, covering in particular possible costs of cancellation, as well as damage to and/or loss of baggage, costs of possible medical treatment, repatriation services, etc. Please take advice from your travel agent.

10. FLAT-RATE CANCELLATION CHARGES FORMULA (See Paragraph 2 above)

All cancellations must be received in writing and our refund policy is based on the date the cancellation is received in our office. Should you find it necessary to cancel your reservation, all refunds will be less the $100.00 registration fee. Cancellations up to sixty days prior to departure will have the entire balance of the deposit refunded. Cancellations between 60 and 45 days prior to departure will result in the loss of the deposit. No refund will be made on cancellations within 45 days of departure.