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Private Customized Tour

Private, customized tours may be run on any date, for any number of participants and have any itinerary. A tour may have a "standard" (same as in our regular public tours) itinerary or you can set any other itinerary according to your wish. You can examine samples of our itineraries on How to order page at least to have a general idea of planning your tour. We think that the programs are enough good but we can adjust the itinerary according to your needs and the program may be clipped or extended or you can determine your very own and very different itinerary.

We can not give prices for some services (guide, visa supports, Caucasus transfers and accommodation etc) separately as we do not provide them separately. If you need just some basic services such as transfers, visa support and local permits/registrations take a look at our Lite Package offer.

In comparison with our regular "public" tours the private tours are more expensive even if they have same itinerary. The price of a private tour per person strongly depends on number of people in your party. Obviously the difference is same as difference between taking a taxi or a public bus. Also the price depends on other features such as dates of departure or previous relations with the customer. In brief: each private tour will be calculated individually after we have complete information about the tour from a customer.

Some people ask full service without a guide. This is virtually impossible in the region.This is not because we want to get more money for our service but because there are no regular Western style services in the valley. If you want something to be done someone must care about this. If you want a car to be in time for transportation one must care about this and if a driver does not come someone must find other car immediately. Meals in the Barrels huts require a cook because there is just a place for cooking but no regular cooking service, accommodation booking in advance does not work if someone does not care about keeping the room. Really situation is not so awful, but we just can not take chances. If we have the itinerary we must be sure that we provide it. That is why even if you do not ask for a guide throughout your tour there will be a person in background who simple makes things go right way.

A tour (and its cost) may consist of 2 parts. One part is a Caucasus program itself starting and ending in Mineralnye Vody airport. Second part may be services not in the Caucasus (we call them 'extras')- such as hotel and transport in Moscow.

Part 1 (Elbrus tour). We will price it as soon as we some information from you. There is a short questionnaire below which helps us to make an offer and price your tour. Please answer it when you make a request. Any other information about your tour is also appreciated.Of course you can send us the itinerary with necessary services clearly mentioned day by day instead of the questionnaire.

Part 2 (city) . Prices are on 'Additional services' page. Please visit it and make a request through the Order form there if you wish to order services besides the Elbrus tour.

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Questions about Caucasus part (Elbrus Tour Questionnaire).

1. For how many days/nights are you going to stay in the Caucasus? ( for example: 7 nights in the area actually means 8 days of service) We need well-defined number of days for pricing. We can not calculate 8-10 days, we can calculate either 8 or 9 or 10 days. If you chanage number of days later on we will be glad to calculate the price again.
2. What are approximate dates of your tour? (to within at least 2 weeks, to say second half of August or first half of July)
3. How many people in your group?
4. Is your group going to ski(snowboard) from the top?
5. Normally we assume one our leader guide throughout the tour and the climb for private groups. You can order additional guides for the summit day or on any other day. In case you need additional guides please advise.
6. Is climbing Mt. Elbrus (not hiking around or skiing) your main goal in this trip?

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Conditions, deposit, cancellations and refund policy:

There are two parts. The Elbrus part and additional service part (if you ordered that).

For the Elbrus part (MinVody-MinVody program).

- We require a deposit of 5000 Rubles per person before we actually accept your booking and send visa support to you. After visa support was sent the cancellation fee is 5000 Rubles per person i.e. the deposit for the Caucasus (Elbrus) tour is non refundable. However you can use these money as a prepayment in case you order any tour from us in future.
- The remaining amount must be paid before the tour starts either in advance by bank or cash transfer or in cash to our rep in the Caucasus right upon arrival in the mountain hotel.
- After the tour starts there will be no refund for any unutilized service.
- You do not really loose your deposit if you cancel. If you order a tour from us one day even in a couple of years we will count these money as your prepayment.

For city services (extras) and if you order additional service.

- We require receiving full payment for additional services not later than 5 business days before the service date. If you miss this deadline we will cancel the reservation to avoid money losses in case of NoShow .
- You can cancel hotel reservations 3 business days in advance without penalty. There will be no refund you you cancel later than 3 business days in advance.
- You can cancel transportation in Moscow 1 business day in advance without penalty. There will be no refund you you cancel later than 1 business day in advance.

Payments:

We can not accept credit cards or checks. The possibilities are: a bank wire transfer or Western Union www.westernunion.com cash transfers. We will send our bank details along with invoice.

Our prices in 2009 are fixed in Russian Rubles. You can see the today's price in Euro and USD in the table of Additional services or calculate the amount using our Currency Calculator (left menu item on this page). More about payment terms and conditions please find here.

We can not accept cards but if you have to pay balance for us in the Caucasus you can cash your card in a local bank office. They accept MasterCard, Cirrus/Maestro cards. Bank fee is 2%.

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