Book with Confidence

Book now | Travel with confidence | Health and Safety 

Inspiring Vacations has been globally recognised and awarded for its handling of COVID-19 during the pandemic. The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our highest concern during this time of uncertainty, and we are continuously monitoring the evolving COVID-19 situation. 

We have adopted the advice of the WHO to ensure all customers can travel with the knowledge of how to travel safely and with confidence.

Australian owned and operated with 100% Australian Customer Service support 

We are proudly 100% Australian owned and operated, with our head office located in Melbourne, Victoria. When you make your booking, you will receive dedicated and ongoing support from our team of travel professionals throughout your booking, up until you are due to depart. 

Updated: 26 February 2021

What is COVID-19?

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. It is possible for a person to catch COVID-19 and develop no illness or symptoms. For others, it can cause a range of symptoms including respiratory infections that range from mild to extremely serious. It can be fatal.

With COVID-19 being a new disease, there is no existing immunity in our community. This means that COVID-19 can spread widely and quickly.

Common symptoms include:

  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Muscle pain
  • Sore throat
  • New loss of taste or smell

Hygiene

Protection against COVID-19 as well as other transmissible diseases requires enhanced protocols in hygiene and sanitation. All our travellers are asked to follow hygiene practices recommended by the World Health Organization including the thorough and regular washing of hands and sanitising when required.

  • Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. This eliminates germs including viruses that may be on your hands.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Hands touch many surfaces and can pick up viruses. Once contaminated, hands can transfer the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and infect you.
  • Cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately into a closed bin and wash your hands. By following good ‘respiratory hygiene’, you protect the people around you from viruses, which cause colds, flu and COVID-19 and;
  • Clean and disinfect surfaces frequently especially those which are regularly touched, such as mobile phones, tablets and personal items.

What to do when travelling

Public Transport (trains, planes, cruises): It is important to be aware of your surroundings when using public forms of transport. Avoid touching surfaces where possible or eating in non-food areas. 

Hotels: Hotels are widely implementing COVID Clean practises which includes sanitising linen and commonly used room locations. However, using sanitary wipes and sprays on arrival is recommended when using highly touched items or surfaces like in-room telephones, remote controls and door handles.

Bus/Coaches: Use sanitary wipes to clean surfaces around your seat like tabletops, cup holders and armrests. Ensure you cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately into a closed bin and wash your hands.

Passenger Screening on departure and arrival 

You may notice that most, if not all, airlines have taken additional screening precautions for all passengers for both domestic and overseas travel. It is important that you heed the advice of staff to ensure a comfortable journey to and from your destination.

All screening procedures may differ from airport to airport depending on the location and travel warnings present. At this stage, Inspiring Vacations will not be screening customers at the beginning of each trip. 

Some of our local partners may choose to introduce their own screening measures and we recommend travellers cooperate with their efforts, and they also have our full support for any new measure they wish to introduce to benefit our customers

Customer Support team

Leading up to, during and upon your return, our customer support team will be here to answer any questions you may have and to collect any important feedback you wish to share.

While our operation hours are currently revised to 9am – 5pm AEST Monday through to Friday, we expect these hours to be extended once our group tours recommence.

For convenience when travelling overseas, we can be contacted through our Facebook page, which is monitored by our team regularly. Outside of our standard hours, our local team are well-equipped to provide any further assistance that you may need at the time.

Keeping customers informed

We have linked our Travel Updates page directly with the Smart Traveller website, where ourselves and our customers will be kept regularly informed of any changes to travel conditions or government regulations for the destinations that we service.

We are also in regular contact with our worldwide network of partners, who will keep us informed of any immediate changes that come to light that may affect the operation of our tours or impact our customer's health or safety in any way. The moment we suspect that our customers may be impacted, you will be informed in a timely manner.

Incident Management

All suspected/confirmed cases of COVID-19 will be treated as an incident and the appropriate response undertaken as per our existing Incident Management Plan.

With current measures and government restrictions in place, the risk of exposure by the time international travel commences once again should be reduced. However, if any customer shows COVID-19 symptoms whilst on a trip, we will follow our incident management plan.

Depending on the individual case, we may:

- Ask the passenger to self-isolate while waiting for advice from local health authorities
- Inform the rest of the customers about the possibility of exposure
- As always, please continue to adhere to the advice of local authorities and representatives.

Resources

  • Australian Department of Foreign Affairs: www.smartraveller.gov.au
  • New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade: www.safetravel.govt.nz
  • United Nations World Health Organisation: www.who.int

 

Flexible Date Change

Book now, change later with our Flexible Date Change option. You may select this $99pp option at time of purchase, giving travellers the flexibility to change your date without penalty (subject to availability, less third party costs incurred, plus any applicable surcharges for the new date selected). 

Date change must be requested prior to 65 days before your original selected departure date*. Once inside 65 days of departure, date changes are not permitted. The cut-off period of 65 days applies unless stated differently in the product at which time the greatest amount applies.

*some packages may have a varied period in which you can request a date change due to limitations with the third-party provider.

The Flexible Date Change option does not cover cost incurred for components not fulfilled by Inspiring Vacations or in the event extra services have been booked with Inspiring Vacations outside of the standard package, including but not limited to airfares, pre/post accommodation or insurance.

Cooling off period 

If you change your mind within 7 days of making your booking online, you can request a refund of your initial deposit payment as part of our cooling off period. 

Once your purchase date falls outside of the 7 day period, our standard terms and conditions will apply. Please ensure that any request to cancel your booking is received via email to support@inspiringvacations.com, including the reason for cancellation.

To review our range of helpful FAQ's, please click here
To view recent Travel Updates, please click here.  

Processing...