Chörten Mentoring and Support

Mentoring for My Journey

How to Make the Most of Learning Opportunities

Land Arrangements

Chörten assistance during all a yours trip, from boarding to return to Brazil. With our experience, within the possibilities in these countries, we quickly resolve any type of unforeseen event that may occur, in the best possible way. Also, after so many years of accompanying Travellers, living and traveling in these regions, we will assist you with more information and tips beyond those we already anticipated and talked about before the trip, which we will think about quite naturally during your days here, as we understand what is most enjoying the regions you are traveling to. In addition to our communication via Whatsapp, probably in the same time zone, all Chörten Travellers will also have Guilherme's phone number which, for emergencies, you will be connected 24 hours a day / 7 days a week throughout your trip, from the moment you go to the airport in Brazil until you return home in Brazil;

Arrivals and Departures When opting for the assisted transfer service, these are carried out by our local partners, with Guilherme Samel, director of Chörten, contacting them by telephone. For example, upon your international arrival from Brazil to India or Nepal and at other moments of the trip when necessary, Chörten accompanies your arrival from before your flight lands until you arrive at your hotel to always ensure that it will be carried out with complete calm, support and quality, as we will explain in our briefing. Likewise, during your international departure back to Brazil and whenever necessary during the trip, we accompany you from when you are at your hotel to the airport (on your arrival, check-in and boarding) almost as if we were traveling together, in person, but online. When you opt for independent transfers, Chörten will also take great care in the same way, whether we are using a local taxi, Uber or however we discuss and prefer;

Views As agreed and mentioned in the travel program, your tickets are included in the price of your Trip whether it supports Logistics and Travel Organization with Local Operations or independently (supports explained above here). Therefore, when you opt for this Support with Local Operations and accompaniment by a guide, these entrance fees will be paid by the local guides. And when you choose this Support Independently or with Local Operations but with the visit without a local guide, these entrance fees already have their values ​​set out in the value of the trip program and will be paid by the Travellers;

Local guides They will accompany you on visits to monuments and other tours in general, except in regions that we believe would be more pleasant to visit without guides, so each Traveller prefers, we agree and mention in the trip program.

Land transport On all visits, transfers and trips in own vehicles as agreed and described in the travel program;

Hotels in double rooms in the hotels mentioned on the accommodation page. In general, check-ins are at 14pm and check-outs are at 12pm. If you need an earlier check-in on your arrival or a late check-out on your departure from Delhi/Kathmandu, such as at any other time during your trip, please let us know in advance so we can check prices, availability and make reservations. as you wish.

Single room supplement when traveling with a group if you prefer or need it if you do not form a partner to stay in a double room;

Food: breakfasts are included in hotel rates for all trips. Specifically in the Ladakh region and in Bhutan lunch and dinner are also included except bottled drinks;

Visas and Special Permissions to Bhutan and central Tibet (not eastern Tibet in the Kham region) are included in the land part of travel programs to these regions;

Does not include:

– Meals and drinks except breakfast (exception on days in Ladakh and Bhutan which includes lunch and dinner as mentioned above). On average we can consider that with US$ 25 to 35 a day we can eat very well in these countries, depending on what, where and how much we eat. In large cities, like Delhi, the price may be a little higher and in smaller cities, like Rishikesh, much lower;

– Transport where not mentioned in the program;

– Tips (very important in these cultures), except for trips with specialists supported by local operators, of which we take care of a large part, remaining around US$ 8 to 10 per day, carefully explained in the trip briefing;

– Voluntary contributions to monasteries, temples and Dharma teachers that we can find while traveling;

– Visas for India and Nepal. know more here;

– Travel insurance: very important and therefore highly recommended. Check with your credit card to see if they offer travel insurance if you use it when purchasing an international ticket. Depending on the age of the traveller, they usually cost between 10 and 20 USD per day of travel. More information here;

– Entrance fees to the monuments for a camera and/or camcorder, when applicable;

– Program changes in case of political, natural, climatic, flight cancellation, epidemic, new fees and taxes, etc. by governments and/or local service providers in Brazil/India/Nepal/Bhutan/Tibet;

Domestic Air

Class economical;

Rates: we usually pass prices with a safety margin if the fares have increased a little at the time of purchasing the ticket. Normally with these margins we do not have surprises of higher values ​​than expected. When we obtain lower rates at the time of purchase than those anticipated, the difference, of course, will be passed on in full to Travellers. If, quite rare, the fares increase more than expected even with a certain margin, in these rare cases (I honestly don't remember this ever happening before) we will naturally need to update this value with the Travellers;

Weight maximum allowed for checked bag on flights within India: 15kg, between India/Nepal/Bhutan/Tibet: around 20kg. Excess weight may be charged by the airline at check-in: around US$ 8 per extra kg;

Forecasting the two values subjects a alteração without prior notice from the airlines, which will only be confirmed at the time of purchasing the ticket;

International Flights

Advance: In general, the sooner we issue our tickets, the better fares and routes we find. But this is certainly not a rule, so it will always be this way. Promotional rates are unpredictable, tend to end very quickly and have extremely high rates for any type of change in the future. These, when available, are very worthwhile if we have very certain departure and return dates, that is, the main program and extensions that we will make;

Buy: it is always prudent to wait for confirmation from the group to purchase the international air ticket. We confirm our groups with a very small number of people;

More information: on here;

Service Providers, Infrastructure and Local Cultures

We have extensive experience in travel operations in these countries. We work with the best local partners within the possibilities of each region. Still, it is important to keep in mind that the crafts de work and/or the Quality the two services and infrastructures operators (hotels, transport, food, etc.) are sometimes not the same in Brazil, Europe and North America. Most of the time they will surprise us very positively, for example, with their human qualities and, sometimes, even with the technical aspect of the service. But unforeseen events and problems must happen. It is work, responsibility and pleasure for Chörten to foresee them and, when necessary, take care to overcome them in the best possible way. So that, in this way, Travellers have the most important responsibility: to enjoy the trip in the most peaceful, pleasurable and profitable way possible. Part of this responsibility is understanding that we are traveling in these incredible countries and cultures, very different from ours in many aspects and which teach us so much.

With the preparations for the trip well taken care of, with all our assistance and support, from boarding the flight here in Brazil until your return, you will see that your trip will be very smooth, well cared for, very well enjoyed, fun, with significant lessons that we will bring from come back and they will be of great value to us in our lives.

Each region of these countries has its peculiarities regarding accommodation services, domestic air travel, special permits, visas and climate with which we are very accustomed to working and we will explain them carefully in our briefing. In case of Bhutan and mainly from Tibet, we consider it important that you, as a Chörten Traveller to these two specific regions, already understand some important points that we will talk about before your confirmation or at the beginning of the preparations.

Exchange rate for other currencies than USD

https://economia.uol.com.br/cotacoes/cambio/dolar-turismo-estados-unidos-historico.jhtm We explain how to find the exchange rate on the Uol website on this page: here

For international flights The exchange rate also varies from airline to airline, which also usually has a value between the commercial sales dollar and the tourist dollar, to be checked at the time of purchase.

The exchange rate used by credit cards when Independent Travellers pay for their hotels during their trip, for example, when we pay for restaurants and stores that accept international cards, it also varies from card to card. Normally between commercial and tourism. Even though the card presents a card at the time of purchase and another exchange rate on the invoice, the exchange rate considered will be the one they indicate when paying the invoice. Any adjustment (quite common) will be charged or deducted from the following month's invoice;

International cards travel agencies such as Wise and Nomad tend to have better exchange rates than credit cards, whether for paying for independent hotels or some restaurants, as they have a guaranteed exchange rate at the time of top-ups, without fluctuations in the future like with credit cards. More information: here;

Travel Program Changes

As we work in an extremely personalized way, with great care with all the details of your trip and not with ready-made travel programs and/or little work with regard to all their details, putting together the travel program as well as making changes to a program already assembled, requires a lot of time from Chörten, partners and local service providers. For this reason:

With respect to Chörten's Supports,, in the case of changes to part of the travel program already worked on, that is, the program set up and/or reservations made, the number of days with new services after the change, such as new reservations for accommodation, tours and transportation, will be considered new travel days of the initial total agreed and combined. For information on the values ​​of Chorten Support in these cases, see the page Possibilities of Mentoring, Support and Investment in the item Trips with more days here.

Cancellation Policies

Os Chörten's Supports, are 100% refundable until the moment each Support begins to be delivered individually as explained on the Mentoring, Support and Investment Possibilities page, more specifically in the item Start with 1 Support here and in See All Possibilities of Combinations of Support and Investment for Different Numbers of Travelers here. Chörten support that has already started to be offered can be used on future trips. Chörten support not offered will be refunded in full.

With respect to local services providers (specific cases explained below), cancellation policies come into effect from the moment we commit and confirm our reservations, so that we can then make our initial or full payment. Keep in mind that our local partners work MUCH harder than usual, to meet the level of care and personalization we have from this very important moment in the trip. Cancellation policies vary from service provider to service provider (hotels, airlines, etc.). For larger hotels, in general, cancellations up to 60 days before the start of the trip will have payments refunded almost in full. From then on, cancellation rates increase gradually, varying from service provider to service provider. Still, as is the nature of the way we work (and all Chörten Travellers confirm), we will certainly do our best and talk to each service provider to see what reimbursement we can get even after this date. To this day, we have always achieved much better conditions than normal, such as more generic rules. Regarding air tickets specifically, each airline and fare has its own cancellation policy.

Small providers de services , the small hotels, with few rooms or sometimes even with a good number of rooms but in more remote regions, with a simpler structure and way of working than large hotels in large cities, which do not usually guarantee the reservation / availability of rooms without payment, they they make an exception for us because of our reputation, immense care and responsibility towards them. Otherwise they wouldn't guarantee our rooms before payment. After our confirmation, they will no longer make our rooms available to other guests, groups and so on. So, from the moment we decide and confirm our dates in their small hotels, our dates, stays and payments are confirmed with them. We cannot move without paying a moving fee or, depending on the advance and size of the hotel, paying in full for the stay. Emphasizing: only in the case of small hotels with few rooms or a very simple structure.

Small providers de services , the guides e drivers they will reserve their work dates for our trip and will not accept other work on those days. Once we confirm the services of these small local service providers, it is very important that we pay for their work 100% in the event of cancellations. We can estimate that the value of their work is equivalent to a value close to 50% of the value of the complete travel program contracted with them, as there will be no gasoline costs, etc.

Payment Method, Reservations and Rates

As we work in an extremely personalized way, with great care with all the details of your trip and not with ready-made travel programs and/or little work on all their details, creating the travel program requires a lot of time from Chörten's work, local partners and service providers. For this reason:

Os Chörten's Supports, can be paid in full or as they are offered as explained on the Mentoring, Support and Investment Possibilities page, more specifically in the item Start with 1 Support here and in See All Possibilities of Combinations of Support and Investment for Different Numbers of Travelers here. In this way, we enable both Chörten and our partners to carry out our work in an extremely careful and personalized way.

Hotels and local services providers confirm your reservations and services upon payment of 50% of the land arrangement;

Availability and rates of domestic air are confirmed at the time of ticket purchase upon payment of 100% of their value;

Hotels and localservices providers: these are accustomed to customers, for example, from Europe who plan their trips well in advance, paying for the entire trip 120 days before it starts. With our partnership of many years, understanding how we are used to payments in Brazil, they accept payment up to 60 days before the trip and, if necessary, we can talk to them about a deadline, not too long but a little different;

Payment direct to local operators: Today is relatively simple and can be a legal way to save on fees and taxes.

Payments of local services providers of trips with independent logistics and organization: some hotels charge at the time of online booking, some between the time of booking and stay, and most end up charging in person at check-in or check-out. Normally they can be paid by card but as it is common for the internet not to work and the card machine not to work, it is important to be ready to pay in cash (we will talk about this in the briefing). Domestic air travel for this logistics format and travel organization are paid at the time of purchasing the ticket.

Payment of local operators using Chörten's bank account in Brazil: there are no taxes for paying invoices for services from our local partners (transport, tours, hotels). For India there is no IRRF tax on international transfers as long as Brazil has an agreement with that country. This way we can use the Chörten account for the transfer at low costs. For Nepal, there is IRRF and, therefore, we suggest that you make this transfer directly to the operator, thinking that this way, legally, you will not incur significant and unnecessary extra costs. If it helps, we explain how to make this transfer, how we can do it together, in a relatively simple and certainly more economical way.

To payment the two local operators via Chörten's account in Brazil da Supports, we request payment in the morning No. melted do in Brazil so that we can make the transfer to local time zone operators here in India or Nepal, with less risk of exchange rate variation, as explained in Exchange rate above (here).

Next steps

In order to continue organizing your trip, get the best domestic flight rates available at the time of ticket purchase and confirm hotels, we will need, please:

- Application form: on here
- Copy (photo or scan) of passport: more information here
- Down payment: explained above in Payment Method here

Benefits to pay local service providers as soon as possible:

– In the case of group trips, the trip and the group will be confirmed sooner.
– On all trips, the chances of getting the best hotel options in each region, with their best rates, are greater, as is the case with domestic airlines;

Please let us know how we can help: