I read a very interesting article at the weekend which I thought might be of interest to other JY travellers. When booking an excursion as part of a holiday through a UK based travel company, you are potentially covered by the government's package travel regulations. But if you book the excursion whilst on the holiday, the U.K. Tour operator may not be liable, even if you buy the excursion through the Tour Manager. This means if you are unfortunately injured whilst on the excursion, as a result of negligence, then you may be required to make a claim through the courts of the country in which the accident occurred. In short if you book before you leave the UK then you have greater protection should the worst happen. 

I have done a few JY holidays and fortunately I have never known anyone be injured, and I must add one of the reasons I use JY is because I have always felt safe on their holidays. But accidents do happen and whilst everyone should also have travel insurance, I never realised that booking  excursions whilst on the tour would be viewed differently than if it was booked whilst in the UK. 

Taffy

Can JY comment and clarify this is the case please, its something we travellers need to be aware of.

I like to pre-book before I leave where possible, but occasionally it has to be done via the TM.  A good point to note.

Sylvia

If there is an option to pre-book then I always do so, but I know that there are occasions when this is not the case. I too was not aware about what Taffy has posted, so thanks Taffy for this information.

Jaya

Sorry for the delay in coming back to you, we had to send your queries over to our insurance providers.

The insurance provider that we recommend does not distinguish between where and when the excursion was booked and would cover the customer for any accidents on a Just You approved excursion whether it was booked in the UK or through the Tour Manager when on holiday. Please bare in mind that we can only comment on the cover given by the policies we recommend and that it only applies to our approved excursions that are bookable through the company, not something that you may book in resort i.e. hand gliding.

I hope this helps.

Kindest regards,

Monty

They also stated that the guidelines in question are more related to what information an Operator hast to provide about packaged holiday, ie advising of any dangerous activities, where their responsibilities lie with regard to any third parties involved in the contract, what happens should the operator not be able to meet the commitments, when certain information for the traveler needs to be provided by etc etc So for the most part if you use a reputable holiday operator it doesn't affect you.