Privacy Policy

Last update: December 2023

Welcome to Small Wonders Travel!

We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, share and store your personal information on our website (www.smallwonderstravel.com) and our social media (referred to together as “our Platforms”) with Third-Party Suppliers and Service Providers and in our internal records. It also outlines some of the steps we take to safeguard your information.

Our Platforms and services are not intended for children under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal data from children under 18. If you believe that we have collected, used or disclosed personal data of a child under the age of 18, please contact us so that we can take appropriate action.

We might update this Privacy Policy now and then to stay in line with legal rules and how we run our business. It's your responsibility to check this Privacy Policy occasionally to know about any changes. We recommend you come back regularly to review any updates. If there are important changes to this Privacy Policy, we'll try to let you know by posting a notice on our website or via email.

By using our Platform and/or services, you acknowledge and consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Personal Information

When you make a booking we collect various categories of personal information, directly related to your trip. This includes but is not limited to:

Contact Information: full name, email address, phone number, and postal address
Personal Details: date of birth, passport details, emergency contact details
Booking Information: travel details regarding arrival and departure, travel preferences, dietary requirements/restrictions, special requests, and whether or not you have purchased a travel insurance/protection plan
Medical information: limited to relevant medical conditions, diseases or disabilities which we need to know about in order to meet your particular needs in relation to your booking and/or travel with us or to in case of a medical emergency

You can choose not to provide the information requested, but, in general, Personal Information from you is required in order to book travel and/or participate in our trips; ask us a question; or initiate other transactions on our Platforms.

We understand that medical information is a special category of Personal Information and we will only collect and use such information with your explicit consent and for limited purposes directly connected to your well-being during the trip and will delete from our records in a timely manner following your trip.

If you choose to interact with or connect your own social media account(s), with those of Small Wonders Travel or its members, employees or Third-Party Suppliers, you acknowledge and agree that you are consenting to the continuous release of information about you to others (in accordance with your privacy settings on those Third-Party sites). If you do not want information about you to be shared with us in this manner, do not use this feature.

1.2 Non-Personal Information

We also collect non-personal information, such as:

Browser and Device Information: type of browser, device type, and operating system
Log Data: IP addresses, access times, and referring website addresses
Cookies and Similar Technologies: Information stored on your device to enhance user experience

We may use your personal data to help us personalize our offerings to you, or to support other business functions, such as fraud prevention, marketing, and legal. To do this, we combine personal and non-personal data, collected online and offline, including information from Third-Party sources.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information for the following lawful purposes:

2.1 Providing Services

Facilitating Bookings and Reservations: processing bookings, managing travel arrangements, and ensuring a seamless booking experience
Communication: sending booking confirmations, updates, and responding to inquiries

2.2 Marketing and Communication

Promotional Materials: sending newsletters, promotional offers, and travel-related updates
Customer Service: communicating important information about your bookings and addressing queries

If you contact us, submit questions through our website, join our mailing list, comment on our blog, connect with our social media platforms or book a tour, we may automatically add you to our contact list and/or our electronic mailing list. If you do not currently have a booking with us, and wish to no longer be a part of our lists, please send an email to info@smallwonderstravel.com with the subject line REMOVE and we will delete your information at the soonest possible opportunity.

2.3 Improving Services

Website Analysis: Evaluating website usage patterns, trends, and functionality.
Enhancing User Experience: Implementing improvements based on user feedback.

3. Sharing Your Information

We do have appropriate privacy safeguards in place with Third-Party Suppliers who are providing services or functions on our behalf but we have no ownership, management, control, or operational authority over their practices or policies and disclaim any liability for their content or practices.

We may share your information under the following circumstances:

3.1 Third-Party Suppliers

We may share your Personal Information with Third-Party Suppliers directly related to your trip, but only do so as required in order to make bookings, fulfill your tour requirements, in case of medical emergencies or as otherwise legally required. Third-Party Suppliers include, but are not limited to: hotels, restaurants, activity suppliers, insurance companies and medical personnel and/or institutions if needed while on tour. By booking one of our tours, through any Platform, you are authorizing us to disclose to our suppliers only the information required to complete the program requested and fulfill related requirements such as insurance, medical assistance and legal obligations.

We do not own, manage, control, or have operational authority over our trip Third-Party Suppliers and we do not control their privacy policies or practices and we expressly disclaim any liability for their practices.

3.2 Third-Party Service Providers

We may share your information with our Third-Party Service Suppliers who provide services or functions on our behalf. Such Providers may include reservation platforms, credit card processing companies, business analytics and social media platforms, advertising and business partners, distributors of surveys, and fraud prevention firms. We may authorize these Third-Party Service Suppliers to collect information on our behalf, as necessary to operate features of our Platforms or to facilitate online advertising tailored to you.

For example, in order to ensure a high level of security for your personal information, and to help us streamline and manage the booking process, Small Wonders Travel works with WeTravel, a global reservation software specializing in multi-day tours. We use their services to collect and/or securely store information provided during the booking process and to safely process payments. Information about how WeTravel handles your data can be found here.

We have appropriate privacy safeguards in place with all of our Third-Party Service Providers but we have no ownership, management, control, or operational authority over their practices or policies and disclaim any liability for their content or practices.

3.3 Legal Compliance and Legal Requirements

Small Wonders Travel may be required to disclose personal data to the authorities, law enforcement agencies, government agencies, or legal entities. We may disclose information by law, litigation, or as a matter of national security to: a) comply with valid legal process including subpoenas, court orders or search warrants, and as otherwise authorized by law; b) in the event of an emergency that threatens an individual’s life, health, or security; or c) to the extent permitted by applicable law in special cases in which we believe it is reasonably necessary to investigate, identify, or take preventive measures or bring legal action against someone who may commit or cause harm, fraud, abuse, or illegal conduct, such as a threat of harm to you or anyone else, interference with our rights or property, or interference with U.S. homeland or national security or public safety anywhere in the world.

3.4 Sale of Personal Information

We never sell, rent, or share Personal Information we collect directly from you, or about you, with third-party advertisers for their own marketing purposes.

4. Your Choices

You have the following rights and choices regarding your information; please make such requests by emailing info@smallwonderstravel.com:

Opt-Out: You may opt-out of marketing communications at any time, email subject line REMOVE

Access and Update: You can access and update your personal information

5. Security

We implement reasonable security measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

We want you to feel confident about using our Platforms to book our trips and for us to make your travel arrangements. We are committed to protecting the Personal Information we collect. While no Platform can guarantee security, we use commercially reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to assist us in preventing unauthorized access, use and disclosure of your Personal Information.

6. International Transfers

Your information may be transferred and processed outside your country of residence, including countries with varying data protection laws. By using our services, you consent to such transfers.

Using Our Platforms From Outside the United States

Small Wonders Travel is based in the United States. When visiting our Platforms from outside the United States, please be aware that we may process your Personal Information in, or transfer your Personal Information to, the United States.

We may also transfer your Personal Information to third parties in the United States for processing. If you do not wish your Personal Information to be processed in, transferred to and stored in, the United States, please do not use our Platforms or services.

European Union Data Privacy Rights

If you are located in EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) grants you certain rights under the law. In particular, the right to access, correct, delete, restrict processing of, and data portability of the personal information we hold about you. We may retain your personal information as described in this Privacy Notice.

Upon request, we will grant you reasonable access to personal information that we hold about you. In addition, we will take reasonable steps to permit you to correct, amend, delete, restrict processing of, and request portability of the personal information we hold about you. We also rely upon your assistance in providing accurate updates of your personal information. In order make a request regarding your personal information, please make a request via email info@smallwonderstravel.com.

Legal Basis for Processing under GDPR

We process and transfer some of your personal information under GDPR on the basis of your consent as described in this Privacy Notice. In addition, in certain circumstances, we process your personal information because it is necessary to enter into and perform a contract between us and you. Finally, we may also process your personal information based on our legitimate interests to market and sell our service and Website.

Where personal information is processed based on consent, EU residents have the right to withdraw such consent at any time. To do so, please contact us at info@smallwonderstravel.com. If there is a different legal basis that would permit us to continue processing your personal information after withdrawing consent, we will notify you of that legal basis at the time of your request.

7. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices and/or related legislation. The date of the latest revision will be indicated at the top. The most current version of this Policy published on www.smallwonderstravel.com will supersede all previous versions. You are encouraged to periodically review this Policy to stay informed of any updates.

8. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Small Wonders Travel, and/or third parties, may use cookies and tracking technologies for the following purposes when you visit our Platforms:

To track new visitors to our Platforms;

To operate, maintain and improve our Platforms;

To facilitate and fulfill travel program requirements and services requests; and

To help us recognize your browser as a previous visitor.

We may also obtain information about your browsing history or other demographic information from our business and advertising partners.

In addition, we and third parties may also collect and store your Personal Information via web beacons, re-marketing pixel tags, and Flash cookies which are placed in the code of a web page or email or which access your browsing activity.

Opting Out of Cookies

We provide you with choices regarding cookies and tracking technologies. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether.

Please keep in mind that, without cookies, you may not have access to certain features on our Platforms.

The following links explain how to access cookie settings in various browsers:

If you would like to generally opt-out of receiving personalized ads from Third-Party advertisers and ad networks who are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) or who follow the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising please visit the opt-out pages on the NAI website and DAA website or click the following:

NAI’s opt-out tool: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/

DAA’s opt out tool: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

In order to control the collection of data for analytical purposes by Google Analytics, you may want to visit the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

10. Storing Your Information and Security

We will use and store your Personal Information only for as long as necessary, bearing in mind the uses of your Personal Information as described in this privacy policy and otherwise communicated to you, and any mandatory legal requirements governing storage and reporting of information which we are subject to.

We review the Personal Information we hold at regular intervals and delete permanently or anonymise any Personal Information which is no longer necessary.

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure that your Personal Information is kept in a secure environment and access to it is restricted to a ‘need to know’ basis.

Your California Privacy Rights

As provided by California Civil Code Section 1798.83, a California resident who has provided Personal Information to a business with whom they have established a business relationship for personal, family, or household purposes (“California customer”) is entitled to request information about whether the business has disclosed Personal Information to any third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes.

In general, if the business has made such a disclosure of Information, upon receipt of a request by a California customer, the business is required to provide a list of all third parties to whom Information was disclosed in the preceding calendar year, as well as a list of the categories of Information that were collected and/or disclosed.

To request such information, please submit your request by email to info@smallwonderstravel.com. Please allow 30 days for a response. Please note that we are only required to respond to one request per customer each year and you will not be charged for this request.

If you are a California resident, who is a registered user of the Platforms and is a minor, you may remove, or request removal of, content or information that you posted on the Platforms, unless: (i) the content or information was posted by a 3rd party, (ii) any other provision of state or federal law requires Small Wonders Travel or a 3rd party to maintain the content or information, (iii) Small Wonders Travel anonymizes the content or information, or (iv) you received compensation from Small Wonders Travel for providing the content or information. To request removal of information or content that you posted, please email info@smallwonderstravel.com. Please note that the removal described does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information that you post, as content or information may be cached in backup files or other storage. Small Wonders Travel will make all reasonable efforts to honor any removal request made as described in this paragraph.

If you would like to review and/or change your Personal Information retained by Small Wonders Travel please see the section above “Your Access to and Control over Information.” If you have questions regarding the process to review and/or change your Personal Information, or to request further information about our compliance with this law, please send an email to info@smallwonderstravel.com.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at info@smallwonderstravel.com.

You can inquire as to your Personal Information, ask the following questions, or take the following actions by contacting us via email at info@smallwonderstravel.com or via the address or phone number given on our Platforms to:

See what Personal Information we have about you (if any), including why we are holding it and who it could be disclosed to;

Ask us to change/correct any Personal Information we have about you;

Ask us to delete any Personal Information we have about you;

Ask us to restrict the processing of your Personal Information; and

Express any concerns you have about our use of your Personal Information.

If you choose not to provide certain information, or ask us to delete or restrict the use of your Personal Information, some of the services we provide to you may be affected, and in some cases, we may be unable to deliver the services you have requested.

By using our website and services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to the terms outlined in this Privacy Policy, and you consent to the processing of your personal information as described herein.