Whale Sightings Guarantee

How does the TERRA AZUL™ Guarantee work?

It’s simple. If you book a TERRA AZUL™ Whale Watching or Swim with Dolphins tour, and no Cetacean (either a Whale or a Dolphin) is sighted, we welcome you back for a second tour free of charge within 30 days. This is not a money-back guarantee – if you are unavailable to reschedule, we will need to retain 20% to cover fuel costs, and 80% will be refunded. Remember to book early in your itinerary!

It is important to understand that with wild animals in the middle of the Ocean, and as in any Wildlife tour, it is not possible to guarantee that you will see specifically Whales, or any other species at a specific time frame. Even with our Lookouts high inland and Fast Zodiac boats improving our chances, it is not uncommon for our friends to dive into the deep Ocean.

This guarantee is exclusive to Whale Watching and Swim with Dolphins tours booked directly through our official website. It does not apply to large groups or private tours.

Weather Insurance

How about Weather Insurance?

When you book directly with TERRA AZUL and weather conditions prevent your tour from departing safely, and you are unavailable to reschedule, you will be fully refunded.

Remember to book early in your itinerary since all bookings are at all times subject to rescheduling to changes in weather & sea conditions, and may be rescheduled without prior notice if all favorable conditions are not met. This insurance applies to all tours, including large groups and private tours.

Booking, Payment & Cancellation Policy

Booking & Confirmation

  1. Minimum age is 4
  2. Any Children up to the age of 13 must always be accompanied by at least one adult.
  3. Primary First Name, Last Name, and Email Address are required on all bookings. A Phone Number is recommended for last minute changes.
  4. Bookings are accepted up to 2 hours before departure times.
  5. Confirmation will be received by email within 24 hours from payment.

Payment

  1. A minimum Deposit of 20% is required to confirm all reservations.
  2. Full payment is required until 24 hours before departure time.
  3. We accept Bank Transfer, Paypal (available with Visa, MC, AMEX, etc), or Cash (only at our base)
  4. We cannot be responsible for any surcharges resulting from other third-party payment processing, or currency exchange.

Gift Vouchers

  1. Gift Vouchers must be presented physically, are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged for cash.
  2. Gift Vouchers are valid for specified services or products only.
  3. Gift Vouchers are valid for check-in dates within the specified time period, and expire after 12 months from designated end date.

Rescheduling

  1. Should you need to reschedule with more than 24 hours notice, rescheduling is free of charge.
  2. Should we need to reschedule a trip for any reason, and you are unavailable to attend the next departure time, you will be fully refunded.

Cancellation & Refund

  1. Should you cancel with more than 7 days before departure time, you will be fully refunded.
  2. Should you cancel with less than 7 days before departure time, we will retain your deposit, and you will be refunded for the remaining.
  3. Should you cancel with less than 24 hours before departure time, or not show up in the designated time, you will be fully charged.
  4. Should we cancel a trip for any reason, you will be fully refunded.

Specific for Large Groups, Private Tours, and Charters

  1. Full payment is required until 48 hours before departure time.
  2. Should you need to reschedule with more than 48 hours notice, rescheduling is free of charge.
  3. Should you cancel with less than 48 hours notice, or not show up in the designated time, you will be fully charged.

Specific for Multi-day Tours

  • Full payment is required until 7 days before departure time.
  • Should you need to reschedule with more than 7 days notice, rescheduling is free of charge.
  • Should you cancel with less than 7 days notice, or not show up in the designated time, you will be fully charged.

Terms & Conditions of Service

  1. Passengers must be ready at the point of departure at the designated departure time, or risk being considered as no-shows to lose their reservation plus being charged for the tour.
  2. We reserve the right to substitute any vessel without prior notice.
  3. We reserve the right to cancel any tour without prior notice.
  4. We reserve the right to change prices in the event of currency fluctuations, taxes or other cost increases out of our control. Tickets purchased prior to the increase will not be affected by the change.
  5. If, in the opinion of the Skipper, the tour cannot be continued for any reason, then the Skipper may terminate the tour at any time.
  6. Reservations are required for all tours, and are good for the specific date and time chosen only.
  7. In the event that any specified tour is cancelled, we reserve the right to, at our option either refund the fare (less any fees) or issue a new reservation for another tour.
  8. Passengers shall not carry on any alcoholic beverages. In the event of a passenger being required not to embark or to disembark from the vessel under the provisions of this condition, the proprietors, nor the captain shall be under any liability to such passenger of any kind whatsoever.
  9. Terra Azul, Lda. is not responsible for any injury to person, or damage to property arising from tours.

On the Vessel

  • By signing the boarding list you are assuming full responsibility for your integrity on board, and declaring appropriate physical conditions.
  • It is mandatory to use life vests during all trip and to stay firmly on your seat until the Skipper indicates otherwise.
  • The passenger is obliged to follow the Skipper’s directions at all times.

Privacy Policy

Terrazul, Animação Turística Lda. operates the TERRA AZUL brand and This website, and This page’s purpose is to inform visitors regarding any concerns about how their “Personally Identifiable Information” (PII) is used by Terrazul, Animação Turística Lda.

If you choose to use our Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in relation with this policy. The Personal Information that we collect are used for providing and improving our Service. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.

The terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, which is accessible at this same website, unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy.

Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information.

You will be requested to agree with this policy in the first time you visit our website, and to renew your consent in every 90 days. You also provide consent by actively maintaining interaction with us as customer or business associate.

What PII do we use and how we collect it

You provide most of the data we collect.

As appropriate, you may be asked to enter PII such as your name, age, email address, phone number, nationality, preferred language, travel arrangements, and relevant personal booking details.

We collect data and process data when you register on our site, place an order, subscribe to a newsletter, respond to a survey, fill out a form, use a live chat, open a support ticket or enter information on our site, or when you provide feedback on our products or services by email, and while you use our website (via browser cookies).

Whenever you visit our website, we collect information that your browser sends to us that is called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser version, pages of our website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, and other statistics.

Whenever you experience our service physically, we may collect photography for use in training, demonstrations, or business promotion purposes, following your consent.

If your contact details are in our database or public, online or offline for the purpose of contact, we may reach out with a new customer promotion or business proposal as adequate.

We do not collect information on, and do not target to children, or let third-parties, including ad networks or plug-ins collect PII from children with ages 13 or under.

How do we use your information?

  • To process your orders faster, and to manage your account.
  • To send your order details confirmation, notifications and follow-up information, and payment requests.
  • To contact you when rescheduling your order is necessary.
  • To improve our website and tailoring to your experience.
  • To improve our services and response to your customer service requests.
  • To administer contests, promotions, surveys and other site features.
  • To quickly process your transactions.
  • To ask for ratings and reviews.
  • To follow up after correspondence (live chat, email or phone inquiries).
  • To make a business proposal if you are in any way associated with a company.
  • To email you with special offers on other products and services we think you might like.

When sending you email, we agree to:

  • Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
  • Identify the message as an advertisement in a reasonable way when applicable.
  • Include the physical address of our business or website headquarters.
  • Monitor any third-party email marketing services for compliance, if used.
  • Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
  • Allow users to unsubscribe using links at the bottom of emails.

If you have agreed to receive our marketing emails, you can opt out at any time sending an email to privacy@azoreswhalewatch.com asking to be removed.

How is your information protected?

Only trained and trusted internal staff deal with Personally Identifiable Information which we can store for up to 5 years from last interaction.

Trusted PMS compliant systems handle PII and managing accounts, and trusted external PCI DSS compliant payment gateways handle all payment transactions.

Our website uses an SSL certificate for safer encrypted navigation.

We value your trust in providing us your information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting it. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

We enforce our service, and our service partners to comply with:

  • EU 1995 Data Protection Directive
  • US 1998 Data Protection Act
  • US California Online Privacy Protection Act – CalOPPA
  • US Children Online Privacy Protection Act – COPPA
  • US Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act – CAN-SPAM.
  • US California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • EU 2019 General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR
  • EU 2020 Strong Customer Authentication – SCA

Do we use ‘cookies’?

Yes. Cookies enables us as the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and retain information.

For instance, we may use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart. They may also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, enabling our services improvement. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future across all devices.

To learn about Cookies visit allaboutcookies.org.

What Cookies we use

There are a number of different types of cookies our website uses for:

  • Functionality – We use these cookies so that we recognize you on our website and remember your previously selected preferences. These could include what language you prefer and location you are in. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies are used to help:
    • Recognizing you as returning user.
    • Keeping you signed in.
    • Remember and process the items in the shopping cart.
    • Understanding and saving user preferences for future visits.
  • Advertising — We use these cookies to collect non-Personally Identifiable Information about your visit to our website, the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser, device, and your IP address. We sometimes share some limited aspects of this data with third parties for advertising purposes. This means that when you visit another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on our website. We may also use trusted third-party services that track this information on our behalf to keep track of advertisements, and to compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies, third-party cookies and other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding unique user interactions, ad impressions, and other service functions as they relate to our website.

We have implemented:

  • Remarketing with Google Analytics
  • Google Display Network Impression Reporting
  • Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting
  • DoubleClick Platform Integration
  • Social Advertising Pixels from Facebook, LinkedIn and proprietary trusted social networking fan pages.

Service Providers

We may employ third-party companies and individuals due to the following reasons:

  • To facilitate our Service;
  • To provide the Service on our behalf;
  • To perform Service-related services; or
  • To assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personal Information without prior consent. This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving our users, as those parties are obligated not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose.

We may allow third-party behavioral tracking. Non-personally identifiable visitor information only may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

While processing orders, we may send your data to, and also use the resulting information from, credit reference agencies to prevent fraudulent purchases.

We may release your Personally Identifiable Information when appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our website policies, or protect ours or others’ rights to property or safety.

Third-party disclosure

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include links to or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party websites have their own privacy policies, and therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these websites, products or services.

Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our website and its visitors and will welcome any feedback regarding this.

Your data protection rights

We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every visitor is entitled to:

  • The right to access – You have the right to request for copies of your personal data. We may need to charge a small fee for this service.
  • The right to rectification – You have the right to request to correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request to complete information you believe is incomplete.
  • The right to erasure — You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to data portability – You have the right to request to transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us by email at privacy@azoreswhalewatch.com and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

To Opt Out

Visiting anonymously

We honor Do Not Track (DNT) signals and do not track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track browser mechanism is in place.

Opting out of browser Cookies

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or turn off all cookies.

You do this through your browser settings. Since browsers are a little different, look at your browser’s Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookie preferences. You can set your browser to not accept cookies, and remove cookies already installed on your browser.

If you turn browser cookies off, some of the features that make your site experience more efficient may not function properly.

Google Tracking & Ads

Google allows end users to access and/or delete their browsing data via My Activity – https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity.

Google visitors can set preferences for how Google advertises to them using their Google Ad Settings page. You can opt out by visiting the Advertising Network’s Opt Out page or by using a Browser add on.

Opting out of Marketing emails

Email recipients can unsubscribe following simple instructions at the bottom of the email they receive.

Alternatively, you can always update your information with us at any time:

  • by emailing us
  • by logging in to your account

At any time you can contact us by email to privacy@azoreswhalewatch.com requesting removal.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy

For any further information on the data we hold on you, and for help exercising your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to email us any questions at privacy@azoreswhalewatch.com.

Changes to our privacy policy:

This privacy policy under regular review, and updates are made public on this webpage.

Policy latest update: November 1st 2019.

Questions, Comments & Complaints

 

We work to continuously improve our tours and services, and value the feedback of everyone towards an always better practice.

If you have any questions regarding any aspect of our service, or if you feel that our company has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, please contact us as soon as possible on +351 913 453 030 or info@azoreswhalewatch.com with your concern – we’ll reply to you right away.

Should you wish to report an official complaint to the Portuguese Consumers Authority, you can do so here.

Be Prepared!

  • Book in advance, and place this on top of your schedule to ensure availability and room for rescheduling.
  • Arrive early for Registration & Briefing.
  • Bring a personal Water supply, sunscreen and chapstick for the Sun.
  • No refunds for Sea-sickness – don’t let it ruin your day. Eat light, and visit the local Pharmacy if you need it.
  • Safety Starts with you – protect any personal equipment, inform the Crew if you feel distressed, or if you notice something in the water.
About Our Company Go Whale Watching Swim with Dolphins More about Azores Whale Watching Insurance

All passengers are insured on all tours according to portuguese law.
Request a copy of your insurance policy at our frontdesk.