Disclaimer & Privacy

The Longest Way Home is a personal site that started out from the humble beginnings of simply transcribing my personal handwritten travel journals to an online format. I'm not corporation nor travel agent; just a person documenting their own travel journey and sharing their knowledge with others. It's a one man show here and although I do try to keep everything as up to date as possible, due to the global nature of travel my advice is not to take everything as written gospel. This is particularly true of prices, fares, visas and even some travel routes. The world is constantly changing and it's near impossible to keep all the information here 100% up-to-date. That said I do endeavor to update information based on my own findings, from people I know on the ground and from those that have been kind enough to send me new information they've discovered. Likewise if you have an update or correction feel free to contact me with it and I'll try to update the information here as soon as possible.

Affiliate programs do run on this site and provide a commission to support the sites running costs and hopefully some of my travels. I don't directly sell anything here via affiliates as a new page will open to the affiliate website. I do vet affiliate programs and only recommend a service that I too would use or think is of high value to readers. If you have any issue with an affiliates product please contact them directly as there's really not much I do about it. I would however appreciate it if you'd let me know any feedback - negative or positive! Guidebooks are sold via e-commerce merchants who look after all the processing and e-commerce. In relation to banner or text ads I have blocked adult content which I do not allow. I do not accept sponsored pages nor posts. What you read here is 100% genuine with no paid for content.

The Longest Way Home Disclaimer

Use of this site is subject to the following Terms and Conditions:

  1. Your use constitutes acceptance of these terms and conditions as at the date of your first use of the site.
  2. www.thelongestwayhome.com reserves the rights to change these terms and conditions at any time by posting changes online. Your continued use of this site after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of this agreement as modified.
  3. www.thelongestwayhome.com is a personal website/blog/journal as such it will not be treated as a commercial venture nor shall it be held responsible for any personal acts pertaining to its content.
  4. You agree to use this site only for lawful purposes, and in a manner which does not infringe the rights, or restrict, or inhibit the use and enjoyment of the site by any third party.
  5. This site and the information, names, images, pictures, logos regarding or relating to www.thelongestwayhome.com are provided "as is" without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied. In no event will www.thelongestwayhome.com, its author/s, webmaster/s be liable for any damages including, without limitation, indirect or consequential damages, or any damages whatsoever arising from the use or in connection with such use or loss of use of the site, whether in contract or in negligence.
  6. www.thelongestwayhome.com does not warrant that the functions contained in the material contained in this site will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or bugs or represents the full functionality, accuracy and reliability of the materials.
  7. Copyright restrictions:
    Please refer to www.thelongestwayhome.com copyright statement.
  8. www.thelongestwayhome.com takes no responsibility for the content of external Internet sites. Other websites that we link to are owned and operated by third parties and www.thelongestwayhome.com has no control over them. The fact that we include links to other websites does not mean that www.thelongestwayhome.com approves of or endorses any other third party website or the content of that website. We accept no liability for any statements, information, products or services that are published on or are accessible through any websites owned or operated by third parties.
  9. Any communication or material that you transmit to, or post on, any public area of the site including any data, questions, comments, suggestions, or the like, is, and will be treated as, non confidential and nonproprietary information. Please see the privacy policy below.
  10. www.thelongestwayhome.com does display affiliate advertising, direct advertising, affiliate offers, and contextual advertising throughout the site. www.thelongestwayhome.com takes no responsibility for the content of these links and shall not be held liable for any actions that may occur. www.thelongestwayhome.com displays advertising for the purposes of maintaining the website. www.thelongestwayhome.com may, in the future also use funds raised through advertising for travel in relation to running the website. World Nomads provides travel insurance for travelers in over 100 countries. As an affiliate, we receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is information only and not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.
  11. www.thelongestwayhome.com shall not be held responsible for any 3rd party comments left on the website. Such comments are the sole responsibility of the original comment submitter. www.thelongestwayhome.com strives to moderate all comments for vulgarity, personal attacks, and or spam. Should you feel aggrieved by any comments written by a 3rd party on www.thelongetwayhome.com then you may contact www.thelongestayhome.com directly. Submitted comments can and will be subject to editing if there is inappropriate content included. This will include offensive language, promotional materials and email addresses made public.
  12. If these terms and conditions are not accepted in full, the use of this site must be terminated immediately.

Returns & Refunds Policy

www.thelongestwayhome.com may sell books in both digital and paperback format. Digital books and paperback books may be sold through a 3rd party payment processor. and www.thelongestwayhome.com is not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site or service to which this website links to.

Refund Availability

All purchases of digital and paperback guidebooks are recorded, including the number purchases and downloads made of each book. Within 7 days of a digital guidebook purchase you may request a full refund so long as you  have not downloaded it or viewed it online. Paperback guidebooks delivered by standard (economy) book post are done so from a national post office and are not tracked and cannot be refunded if not received. Paperback guidebooks delivered by courier mail are tracked and if not received may be refunded within 30 working days if requested by an email to www.thelongestwayhome.com. If a paperback guidebook delivered by courier is received and in not good condition you may email us photographic evidence of the damage for appraisal. We do not offer returns or refunds of any paperback guidebook sent by standard (economy) book post. All digital guidebooks have a 30 day time limit for downloading. If the time limit expires and you have not downloaded the book you may request the time limit to be reset at no charge. If you have downloaded the book and the 30 day time limit expires, so long as the expiry date is within a reasonable time period, you may email www.thelongestwayhome.com and request an extension at the discretion of www.thelongestwayhome.com. If the device you downloaded the digital guidebook on becomes lost or inoperable you may contact www.thelongestwayhome.com with an explanation and ask for another copy which will be at the discretion of www.thelongestwayhome.com. Incorrect orders can be emailed to www.thelongestwayhome.com. In the event of purchasing a digital guidebook instead of a paperback guidebook so long as the digital guidebook has not been downloaded you may contact www.thelongestwayhome.com for either a full refund or the ability to change your order to a paperback guidebook once any additional price difference has been paid.

Fraudulent Payments

www.thelongestwayhome.com takes protection from international payment fraud seriously. In order to protect your payments www.thelongestwayhome.com uses 3rd party e-commerce merchants to process payments. However if your credit/debit card was used without your permission to make a payment for a digital or paperback guidebook you may contact www.thelongestwayhome.com with evidence that it was used without authorisation and ask for a refund.

Privacy Policy

www.thelongestwayhome.com takes your privacy seriously. As such the following privacy policy is strictly adhered to.

Data collected

You personally may opt to give www.thelongestwayhome.com personal information about you, such as your name, your contact email and other contact details when you use the contact form, make a comment or sign up to the newsletter. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter using the link provided in every one sent out and your information is then deleted.

When visitors choose to leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. You may request to see this email address so long as you contact us directly using that email address or can prove otherwise that it is registered to you. You may also request to have your comment and data deleted.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. However due to the nature of the website there may be a delay of 4 plus weeks in waiting for a response.

Through your browser or device: Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer or device type, screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version. We use this information to ensure that the Digital Services function properly.

When you visit www.thelongestwayhome.com or otherwise use the Digital Services it can provide, we may use cookies, pixel tags, analytics tools, and other similar technologies to help provide and improve our Digital Services, and as detailed below:

Cookies: Cookies are pieces of digital information stored directly on the computer or device that you are using. Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the website , pages visited, language preferences, and other web traffic data. We, and our service providers, use the information for security purposes, to facilitate online navigation, to display information more effectively, to personalize your experience while using the website, and to otherwise analyze user activity. We also gather statistical information about the usage of our website in order to continually improve its design and functionality, understand how the website and services it provides are used.

If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies when using www.thelongestwayhome.com , there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to automatically decline cookies or gives you the choice of declining or accepting the transfer to your computer/device of a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular site. You may also wish to refer to https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. However, if you do not accept these cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of www.thelongestwayhome.com.

Pixel tags and other similar technologies: Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used in connection with some services to, among other things, track the actions of users of the website (including e-mail recipients), measure the success of a marketing campaign, and compile statistics about usage of the website and response rates.

Analytics tools: www.thelongestwayhome.com uses website and application analytics services provided by third parties that use cookies and other similar technologies to collect information about the website or application use and to report trends, without identifying individual visitors. The third parties that provide us with these services may also collect information about your use of third-party websites.

You can learn about Google’s practices in connection with this information collection and how to opt out of it by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

How this information is used

www.thelongestwayhome.com may use information we collect to communicate with you, including:

To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to send you newsletters or product information, information alerts or information about events.

To send administrative information to you, such as information regarding www.thelongestwayhome.com products and services, and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.

To facilitate social sharing and communications functionality.

Your communication choices

Receiving electronic communications from www.thelongestwayhome.com or our affiliates: If you no longer want to receive a newsletter you signed up to receive, you may opt out of receiving them by following the opt-out instructions in any newsletter e-mail received from us or by contacting www.thelongestwayhome.com directly.

www.thelongestwayhome.com does not buy or sell email lists whatsoever.

Cross Border Transfers

www.thelongestwayhome.com is transferred internationally. Information from or about you or your use of our this website or services may be stored and processed in any country where service providers are located. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided that information. When www.thelongestwayhome.com transfers information from or about you, eg newsletters and comments, or your use of our products or services to other countries, we will protect it as described in this Privacy Policy. By using our website or services, or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the transfer of information from or about you or your use of our products or services to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States.

Privacy of Minors

www.thelongestwayhome.com is not intended for children under the legal age of an adult in the territory where they are legally registered. www.thelongestwayhome.com does not collect personal information from minors.

Rights and Choices

As detailed in the sections above, www.thelongestwayhome.com gives you many choices regarding the collection, use, and sharing of information from or about you or your use of this website or services or products. These include:

  • Configuring your browser to decline or accept cookies.
  • Opting out of analytics tools.
  • Opting out of certain electronic communications.
  • Opting out of other types of data processing for which you have provided your prior explicit opt-in consent.
  • Contacting 3rd parties used on this website who you have submitted your information to.

This section further explains the rights and choices that may apply depending on your jurisdiction.

In certain jurisdictions you may have the rights to request access to and receive information about certain information we maintain about you; update and correct inaccuracies in that information; have the information restricted or deleted; object or withdraw your consent to certain uses of information; and lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. You may also have the right to data portability with regard to the data you provided to us. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by local law.

Any information you give for hotel bookings, flight bookings, affiliate services or guidebook purchases is done so using 3rd party booking, affiliate or e-commerce companies alone. www.thelongestwayhome.com does not directly store any of your data for use of these services therefore in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you should contact those services directly if you wish to retrieve information on what data they may hold.

The information you directly give www.thelongestwayhome.com will never be rented, sold, or shared to third parties.

Social media is used on www.thelongestwayhome.com for the purposes of sharing information found on the website. Companies such as Facebook, Google or Twitter may use their own tracking technology if you are logged into their sites. On www.thelongestwayhome.com no personal identifiable information about you is stored.

Links

This Privacy Policy does not address, and www.thelongeswayhome.com is not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site or service to which this website links to. This includes the sales of any product. The inclusion of a link on www.thelongestwayhome.com does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by www.thelongestwayhome.com or by our affiliates, nor does it imply an affiliation with the third party.

Please note that www.thelongestwayhome.com is are not responsible for the collection, use, or disclosure policies and practices (including the data security practices) of other organizations, such as any other digital sales app, social media platform provider, operating system provider, or wireless service provider, including any information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with www.thelongestwaywayhome.com guides, products or social media pages.

www.thelongestwayhome.com does not accept sponsored or 3rd party articles, text, products or guides.

All comments on www.thelongestwayhome.com are vetted before being approved. In the unlikely event a comment on www.thelongestwayhome.com causes you offence, or if you feel another commenter is harassing you, then feel free to write using the contact form; stating your issues/reasons.

www.thelongestwayhome.com does not engage in spam, email sales lists, or public newsletters of any kind.

Updates to this Policy

www.thelongestwayhoime.com may change this Privacy Policy. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on www.thelongestwayhome.com. By using our guides or services, or otherwise providing information to us following these changes, you accept the revised Privacy Policy.

Contact information

You may contact www.thelongestwayhome.com through the contact page.

I have been contacted before about using my materials, and it's all worked out very well on both sides.. I have also tracked a site down who copied some of my work without permission, that also worked out in my favor and not theirs ;-)

So, moral of the story. Contact me first!

Contact me here