Terms of use

By using socotra.guide you agree to these terms. They are short, and the first section is the one that matters most, so please read at least that far.

What this site is, and what it is not

socotra.guide is an independent, photographer-led travel and photography guide to Socotra island in Yemen. It publishes editorial content, and it introduces travellers to local tour operators. That is the whole of it.

We are not a travel agent, a tour operator, or an organiser or retailer of package travel. We do not sell flights, accommodation, tours, transfers or insurance. We take no bookings, hold no deposits, process no payments and handle no money at any point. Nothing published here is an offer to sell you a trip, and nothing you send us creates a booking.

When you submit an inquiry, a person here reads it and introduces you to a Socotra operator, either the one you picked or one with capacity on your dates. Everything after that introduction, the quote, the itinerary, the contract, the payment and the trip itself, is between you and that operator. If a trip goes wrong, your rights are against the operator you contracted with, and any package travel protections you have run against them rather than against us.

How operators are listed

Operators appear here because we think they are worth listing, and for no other reason. No operator pays us, and none can. We take no commission, no affiliate fee, no referral fee and no payment of any kind for a listing, for a position in the directory, or for an introduction. Nothing you read on this site has been bought, and no ranking has been sold.

The order of the directory comes from a published formula: an operator's external review reputation, smoothed so that a handful of five-star reviews cannot outrank hundreds of good ones, plus upvotes cast by visitors to this site. We do not audit operators commercially, and we do not independently verify their licences, insurance or financial standing. Check those yourself before you pay anybody anything.

No warranties on travel decisions

Socotra is a remote destination. Conditions on the ground (flight schedules, weather, permit rules, security, drone regulations, prices) change without notice. We update the site regularly and try hard to be accurate, but we cannot guarantee that any specific piece of information is current or complete. Verify with your tour operator and with your government's travel advisory before you travel, and treat anything here about safety, permits or flights as a starting point rather than an answer. We are not liable for losses arising from reliance on information published here.

Photography and copyright

Editorial text, design, and original imagery on socotra.guide are © socotra.guide unless otherwise credited. AI-generated imagery carries a visible mark on the image itself. You may quote short passages with attribution and a link back. You may not republish wholesale, scrape the site for AI training, or sell our content as your own.

Photographer-submitted imagery remains the property of the photographer. By submitting, you confirm the work is yours to license and you grant us a non-exclusive licence to display it on socotra.guide with your credit. You can ask us to take it down at any time.

Permitted use

You agree not to:

• scrape or crawl the site for AI training, commercial reuse, or competing products
• attempt to access non-public areas (admin, photographer dashboard) without authorisation
• upload malware, attempt SQL injection, or otherwise probe the site
• flood the inquiry form with spam (we rate-limit, and we will block you)

Third-party links

We link to operators, government travel advisories, conservation bodies, and external photography resources. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or their practices.

Your data

What we collect and how long we keep it is set out in the privacy policy, and what is stored on your device is in the cookie notice. Both are part of these terms.

Your consumer rights

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any right you have under mandatory Bulgarian or EU consumer protection law, or under the mandatory law of the country you live in. Where a clause here conflicts with such a right, the right wins and the rest of these terms stands.

Changes

We may update these terms as the site evolves. The last updated date at the top of this page is authoritative. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Bulgaria. Disputes go to the competent courts of Sofia, Bulgaria. If you are a consumer resident in the EU, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory rules of your own country, nor of the right to bring proceedings there.

Contact

socotra.guide is operated by Martin Bonov (KICKFLIP, Sofia, Bulgaria). Questions go to office@socotra.guide.