Privacy Policy

Chalo Folks operates curated small-group travel experiences in India. References to "you" in this Policy mean any visitor to our Site, anyone who books a trip with us, or anyone who otherwise interacts with our services.

If you have questions about this Policy or how we handle your data, please email us at anima@chalofolks.com.

We only collect the information we need to operate our trips, accept payments, and stay in touch with you. The categories below cover everything we ask for:

• Identity information — name, date of birth, nationality and passport number (collected when you book a trip and required for visa, insurance and on-trip logistics).
• Contact information — email address, phone number, postal address and emergency contact details.
• Payment information — billing details. Card numbers and bank credentials are processed directly by our payment partners (PayPal, Razorpay) and are never stored on our servers.
• Travel information — your selected trip, departure date, room preference, dietary needs, medical disclosures, travel insurance details and any custom requests.
• Account information — if you create a Chalo Folks account, we store your email and an authentication identifier.
• Usage information — limited analytics about how visitors interact with the Site (page views, device type, IP-derived approximate location). We do not track you across other websites.
• Marketing information — your email address if you subscribe to our newsletter, plus your stated preferences.

We use the information above only to:

• Confirm and operate your booking — passing the minimum required details to airlines, hotels, on-trip transport and local partners.
• Process payments and prevent fraud through PayPal, Razorpay and any other payment partner you choose at checkout.
• Communicate with you about your trip — confirmations, balance reminders, pre-departure information and on-trip support.
• Send the Chalo Folks newsletter to subscribers, with an unsubscribe link in every email.
• Improve our Site, content and trip design. We never use the personal information of one traveller to target another.
• Comply with legal, tax, accounting and regulatory obligations.

We share your personal information only with the partners we need to deliver our trips and only the minimum needed for each one to do their job. We do not sell your data.

• Payment partners — PayPal and Razorpay receive the payment details and booking reference required to capture your payment.
• Travel suppliers — airlines, hotels, transport providers, insurance providers and local guides receive only the details they need to host you (typically name, dates, room preference, dietary needs and emergency contact).
• Email and communication partners — Resend (transactional email), Cal.com (call scheduling) and similar tools used to communicate with you.
• Hosting and analytics — Vercel for hosting, Supabase for database, and basic analytics services. These providers process data on our behalf under contracts that require them to protect it.
• Authorities — when required by law, court order or to protect the rights, property and safety of Chalo Folks, our travellers or others.

We use a small number of essential cookies to keep you logged in to your account and remember your preferences. We do not use third-party advertising cookies. You can disable cookies in your browser, but some parts of the Site may stop working.

We keep your booking and payment information for as long as needed to provide the trip and meet our legal obligations (typically up to 7 years for tax and accounting purposes). Newsletter subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe. Account information is kept until you ask us to delete it.

Connections to the Site are encrypted with TLS. Sensitive data is stored in encrypted form. Payment details are never stored on our servers — they are processed directly by PayPal or Razorpay. No system is perfectly secure, but we work hard to protect your information and will tell you promptly if we ever discover a breach that affects your data.

You have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct — ask us to fix any information that is inaccurate or out of date.
• Delete — ask us to delete your information once we no longer need it for the trip or for legal reasons.
• Withdraw consent — unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time using the link in every email, or by emailing us.
• Object or restrict — ask us to stop or limit certain uses of your information.
• Port — receive your information in a portable, machine-readable format.
• Complain — lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In India, this is the relevant authority under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

To exercise any of these rights, email anima@chalofolks.com. We will respond within 30 days.

If you signed in using Google or Facebook and want the data we received from that provider removed, email us at the same address with the subject “Data deletion request” and we will delete your account and the associated data within 30 days.

Chalo Folks is based in India. Some of our providers (PayPal, Vercel, Resend) may process data outside India. Where this happens, we rely on standard contractual clauses or equivalent legal mechanisms to make sure your data is protected to the same standard.

Our Site and trips are intended for travellers aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 without a parent or guardian's involvement. Travellers under 18 must be accompanied by an adult on every trip.

We may update this Policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, notify booked travellers by email.

For any privacy question, request or concern, please reach out to:

You can also see our Booking Terms & Conditions and Refund Policy for related information.