Gate 1 Travel

We just returned from a 12 day Morocco trip. Our first and definetley not the last. The hotels were all clean and in good locations. Loved the medinas and the highlight was the Camel ride in the Sahara. We extended our stay in Casablanca for 2 nights, and our guide Mohamad, verified the driver would pick us up at 4 am, and asked the hotel have a to go breakfast for us.. beyond the customer service experience.
Our flights luckily were all fine, so that is the luck of the draw these days.. We enjoyed exploring a lot of places in morocco. Yes the bus rides can be long, but the stops were frequent, and prearrange stops with good restrooms. Always had plenty of water available on the bus. Our trip included folks who had been on more that 10 gate one trips, so that was good to know since our first. So next year we are planning another trip.

Just completed the 11 day Essential South Africa tour. I had decided that I would never book with Gate 1 again before I left for the trip. This was due to the number of times that I and the others in my group made phone calls regarding our reservation. We got agents who didn’t follow through, did not return calls, provided incorrect information and a manager who told me we should have gone through a travel agent. The agent was very accommodating when we booked. Having questions and looking for answers, feeling you were a problem was awful. Colleen our tour guide was excellent. She took excellent care of us and only because of her, I would give Gate 1 another chance. Patience is a virtue, and it doesn’t stop when you get a customer’s money.
Sandra Green

I have been traveling with gate 1 off and on for many years. I usually get the insurance for most trips. In April we would due to go to Fiji. I was diagnosed with the heart condition And told not to fly travel or exert myself in anyway until after I was cleared by my doctor. I had to cancel the trip of course so I filed an insurance claim the trip was approximately $1,500 per person. We canceled it Under the 30 day mark so gate 1 would only give us 10% of our money back. However, Arch insurance Only gave us $475 back. The indicated Gate one would refund the rest. Odd, bot ok. 6/2/23 I called gate 1 and advised them of conversations with Arch..they said no, call arch and ask if they refund airfare in their policy. They were closed, so I called American Airlines, to find out that $776 had been credited back to GATE 1??!!? The cost of the airfare was 776. Why did Gate One take my air credit and why did arch travel insurance send me $475+/- and CLOSE MY CASE? Gate one has my and traveling partners airfare, and I paid $149 for Arch insurance travel policy through Gate one, only to get $475 back from Arch in Total??? Now I have to call again and find out who has the .money.

I would like to say for most of this trip to Brazil and Argentina it was amazing but there were some hiccups,sometimes it seems as if we were push for time to leave, I miss something i would like to have seen. Seeing the city of Rio deJaneiro from the statue of Christ The Remeemer and take pictures was a very exciting moment. The Iguazu Falls was a fall to remember I though Niagara Falls was a exciting Fall this is something else. I enjoy the Tradition Gaucho Party the ranch was very nice place the entertainment was, I didn't get to see the museum, i did go to the general store. Here one problem i had at the ranch i told the guide that i did eat farm animal but i did eat fish so I though I would get a fish dinner, even though there were farmers, it has always been notice that there were stream, ponds, creeks and rivers near the farms that had fish in them. Watching them do the Samba and Tango was a a delightful experience. In all it was an enjoyable trip.

European River Cruise on Monarch Queen from Amsterdam to Budapest. Queen offered great accommodations from cabins, reception, lounges, dining room to sundeck. Staff was professional and went above and beyond, always pleasant, always smiling. Our cruise director Soma and activities director Danielle were the best ever.
Booking was easy, the only negative was when we asked to change cabins in the same category I was put on hold a very long time, could see on line the cabin was changed, but still kept on hold over a half hour to confirm.
Airfare and travel insurance is ALWAYS something we book separate from any travel company. This seems to be the biggest issue travelers have so it's best to book it yourself so you have control.
We will definitely use Gate 1 Travel again....but book our own airfare and insurance.

France April 27 - May 9. We have had several Gale One tours that were Great, but not this one. Basically the accommodations and land travel were not acceptable. Sights were wonderful.

First, the Bus was too small for such a long trip. When sitting, my knees hit back of seat in front of me. No space for legs or anything else. Very cramped. Could not use pouch on back of seat in front of me. Overhead bin was very tiny.

Secondly, Most Hotels, especially Mercure hotel chain were terrible. No air or windows in the rooms. Asked for fan but not always available. Hotel in Bordeaux was the worst. 1 of 2 elevators not working; very hot in room; no relief in sight; meals too sparse. The only decent hotel was in Lourdes where we could open the window. We understand that air-conditioning is infrequent in Europe, but for the price we pay, Gate One can find better places to stay and still be in center of cities.

Tour guide was very nice but seemed uninformed. Gate One tour guides for Greece, Morocco and Sicily were tremendous comparably. Some of her facts about castles etc. differ from most tour books. She needs to use a script as her English is too halted for being a guide. She seemed to often pause mid-sentence thinking for the next word. She frequently asked tourists for the correct word to use.
Poor idea to show two 50-year-old irrelevant movies in the bus. Could not see subtitles unless sitting in first 2-3 rows near the screens. We were looking for more history about the country, artists, music, Resistance movement during WWII, French influence around the world, why Paris selected for so many international treaties, etc.

Several lunch rest stops were at gas stations. We were captive for expensive, lousy food. It would have been nice to know this a day or two in advance so that we could purchase food elsewhere & bring it with us on those days.

In closing, we like Gate One generally and have several friends who used them per our recommendation. Not sure I would suggest it again.
Thank you for your opportunity to reply here.

I booked with Gate1 because I had heard good things but my reservation is a mess and I cannot reach anyone who can help - will not transfer me to a supervisor - instead putting me in hold and coming back w incorrect info. They tell me it will be at least 48 hours to reach a supervisor. In meantime I am fully paid but cannot get my flights ticketed and phone agents don’t know why.


Pleased to hear back from Gate1 a couple of days after posting this - my booking has been corrected - hoping that I can now relax and enjoy the trip.

Worst customer service I have yet to experience from a tour company. Great company when things go right but expect no help when it comes to any changes. They are all business. I requested a cancelation online and when I called to speak to someone in person the entire trip had been canceled with no recourse. No possibility of changing the second reservation to another traveler or even keeping one of the two reservations to go alone. Only a 10% refund was offered on both reservations. Five thousand and six hundred dollars lost and not even a tiny bit of sympathy from the company representative. Gratefully I did not use Gate 1 for our airline reservations or I would have lost another three thousand dollars. Our airline issued a credit for the entire cost of the flights. Thank you Virgin Air and good riddance Gate 1.

Great company when things go right but expect no help when it comes to any changes. They are all business. I requested a cancelation online and when I called to speak to someone in person the entire trip had been canceled with no recourse. No possibility of changing the second reservation to another traveler or even keeping one of the two reservations to go alone. Only a 10% refund was offered on both reservations. Five thousand and six hundred dollars lost and not even a tiny bit of sympathy from the company representative. Gratefully I did not use Gate 1 for our airline reservations or I would have lost another three thousand dollars. Our airline issued a credit for the entire cost of the flights. Thank you Virgin Air and good riddance Gate 1.

And also thank you Gate 1 for sending the exact same reply you do to every negative review asking to contact you after we have tried multiple times. Both before and after this review.


Reply from Gate 1 Travel

A day ago
Thank you for sharing your comments. We regret that your experience did not meet your expectations. So that one of our representatives can provide additional assistance and try to make this right for you, please submit an inquiry here.

The actual tour itself and guide were great. Only recommendation is make the farewell dinner a private dinner and not a horrible show/banquet food court experience with 400 other people.
My 2 star rating comes because Gate1 booked and gave us an imaginary connecting flight, confirmation number and booking number (we made it to America but were stranding at connecting airport due to fake flight). Hours on hold with Gate1 agent trying to get a flight and hours trying to find our bags that the airport didn't know what to do with. No sympathy from Gate1 (all the time on hold was due to Gate1 taking their time to find a flight that would suit their pockets better than our comfort/waiting time to get on a real flight home). Last flight out is what we ended up with because the other flights they couldn't book. Real class act. Next time how about you care about your patrons more than your pocket. You would of made more money from us using Gate1 again then what you saved putting us on the cheapest flight for Gate1 to buy. People/Businesses make mistakes, how they handle their mistakes speaks volumes.

We have booked 8 or 9 trips with Gate1Travel and loved them all!! We always purchase travel insurance and never needed it until our last trip. I got COVID on Day 6 of a 16-day trip to Ireland and Scotland despite being double-vaccinated and double-boosted). It was a nightmare to get reimbursed!!!! So, when we booked our next trip, we decided NOT to purchase travel insurance. Bad decision I guess. We are to leave for a 10-day trip to National Parks on May 30. We were shocked when my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of weeks ago. He had surgery to remove half of his left lung. He is recovering fine BUT the doctor does not want him to fly for 4 weeks (change in altitude is not good for a healing lung). I called Gate1Travel to reschedule and they said no because I did not have travel insurance. We will lose 90% of what we paid. I asked if I could take someone else and was told NO. Why not? The trip and side trips have all been paid in full! Has this happened to anyone else? What should we do?

First trip with Gate 1 and we were not disappointed! It lived up to everything our friends told us! From the ease of making the reservation to getting back home! We took a 12 day trip to Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia and loved every minute! Well organized, well paced and excellent hotels! Lots of inclusion, with centrally located hotels! Our tour manager, Ivona and driver Milan were the best! Ivona was so warm, kind and funny! What a hoot! An amazing ability to keep 40 people working harmoniously together for 12 days is a testament to her! The meals were wonderful, especially the farewell dinner! We have since booked two more Gate 1 trips since returning a week ago!

A poor customer service experience with Gate 1. My wife and I have been on 8 different Gate 1 trips over the past 20 years that went smoothly. We were to travel for our 10 day tour of Sicily on April 17. On that morning we received an email that our United Airlines plane from Newark to Zurich was canceled. We called Gate 1 and Tina Peterson arrange an alternative earlier flight from JFK, but our return flight would be to Newark. She explained that when we arrived at JFK, to tell United/Swiss Air to book us on their shuttle. When we got to JFK after talking to numerous people, we discovered their was no shuttle. Over the next several days talking with our tour guide, Ahmet and finally Randi at Gate 1, we were told that this was our problem. Randi refused to let us talk to her supervisor. They were unwilling to solve a problem they created. This took many hours, numerous phone calls and intense aggravation, impacting what should have been a pleasant trip. Since Tina told us the wrong information, we think Gate 1 should fix the problem they created. They could have changed our return flight to land at JFK, or at least offered to pay for the $150. cab ride. We will never travel with them again, they can’t be trusted when things go wrong. They are losing a loyal customer for the sake of $150.

Our tour guide Christi was very personable as well as being very knowledgeable about our stops along the way. She made this whirlwind tour comfortable and enjoyable. Our driver Steve was a steely eyed driver around some pretty tight hairpin switchbacks. We had a wonderful trip experience due to these two wonderful people.

They canceled our trip to Peru. We bought insurance and didn't get our flight money or insurance back. Kept getting the run around from Gate one and jet blue. They kept blaming each other. Stay away from these companies they will stick it to you. Our group lost alot of money.