Gate 1 Travel

Gate one did not plan for bad weather even after knowing three days in advance. We were stuck in an old hotel - worst ever - in Hofn. Gate one was protecting their profit at rye expense of their customers. Would not travel with them again

I am surprised to find so many negative reviews here for this company, as we recently went on our first Gate 1 trip and we were the only ones who weren't repeat customers on the trip (and many of them had been on more than 5 Gate 1 tours).

Everything exceeded our expectations. Our travel arrangements proceeded flawlessly; we were met at the airport by a driver for our transfer as we arrived a day ahead of the other guests. Our hotels were all very nice, guest-focused, well located and pleasant (they were a bit nondescript... we felt like we could be in Riga or Houston, but that is a small, very personal issue). Our tour manager was EXCELLENT, well organized, friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, concerned, cheerful, attentive and reliable. Our city guides were wonderful, our excursions were fun and interesting and the food was pretty good (I would have liked more choices on the group meals, but again, that was a small issue). I will be recommending this company to anyone seeking such a service, and I'm sure this was not our last Gate 1 experience.

Our Italy tour of September 6 to 17, 2022 was superb due to our awesome travel director, Myriam!!
She has a great sense of humor and inclusivity. No one felt left out nor ignored.
Our tourmates bonded well and thus, everyone had a sweet time learning about each other.
Thank you, Myriam.

Noemi and Dan

I'm taking the 10 Day Classic Portugal trip in October. After 2 phone calls and an email, I can't get a response to when an optional trip is scheduled for. This has happened before. When you sign up for a trip, everything is great. They will tell you what you want to hear. Afterward when you need more information, no one can give you answers. They defer to the tour guide in that country. They hire the tour guide or company. They should know who they are hiring.

We took a riverboat cruise on the Monarch Empress in July 2022. We traveled from Budapest to Prague on the Danube river. The crew on the boat was superb, we had an incredible time. Every day we were entertained, provided exceptional service, and was treated like royalty. There is a concern about booking flights with Gate1, 2 members of our party booked with Gate1, and one short flight was canceled, Gate1 then canceled all of their flights, just 2 days before beginning their trip. I heard this happened to other passengers, my advice is not to book air travel with Gate 1 but I do highly recommend the riverboat cruise.

I traveled with Gate 1 before but they have become horrible. DO NOT MAKE RESERVATION WITH THEM, THEY ARE SCAM. I have made reservation for Colombia, the website says they confirm my reservation within 3-4 business days. It it 11 business days (almost two weeks) and I call them everyday and no good answer. I need to make my flight arrangements as flight rates are going up but they do not confirm my trip. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. I have bought insurance and they will not refund my insurance when I really want to go on this trip and it is their fault for not giving me a confirmation. EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED! They should be shutdown.

Just terrible.... not sure what happened to them. I've used them over a dozen times and the last couple of years it seems they have just completely gone off the rails. They recently sent me change to my flights that was simply not acceptable. 7 hour layover when I originally had a 2 hour lay over. The reason? They never paid for the the flights so the airline increased the prices. I had fully paid for the trip for 8 months, so they simply held on tho the money. When I reached out nothing but run around and pointing fingers . They even went as far as to say that it's my responsibility to tell them to pay for the flights. Then more run around. Started pointing me to T&Cs, then started blaming the airline. No ownership of the problem after their screw up. Also do not buy the insurance, it's useless. Once they have your money they do whatever they want and you have very little recourse.

I just came back from Galapagos trip Ecuador. I found out the hotels involved not honest they took my blue tooth earbud and my brother family lost some stuff too I can’t point out which hotel but I like yo mention to this review so the future people MUST BE CAREFULLY ABOUT UR BELONGINGS

Their service is degrading. Lately they offer you a 7 days tour, but in reality is 6 because day #7 is the flight back, at midnight or 1am. This happened on our last 2 trips. So on day #6 you have a very long day, because at night they drive you to the airport for the night flight and when you arrive at your country, you have spent around 24 hours without stop. Also because they buy the bulk seats for the tour with the airlines, every body in the plane from Gate1 is not seating with their relatives, so people are trying to change seats with others, to seat with their companion. The hotels they choose are fair for the price you're paying and the busses and tour guides are pretty good.

DON'T! JUST DON'T! AWFUL FOOD, AWFUL HOTELS. AWFUL SERVICE! DON'T DO IT! If I could give it ZERO I WOULD!

Experienced my first trip with Gate1 in April 2022. We traveled to the Galapagos, Ecuador & the Amazon (Discovery Tour). I have to say it was excellent & tour of a lifetime. Our guide
was very informative & fun. Gate1 has organization down pat. It was flawless especially getting to Galapagos! Whew what a trek.
Phones calls to gate1 were a little difficult but calls were always returned.
Exceptional Tour!

I did speak with Gate 1 representative and all of my issues have been resolved. Therefore, I am pleased to update my rating from 1 to 4 star due to the excellent service that I have received.

Gate 1 customer service sucks. Five hour wait for a return phone call. I had completed 8 trips with them in the past with no issues before 2019. My latest trip will be my last only using a credit from a trip they cancelled. Two weeks before I am leaving they inform me that I will have a 7 hour layover in Paris both coming and going to Morocco. I had paid extra for this flight to have minimal layover. They tell me after waiting 5 hours for a return phone call that there is a 600 dollar penility if I cancel this trip. This will be last trip with Gate 1 that suck

** I did speak with Gate 1 representative and all of my issues have been resolved. Therefore, I am pleased to update my rating from 3 to 5 star due to the excellent service that I have received.
There was an issue with phone calls not being received on my end.
So I was able to respond to my email and call the representive directly.

We are looking forward to our travels with Gate1 in January 2023

I, too, have had excellent travel experiences with Gate1 several times over the years. HOWEVER, I am due to travel in October, and am having no success contacting them in response to their emails over the past 2+ weeks that my flights have changed. I also have another concern that I just picked up going through the itinerary that is either an error or will be very inconvenient. I also noticed that they changed my hotel. No responses yet. The "Cancel for any Reason" coverage that I bought with the travel insurance gives only a limited credit on future travel with Gate1 good for two years. This is unlikely to be worth more than 50% of the cost of this trip. I have been a real booster of Gate1 in the past, but right now I'm unhappy with the lack of customer service and won't be recommending.