Gate 1 Travel

We had a fabulous tour starting with three days in Amsterdam, a fourteen day river cruise on Rhine and Danube to Budapest and a final three days there. Hotels were great, boat and staff fantastic and tours couldn’t have been better. We had so much fun we booked two more tours with Gate 1.

This is the first time I booked a trip to Spain with gate1. It is my first time traveling alone with Gate1. They were so thorough and professional. the tour guide Joseph was excellent.

From the moment we landed till the day we departed, everything was right. There was, as advertised, a Gate 1 rep to meet us at the airport. On the way to the hotel, we met our Gate 1 tour guide Paulie. He was a former teacher and native of Iceland. For us he was perfect. Smart, interesting and fun but not in a cheesy way. No games or sing-a-longs. I liked that we had the same guide for all of our excursions.
We took the City tour, the Golden Circle, South Shore trip, Blue Lagoon and Northern Lights tour while in Iceland. The only one that was not with Paulie was Northern Lights tour. All were interesting and allowed us to see different parts of this beautiful country in comfortable motor coaches.
We stayed at the Hotel Cabin. It was a bit dated but clean and run very efficiently. Breakfast was included with the Gate 1 package. A cold buffet with a limited selection but good to start the day. The hotel also had a lunch and dinner buffet available for an extra charge. Caroline at reception was so friendly under a lot of pressure from guests that were not always nice. Caroline is an asset to the Hotel Cabin.
If you have done any research on Iceland, you may have heard it is quite expensive. I will wholeheartedly agree.
Examples-
1 can of beer $10.00
1 can of soda $8.00
disposable lighter $6.00
coffee cup (souvenir) $22.00
Christmas ornament-$27.00
key chain $10.00
bag of chips $9.00
on and on
This is not Gate 1 or the hotels fault. Most things in this country are imported. Bring snacks from home. You'll be glad you did.
Recommend? Absolutely!
I would like to go back someday in the summer and see Iceland in a different way.

Gate 1 did a great tour of Peru, until the Hurricane created a snag. After that it was 4 days of phone calls and rearranging reservations. It took me 4 different customer service representatives until someone would actually help us get back home. Gate 1 and Latam Airline just kept blaming each other while meanwhile our tour director left and we were stuck in Lima. Gate 1 seemed to be under the impression the tour director would help us, and the tour director continued to state that he was not allowed to help us at all in any way with our flights or connections or bookings.

I will say that the trip was great up until that point, and eventually Gate 1 did get my family and I home. I will however never forget the more than 15 hours I spent on the phone over the course of 4 days to make it happen, not to mention the exhaustion and stress of worrying and not knowing anything.

Many others in our group had previous and satisfactory relationships with Gate 1 travel, but in the end most of them had to pay to fly themselves home, and our family was the only one who stuck it out on the phone with them trying to find solutions instead of having to drop an additional 6K on plane tickets to get us home. The final customer service agent I finally spoke to seemed to be surprised that we were still stuck in Lima 3 days later.

In any case, I have serious mixed feelings about this company, but just in case, book all your own air travel so you have some control. The most common things I kept hearing from the airline and the Gate 1 agents were, "I'm sorry but there is nothing we can do for you." and in hilarity from a couple agents "we can't do that much about it, we are just travel agents." A special shout out to the wonderful woman in the Gate 1 air department that finally got us home and handled me sobbing on the phone that I was worried we would all lose our jobs with calm and serenity. She became my angel.

I don't ever want to feel that helpless when out of the country ever again. From now on my air travel will only ever be booked through delta or travelocity.

My wife and I just returned from a 14 day Italy tour with Gate 1 for our 25th anniversary. It was our 1st time using them, and 1st escorted tour as well. We typically travel on our own and I was very skeptical of having someone else herd us around for 2 weeks, as I tend to always think I can do better on my own. Well, I was wrong! The entire experience was wonderful. We landed in Milan, spent 2 nights in Lake Como, 2 nights in Venice, 2 nights in Florence, then 3 nights in Rome and finally Sorrento. Our "luxury motor coach" was a really nice tour bus that was comfortable and well equipped. After seeing the chaos of driving in Italy (viral Vespas) I was very glad to leave all the driving to someone else and save my blood pressure. The Tour leader (Michela) was amazing. She was very knowledgeable and prepared, kept us very organized, but never rushed. The accommodations were great, nice hotels, king size beds, centrally located and nice and clean. We ended up doing all their optional tours. After seeing the quality of the local tour guides Gate 1 employs, we quickly realized we would have missed so much if we had attempted this on our own. We could have seen the same things, but the narrative from someone who was so knowledgeable and passionate about venues, we understood so much more about the subject, time period and the artists. We didn't have to wait on long lines at venues with the "condemned" like the Sistine Chapel or the Coliseum. We had wonderful meals in Tuscany at vineyards, a fun interactive dinner opera show (I hate opera), and they went out of the way to make us feel special on our actual anniversary. I look forward to using them again and recommending them to our friends and relatives. They won't be our choice for every destination vacation, but for any visit where we want to do a lot of sight seeing, and especially in a country that is not English speaking, they will be our 1st stop.

We had the best time. We saw sooooo much. Everything was perfect and well communicated about what we would see and do. The tour guide was so informed and gave us great info. Loved it. So maybe next year London or Ireland!

I just recently retired from the military after 33 years of service and as a token of my appreciation to my amazing wife I booked us a 8 day Italy tour as she had always wanted to go to Italy. I booked the tour online in Sept 15 through the Gate 1 website which was pretty easy to do. Once I was paid in full all the arrangements were made to include the airline tickets and attaching my FF number to it with the exception of picking the seats. No worries would go onto the airlines site later and pick the seats. Fast forward to 18 Jan, I received a call from Karen in customer service saying that the Vatican Museum would be closed on the last part of our tour. She then asked if we would be willing to extend for the 9 day tour in which we would get the Coliseum tour on that Monday and tour the Vatican Museum on that Tuesday and then head home the next day from Rome. Being apprehensive I inquired as to what would the additional cost be. Karen conveyed, "No additional cost." Inside I said, "Bonus Plan!" I then told Karen we will stay an additional day if there is no additional charge. She conveyed that she had researched our current return flight would give us a 5 hour lay over in Denver but if we switched airlines and went with Delta we would get to Venice by 9am instead of 2pm and leave Rome at 12 noon instead of 9:50 am. On the return flight one stop in Atlanta back to home at the same time. We still agreed on the flight changes with the wife and I was so excited to stay an additional day. On the 19th, I went on to Delta and located our trip and attached my FF# and was able to upgrade my seats for an additional cost but wanted to make this a special trip for my wife who had put up with my numerous military deployments. I have not seen one bad review for Italy so this makes us more excited to take this trip on the 16 Feb 2016. I will make an additional post on how the flight and trip went. Keeping our fingers crossed. Customer Service is AAA+++ thus far.

I came back a whole new person. My friend and I just returned from our trip to Peru and it was a magical experience. Thanks to our tour manager Ronald and to all the other tour guides Alberto, Eliseo, the lady from Lima and our very efficient driver Jorge. This was my 3rd time signing up for a group tour but first time with Gate1. The service and amenities are far beyond my expectations. My friend got sick due to the high altitude and other factors we still don't know and Ronald was there to make sure she's ok, to the extent that he has to send someone to get medicine for her. The tour guides are very knowledgeable and efficient and their approach is far from being boring they had my attention all throughout the tour. It was very organized and very professional I won't hesitate to sign up with Gate1 once again. Just keep those discounts flowing!

We just returned from double firsts- a trip to China & traveling with Gate 1 (14 Day China w/4 Day Yangtze River Cruise, Sept. 5-18). As retired educators, we have been on several tours in Europe & Australia, some with students. We thought this was an amazing experience! We were completely satisfied with the incredible sights on our itinerary, excellent accommodations, delicious food, & supreme service; this Gate 1 trip is a very good value! We just can’t say enough about our remarkable tour manger, Ivy, who also served as our local guide for most of the trip. Her capabilities, competency, & professionalism are unsurpassed! She was attentive 24-7, adding many personal, extra touches along the way, such as gifting all 25 in our group with our names she drew in calligraphy herself, & arranging a service of Longevity Soup on my birthday. She also went above & beyond for us personally on more than 1 occasion, & I know directly that she did the same for many others in our tour group. She spoke knowledgeably, eloquently, & passionately of the sights, history, language, & people we encountered, adding personal stories about her family life in Xian, & peppering it all with her delightful sense of humor. She truly made us feel like family & friends! Clearly, she loves what she does! We will always treasure the insights & appreciation we gained from Ivy & hope China & Gate 1 know what a treasure they have in her; She is a fabulous ambassador for her country & Gate 1! Without hesitancy, we whole-heartedly recommend Gate 1 & this trip… may you be fortunate enough to tour with Ivy!

Came back from the 8 day Dubai and Abu Dhabi tour and we just loved it! It was all thanks to our worderful, funny, very knowledgeable tour guide Attia (Tito). Through his insight of the city coupled with the tours we walked away with so much knowledge, appreciation, and respect for the United Arab Emirates especially the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi.

We were so happy with the tour guide and accommodations that mid-way during the tour we were planning our next Gate 1 tour. (Please resume travel to Egypt!!)
I think the tour would have been good without Tito but with him he took the tour up to the phenomenal level. His insight on the culture made the tour far more enriching. It also lended the tour more credibility. By having a local who lives and knows about the culture firsthand gave us an insider's glimpse into the culture and country.

This trip was also special because it was my best friend's first time abroad. This tour set the bar high when it comes to international travel. Thank you so much for the memories and we will be back.

BUYER BEWARE!!!!!

I don't know about the other people posting these reviews but a "Great Trip" is the farthest thing from the experience we had with Gate 1 Travel.

We also knew that we were getting an amazing deal to fly to Italy for 8 days but it was the WORST experience of our lives!!!! Every aspect of our trip that was associated with Gate 1 Travel was absolutely AWFUL!!!! This was supposed to be a dream vacation for my son, who has wanted to see Italy since he was 6 and is now almost 17. We purchased out trip in early March and traveled in mid Sept. The flight was fine but upon arrival to Milan where we picked up our rental car we started realizing that Gate 1 had done a "Bait and Switch" for just about every aspect of the trip starting with the rental car and getting worse from there. The rental car was supposed to be a "Fiat or similar" although we ended up with some brand I have never heard or, a wagon of sorts that rumbled and sounded like it was going to die on us every time we drove! The Hotels were the WORST hotels we had EVER stayed and at, and I have stayed in hostels in 3rd world countries like Guatemala that look like the Hilton compared to the San Marco. Literally the WORST hotel ever! The minute I saw our room I was creeped out and went to the front desk to show them the pictures we had seen on Gate 1 and complained that our room was NOTHING like pictured, the hotel was NOTHING like pictured! They said sorry but they were full, not offering accommodations at their sister resort a block away or anything, even though I had booked my trip 6 months earlier! I then went to our room and contacted Gate 1, letting them know how bad our room was. Their response was basically "sorry we book packages and there is nothing we can do for you"! That has been their response, if I get one, every time I have contacted them about this AWFUL trip. We stayed 2 nights to try and make it better and make sure we were not overacting, asking for a few extra pillows to help make the bed a bit more comfortable. When we woke on the 2nd morning after barely sleeping because the bed was so uncomfortable and dirty, my son and I were completely covered in bug bites!!! We got up, showered and left the hotel to go stay elsewhere.

The entire trip associated with Gate 1 was literally the worst experience of mine and my son's life and I am not exaggerating. He had so badly wanted to see Italy and experience everything the country has to offer but thanks to Gate 1 and the worst experience EVER, we will never return to Italy and I will NEVER deal with this company again.

If you are even considering booking with them, I would NOT!!!!

I have traveled all over the world and you can definitely find better ways to travel on your own than through this awful company or you too could end up miserable in a foreign country with absolutely no help from the company who was super helpful when it was time to pay then is absent when you have questions or need help.

DO NOT BOOK WITH GATE 1 and feel free to contact me if you have questions as there is so much more that was bad and that the company failed to provide.

Good Luck

I booked the Portugal – Spain vacation as a high school graduation present for my son. The trip was scheduled June 8 - 22 and it was purchased for the two (2) of us for over $7,000 with Gate 1 Travel. With the exception of Fatima Burgarin, Travel Director, the trip was good. Fatima failed miserably in providing exceptional customer service and she failed miserably in regional cultural sensitivity.

On the last night, during the farewell dinner, she proposed a Champaign toast. She said, “Iny Meany My Nemo, catch a “N” (The “N” word used to describe Black People/African – Americans) by his toe; if he squeals, let him go, Eny, meeny, miney, moe.” This is the racist version of the nursery rhyme. As our glasses were suspended in the air, I was in disbelief, hurt, confused, and embarrassed. My son and I were the only African-Americans among 40 phenomenal travelers. The lady sitting next to me who has a bi-racial daughter said, “Did she say what I thought she said? I responded yes, she did!”

The issue wasn’t that my son and I were the only African-Americans on the trip; however, the issue was that I didn’t pay $7,000+ dollars to have a representative of Gate 1 to disassemble my entire experience with her lack of regional cultural sensitivity. The cultural insensitivity experienced caused me to have to console my son and to counsel him on the ignorance and embarrassment that was projected on him by Fatima’s remarks.

Upon our return, I went through the chain of command and wrote the Karina Avesian, Reservationist. She referred the complaint to Customer Service. After receiving an e-mail from Anne S., Customer Service, I wrote and submitted the complaint. One week passed and I didn’t receive any feedback, so I inquired about the status of the complaint. Days went buy and they said they are still looking into it. One week passed, and I requested to speak with the Customer Service Manager. I received a notice from Ann with an offer of $100.00 as a goodwill gesture for us being subjected to hearing the word “N” towards a future trip within the calendar year of 2017.

After receiving the e-mail from Anne, I then sent another e-mail. The e-mail stated, “I requested to speak with a manager, which was not granted. I will not accept $100.00 towards another trip. This further adds insult to the injury!” Days went by and I received a telephone call from Caitlin Spindler, Customer Service Manager, telling me that they apologize and can’t take back what was said by Fatima. I told her that the $100.00 goodwill gesture further adds insult to the wound. She then asked me to tell her what I wanted. I told her that they are a mega conglomerate company, and they needed to resolve the situation and to make it right for my son and me. We didn’t ask to be insulted while traveling with Gate 1 Travel. I didn’t pay $7,000+ dollars to have my vacation ruined by Fatima Burgarin, Travel Director.

I sent a letter along with the e-mails to Dani P., President and Marty S., Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Over two (2) weeks went by before I received a response. An e-mail was received from Caitlin S., Customer Service Manager, pretty much re-stating was stated before. There was no resolve to this issue.

I will not recommend this company to anyone because they failed in providing exceptional customer services from the President down Customer Service when we needed them the most. You never know the potential of a company until you are met with a challenging experiences, like this one.

What we experienced changed the course of our vacation. To-date, we are still hurt and having extensive discussions on the matter. Apparently, Gate 1 Travel doesn’t provide regional cultural sensitivity training to the Travel Directors or exceptional customer service training. It’s apparent to me that they are not equipped to handle or be accountable when areas, like what we experienced, are breached. As a mother, I could not allow this experience to go undocumented and allowed my son to see what I wrote and the feedback received to allow him to see how some corporations can fail you, the customer, miserably as Gate 1 Travel has failed us on so many levels.

I decided not to go the legal route and to allow the public seeking reviews about Gate 1 Travel to hear my story and to make an informed decision prior to booking with the company. I have all of the e-mails and the letters sent to the Presidents to support this very toxic experience.
The question I have is how would you have handled the situation? How do you think that Gate 1 Travel should have handled the situation? How do you think that Gate 1 Travel should have compensated us?

We have traveled with Gate1 on four different occasions and have referred many friends to Gate1 as well all of whom shared an equally good time. HOWEVER on a recent Rhine River cruise it was the trip from hell. A disaster in every sense of the word.
After spending two delightful days in Lucerne we were to board the Sound of Music in Basel. While on the bus we were told that because of a high water level in the river we would bypass Basel and board in Breisach which would have been our first stop. We spent the night there and the next morning the water level was again too high so we boarded the dreaded bus and headed to Strasbourg to tour the town. The water level subsided a bit during the day the ship sailed to Strasbourg where we boarded with the hope of sailing that evening.
The next morning we were told to pack all or our belongings and that the remainder of the trip would be via that dreaded bus again. There were no other options available to us. We were stuck with a bus tour after having paid for a river cruise. Believe me there is no comparison.
Every morning up early to put our bags out (some days we had to load our own bags), a quick bite at a very average buffet (not the same as the ships fare), onto the bus where we spent at least six hours every day.
While we did visit every city on the itinerary everybody was exhausted after all that time on the bus.
Other cruise companies (Viking, Avalon, etc) had other options available to the customers, Avalon credited everybody with 50% for each day they couldn’t sale. Both Viking and Avalon had other ships they sent up stream to where they transported their customers, boarded those ships and continued the river cruise. Gate1 has no other options available.
Upon our return I (and many others) have requested some form of credit. I asked the 50% of the "cruise only" portion be credited to my account for a future cruise of trip. After nearly two months of asking for somebody in upper management to please at least respond a customer service supervisor said they we credit us with$200 "Goodwill Credit".
While I understand they are not legally obligated to refund anything due to the "fine print" I do question their judgment about how they treat loyal customers. $200! Really! And it must be used within 1 year.
For us and many others this was to be an incredible vacation. I was the trip from Hell.
Gate1 has always come through when things go well. But the measure of a good company is how they respond when things don’t go as planned.
If you are planning a river cruise please keep in mind that this type of thing happens occasionally and Gate1 has fewer options available to them. We could have spent a bit more and had a better outcome.
I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes. I simple want to share our experience just like we have on previous trips which were wonderful.

My mom and I just returned from out first international mother-daughter adventure to Machu Picchu and could not be more satisfied with the tour. It is difficult to find the right words to describe such an amazing experience, but I'll try.
First, the price was highly competitive, considering that it included four plane tickets, train rides, two different hotels, and our very own Gate 1 bus that drove us everywhere. Our tour guide, Luis Gonzales, was so amazing... Extremely knowledgeable, sweet, caring... He shared his wonderful hometown of Cusco with us in a way that we'll always hold close to our hearts. I'll also need to mention our super bus driver Dante, and the tour guide helper Berlisa who was always with us as well; they also played a big part in making our trip so excellent. Gate 1 makes it so easy... Everything is prepared and planned for you every step of the way; they guide you from the moment you land in Lima, hand you everything you need, all bus tickets, train tickets, plane tickets, even provide you with bottled water! They tell you all the hows, whens, and wheres.
The hotels are magical. The Inkallpa Valle Sagrado is like a surrealistic dream, with its terrace rock gardens and mountains all around, and the San Agustin International in Cusco is just so beautiful in its rustic and heartwarming atmosphere. All breakfasts are included, and they are splendid! The first night dinner is included as well, in a beautiful, elegant restaurant with live Andean themed music. All the hotel staff was amazing as well, exceeding expectations. The Machu Picchu visit... Well... too fantastic to tell, you NEED to experience it for yourselves.
The Cusco people are so well-mannered in general, even the most humble. Peru is not a first world country and you will see it as they take you from one place to the next, but it's part of the experience and I appreciate being able to see that part of the country from all sides. And then, the cherry on the top, to say good-bye they gathered the group at the hotel's auditorium right before it's time to leave, and made a toast with red wine thanking us for our visit. That just plain almost made me want to cry; it was such a sweet detail!
We will never forget our wonderful tour guide Luis Gonzales. We highly recommend this tour to anyone, from the bottom of our hearts.

We traveled with Gate 1 to Greece June 23 - July 6 on a 13 day Independent tour that included Crete, Santorini, Mykonos & Athens for our honeymoon. Our experience with one of the hotels was not positive and no one at Gate 1 seems to want to do the right thing and/or provide a meaningful resolution.

Our hotel on Mykonos was just awful. We were told that the insects that we experienced in our room during our stay were " a common occurrence" on the island and at the hotel. The hotel description indicated that the property we chose would be 100 yards away from the beach. It was not. In fact, it was on the complete opposite side from any of the beaches on Mykonos. We asked repeatedly to be transferred to another property and were told that would not be possible without paying for another room/booking.

What should have been a once in a lifetime, wonderful trip was instead a stressful, dirty and unsettling one. We have had several communications with "customer service" and their solution was to offer us $150 credit to use before December 31, 2016. I'm sorry if that doesn't sound like fair compensation for an inaccurate hotel description and a bug-filled room for three nights! We spent THOUSANDS to go on this trip and I highly doubt that we will be able to afford another Gate 1 trip before 12/31/16.

I know others have had positive experiences, including my parents, with Gate 1, but our experience has been the opposite. Perhaps it's the itinerary?

I do hope, however, that this post prompts someone in customer service to respond to my email that was sent a week ago without response. Customer Service is supposed to be there to help resolve issues as well as help with the fun things like booking a vacation. I think Gate 1 needs to be reminded of that.