Just return from Gate 1 Travel - 11 Day Kaleidoscope of Iceland. The trip was horrible! The tour guide was unorganized, lazy, making up excuses all the time and put our lives in danger and the driver was totally incompetent. Day 1: According to Gate 1 itinerary, when we arrived in the hotel and we suppose to meet together for breakfast. There was no signage at all as where should we all go and the tour guide was nowhere to be found. Many of us ended up paying extra for the hotel breakfast which is US$30+ because we thought we need to meet the tour guide inside the restaurant. Until much later then we discovered that the breakfast was arranged in the basement of the hotel. Again, there was NOT any signage to tell us where to go. It was a mess right from the beginning. Afternoon the itinerary includes a stop at the viewing of the Perlan and the Sun Voyager sculpture, but the tour guide never did. The weather wasn’t an issue. He even insulted us on the bus saying that you guys didn’t even notice sightseeing places were missing, haha. We noticed alright, just didn’t say anything. In the welcome drink, the tour guide passed around a few papers and told us to take a photo which is our daily itinerary. A lady in our tour asked him about itinerary next day and the guide responded in a condescending manner “What did I tell you yesterday? You are not a child.” and never answered her question. He was constantly talking to us in a condescending tone of voice. By the way there is no daily itinerary posting in the hotel lobby like all other Gate 1 tours that I have joined before. Day 2, we all noticed a few people looked and sounded very sick with heavy coughing and a few of us spoke to tour guide privately with our concerns, told the guide to tell them to put on a mask in the bus or covid testing but he did nothing. He announced on the bus in our very last day, if anyone not feeling well, please put on a mask. It was kind of late after we stayed together in a very tight space for the last 9 days especially on the bus. We are fully vaccinated and stay healthy all these times since covid hits but sadly we got home and tested, we got covid and all because Gate 1 Travel has no covid guideline in place and the guide was extremely irresponsible. We are really suffering now because of contracting Covid in this tour! Day 5, the tour guide drove the bus with us in it and did that more than once even in the dark. He is our tour guide and by doing so, I think he had put 40+ lives in danger which is totally unacceptable. His excuse was that “boy needs to play with big bus sometimes”. Maybe that is how he felt but that is not how we feel. He has put our lives in danger! Also the female driver should never allow him to do so. Both are being irresponsible and this is a critical incident of concern. Day 7, the tour guide skipped our scheduled sightseeing and meals without consulting us. We sat in the hotel lobby all day with very little information. It was a horrible and exhausting day for us. Way past the boarding time for the bus departure in the morning and the bus doors were still locked. No information provided as what is going on. The tour guide decided at 3:30 pm it is time to go so we board the bus and were on our way. When we checked in to the hotel, the guide said delay was due to the weather, but the people in the hotel also gave a questionable look. We didn’t arrive our next hotel till midnight. Hotel in Hofn was dirty. In our room there was disgusting mucous snots on the wall, hairs on fresh towel, mold on bathroom wall and the dinner wasn’t good. Mentioned the problem to the front desk next day and they did clean up the snots. Both the tour guide and the driver refused to answer basic questions. For example: I asked the driver that where are we going next and how long the drive will be? The driver replied: I know where are we going but I am not going to tell you so you will be excited when we get there. I asked again: I really want to know where are we going next and I will pretend that I am excited when we get there. The driver replied: I know where we are going but I won’t tell you so you will be very excited when we get there. I got nowhere with her which was very frustrating. I think I am entitled to know where am I going in the trip! There were 40 passengers in the bus and I don’t know why we weren’t allowed to use the front door to get on to the bus especially when the weather was bad. Even when we knock on the door, the guide and the driver will point us to the back door while they were sitting and chatting comfortably in their own seats.Joined many tours before from different tour companies. This time is the first time ever that we have had encountered such horrible and unprofessional tour guide and bus driver. We are extremely disappointed with Gate 1 Travel.
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