Review Time
Our experience was terrific! We were greeted at the airport by the tour manager Alex and taken to the hotel. Everything was so organized with time between tours for lunch or shopping. The hotels were nice too. We felt safe and cared for at all times. The tour guides were fantastic in each city giving us plenty of history without being boring. The bus driver Marco was excellent making sure our things were secured at all time. We will definitely use this tour company again.
No possible to reach the travel agents on phone. Hence, communication to the Gate1 travel agents is possible via emails only. By 3pm UK time on 18 Feb, I confirmed my request to change my flight, from 19Feb at 1:45am to another day. But no response has been received, although my response was within 30-40min since the agent's reply time.. I appreciate this was on Sunday, but a clear statement on working hours and limitation from the beginning would be helpful. It seems the value of the ticket is lost which is very unpleasant. This could be easily avoided if there was an opportunity to call to agree the change and pay the diff in tariff.
Hawai'i 9-day tour 02/14/2024 thru 02/21/204 was busy and organized perfectly. Tours were organized and efficient. The preset hotels Queen Kapiolani and King Kamehameha were clean and well maintained. Due to the Lahaina devastation, which was hard to view, our hotel upgrade was amazing and impressive on Maui. Charles "Kaleo" Degala, the singing tour guide, made the trip. His love of his home, knowledge of the islands and respect for the culture of Aloha made you feel as if you were family not just a guest. Guides like him are a rare gift for a traveler.
I will start with, We loved out Gate1 River Cruise in the Netherlands last year. Enough that we immediately booked an independent tour of Italy (They do transport, transfer, hotels and an overview tour and the rest is on our own) for this year. We have had a total different experience in the run up to this tour. Gate1 has not been a partner in the prep and planning of this trip - Glad to take the money, but not interested in helping reduce the stress and providing proper advanced planning. We continual ask for rail information so that we can plan and book the "independent" portion of out time in each city - and we get blah blah - 21 days prior back from them. They have had our money for almost a year and can't tell us when our trains depart. The Travel Document deadline originally posted for late December has passed and now conveniently rolls forward to "tomorrow" every morning when I check. I have called and messaged; everything I can think of and nothing - happy blah blah voices, no action. On Friday we received a note that our included Rome walking tour (of which we have received no prior information) would be starting 15 mins early because the tour operator has notified Gate1, "It's a busy time in Rome" NSS! That's why I need the information so I can book my independent tours and activities before they are full.We looked to Gate1 to make this an stress-free vacation - in this case their inaction and incompetence is causing nothing but stress, frustration, and regret. Fortunately, my friends to whom I had recommended Gate1, haven't yet booked. Very disappointed on this. Save your money on this style of trip - it's not their forteGateway, In reference to your boilerplate comment below, I have already contacted you several time with no response. So nice try but I just is not true that you want to “fix” it.Update: Still the same story now 21 days out and no useful information. Happy talk and apologies. I cannot make any further plans and I’ve lost all chance for 30 day discount pricing on activities. Gate1 has not made this stress-free. The response below is just for show. Believe me I didn’t start here to register my concerns, I ended up here.
No follow up as promised. I gave a bad review of Gate 1 last week due to the bad customer service (and significant financial loss) from a recent Gate 1 trip. They immediately responded that they were sorry to hear this and would pass my information on to customer service so they could make it right. It's a week later and I have heard absolutely nothing. It's obviously just an automated response to make people think they are taking care of it, when in fact, they are blowing their customer off. Never thought I'd say this, but stay clear of Gate 1.I checked with my agent and the last communication she had was 6 days ago when the Gate 1 agent said I would get my $600 deposit back and "only" a 90% cancellation fee instead of 100%. Not really "making it right" in my mind, but I'm done. We will take our final tour with Gate 1 this Aug. (our 8th) as it is already booked. They have lost my loyalty and trust.
I'm thankful to my sweetheart for choosing Gate1 small group discovery traveling SriLanka now.Our tour manager Heshan is the best in the industry, very knowledgeable practical and protective of our safety as the floods at Yala national parks we were lucky to have him arrange the safari and see all wildlife including wild elephants Leopards crocodile.He took extraordinary pleasure in arranging my birthday celebration with balloon and cake.
Here’s what you can expect from a Gate1 guide. My 2-week Sri Lanka tour was a series of mini-disasters. Worst tour guide I have ever experienced in my travels to more than 50 countries.My guide promised me that we would take a walk around the hotel property and disappeared. I waited for 1 hour, and he never returned. I later discovered that there was a wedding at the hotel at that time. He had been invited to the wedding and probably went to the wedding while I waited for 1 hour.He spent most of his time speaking in the microphone on the bus with his back turned to the passengers. His accent was not very clear so if you were thinking of lipreading to improve comprehension, you would be lost.Our guide was a last-minute expert on the Whispers—the audio system that the guide uses and each passenger has earphones. He would wait until we had arrived at a location and then announce that we needed the Whispers. Then everyone would dig to find them. A small delay that kept repeating itself. What about the option of telling us that we would be stopping in the next 5 minutes and that we would need our Whispers?His inefficiency rose to an all-time high as we were leaving the Temple of the Tooth Relic. He told us to walk to the bus. We walked past at least 10 tour company vehicles. At the end of the trail, we reached the intersection with the public road. But there was no bus. We all just stood there and wondered helplessly: “Where could the bus be?” One passenger called the tour guide. There was no response. Eventually the bus came. He was nowhere to be found. He never mentioned the inappropriate instruction (to walk to a non-existent bus), nor did he promise that it would not happen again. As for an apology! Never happened!Gate1 has a mandatory seat rotation policy. However, our guide allowed 2 of 22 passengers to sit in the same seats for the entire 12-day tour. Selective implementation of the policy! Who do you have to be to get preferential treatment?Our guide refused to share the duration of our drive. Many times, he would not even indicate where our next stop would be. Even after I explained to him that I had an unpredictable bladder, and needed to know the duration of the drive so that I could figure out how much water to drink, most of the time, he simply refused to say how many minutes we would be on the bus.Maximizing his kickbacks at our expenseOur guide was very focused on maximizing his kickbacks from our stops. He was more focused on making sure that we spent money at the sites than sharing his knowledge. On the drive from Yala National Park, one passenger asked about a pit stop. He responded by saying that we had another 30 minutes to go. His need to use a specific restaurant—the Chalet restaurant--(where he gets a kickback) was more important than finding a restroom. He repeatedly said that if we wanted a bathroom break, we should let him know. It sounded good, but he didn’t honor the request. On the second occasion when we called for a bathroom stop in Colombo, he did honor the request. When our guide told us about the stilt fishermen, he made it clear, on two separate occasions, that we needed to PAY the fishermen if we wanted to take a photo on the stilts. He was so adamant about the payment procedures that he forgot to tell us about the history of the stilt fishermen. I asked about the history and he shared it, but only because I had asked. I concluded that it is not that he is not knowledgeable, the problem is that he was so focused on maximizing his kickbacks from his selected sites that he placed the needs of passengers second to this kickback potential. What a shame!Generally, if you asked him a question, he would answer it. On the two occasions that I asked questions that he could not answer, he said that he would find out and let me know. He never did respond to me. My overall rating of our guide was 2/10. A good tour guide is knowledgeable and compassionate. Several passengers mentioned that he was, without doubt, at the bottom end of the tour guides that they had experienced. I found little comfort in this pattern. If the quality of Gate1 tour guides can vary so substantially, I will not be risking a second bad experience by taking another Gate1 tour. This is my second and last Gate1 tour.Gate1 has a serious Tour Guide Quality Control problem! Let the buyer beware!
A tour by Gate 1 Travel called Discover Northern France that was booked for March 2024 was cancelled because of a lack of enough reservations to make this tour viable. A Customer Resolution Specialist for Gate 1, Donna Young, notified me that I could get a refund, Gate 1 travel credit, or book this tour later in the year at no additional cost. I chose to book this tour later in the year. Donna did an excellent job of offering me alternative dates and I chose a date in the fall 2024. I wish to thank Gate 1 for the options offered to me and to Donna for the superb job in booking an alternative tour date.
Our guided tour experience was nothing short of phenomenal! Our tour guide - Zouhair A was an absolute gem, combining knowledge, passion, and a fantastic personality to make the excursion memorable. He navigated us through the sights effortlessly, providing intriguing historical and cultural insights at every turn. His storytelling skills were captivating, breathing life into the narratives of the places we visited. They managed the group skillfully, ensuring everyone felt engaged and included. The tour itself was well-organized, covering all the highlights while allowing enough time to absorb the surroundings. The attention to detail and the guide's commitment to making the experience enjoyable for everyone was commendable. Kudos to our Zouhair A tour guide and the team for delivering an enriching and delightful tour! Highly recommended for anyone seeking an enlightening and enjoyable exploration to North Africa and the Sahara desert .
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