Review Time
After reading some of the negative reviews on Gate1 Travel, I decided to write. I’m a Canadian and have travelled with several other tour operators to dozens of countries and to all continents over the years and kept coming back to Gate 1. This company is of high standing, very professional with excellent customer service. I choose not to major on the nitty-gritty imperfections if any but focus on the important things that allows the tour to run smoothly like tour Manager top-notch communication skills, a good sense of humor, punctuality, and impeccable time management, contingency plans if a situation comes up and to arrange all travel related needs and wants from start to finish. I have travelled Gate 1 Classic (38 persons max) and small group discovery (22 persons max). The small group is well worth the extra money, hands down. We arrived home this week from Peru with the Amazon extension and will give it 5 stars. We had 4 internal flights and never had to worry about hauling our luggage. Checked luggage are always handled by Gate1, from hotel to airport (s) and then to final hotel room destination. This is a great benefit which I love. When possible, our tour Manager will have our boarding passes ready for airline check in ahead of time and our hotels check in process is a breeze. This can be a nightmare with some other tour operators (speaking from experience- yikes!). Another bonus, Gate 1 offers is great hotel accommodations in key locations where we can walk to restaurants/stores/attractions etc. Believe me, this can be a great benefit. It’s a treat after some long “tour and site seeing days” to come back to quality and nicer accommodations which is why my husband and I usually book pre and post stays at Gate 1 prices offered.
I was very surprised to see all the negative feedback. It is true that the Tour Manager makes all the difference on these kind of tours and ours have always been exceptional. We have done Italy, Spain, and SE Asia and have loved everyone of them. We are not old and feeble so maybe that has something to do with it because Gate1 does make sure you see everything on the itinerary and you get your monies worth, which what we like. Our last tour manager was Tim for the SE Asia trip and she was amazing, in fact we are still in touch because we have become friends. From our view they keep getting better and better and we would recommend Gate1 highly.PS ask for TIM if you go to SE Asia won't be disappointed.
I’ve traveled quite a bit and this trip to Costa Rica with Gate1 has been so far the best! This is the first time I book with them. It is very well organized, Gerardo, the tour guide was very knowledgeable and fun to travel with. The stay in Tortuguero was a great experience I will never forget. The Hot Springs was a beautiful place.The hotels that were chosen for us were terrific. The restaurants we were taken were fabulous. I will definitely book more trips with Gate1 without a doubt.
Great company with well-organized tours but the insurance company they route all Travel Insurance through—Arch Insurance—has terrible reviews and does everything to avoid paying claims. I had a trip scheduled to Mexico in March 2024–and paid for. I had to cancel my Gate 1 trip because I was hospitalized for 11 days after I flew a long airplane flight from Ireland. At the time I booked the Gate 1 trip I was well. I suffered from acute pulmonary embolisms from the long flight. Arch insurance only paid out $300 on my well documented claim. I am a retired lawyer and know how to fill out and document claims. Their denial was flagrant. Getting only $300 back made it a complete waste of time to file the claim. If 11 days with acute pulmonary embolisms preventing me from future plane trips is not justification, what is? Never ever accept Arch. Find another provider.
The 8 day Tour of Spain was well organized, good hotel rooms and services . Our tour guide Rosemary capably led some great tours.We took a two hours in Alhambra which for me was the highlight of this tour.The only issue for me was that the return flights were far too long. Madrid,Amsterdam,JFK and then to Toronto.I will consider future tours with Gate1
I was in a vehicle accident while on safari with Gate 1 in India last month. I was in the passenger seat of a large safari truck when a faulty door unexpectedly opened on the moving vehicle causing me to fall out backwards and hit my back and my head on surrounding rocks where I was knocked unconscious.I was taken to the emergency room by our tour guide because of the injuries to my head and my back. I was given pain medication (no diagnostics were done) and luckily my friend had brought her cane with her which I was forced to use for the remainder of the trip. My headaches and severe back pain continued until I was forced to go to the emergency room again. This time they gave me a shot in the back for my pain and pain meds, but again, no diagnostics.Severe back pain and headaches continued throughout the remainder of the trip making it difficult to keep up. When I returned home, I went to the emergency room where I had a CAT Scan and was given additional medication and lidocaine patches for the pain. Upon seeing my back surgeon following the ER visit it was decided that I needed major back surgery. The fall had exasperated my existing condition. The surgery was scheduled for 7 May.Upon scheduling the surgery, I contacted Gate 1 immediately to follow up on my accident and let them know of the planned surgery. (I assumed the accident had already been reported by the trip leader.) The surgery conflicted with another Gate 1 trip I had planned for Jordan on 7 May (the date of my surgery). Per my surgeon, and my inability to walk, I requested the trip be postponed to the fall. They outright refused. I then asked to speak to a supervisor who also refused my request. Mind you, I wasn’t asking to cancel the trip, just postpone the trip!I finally received an e-mail from an individual at Reservations: Support who also refused to postpone my trip. They said I needed to pay the 50% penalty fee since I “decided” to cancel. Once again, the ONLY reason I canceled was due to an accident that happened due to a faulty door on their trip!!! I found the entire interaction with Gate 1 beyond frustrating. India was my 10th trip with Gate 1. To add insult to injury, I was also in a vehicle accident on a Gate 1 tour when I was on a Kenya and Tanzania safari in the fall of 2022. Gate 1 was “so generous” for that inconvenience and my pain and suffering that they gave me $100. No apology.The lack of concern, assistance, and understanding from Gate 1 is appalling, especially considering this was my second major accident caused by Gate 1’s negligence in a two-year period. I will certainly be rethinking my use of Gate 1 as a tour company in the future. Maybe you should too.
3/22/24 Follow up I received a TC from Shannon Daugherty from Gate 1Travel. She informed me that my Turkish Airline tickets should and will be fully refunded. Shannon is working with me and was respectful as well as helpful. I was instructed to submit a claim to Gate 1Travel Insurance. If denied Gate 1 specifically Shannon will work with me to reschedule my trip next year without losing all my money. I will update this review once I have I have been reimbursed for my tickets and exactly what Gate 1 does regarding the tour!
After reading all the negative reviews I decide to not go ahead and confirm the Baltic trip I had hoped to do with Gate 1 Travel. No way do I want to get stuck someplace with no help from the tour company. Glad I decided to read reviews before clicking the "Book" button.
My husband and I have taken many trips with Gate 1 but something with the company has changed and I do not recommend travelling with them now. We travelled on their Japan, Then and Now Discovery trip in March and there were so many problems–some with the itinerary and some with the Tour Manager. Many of the activities were unnecessary or badly timed. I never got to see the “NOW” in Tokyo or any other city. Plenty of “Then” as we constantly travelled outside the cities to see gardens that weren’t blooming or another shrine that was never explained why it was important. The food on the trip was terrible, whether it was a group dinner or a food court in a train station. Some of the hotel rooms were so small there was no room to open a suitcase. It was a Discovery trip but nothing was special about it. It was a lot of money for what we got and we will not with travel with Gate 1 again.
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