Gate 1 TravelReviews of gate1travel.com

I just returned from the 7 Day Galapagos Express trip with Gate 1. In a nutshell, this trip kicked my senior citizen butt. It is very fast paced with a lot of walking. I walked more than 5 miles several times. The hiking is for VERY fit and experienced hikers on volcanic rock and uneven stones. The hotel in Baltra was nice but great for mountain goats. There were no elevators and some rooms were up three and four flights of curving stairs. Food and prices were decent. My son, a former Marine, had to rescue two people from drowning when the guide took them snorkeling. These were people with little or no experience in deep water and I questioned why the guide even allowed them to go. There is a lot of getting on and off small boats. I would recommend anyone over 60 or so to see the sights of the Galapagos on the Discovery Channel. I went in the first week in May and the weather was very hot, which made the walking even more tiring. The first day in Baltra we got off the flight and started our hike. We had been up since 4:00 am and the hike lasted until 5 or 6 so everyone was really tired. It's going to take me several days to recover from this trip.

There were at least 5 on the trip that I knew of that had or got COVID People were not masking and when the bus guide asked everyone to mask not all did COVID was/is horrible Why can’t people obey the rules I don’t know who had COVID but 4 of us had our shots and 3 boosters It was a great trip and met some great friends Guides were wonderful But don’t know if I’ll ever go again

My wife and I are moderate travelers and decided to book our first guided tour through Gate 1 based on the countries they covered. We booked the 13day Croatia, Slovenia, Venice tour and were very excited to visit all of these countries. Our initial flight into Europe from the U.S. was cancelled (not the fault of Gate 1) which put us behind 2 days into the tour. I will give Gate 1 credit in that they did everything possible to eventually reunite us with the our in progress tour. On the 6th day of the tour my wife who was fully vaccinated and boosted tested positive for covid in Dubrovnik Croatia. We did the right thing and notified our local tour operator and as expected were told we couldn't continue with the group. What was not expected was the total abandonment from Gate 1 management of us and our stranded travel situation in Croatia. During my wife's 5 days of required isolation in Dubrovnik, we received one phone call from Gate 1 management inquiring into her health and well being! They offered no assistance in getting us home, only stating if you can get to Venice, you may still use your booked return flight home. Good luck arranging travel from Dubrovnik to Venice. To keep this review brief, I will end with saying, yes we did eventually safely make it home but without any assistance from Gate 1 management. They never called to check on my wife's recovery (she did), never called or checked to see if we did indeed make it home and have never followed up. Be aware if you get Covid while traveling with Gate 1, buckle up for the unknown as it could be a nightmare. I can't end this review without taking the time to say how ever grateful we are to our local Gate 1 tour operator Ivona Ercegovic who went above and beyond to see that we not forgotten and left (literally) on the streets of Dubrovnick. Ivona called or texted everyday to check on Stacy's condition, found us a place to say while Stacy isolated and did her best to help in anyway to make the situation less difficult, all while continuing to lead the tour we had been on! She is a true asset for Gate 1 and we will forever be indebted to the assistance she provided. We would rate her a 5 out 5 on the short amount of time we got to enjoy her tour leadership and the assistance during our struggle to get home. Wish we could say the same for Gate 1 management. UPDATE: I must give Gate 1 credit as the head of their Customer Service Department reached out to address the concerns I voiced above. They stated they had a process in place for when a passenger gets covid and that this process was not followed completely. They stated their goal was to learn from the mistake and improve the process so it doesn't occur again. They did inquire as to my wife's health and were apologetic. The Gate 1 tour itself, was very well managed and covered some of the most beautiful country we had ever visited!

Gate 1 travel company has been great to work with. This time what was disappointing was the un- professional attitude of our tour guide, Desire, in the 11 day S Africa tour. She seemed to take no responsibility as part of the company, more like it was ‘their’ company. It was very surprising that she also made up nicknames for the male guests inappropriately,which can be very taboo according to some cultures. Thank goodness, the countries ,and the wildlife we visited did not disappoint.

Although we saw some fabulous sites we did have some issues with our 17 day trip to Egypt and Jordan. Our first guide was wonderful and had an unbelievable storehouse of knowledge, but perhaps too much as he frequently talked so long at a site that we had almost no time to explore on our own. Secondly we had 3 intermal flights that we had to get up at 4 am to catch and therefore were tired all that day. Our second tour guide did not carry a flag and it was very difficult to keep track of him when we were in large crowds. Finally we had an issue with lost luggage where our guide made us all wait for over 2 hours even though our hotel was only 10 minutes away.

A changed in their itinerary due to aiport closure made us traveled by bus for over 9 hours.

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.

I don't have a star rating for Gate1 Travel yet. They came highly recommended by family and we were very happy to book based on itinerary and price (Res #1975670). We are due to depart for South Africa soon and I can't get an agent to call/ email me about visa's, vaccinations or internal flight times so I can book transfers etc. I have filled out the online form several times over the last few months and tried to contact them via Instagram but haven't had a response. I've also called twice from Australia to be told that the wait time is over 2 hours and no one called me back when I left my number. I'm starting to get very nervous about this entire trip, we are traveling with kids and need confirmation that this is a reliable company. I can see other reviewers get a response here and I'm hoping I'll get the same. Can an agent please email me asap?