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Reviews 358
L.Wagner
Dec 01,2022My 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!
Durriya Khambaty
Nov 16,2022Gate 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.
Richard
Nov 12,2022Hi fellow travelers, I normally do not write reviews unless something occurred that is of an extraordinary nature. This is one of those times I feel compelled to write about Gate 1 Travel, in particular one of its agents named Claudia Rodriguez who completely went out of her way to assist me with my upcoming Rhine River cruise. You see, at the time of booking, there was only one departure/arrival airport available (NYC) and since we live in Las Vegas, I spent much time trying to book/coordinate our flights to/from NYC so that we could connect with the international flights. Due to the international flights' early departure/late arrival times in NYC, we would need to spend a day (both ways) in a hotel in NYC as there was nothing early/late enough that would otherwise allow us to connect with the overseas flights. I called this morning and was connected to Ms. Rodriguez. This lady absolutely made our day by patiently going through her system and taking much more time than necessary but ultimately finding an option for us to fly from Las Vegas to/from Amsterdam and Basil. Moreover, she was able to find us a fare that upgraded us to premium economy which is cheaper than the cost of our round-trip flights to/from NYC. Additionally, we would not need to spend time and money for two extra days in a hotel in NYC!! Imagine this...more comfortable flying in premium economy, less hassle in checking in/out of hotels, saved two days and much more economical overall!! This does not happen often! Ms. Rodriguez helped us tirelessly, patiently, compassionately and with an upmost professional attitude! Because of her, Gate 1 absolutely and unequivocally earned my trust and continued business. This company is lucky to have someone like Ms. Rodriguez working for them. Cudos to Gate 1 and Ms. Rodriguez!! Thank you so much.
Jenny
Nov 02,2022I booked the trip from Chicago to UK with Gate 1 travel on 5/12/22 as a reward for my graduation. I paid $3859.25 for the whole package including airline ticket (Chicago to London), hotels and other additional activities. Since then, I received several emails from Gate 1 informing me everything was confirmed. In early June (less than 1 month before departure), I logged onto Gate 1 site to check all the items included in the itinerary, and I found a credit of $1300 posted on my account. I called customer service and was told “everything’s alright, just some final details need to be finalized, then you are good to go.” Several days later, the $1300 credit was still there and Gate 1 kept sending me pre departure documentations in the meantime. Absolutely nothing suggested that things went wrong with my trip. However, I still decided to call the customer service to double check. This time was a different representative, who informed me that, hotels and everything else were confirmed and paid. However, they DID NOT BOOK MY AIR TICKET from Chicago to London. That’s where the $1300 credit was from!!! They suggested me to either buy a ticket myself, or just cancel the trip. At that time, it was only 2 weeks from the departure, the international flight ticket was over 5000 dollars. Apparently I could not afford that. They then told me the only option I had was to cancel the trip and get 10% of refund (which is only $255.92) because the cancellation occurred within 1 month from the departure. So I requested a full refund, which they rejected. From the time I booked the trip till the moment I had to cancel my trip, no one ever called me informing me that they did not book the ticket. Even when I called them to specially inquire that $1300 credit, they told me everything looked fine. If they had told me that over 1 month prior to the departure, I can get more refund. THIS IS TOTALLY GATE 1’s fault but they refused to refund the remaining $2303.33. They took that money from me and I was not able to go anywhere for my graduation trip. I have phone recording with their customer service, which was horrible. They kept telling me the manager/supervisor would call me back, but they never did. Gate 1 is totally horrible! Totally unorganized!! Totally irresponsible for their customers. This was the worst experience ever!!!
Richard Frothingham
Oct 29,2022Although 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.
Richard
Oct 28,2022Excellent itinerary for reasonable price. Good trip leaders. They give customers opportunity for independent experiences with guidence for good outcomes. They do not schedule every minute of every day. 16 time Gate 1 traveler
Isabel
Oct 26,2022Their advertisement says full refund but we paid in full 2 months ago and they dropped the ball didn’t buy the airline tickets, now they want us to pay double to have same itinerary. Waiting for a manager to call hoping he/she won’t be as rude as the last person I talked to. She said Can only refund 50% but they haven’t paid for airline or hotel????
Shreyas Vakil
Oct 19,2022Gate1 Travel canceled our trip. We planned for months, spending on getting visas, and taking personal time off work, Gate1 took our money and pulled the plug! It became greedy and put profits before people. No one in the company is ready to talk to us, they do not have a corporate office but a handful of scattered agents.
Dennis
Oct 18,2022The 14 day England, Scotland, and Ireland was a great trip with an excellent guide, Jaime who was knowledgeable and funny. Our driver was great and most hotels were good. My complaint is that Gate 1 charged us $111 for a $37 taxi ride to the airport in Dublin. Then they put another person in our cab nd she paid $111, so we paid $222 for a $37 taxi fare. I have written twice to Gate 1 and not heard back.
Paul Y. Lee
Oct 16,2022Res# 2287535 There was no booking on a domestic flight for me from Istanbul to Gaziantep on 10/3. The tour guide, Serdad, insisted that I must pay at the counter of Turkish Air instead of paying from other sources. Later, I got cash reimbursement, but he should be more careful, which could easily be preventable. Serdad did not inform us how much to walk involved at each spot; his time management was poor, and for example, we had two hour lunch break In front of the Zeugma Museum on a hot day without AC. We could enter the museum earlier.
Emmett Brown
Oct 15,2022The absolute worst travel "rip-off" travel agency of the 21st century! Overpriced, they require you to leave a deposit that is non-refundable without exception, requiring you to rebook with them or forfeit your deposit. Read the fine print. There's much better travel experience out there.
Larry Milner
Oct 13,2022Gate1 will not answer emails. Reservation # 1998259 6/14 arrived Toronto on time. Plane to St John delayed several times for mechanical reasons then cancelled. Called local Gate 1 number - no answer Called emergency number - no answer - left voice mail message - never returned call 6/15 12:30 am arrived St John via Montreal. No Gate1 representative. No Luggage. Took taxi to hotel. Informed tour director of problem. She stated, we know that several people are going to have problems. Last tour had 8 people with missing bags and flight problems. It is happening on every tour. Started working on missing bag. Gate1 provided no help in locating bag. Bag never caught up with us. Made 27 calls to AC over the week. Spent over 11 hours on phone dealing with bag. Missed several activities. Week was very stressful. Enjoyment was greatly diminished. Issues: No Answer to help numbers No Gate 1 representative met a gate. Gate 1 should have dedicated help desk for flight and bag issues. No way the tour director can handle these issues. Gate1 has made the decision to continue tours knowing full well that an unacceptable number of customers will have problems. Tours should be suspended until airline issues are resolved or at least customers should be notified of the issues and be given the option to delay or get credit on future travel. I am sure your standard answer is to deny culpability and blame the airline. That may be true if it wasn’t for the fact that Gate1 knew, for certain, that an significant number of customers on every tour will have problems. On our return home we missed a connection due to Air Canada problems and we had to spend to night in the airport with no compensation from Air Canada. We got our bag 5 days after returning home. Air Canada has denied reimbursement for canceled flight and lost bag. They use Covid as excuse for all problems. We are out over $1000.00 because Gate1 knowingly put us in this situation. For the reasons above, I am asking for a $2000 credit toward future travel. Nothing can undo the extreme stress that we endured on this tour. We had another trip already booked but if Gate1 refuses to make this right it will be our last. Sent from my iPad
Beata Dziekonski
Oct 12,2022I have been on many tours and this one was amazing. And I want to Acknowledge that our tour guide made this trip spectacular and a primer for return trips to Sicily and gate 1. Riccardo Panareo guided us through our tour with compassion and a true love ❤️ of Italy. Not only did he make us feel comfortable but he also was patient and caring. “Piano ….Piano”
Diane Zandstra
Oct 12,2022We are just returning from a 10day New England Fall Foliage tour. How wonderful! We were impressed and very pleased with the accommodations, the food, the ports of call, and especially the flexibility of our tour guide Kathy. She was uplifting and gave us her best weather permitting.
bill steers
Oct 09,2022Just came back from a Tour of Spain. Our tour guide José Luis Figuereda, was excellent. My husband contacted Covid 19 on the 4th day of the tour. Jose was extremely helpful and caring and took care of us for the rest of the trip. And his knowledge of Spain history is remarkable. I would highly recommend Gate 1.
Paulette
Oct 08,2022Just returned from the Kalaidescope 15-day Greek Trip. Greece is beautiful from Thessaloniki to Athens to the Islands of Mykonos and Santorini. The tour guide, Angeliki, deserves her name. Not only is she extremely knowledgeable, she is kind, gracious, and treats everyone as if they are the most important traveler. Our return flight was cancelled out of Santorini, and other travelers from other groups were affected, and the three Gate1 Tour Guides returned to the airport and made sure we were rebooked, had hotel plans for the night, and took care of us until we were on our way to our destinations. This is my third trip with Gate1 and I will book more tours with them. Shout out to our Diver on the mainland, Nikos, who an such a sweet gentleman, and our drivers Takis and Demetrios. Not to mention Yianis & Mariana who treated us as we were in their group during the flight fiasco, and then the lovely Constantine - all the people who work for Gate1 deserve our kudos.
Lorin Cole
Oct 08,2022I highly suggest that before booking a trip with this company, think again! I was fully aware that traveling with covid would be a risk; however, did not expect the unprofessional negligence that occurred. Unfortunately, I returned from my trip with a bad case of covid which has caused my health to decline and have been unable to work. The tour guide inquired on a few occasions as to "why I was wearing a mask because covid is no longer a threat!" Other people on the tour also came down with the virus; however, it was brought to my attention from another person in the group, a health professional, that the tour guide was sick. I immediately sent him an email to inform him I was sick as I felt it my responsibility. He never had the courtesy to inquire how I was doing, which to me speaks volumes. I reported this to the company who took no responsibility and twisted my words regarding the situation and offered no retribution. Not believing a customer is not acceptable! The over all experience was dreadful from the moment I paid for the trip as I couldn't sign into their website, waited several days each time I needed assistance for a call back and when I got to the airport for my trip, it took a few hours to sort out my reservation and government documents as my information had not been properly transferred.
Patrick Earley
Oct 07,2022We've been on several Gate One tours, but after this fiasco with flights and hotel stays in Equador we will not be using them again. Flight got permanently canceled on the return making us lose a whole day of the contracted 4 night trip. Gate One did zero.... nothing.... to resolve the issue. They were kind enough to offer another flight at an additional $3600. Sorry the company is hurting that bad were they can't fix the problem. We wl not be using Gate One again and I suggest you save yourself the headache.
Drene Salick
Oct 07,2022We just returned from a 12 day Italy tour .We honestly felt that Gate 1 did a good job..we enjoyed our tour Guide Andrea who made it so much fun.. The hotels were adequate, in some good locations and the food was plentiful. It was generally a well done tour
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Melina
Dec 03,2022I have experienced the worst and rudest customer service by Holly. I inquired about possible flight options for booking with my tour and after less than 1 min she started yelling at me when I dared asked about a different airline. Contrary to the options on their website, she kept raising her voice at me that there are no others but United, and that Gate1 is not a flight booking agency. I could not say a word because after her tirade she hung up on me...