Gate 1 TravelReviews of gate1travel.com

My partner Rosemarie and I just completed an Eastern Canada tour hosted by Marc Ramus. What an experience. From the get go we were treated to an unforgettable holiday. The tour itself was fantastic: just enough group sessions and free time: amazing itinerary: 2 night stops: lots of information without being overloaded. Marc was fantastic: everyone bonded with him: like a big family. And he was so helpful, informative and friendly. This was our first Gate 1 tour but won’t be our last. Highly recommend this company to anyone seeking an honest friendly and enjoyable tour with great itineraries and well located hotels. Bravo gate 1.

We recently returned from the 9 day classic Italy tour with gate 1 and I have mixed feelings about this trip which I want to share partly because the gate 1 website doesn’t allow you to submit a review and the only ones available on their website were all positive and wonderful. This was not the case for us. We had a great and busy trip but excursions were optional and food included in trip was fair to horrible. Hotels were not the best but not the worst. They were clean, beds were comfortable, AC worked great, and very good water pressure. Some rooms were very small but for a short stay (2 nights) it was manageable for 2 guests. The first day of arrival in Murano, rooms were not ready until after 4:00 pm which was unbearable after a long flight and time changes. I think this can be better especially if you are organizing a group of travelers. The island of Murano was quiet, not a lot of restaurants and many of them were closed. Keep this in mind when booking this trip. Venice is a lot more active and has many more options for dinner and shopping. Tours and excursions were misleading and not clear when booking trip. Tours included walking outside and exploring the city, rarely did you go inside anything, that was all extra. The worst one for us was during booking it implied we would be going to the Mighty Colosseum, possibly the main attraction of Rome only to find out we were not going in just walking past it. We were told they couldn’t get tickets, then were told only small groups are allowed in at a time. This was all false we had to buy a separate tour to see the Colosseum which was a group of 30 people. In fact, you had to buy many separate tours to actually go inside and see anything. This package included breakfast and 4 dinners. If you are expecting amazing food at these dinners think again. Two of the the 4 dinners were pretty bad, one at Starhotels Metropole in Rome was horrible. A type of meat served, possibly roast beef, was inedible. You couldn’t cut it or chew it. Service did not ask how was your food or why aren’t you eating it. The dinners served an appetizer, pasta, some sort of meat (type unknown), and a desert. There were no choices or options for different types of meals. You get what you get and if you didn’t like it you didn’t eat. You were not even able to buy yourself another meal. Coffee was never offered with desert. The restaurants should have at least 3 different dinner options to choose from. Some of the dinners were cheap and poor quality. Tour manager did not tell you where the dinner was or what was being served in case you needed to make other arrangements. Tour manager was receptive to limited availability of food but had no solutions. This is troublesome since you are indirectly paying for bad meals through your vacation package. Gratuities were not included and should be in the package. It was out of control and awkward. Everyone wanted and expected a tip and travelers were reminded to tip at least 3 times during the trip. It was great to have someone else handle your transportation, hotel accommodations, and show you around the different cities. Tour managers and guides were kind and friendly. They appeared knowledgeable about the areas’ landmarks. Their recommendations for shopping and restaurant options were not the best. Found better recommendations on yelp and trip advisor.

My wife and I have been very blessed to have traveled to many different places around the world and we have used several different travel companies ( OAT Viking Tauck etc) Whenever we have had to change plans we have always been able to get our deposits either refunded or credited for future travel. Gate1 is the first company that wouldn’t even give us credit for the 1000 dollar deposit ( unless we took the same trip in a short time frame ) or refund. This was our first experience with Gate1 and certainly our last

Went on a tour of Yelliwstone. We were given very little time at each stop. Spent most of the day on the bus. The driver was not allowed to stop on the road if we saw an animal, which I totally understand, however there was a huge bison lying down in near the parking lot after we boarded the bus and he refused to give us two minutes so we could get a nice picture from the bus window. I was so disappointed. The tour driver said we were behind schedule. What difference would two more minutes have made and we could have had an excellent picture.

Absolutely awful. Never ever book with these people. Everyone is so unbelievably rude, we found out days before we did not have everything needed, they tried to to say opening an email counted as a signature, in what world does that count? They won’t even refund us 100%. Just terrible. Save your money and go elsewhere.

Gate 1 Travel deceptive airline credit is a claw back In March of 2023, we signed on for a trip to Ecuador with Gate1 Travel but cancelled after earthquake 2 days before we were to depart. We had both Gate 1 travel insurance and Arch Right Insurance. We were told that neither insurance covered our situation. We spent over $4,000.00 for this trip. After many emails to Gate1 Travel, pleading our case, Gate1 Travel offered as a goodwill gesture, to provide airline credit of $972 with American Airlines and a travel credit of about $1300.00. In June 2023 I called to reschedule the trip to Ecuador, using the airline and travel credits. I was told by the agent that I could use the airline credit, BUT I had to pay a SURCHARGE of $376. For what, I asked. Well, he said, you are getting a direct flight so you have to pay extra if the flight is nonstop. I was baffled. I never heard of such a thing. There is only 1 American Airline flight from MIA (Miami) to Quito each day and it is a direct flight and the price of the ticket should reflect the total cost without adding a surcharge. Has anyone out there ever heard of being charged a surcharge for a direct flight above and beyond what the ticket cost. The agent said he could not provide any information about the airline credit until, I committed to book a reservation for the trip and paid a NON-REFUNDABLE FEE of $600. The point of this was to lock me into a reservation in which I would lose $600 if the air faire credit turned out to be bogus, which it did. This is about as predatory as you can get. THEN the agent told me the cost of the ticket from MIA to Quito would be $1800.00, twice the original amount of the ticket. What appeared to be a credit suddenly turned into a debit before my eyes. A $972 ticket faire credit turned into a $1800 debit and a $376 surcharge to boot. While pretending to give me a credit, Gate1 clawed back the credit and required me to pay the actual faire that I originally paid. I then called to see if I could use the credit for domestic flights. NOPE. You can only use the credit for a scheduled tour with Gate1. I am betting that the faire will be double what is advertised on the airline website and I will end up owing Gate1 money for the ticket if I attempt to use it. Offer an air faire credit and construct barriers to prevent the customer from using it. I was incredulous at how fast it happened as the ticket agent, was talking a mile a minute, but I was in such disbelief, I went to American Airlines website, keyed in the air-faire on my computer while talking to him, and saw on my computer screen the actual price of the ticket on American Airlines listed at $432, per person round trip, not including tax from MIA to Quito. It was the exact same flight that the Gate1 Travel agent was booking me on from MIA to Quito, for $1800 + $376 surcharge, leaving and returning at the exact same time as the flight the agent was booking me on. Gate one did allow me to use the $1300 travel. Since we have not gone on the trip yet, scheduled for September. Based on other reviews I expect to have to cough up tips, fees for everybody I encounter on this trip. They lure you in with low prices and then nickel and dime you after you arrive at your destination. I am astonished at the used car lot sales tactics used by Gate1Travel. Sleazy, deceitful, manipulative. After this trip to Ecuador is finished, I will never do business with Gate1 Travel again. Has anyone out there had a similar experience with Gate1travel deceptive air faire credit? I am done with Gate1 travel. My business will be with Triple AAA from now on. The response from Gate1 Travel below states Gate1 Travel addressed this issue. That is untrue. I emailed a copy of what I posted here and never heard from them. The issue has not been addressed

Recently took a 17 day tour of Eastern Europe including a 7 day river cruise. Everything was very well done - tour manager was very well organized, hotels were 4-5 stars, bus transportation was comfortable and there were only 25 people in the land tour portion of the trip.The one thing I absolutely hated is that you are constantly tipping everybody- bus drivers, local guides, tour managers, city hosts, etc., etc. On this particular trip there were 5 countries with 4 different currencies involved which meant you had spend time looking for an ATM and once you you got local currency you then had to get change so you had small denominations for tips. Major hassle. I wish Gate 1 would include all gratuities in its up front pricing. Even though the trip was excellent, in the future I will use a tour company that includes gratuities in the price.

Gate1 booked our travel reservations to the Canadian Maritime Provinces, June 24-July 1, 2023. The original booking got us in to Halifax in the middle of the night and the return flight had us leaving Saint John at 5:30am. I called to complain at least 3 times with no luck. Gate 1 wouldn’t even set up transit from the airport to the hotel! Then as we were ready to drive to the airport, the leg of the flight from Montreal to Halifax was canceled by Air Canada. Called Gate1, and the first flight they could find for us was the next day. That meant we lost the first full day of the tour and welcome dinner. The agent assured me that there would a welcome package at the hotel lobby or our room. However, there was only a brief note in the room from the tour manager with no useful information regarding bag pickup or bus departure . I called and asked her to come to our room, At this point, I was extremely stressed and therefore a bit short with the tour manager. Instead of smoothing things out, she took umbrage and flounced out of the room without giving any further information. My observation of her leadership style during the remainder of the trip is that she is hubristic. She has an inflated sense of self without any exceptional credentials and is insensitive to understanding travelers needs. During the rest of the trip, she was rude to me anytime she could do that without others noticing. I’ve been on other tours, and this tour manager was totally unprofessional.