Tour guide can make or break a vacation. 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.

Gate1 are uncaring ……After doing around 8 tours with Gate1 I… After doing around 8 tours with Gate1 I unfortunately had to cancel over a month before we were commencing our tour due to having to have emergency surgery. I thought Gate1 might be understanding and give us a full refund or at least credit towards another trip. They would only refund half our money and yes that was in the cancellation policy but having been such a long term repeat customer who had recommended them to many, I was under the delusion they may have some understanding of my situation and refund the full amount or at least give credit towards my next trip. I am six months post surgery now and have booked this years tour with another company. Will never book with Gate1 again.

Great Company that delivers 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.

Trip Insurance Scam Absolutely the worst! Don't bother buying trip insurance with them. It's a scam and when you try and cancel (even if you've purchased the Cancel for Any Reason) they give you the run around. There are so many exceptions that its pointless to even try. When I called to ask questions about fees the clueless rep told me they couldn't answer my questions and I had to call Arch Insurance. I called Arch and they told me they had nothing to do with setting rates for cancellation. That was all Gate 1. I've been calling and emailing for days and no one responds. .....Buyer Beware. Find another tour company

Good experience with tour company 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.