Gate 1 Travel is a travel service provider that specializes in offering affordable escorted tours, river cruises, and vacation packages to a diverse range of destinations worldwide. With over 40 years of experience in the travel industry, the company aims to provide quality travel experiences that cater to various traveler preferences, including escorted tours, small group tours, walking tours, and independent travel options. The company's target market includes budget-conscious travelers seeking enriching travel experiences without compromising on quality. Gate 1 Travel focuses on delivering value through carefully curated itineraries and competitive pricing, making it an appealing choice for individuals and groups looking to explore new destinations. Customers can find a variety of travel packages that suit different interests and budgets on their website, gate1travel.com.
Gate 1 Travel receives a mixed reception from customers, with many expressing disappointment in their recent experiences. While some reviewers praise specific tours, such as the "14 Day Classic Greece with Crete & Santorini" and the "Essential South Africa Tour," highlighting exceptional guides and memorable itineraries, a significant number of people report serious issues.
Common complaints include poor customer service, difficulties with booking and refunds, and a perceived decline in quality compared to previous trips. Customers mention frustration over canceled flights and inadequate responses from the company when seeking assistance. Despite a few positive experiences, the overall sentiment leans negative, reflecting a growing dissatisfaction with Gate 1 Travel's service and reliability.
Summary generated with AI from recent reviews
Each source counts by its number of reviews. Only reviews written by people are scored.
| Source | Rating | Reviews | Weight | 6-mo | Fake risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trustpilot Imported Trustpilot reviews | 2.7 | 378 | 100% | -1.1 | ● Low |
Monthly average rating from reviews written by people · latest review Jul 2025.
| Month | Average | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 24 | 4.0 | 1 |
| Sep 24 | 2.7 | 3 |
| Oct 24 | 1.3 | 3 |
| Nov 24 | 3.0 | 3 |
| Dec 24 | 3.3 | 3 |
| Jan 25 | 1.5 | 2 |
| Feb 25 | 2.7 | 3 |
| Mar 25 | 5.0 | 1 |
| Apr 25 | 3.8 | 6 |
| May 25 | 3.0 | 4 |
| Jun 25 | 2.3 | 6 |
| Jul 25 | 2.3 | 3 |
Share of positive (4–5★) and negative (1–2★) reviews mentioning each topic · based on the 378 most recent reviews.
“A little late on writing this review”
“I have taken many big trips with Gate 1, I e”
Same method for every company: overall rating, legitimacy checks, the average rating of reviews mentioning each area and the 6-month trend · Travel Agencies.
| Company | Overall | Legit | Booking | Service | Value | Trend | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 2.7 out of 5 (poor) | 100 out of 100 | 2.3 out of 5 (poor) | 2.4 out of 5 (poor) | 2.6 out of 5 (poor) | +18% | 378 |
| 4.9 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | — | 5.0 out of 5 (good) | — | — | 1,109 | |
| 4.6 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | 4.5 out of 5 (good) | 4.5 out of 5 (good) | 4.6 out of 5 (good) | — | 1,069 | |
| 4.8 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | 4.9 out of 5 (good) | 4.9 out of 5 (good) | 4.6 out of 5 (good) | — | 1,050 | |
| 4.8 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | 4.1 out of 5 (good) | 4.8 out of 5 (good) | 3.4 out of 5 (fair) | −1% | 1,014 |
Bottom line: Gate 1 Travel is #5 of 5 on overall rating in this group. On booking, Audley Travel scores higher (4.9 vs 2.3).
378 reviews of Gate 1 Travel. Filter by what matters to you.
Tour guide provided local color constantly. She was our England Scotland guide and was wonderful. I loved the big hotel breakfasts and lots of activities and sites crammed into 8 days. Tiring but we experienced it all!
We recently finished the Gate 1 tour of Ireland. It advertises as 10 days, but it is not actually 10 days, and I'd like to be sure that people who are considering the tour understand that. Day 1 is for leaving to arrive in Ireland. Day 2 is for arriving in Ireland. Day 10 is for leaving Ireland to go home. That effectively leaves 7 days for a tour. I wrote to Gate 1 because the tour actually was only 6 days. On Day 9 there was no longer a tour bus driver. Gate 1 sent him home. Instead, they hired a local driver to take people on an "optional tour" to the Irish EPIC museum, which was actually within a reasonable walking distance of our hotel. If you didn't pay to go to this museum, you were finished with the tour on Day 8 and left to pay for your own transportation and planned excursion on Day 9. I told Gate 1 that they could have taken the entire group to a place like the National Botanic Gardens on Day 9 (our last day) instead of the museum. It was quite expansive and lovely, and it's free to enter. We had to pay for the transportation to get there. Ireland was enjoyable to visit, but Gate 1 needs to advertise its tours properly. "The tour actually lasts for 6 days unless you go on an optional tour on your last day in Ireland."
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Polarized pattern: few middle ratings. 38% of recent reviews are 4–5★ and 53% are 1–2★.
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.
In general, we liked our "9 Days Classic Alaska" tour, but going to Alaska we, I'm sure like many others, were expecting to see the major attraction, a glacier. And it was planned but didn't happen due to the weather. Yes, the captain was right to turn the ship because of the storm, but Gate One should have planned it better and made another attempt to show a glacier on the next day if the first one fails, instead, we had a half-day bus ride to the next city and half day was just waisted. Our Tour Director, accommodations, and pretty much everything else was great, but not seeing one of the miracles of the world, which pretty much was the purpose of our trip to Alaska was a HUGE disappointment.
We've done 4 Gate 1 trips in the past and this recent trip to Azores was our first independent one. Our tour guides, Phillip and Hugo were FANTASTIC, making the optional trip experiences amazing. We have always given Gate 1 a 5 star rating, but this time it seems the hotel and hotel breakfasts were just ok... below the usual standards for our previous Gate 1 trips. Guess we should have upgraded.
I would like to say for most of this trip to Brazil and Argentina it was amazing but there were some hiccups,sometimes it seems as if we were push for time to leave, I miss something i would like to have seen. Seeing the city of Rio deJaneiro from the statue of Christ The Remeemer and take pictures was a very exciting moment. The Iguazu Falls was a fall to remember I though Niagara Falls was a exciting Fall this is something else. I enjoy the Tradition Gaucho Party the ranch was very nice place the entertainment was, I didn't get to see the museum, i did go to the general store. Here one problem i had at the ranch i told the guide that i did eat farm animal but i did eat fish so I though I would get a fish dinner, even though there were farmers, it has always been notice that there were stream, ponds, creeks and rivers near the farms that had fish in them. Watching them do the Samba and Tango was a a delightful experience. In all it was an enjoyable trip.
European River Cruise on Monarch Queen from Amsterdam to Budapest. Queen offered great accommodations from cabins, reception, lounges, dining room to sundeck. Staff was professional and went above and beyond, always pleasant, always smiling. Our cruise director Soma and activities director Danielle were the best ever. Booking was easy, the only negative was when we asked to change cabins in the same category I was put on hold a very long time, could see on line the cabin was changed, but still kept on hold over a half hour to confirm. Airfare and travel insurance is ALWAYS something we book separate from any travel company. This seems to be the biggest issue travelers have so it's best to book it yourself so you have control. We will definitely use Gate 1 Travel again....but book our own airfare and insurance.
I’ve taken many trips over the years with Gate 1 prior to Covid. All were exquisitely memorable and wonderful experiences! However I booked one trip where they paid for my travel because it was included. I learned from that one experience to always book my own travel. Fortunately I chose to book different return flights from China. My travel partner was stuck 3 days in the airport while I had the best experiences getting to my destination even though my flight cancelled due to a flat tire, the airline placed us in two hotels with meals and arrived in less than two days. I also learned never book travel insurance through Gate1 the hard way. Note that even if you use outside insurance they give you a hard time providing documentation. Post Covid our flights cancelled to Fiji due to a cyclone. Our travel insurance company paid us in full after 30 days. Do your homework. Protect yourself while traveling.
We loved it! We did a tour of Thailand and had a wonderful time. The hotels for first class our guide was wonderful and we had a great experience. We are taking our second tour with them next month to Morocco. I noticed a lot of negative reviews, but I have to say we had a wonderful time and had no issues. Somebody was there to meet us at the airport on arrival and everything went very smoothly.
The 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.
We 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
I did speak with Gate 1 representative and all of my issues have been resolved. Therefore, I am pleased to update my rating from 1 to 4 star due to the excellent service that I have received.
We just finish our tour of the National Parks with Gate one. The tour itself was good, the hotel in Yellowstone (Grant Inn) was very poor. We knew there was no Wi-Fi but didn’t know they were out of most of their food, only one beer available. The room was rustic, they didn’t clean the room or give us towels the second day. Our phone didn’t work which I think is a major problem if someone got sick you couldn’t contact the desk or get a wake up call. We had only one tissue in the tissue box and asked for more and it never came nor did the towel or repair for phone. Our tour director Bobby was good but favored people on the tour. We never got on the right side of the bus till the last day when there was nothing to see. But he allowed 3 couples to have single seats throughout the trip on the right side of the bus. We had to ask people for pictures since nothing was in the left side. I paid the same amount that everyone else did and I feel we should have been able to be on the right side of the bus at some time. We never got one good picture while the three couples who had single seats did. We have been on other Gate One trips and this has never happened before. Bobby was a great tour director but should have been aware of the other people on the bus.
Jordan great trip great guide great assistance throughout from pick up to departure they even had their agent meet me at airport before departure and prior had taken care of covid test as i stayed a few days past trip was not expecting i am more than satisfied
Seeing the people and gorillas in Uganda was a once in a lifetime experience. The safari through Queen Eliz. park was terrible. The guides did no tracking ahead of time and we saw nothing. Also the same for the chimanzee walk. We went too early in the morning while the chimps were still up in the trees.No tracking for this also. However, the gorilla trek was fantastic. We hiked 2 hours and then found a family of 13. Sat with them for an hour. Our guide, porters, trackers on the gorilla trek were A1 fantastic. The boat cruise was also fantastic. one of the highlights. There was not enough down time on this trip and it became a difficult experience to have 1/2 hour from breakfast (which was always late) to leaving. Forget going back to your bathroom. Also the tea plantation and some of the walks could be eliminated to give us time to relax in the beautiful hotels for one hour. The hotels were lovely and I wouldn't change a thing.The real negative was the $150 covid test that Gate1 provided. We met other companies and their tests were $60. This will make us consider our next trip even though we love gate 1. PS the people of Uganda are wonderful and we wanted to take home all of the children!! We loved their happy smiling faces.
I have seen some negative reviews about Gate 1, and I noticed they were mostly related to flights. I never purchased flights from Gate 1 and have had excellent experience with company.
We just joined a 10 days foliage tour from 10/1 to 10/10/21 and the tour was excellent. Both the tour guide Bob Konen & Mike the driver were excellent. When I came back, I filled in the questionnaire and forwarded it to my son to do the same thing, but he couldn't do it since it said it was completed my me. I called Gate 1 3 times this week requesting them to send another questionnaire to my son or to my e-mail address. They said they did send it but we never got it. I don't know why you make it so difficult for us to send you back the questionnaire?? Maida Cheung
Gate 1 Travel is a travel service provider that specializes in offering affordable escorted tours, river cruises, and vacation packages to a diverse range of destinations worldwide. With over 40 years of experience in the travel industry, the company aims to provide quality travel experiences that cater to various traveler preferences, including escorted tours, small group tours, walking tours, and independent travel options. The company's target market includes budget-conscious travelers seeking enriching travel experiences without compromising on quality. Gate 1 Travel focuses on delivering value through carefully curated itineraries and competitive pricing, making it an appealing choice for individuals and groups looking to explore new destinations. Customers can find a variety of travel packages that suit different interests and budgets on their website, gate1travel.com.
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