We have utilized Gate 1 multiple times for trips in the States as well as abroad. We choose independent travel. You can't beat the value! Everything is as advertised. The hotels offered in vacation packages are wonderful! So far we have traveled with Gate 1 to California, Costa Rica, Italy (4 times!), and Ireland. Can't say enough good things about their value and service.
Have been patronizing Gate 1 Travel since 2015. Previous customer service experiences were positive. Spent the last 3 calendar days (01/09-11/2026) trying to get a simple question answered. Examples of current problems include: 1. They never have anyone available to answer the phones, 2. They schedule, through their chat platform, telephone conversations and never call, 3. Yesterday, I thought I had gotten through. Was told that 10 agents were working and that I would receive a call back. That never happened, 4. Today, called them, @ what appears to be a partially outsourced call center to another country, call was received, I was told that I was being "internally," transferred. I emphasized that previous calls had been disconnected by the Gate 1 representative and today's call was promptly disconnected by Gate 1, 5. After spending over an hour on the chat platform was connected virtually with an agent. Asked the simple question and the agent immediately began trying to up-sale me. Agent asked for a phone # which was provided and agent-on three separate occasions-lied about having called. etc. Have questions about an upcoming Gate 1 trip? Be prepared to spend hours trying to get through. We will never use them again.
Jeffery is very helpful and we always get trips planned through him. He does an awesome job planning everything and he is always friendly. Thanks for everything he does and way way he handles it.
I have traveled with gate 1 several times Excellent every time. More than satisfied.
Today I was on the phone for over 4-30 hrs trying to change my booking to another date and destination. I was told that both of my credit cards were declined. Which is not the case I have spoken to my bank head office and both my cards are perfectly fine . Nothing owing on my Visa and well over $2000 in my debit card. I need this sorted by someone who understands English
Horrible and I mean HORRIBLE post reservation customer service which Gate 1 has now outsourced to places like India and the Philippines . You can NEVER get thru to an agent AFTER you've booked your trip . The recoding basically states that due to high interest and calls we can't take your call then hangs up .
I am mistified as to how the owners of this company are not doing something to go back to the way it was years ago when you could actually call a USA representative and get thru .
Their customer service sucks . Just know this before you book with them or have your travel agent deal with them .
I HAD been a loyal customer of Gate 1. I have taken multiple trips, several annually. NOT anymore. I had a reservation for travel several months away. My companion had to cancel due to work conflict. I anticipated the "single supplement" fee - no problem. However, Gate 1 wanted to charge an additional $300 fee for the cancellation. This occurred prior to the final payment was due. I called to request it to be removed. They refused. I asked for a supervisor - refusal again. Therefore, I cancelled my trip and will not use them again. They lost my business and several family and friends have committed NOT to use this service. Penny wise and dollar stupid. Bad customer service Gate 1! Bye-Bye!
Just completed the 11 day trip to Egypt, it was actually 8 days with a tour guide, 2 days were flying there and first night in hotel and 1 day is the return flight day. The pickup and trip back to airport were impressive (tho expensive $80). Except on pickup my guide made me feel really guilty for not have any US dollars for the Egypt visa. No mention if this was made in the itinerary notes. It did mention having single dollar bills “to make tipping easier”and small denominations of local currency, again for tipping. So I chose to bring the local currency as I had spent three weeks in Greece prior to this and I had no dollars left. My Guide seemed flummoxed that I didnt have the $24. Finally I said I have a credit card Surely they take credit cards. He seemed unsure.And sure enough they did. Since returning home, I re- read the travel documentation and nowhere could I find a mention of bringing US dollars specifically for the Egypt visa.So this should be included right in the itinerary. The horrifying part of the trip for me was having to get up at 2:45am one day and 4:15am 3 other days. Only one of these was mentioned as an “early morning start”. The 2:45am morning was listed as “After breakfast”. Another was “leave for airport for flight to Cairo. I’m 78 and really value my sleep and part of vacation for me is sleeping til at least 7 or 8 in the morning. To me “early morning” means 7-8 rather than 10! If the itinerary had mentioned the real times I would not even have considered this tour! With these kinds of times, i feel I have a right to know them ahead of time. During the last 2 days of the tour I developed my first cold in years and I’m sure the lack of sleep contributed to lowering my immune system. I checked Air Egypt flights and they were later ones. They also had late afternoon ones, and in both cases of the early morning we had no sight seeing on the evenings before, do we could have flown the evening before! When I told the guide that such early Mornings are not OK with me, he just shrugged as if it was out of his hands that someone else is making those decisions.He didn’t say who to give feedback to.
Now to the guide, he was very well informed, very patient, sometimes a little arrogant, eg when i asked him a followup question about which 6 countries had helped fund and carry out moving blocks of abu simbel stones. He said you were not listening and told me again the names of the 2 guys that had done something else. When he realized i was asking about his earlier statement, where he d only told us 2 of the 6 countries that had contributed he did not apologize for his earlier statement. He often smoked around us, tho usually outdoors, and would constantly cough into the “whisper”microphone. Really, he should at least switch off his microphone when he does his smokers cough. Otherwise he was fine and his indepth knowledge really added to the trip.
After the South Africa's trip, I found Gate1 packed the trip with extensive stopping stops which were not mentioned in the itinerary. The tourist guide was disappointed -- rude and unprofessional. According to Linkelin, the tourist guide's main career was to assist with evaluation, assessment and sales of residential properties around Cape Town. She was passionate about assisting first-time buyers.
As such I ordered Gate1 to close my personal account and delete all my personal data from Gate1.
But Gate1 still continued to hand over my personal address to its contractor and the contractor continued to mail Gate1 printed brochures to my mail box. I have contacted Gate1 about the issue but the printed brochures continued on their way to mail box.
Gate1 does not respect client's privacy. The brochures must be stopped at once.
Sending those brochures telling me big discount and offering my $200 travel credit cannot get back me as Gate1's clients. I understand that Gate1 may lose a lot of clients as shown by a lot of bad reviews at Trustpilot.
________________________________________________
It is a reply to Gate 1's comment below. Gate 1 lied!!
I have told Gate 1 to close my account in August 2025 and not send any printed brochures on August 2025 as well. Today is Nov 10 2025. It is 3 months apart, NOT SEVERAL WEEKS!
GATE 1 MUST STOP SENDING ITS GARBAGE TO MY MAIL BOX AT ONCE!!!!
IF GATE 1 TRAVEL DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO RESPECT ITS CLIENTS, GATE 1 TRAVEL SHOULD LEARN HOW TO RESPECT ITSELF.