My wife, her two sisters and I took a 14 day tour of France with Gate 1 on May 8, 2024. Our guide, Jordane, started the tour with a speech about health and safety and how sick people must wear masks and sit in the back of the bus. Anyone who tested positive for covid would have to leave the tour. Two people in our group, Judy and Katy started the tour visibly sick. Jordane did nothing despite what he said in his speech. Within a few days most people were sick. I caught a cold around day 8. On day 9, Jordan asked me to wear a mask. I wore a mask. On day 10, Jordane asked me to move to the back of the bus. I moved to the back of the bus. On day 11, Jordan called my room and told me that I was off the tour due to my cold and that I would have to find my own way home. Several passengers were obviously sick but Jordane did not remove them. He never asked me to get a covid test. He never said that there was anything that I needed to do or he would have to remove me from the tour. He just kicked me off the bus somewhere in France with no help to get home. I immediately called the Gate 1 24 hour emergency assistance line. The line was answered with a recording, “We’re sorry, we are closed right now please call back during business hours.” Not what I expected from a 24 hour emergency line. Before you book with Gate 1, call this number on a weekend night and you’ll get the recording. Now if you are persistent or just desperate and wait on the line, eventually you will hear options. Wait through 8 options and the 9th is for help. I was transferred to a nice man in India who listened to my problem and then told me there was nothing he could do to help. I was dumped on the side of the road in France with no help. Who does this to someone? Gate 1 is the only one I know who would do this. I found Jordane and asked what I needed to do to get back on the tour. He said I needed to see a doctor and get a certificate of good health. I looked into this and no French person knew what it was. I found Jordane again and told him that I should be given the chance to take a covid test. Fortunately, a local Gate 1 guide joined our conversation. She thought this was a good idea and gave me directions to the nearest pharmacy and told me what to do to get tested. I tested negative for covid. I had a common cold, sniffles and cough. I showed the results of my test to everyone on the bus and Jordane when the bus returned that afternoon. Jordane reluctantly allowed me back on the bus.
That wasn’t the only issue we had with our guide. On our second night, my wife tripped and fell while crossing the street. My wife was unconscious and bleeding in the street. While my wife’s sister and I tended to my wife, her other sister called Jordane. He said he was busy and we should do whatever we wanted to do. That was the last we heard from him. He never checked back to see how we were doing. The next time we saw him was in the morning when he asked if we would continue the tour. He never showed any concern. We were fortunate that two nurses saw the fall and helped us get my wife off the street and call the local version of 911. It was the help of strangers, not Gate 1 that took care of us.
Gate 1 claims that Jordane called us several times to check on my wife. This is not true. Gate 1 claims that many people on the tour were tested for covid. Again, this is not true.
We expected there would be support and help on our Gate 1 tour. We got nothing and we definitely didn’t expect to be dumped on the side of the road with no way home.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10486 posts
Thank you for telling your experience. I’m glad you rejoined the tour and everything worked out in the end. Getting a cold while traveling is awful. I’m glad you were negative for Covid. You didn’t mention which travel insurance you had, but they would be a good help in an emergency.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14482 posts
Welcome to the forum.
Thank you for relating your experience. I've never traveled with Gate 1 and am sorry you went thru this but happy you were allowed to remain on the tour. I do take tours with other companies and have been carrying Covid tests with me. I have allergies and never want to mistake allergy symptoms with something that is communicable.
Posted by
11467 posts
Gate 1 has a lot of explaining to do if it wants travelers to join their trips. I would avoid them.
Posted by
Charleston & Birmingham
4536 posts
For comparison sake, can anyone who's experienced something similar on a tour by another operator please share their experience? This guide does sound like a complete jerk, but I suspect most companies have one or more employees like this. Your inability to get Gate 1 on the phone is inexcusable.
EDITED: Many years ago we had a terrible tour director on a Globus Europe tour. He wouldn't let a tour member use the bathroom on the bus even though it was an emergency for this man. I almost suffocated in Berlin when our hotel room was hot and the window wouldn't open. When tour members complained, he said Americans were too dependent on AC. We recently took another Globus tour and loved our tour director.
Posted by
Duluth 🛶
7465 posts
Keep in mind that many members here on this forum love Gate 1 and rave about their service and prices. So just because a first-time poster comes here with a complaint is no reason to discount the entire company.
I'm not saying the complaint is not valid, but there does seem to be a tendency for first-time posters to come here with either raves or rants. And I agree with Pam that the hyperbole is very misleading and your title is contradicted by the text in the post.
Posted by
Phoenix🌵
2975 posts
Thank you for sharing your experiences. What an awful tour you and your wife had. I'm curious if your trip insurance had a concierge number and could have provided a translator or assistance? Has your wife recovered from her fall? Now that you are home, has Gate 1 responded to your tour (guide) problems?
I still wear masks when traveling on public transportation, trains, planes and tour buses. I also take covid test kits, a thermometer, Sudafed, allergy pills, plus Advil. My one bout of covid (not from travel) left me never wanting to experience that again.
Posted by
Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico
1858 posts
I was kind of thinking along the same lines as Mardee.
A Google search will easily lead you to negative reviews of every tour company out there, including Rick Steves tours:
If you never went on a tour with any company that had a review like the OP's story about Gate 1, you'd never go on any tour. (Kind of like researching products on Amazon; every product has its share of 5* and 1* reviews.)
We should all try to get a broad picture about tour companies and travel products before opting out based on individual stories. A single negative review isn't enough to disqualify any product or service.
Posted by
Chicago
2967 posts
there does seem to be a tendency for first-time posters to come here
with either raves or rants.
There also seems to be a tendency for first-time posters to be criticized and treated with suspicion. Are their opinions not valid if they don’t have 5000+ posts?
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
5312 posts
Carrie, I don't think any suspicion has much to do with someone being a first time poster. And opinions are just that. However when a new poster goes on a rant which includes multiple exaggerations or plain untruths, then I believe that some suspicion is inevitable. I'm pleased to see that the OP changed the title of the thread, which originally was an untruth.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23534 posts
I am sorry but I have a lot of trouble with believing a first time poster who comes to our website to complain about another tour group. I have no way to judge credibility. I will accept his story but would like to see some confirmation for the extreme actions reported. .... dump of the side of the road with no way home........
Posted by
3384 posts
You, or someone else in your traveling party, posted the same review on Trustpilot 2 days ago. Gate 1 has responded that "We have provided your contact information to our customer service team who will reach out so that we can try to make this right for you."
Please let us know how Gate 1 deals with your complaints.
Posted by
Connecticut
679 posts
Thanks for sharing your experience. In an instance things can change as you’ve noted. Your persistence seems to have helped minimize some of the impact at least from a financial perspective. Don’t give up traveling. Plan for the unexpected. I hope that your wife has fully recovered.