My thoughts about Gate1 vs. RS Tours

I think that as with any brand “loyalty”, there are those that find one brand and stick with it. I found this when researching cruise lines. There were people who touted “xyz” cruise line as the absolute best (!!!). But they had never traveled with other lines, so they really had nothing to compare to!

I’m sure you’ll find the same loyalties on this forum. I hope you get some feedback from people that have actually used both companies (and others) who can give you some valuable insight into the differences.

You do realize this is the Rick Steves forum? Does Gate 1 have their own forum? Most people here I imagine if they do tours they have probably done a RS tour over Gate 1

I have watched some YouTube videos about Gate1. It did seem to be a less expensive option in terms of hotels & included activities. It didn’t look bad just different.

The last tour we took we met with friends on another tour. Not Gate 1. On their tour their guide was also the bus driver. On RS tours they are always separate. They also were not staying downtown but in the outskirts of towns. Their included meals were usually at the hotels not separate places. They also had to tip their guide/bus driver. They did not have as many separate town/ city guides. They also did very stereotypical tourist places & not much off the beaten track.

This was not Gate 1. But these are all things you should look at when picking a tour.
They had a full bus where we had 27 people on a large bus. Now they liked most of their tour but have not been on a RS tour.

Think you can get a better idea by looking at Yourube videos.

Having worked in the tour industry, I can answer some of your inquiries.

When RS compares his tours to others, he's really comparing to some of the worst and not his closest competitors. That's called marketing. And I applaud Rick as a marketer.

Whenever you see something included in a tour and not optional, you're paying for it in the tour cost. No tipping to the tour director and/or driver? Well, that cost is in the tour price. There's an included visit over an optional one, that's iincluded in the tour price.

I can't speak for Gate 1 particularly but if you do some research you will find tours similar to RS.

Take a look at Odysseys Unlimited. My view is they took the best of RS tours and kicked it up a notch.

@travel4fun-
You are absolutely right about people being loyal to a brand. But I think there are reasons why people are loyal: They must like the products/services so much that they don't feel like they are missing out anything to switch.

Of course for some people, it's inertia rather than loyalty.

I have taken tours with RS, Gate 1, and GAdventures. Each has their own approach and was selected based on my personal preferences - itinerary, cost, date availability, etc. There are trade offs no matter which company you go with. My Gate 1 experience was fine but it was no where close to the quality of a RS tour in terms of guide, hotels, and tour offerings. And on one portion of it we were nearly at capacity on a 50 seat bus - unless you're doing a specifically designated "small bus" tour, you could end up in this situation. But I picked that tour company because it ticked the most boxes for my needs at the time. As has been pointed out this is a RS forum so the sample is going to skew that direction. Go with what works for you and your own preferences.

Since you posted this in the Turkey forum, I'll just note that I did take the RS tour of Turkey and it was fantastic - very good guide, excellent driver, an itinerary that met my needs. We encountered travelers with other tour companies along the way (mostly from Intrepid) and they were staying in similar places as we did, but I have no idea if they were enjoying themselves.

@SA-I don't know if Gate 1 has its own forum-I think it does but the purpose of my post was not to compare travelers' opinions about the two companies.
I do watch YouTube videos but trust more first-hand experience by somebody such as Carol than YouTube videos.

@Frank II-
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Just to clarify: My purpose was not to give a comprehensive comparison about these two companies and draw a conclusion about which one is better-I am not capable of doing that.

@CL-
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and opinions about the different tour companies. It helped a lot.

There are so many tour companies and let's face it, the switching cost is low, so as you wisely pointed out, finding the one(s) that suit your interest, preference and needs is the key.

I've not done a Gate 1 tour. I have done 12 Rick Steves tours, 13 Road Scholar tours and now have done 3 tours with a very small group company (10 or fewer tour members).

The thing that attracted me to both the Rick Steves and Road Scholar tours to begin with was the fact that tips are included. And yes, I realized that was folded into the total cost up front. I also prefer a company where you are not hit with optional paid excursions to get the full experience. Optional excursion for a balloon ride? I'm fine with having that separate as I am not going ballooning (height chicken, lol). Optional excursion to see something that other tours include, no.

One thing that makes Rick's tours different compared to Road Scholar is Rick's "No Grumps" policy. Believe it or not just having that statement in your contract and knowing you may have to flex makes for a different attitude on a tour. I've been on Road Scholar tours where people started complaining on Day 1. With Rick's tours, if there is a complainer, someone will generally remind them it's a No Grumps tour.

To me size does matter, lol. When I started, I went on a few Road Scholar tours that were more than 30 people and wow, it takes so darn long to get everyone on/off the bus, pottied, fed and watered. Even Rick's tours with 28 is too much for me any more, though.

In the end, I'd go with whichever itinerary strikes you as the best along with hotel location and the activity level. I'm not familiar with Gate 1 and where they usually locate people so no advice on that. The only way you are going to know which company is best for YOU is to travel with both.

Hi Pam,

Thank you for sharing your experience. You have traveled a lot with tour companies! I totally agree with you the only way to find out if a tour company is right for you is to tour with it.

I also agree that size matters and it's worth to pay extra to have a smaller group.

One thing that I don’t think has been mentioned is that brand loyalty gives credit toward future tours, so that changes the tour cost for many RS travelers. When you get over 10 tours, it’s significant. I know that is true with other tour companies as well as cruise lines. We’ve tried other tour companies and cruise lines and those probably figure more in our future as we are starting to age out RS tours, but for as long as we’re able we appreciate knowing the product ahead of time. What’s important to us, beyond the itinerary, is knowing the basic number, that hotels will be centrally located, that all aspects of the tour are already paid for and that 99.9% of the people we’ve traveled with are pleasant to travel with.

Sorry for interruption... As I have worked in tourism business in Turkey and I know many tour guides , Let me share my opinions with you ;

First Question ; What makes a tour unforgatable ? Itınerary ? Hotels ? Food ? ... Yes these are all correct.. But you are missing one point. It is TOUR GUIDE .. A very well educated , a person how to speak to Americans , how to tell history in interesting ways, even how to wear ... These are important.. And I know that SRM TRAVEL is working with some of best guides in Turkey..

Has any of you got a tour with Mert Taner ? or Mine Karahan ? or any other guide that works for SRM.? They are really good guides..
Let me give you an example ; A guide give you very good information about Hagia Sophia , but a very good guide may explain you why it hasnt collapsed after 8 big earthquakes over 7 indensity.

It is easy to say Lydians invented coins in 7 c Bc. But it is different to say ' Lydians invented something that we still use'..

By the way .. I am not advertising any company or any guide .... Or I do not imply other guides are bad.. They are all good .. But there are better ones..

I've done 2 Gate 1 Europe Tours but no RS Tours because of cost and needing elevators in hotels. I felt that all the hotels were well located. The one in Dubrovnik was on the water rather than in the central area, but we loved it and we were told how to use the public transportation to get back to the central area. We didn't take many of the Gate 1 excursions since we have our own ideas for free time(I always buy the appropriate RS guidebooks). The included tours were really enjoyable. I highly recommend Gate 1. If you travel when schools are in session(late May), you may get a smaller group since Gate 1 tends to attract teachers.

Hi Jean, I have taken four RS tours, and I signed up for a Gate 1 small group tour for Greece next year. The reason I chose the Gate 1 option instead of the RS Greece tour was because I wanted to be on the islands - not just the mainland. The Gate 1 tour included Paros & Naxos, plus a brief stop at Mykonos. The RS Greece tour just goes to Hydra as the island stop which seems like it was chosen more as a convenience than the best island choice. Also, the single supplement cost was dropped as a sale which makes a large additional savings.

As others mentioned, the size of a tour group matters. When looking at Gate1 options, the first thing I did was filter on “small group”. Ideally, I would like any tour in the future that I take to be around 20 people. As Pam mentioned, the larger the group, the more precious vacation time is wasted waiting for people to load/unload, etc.

As a solo traveler (safety) & for time efficiency, the location of the hotels really matters a lot to me. I just heard this morning from a traveler on a Gate 1 tour whose hotel for Venice was on the Lido. There’s no way I would choose that tour just based on this information! That’s an inconvenient, time-wasting choice Gate 1 made. When we stayed in Venice for our RS Best of Italy tour in 2006, we were at Hotel Serenissima - a handy, efficient location to the main sites and near San Marco to enjoy in the evening.

Everyone has their own criteria for their travel style & preferences. I’ve been spoiled now by years of traveling as an independent traveler, being able to choose how fast or slow, which cities, which half-day experiences, etc. we wanted to do. And when I am traveling solo, the small B&B or boutique hotel’s location is a top priority. But, I still did the RS Adriatic tour in 2023 because it was the best option for me to see those cities and spend a day soaking in the stunning Plitvice Falls ambience.

Jean, I agree about Lido as poor choice for hotel, but you can see which hotels each tour uses on the Gate 1 website.

Cala, yes, I was checking many of the hotel choices on-line for Christmas Market tours, too. Especially because I would expect one hand to be full of purchases! : )

I do appreciate that all of the hotels are listed, even specifically for individual tour dates on the Gate 1 tour website.

Hi Jean,
What a coincidence-I am also looking at Gate 1 Greek tours that include islands. I read on RS travel forum a lot of people spoke very highly of RS Greek tour, but like you, I want to do both the land and the `islands and Gate1 offers the options.
I haven't signed up the tour yet because if I go, I probably will go in September-I rarely made my travel commitment that far ahead. And my understanding is that once I've made the deposit, I cannot change my mind without losing the deposit (perhaps unless I purchase "Cancel for any reason" insurance? I haven't looked into that). You already signed up a tour for next year-2026? Did you purchase trip insurance?
Sounds like you know your needs and how to best meet them. I am used to traveling independently but started to feel tours can be great supplements to visit hard-to-reach places or to reduce stress.

Happy travels!

@Hi Cala,

Thank you for sharing your experience and the recommendation. Sounds like you find what suits you the best-that's all that matters.

Let me be clear. After 5 RS tours and 1 Gate 1 tour, I can honestly say in my experience that all of them were quality experiences. I am currently signed up for two more Gate 1 tours in the future.

The price, even if you add in every optional tour possible and account for tips, for the Gate 1 tour in Turkey was significantly less than a RS tour. The price difference was so big that I thought in advance that I would be getting a little lower quality product. That simply wasn't the case for my tour. The hotels and meals were excellent. The guide was outstanding.

The three major differences to take into account when comparing: Gate 1 will count your travel day as day 1 of the tour where RS does not. A 15 day Gate 1 tour is the same length as a 14 day RS tour. Gate 1 gives the option of opting out of some activities without having to pay for them anyway. RS does not. RS includes tips in the price of the tour, Gate 1 does not.

Tour sizes: Gate 1 has Classic vs. Discovery on tour size limits. In my one experience I didn't find any difference between having 36 people vs 24=26 people and that really surprised me. I thought I would notice a big difference here and I didn't.

As with every travel method, the only fair way to see if a mode of travel is a fit for you is to try it. What works for someone else may not work for you or visa versa.

Jean, I guess I haven’t fully switched into 2025, yet. The “next year” is actually 2025. : )

Hi Carol-
Thank you chiming in.
I started this thread before I came across your other posting about Gate1 Turkey tour in which you covered nearly every difference between these two tours. If I read them before, I wouldn’t have started the thread.
When comparing tours, I believe that it’s the opinions of people like you who have first-hand experience of both tours that other fellow travelers including myself value the most. So thank you for sharing.
In terms of the cost difference, could it be that your Gate 1 tour cost was much lower than the RS tour because you got a really good deal, i.e., the lowest price (I think it’s $1,599) and the single supplement waiver? Because when I ran the numbers, the tour price was $1,899 for the date I selected and no single supplement waiver. So after I added the cost of optional tours (with the exception of balloon ride since neither company covers that) which are covered by RS, and tips ($10 to the guide, $5 to the driver, per day), the daily difference is about $30. I counted the Gate 1 tour 10 days and RS tour 11.5 days to calculate the daily price difference.
Let me say that again-I really appreciate that you shared your experience here to help other people make better choices. I also thought Gate 1 would sacrifice quality for a lower price and that’d be ok with me-you got what you pay for. It’s good to know they didn’t. I also considered a larger group size a concern and thank you for letting us know it wasn’t that big a deal. I definitely will consider Gate 1 for future tours-they cover much more regions.

I haven't taken any RS tours but have taken 2 Gate 1 tours, Vietnam in 2023 and China in 2024. The Vietnam tour was 36 people, China was 23. We didn't find that the size made any difference to us.

If you want to get perspectives from people who go on Gate 1 tours, check out the Facebook page GATE 1 TRAVEL GROUP.