I am just back from a discovery tour of the Balkans. Nicola was our guide. I just wanted to say this really was a fantastic trip. He did an outstanding job. The sites we visited were all well done. The hotels were good and the food was very good. I have done event planning for a number of years and know that it is a lot of work to pull these things off. Our guide made it look very easy. I think Gate 1 has these trips down to the science. Thank you very much for a great vacation.

The Majestic Balkans trip was like walking into an ancient history book with so many sites to see. Our local guides provided unique and informative insights, and our tour manager Ana was outstanding! Ana's knowledge about each country we visited was superb. Her humor, lively conversation and enthusiasm kept our small group engaged, and, by the end of our travels, brought us together like an extended family.

I can not say enough WONDERFUL things about our tour manager, Ana Maria. She was simply DELIGHTFUL! Always concerned with our safety. Ever helpful for suggestions for our free time (restaurants, parks, museums, etc.). Everything you could want in a tour manager - she was GREAT!. In addition, our driver, Jellico, was extraordinary! How he kept so calm during such intense driving situations I will never know, but he thankfully transported us safely from destination to destination!! Our local guides were also exceptional, even surpassing prior Gate 1 local guide experiences. I have already recommended this tour to my friends!

The Majestic Balkans tour was fantastic in every way and it really exceeded my expectation. This tour was full of historical facts and archeological sites, along with the modern day versions of each country. It is a perfect way to learn about Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Albania. These countries have come a long way. They are all vibrant, affordable and offer a great travel experience. The itinerary is well organized with professional choice of comfortable hotels, historical places to visit, good local food experience and most of all, excellent local guides who shared knowledge and love for their native countries. Our tour manager, Patricia, was competent, accessible, and highly professional. She managed the tour with perfect pace, not rushed in any of the stops, and gave us perfect amount of time on our own to explore. Our driver was very experienced. He showed his skills on high mountain roads, as well as in cities crowded with vehicles and crazy drivers. His control of a 40-foot coach throughout the small serpentine roads of the 4 countries was amazing. This trip made me want to go back to each of these four countries to explore more. I found North Macedonia fabulous and completely surprising. It is a tour to be remembered for a lifetime. I would highly recommend this tour!

I feel it necessary to tell you how fantastic the tour guide, Mira, is and how lucky Gate1 is to have her! Mira is one of the best guides I've ever encountered during my travels. She is knowledgeable, funny, has great stories and was genuinely concerned about every member in our group. She was not just a tour guide, but a member of our travel group. She made time to get to know each and every person and truly cared about their experience. I feel lucky to know her as traveling to destinations are just a part of travel, but the people and experiences you have with them, really make memories that last.

Absolutely fabulous. Katerina and the driver were both excellent, and went out of their way to make sure everything was better that expected in so many ways. There was always a smile on their faces and in their voices. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are beautiful countries, everything was so clean and well cared for. The scenery, especially in the mountains was spectacular. The hotels were all great and in wonderful locations. The included meals were all good and fun. I will highly recommend this tour to my friends and acquaintances ( and possibly some strangers ).

It was an excellent tour! Loved every minute of it. Beautiful landscape, historic sites, fjords were absolutely magnificent! The boat ride in Geirangerfjord was simply spectacular! We enjoyed all the included activities. What made the tour even better was our awesome tour manager Stephanie Johansson. She's a top-notch tour manager .... Organized, informative, enthusiastic, energetic, helpful in every way. Stephanie's personality really enhanced the tour. She took great pains in suggesting things to do in a new location and was thoughtful to drop us off at diff places on our free time at the end of the guided tour as the coach was returning to the hotel. We learned so much about Sweden and Norway from her, a value-add that's greatly appreciated! Also our driver Christian was a super duper hero driving safely thru the hairpin turns. He too was pleasant and obliging. Thank you Stephanie and Christian for a fantastic job!

The Majestic Balkans was a great trip and Ana was the best tour guide that we ever had (all of the tour guides have been very good), this being our fifth Gate 1 Discovery.

We were very pleased with our Sweden and Norway trip! Hotels were great- central locations, quality was fantastic, breakfast buffets were outstanding. Daniel, our tour director was top notch-informative, funny and personable. Even our bus driver, Nils, helped make our trip even nicer. The pace was comfortable, sited visited interesting, and even the local tour leaders were terrific. We enjoyed the variety of things we got to do-make candy canes, see a ski jumper at Lillehammer, hear a siren sing along the Flam Railway, visit a small farm, saw Fiord horses, are heart shaped waffles, were students in an old Norwegian school with a great local tour leader, saw beautiful fiords, rode ferries, ski lifts, and drive through a 15 mile tunnel, hear a Norwegian fiddle.... I'm not sure there is anything I would change. Thank you, Gate 1!

I would really like to stress how absolutely fabulous our tour guide, Victoria, was. Victoria ranks as the highest in quality of all of our many travel guides over the years. We will travel with Gate 1 again simply because her. The other person who was the best at what he does is Finn, our bus driver. Finn was as great at his job as Victoria was at hers. Our tour was a wonderful, educational and a thoroughly enjoyable experience. We look forward to traveling with Gate 1 again.

Terrific tour for several reasons: number of participants and all congenial, interesting, ready to share photos, pay for refreshments, assist as needed and just all fun. Our guide, Martina, was the best. Having Boris also added to our pleasure as he was supportive, interesting and a pleasure to be around him. Many of the individual guides were also great presenters with informative talks. Thank you. The tour itself selected interesting aspects of Slovakia and did show some highlights of Prague. Prague is a destination in itself. Accommodations were all satisfactory- some more than others. One or two depending on the location of your room was very noisy but still ok. Thank you and I plan to spend more time with Gate1. Talking to some of the travelers on this inspired me to take some of the trips they have previously enjoyed with Gate1.

Feedback: 1. Excellent design of the overall trip in terms of sequence of the places visited and timing of the daily events with 9 am daily starting time. We started in Tashkent and reached a crescendo at Samarkand. 2. Very inclusive of important historical places. 3. Flexible additions of a few places illuminated at night. 4. Ilkhom was extremely well informed, courteous, helpful, caring and fun to be with. He welcomed us in our national language of Urdu/Hindi at the airport and maintained its usage during the tour. He is an asset to Gate 1. 5. Restaurants and visits to markets were memorable. 6. The meals were really good when polov, sheesh kabob and mid-eastern cuisine was served. 7. The Komil Banquet Hotel in Bukhara was exceptional. 8. Transportation between cities was comfortable, safe and timely. 9. Unlimited supply of water was appreciated. 10. We received value for the money.

If I could , I would rate Davron as not just excellent, but Extraordinary. It was not only his ability to impart information but his style of doing so which communicated his command of the material and his desire to 'teach'. His response to questions , at times, difficult ones, demonstrated his ability to answer the question and communicate the context in which the answer was being generated. A difficult and refined line to walk. Given the physical restraints of some of the party, he handled this with delicacy so as to make the individuals involved and the group as a whole feel as though everyone's needs were being addressed. As my partner and I have stayed on an extra week he had been generously forthcoming in terms of assistance and information. I guess on a scale of 1-5 I would rate him a 10.

Our trip was, in a word, fantastic!!! While the destinations exceeded our expectations, the best part of the trip was our Tour Manager, Sherban. I cannot begin to express our appreciation for Sherban's organizational skills, knowledge, ability to rapidly resolve issues which arose on our trip, sense of humor, professionalism, and winning personality. We have had excellent tour managers in our previous Gate-1 trips, but Sherban is in a class by himself. By the end of our trip we considered Sherban to be more than just a tour manager--he is now a valued friend.

First of all huge kudos to G1 for adding Uzbekistan as a tour destination - I have waited a while to take this trip Discover Uzbekistan, as had originally booked it during the pandemic - and was it worth the wait! My 48th G1 trip and this one was the road less traveled for sure. It exceeded expectations in every way - Uzbekistan was super clean - not a speck of litter anywhere, lovely, friendly people, surprisingly modern, sophisticated cities in Tashkent the capitol and Samarkand. The Silk Road cities were remarkable and it felt so privileged to see them - photos do not do justice to the splendor of the sites - just magnificent. Hotels were lovely and each perfect for the location. Included meals were plentiful and delicious - loved the national dish of plov! The drivers in Tashkent and Abdulavale for the rest of the trip from our pick up in Urgench were helpful, kind and skillful and our tour manager throughout Timur was above and beyond excellent - kind, funny, perfect English, so knowledgeable and an engaging storyteller, supremely organized and just a sweet and nice man - one of the very best tour managers I have ever experienced. We had a small group of six and it felt so personal and the group got along well and enjoyed the spirit of adventure! We explored Uzbekistan by plane, train and automobile and on reflection it was one of the most incredible journeys I have ever taken. Excited to see that tours to another Stan, Kyrgyzstan, has just been added for 2024. Again kudos to G1 for providing us with this gateway to Central Asia and for the chance to explore off the beaten path destinations. I can't wait for more!

Our Uzbekistan Trip was great. All credit goes to MS Hellen, our tour director from Uzbekistan. She took care of every need of ours .The best tour Director we ever had for long time.

Of all my Gate 1 trips, this was the best, mainly due to the guidance of the incomparable Mira. Her cheer, knowledge, interest, compassion, and professionalism go far beyond merely "doing a job". I felt like a valued and beloved member of her family. Our driver, Voy, is also the best I have ever seen. I can't maneuver my Mazda the way he controlled that immaculate 40-foot coach. I wish I could give them both ratings higher than "Excellent". I have scheduled a trip to Croatia in the spring. Also, as a huge fan of Bulgaria, I would ask that you include Varna and Nessebar on this itinerary, perhaps replacing Veliko Turnovo. The Black Sea coast is gorgeous, and these 2 cities offer venues (sea garden, archaeology museum with lots of GOLD, excellent restaurants, many churches and historic buildings, terrific shopping for local arts and crafts in Nessebar) that would add tremendous interest and value to the trip. I have been to both places several times and would happily go back as there is so much to see and experience.

This was our first Gate 1 trip and we were very impressed. The itinerary was great. A good variety of big cities, small towns and beautiful scenery. Daniel our tour director was wonderful as was our bus driver Werner. We will definitely do another Gate 1 trip.

Our recent trip to Uzbekistan was amazing (April 2022). Our guide Murafkhan or Mark as many of us called him, was outstanding. He honestly made the trip- with his knowledge, friendliness, humor, and organizational skills. He went beyond to help all of us when necessary. He suggested restaurants and ate with us on our nights on our own. Our tour ended Friday but my husband and I stayed an extra day and Maruf insisted on accompanying us on Saturday to show us more of his beautiful city of Tashkent. We invited him and his fiancé to supper with us. And then returned to our hotel at midnight to see us off at the airport. You have hired a gem. A great ambassador for the beautiful country of Uzbekistan. A fantastic trip.

First, I would like to congratulate Gate1 in selecting Uzbekistan as a destination. It is a superb country and offers fantastic sightseeing opportunities. While seemingly off the beaten path as most, even seasoned, tourists don't make it there, it is of course anything but given that the Silk Road traverses the country. Typically I don't get around to writing feedback after trips, but I feel inspired to do so after this one. I also want to let Gate1 know that our tour guide, Marufkhan , was really excellent! I have taken 5 tours with Gate 1 already and believe all our guides were good (especially Anil in Thailand and Leo in Peru). I also have taken many other tours with other companies, multinational and local, and those also featured competent and agreeable guides. Nonetheless, I would say Marufkhan is among the very best I've had. In addition to his superb management, I really appreciated his erudition and enthusiasm in providing us sophisticated and detailed explanations about the sites we were seeing. Moreover, he was extremely attentive to our needs. I should mention we were only a group of three friends form Canada. Unfortunately, other friends of ours (4 from past gate 1 tours) backed out due to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine. Apparently, so did the rest of the originally-reserved group. Thus, he only had the 3 of us to cater to. While that might appear straightforward, other guides might not have felt the desire to be so attentive, perhaps preferring to have their own well-deserved time especially in evenings. Marufkhan also facilitated quick visits to places not on the itinerary, such as a greenhouse and a Sandovar, knowing we had an interest in civil engineering and irrigation. Upon our return to Tashkent, he ensured that we were well taken care of until our departures even though the tour was technically over and we were no longer his responsibility. Naturally, we reflected all of this in our tips (which he most definitely earned). Thanks for providing a venue for this feedback.

It was absolutely perfect! I was so impressed with our guide and all the accommodations and amazing itinerary. I would not hesitate to recommend this trip and the wonderful job Gate 1 did with organizing every aspect so well.

"Bacho" (Bonifacio) was the best guide I've ever had. In addition to being a really fine human being, his organizational ability was beyond reproach, even somehow managing to make it seem low-key despite all that went into it. Gate 1 is very fortunate to have him.

Fantastic! In spite of rainy days and fog we loved every minute. The landscape was gorgeous and the people everywhere wonderful. I swear Newfoundlanders are all comedians, I never laughed so much in my life. On our optional boat ride we observed two whales feeding for about 20 minutes, definitely a highlight! It was a wonderful and memorable trip and I recommend it highly.

Our Gate 1 trip to Greece was very satisfactory, in line with all our other great past experiences with Gate 1. Please note for your management team that our Tour Guide Manager Militsia was one of Gate 1 's best. This trip definitely exceeded our very high expectations!

Our trip to Mongolia was just wonderful! We had a good time and everything was excellent. Our tour manager was one of the best!

Wonderful! Daniel was an excellent guide. He worked at providing animals and birds for all to see. His expertise in the area was apparent from the beginning to the end. Daniel took excellent care of us the whole trip. He was patient and catered to the needs of his group. Thank you for a lifetime experience!

We had a wonderful time. Mongolia is a well kept secret travel location. Our guide Delguun, in Mongolia, and Jessica, in China, were wonderful and in keeping with Gate 1's record of outstanding guides.

Fantastic! Both countries were beautiful, Norway is spectacular. Great traveling companions. Food was delicious. Many fun extras on this trip. Thanks for a great time.

We had a wonderful time in Newfoundland. It was everything we had hoped for and more. We thoroughly enjoyed the whale watching and icebergs and the coast line of Newfoundland. Our tour guide, Karen, was absolutely amazing and she took such good care of us during our tour. She went above and beyond in her services to us. Out of all our Gate 1 trips, she is by far the best tour manager for us. I would travel with her again in the future.

This was our 5th Gate 1 trip and one of the best trips we have done with any company or on our own.

Fabulous trip from start to finish! Our guide was wonderful and charming. The trip was a once in a lifetime experience for our family. Our son, Nicholas, was born in Beijing in 2003. This was his first time to visit his birthplace since we adopted him in 2005. So the trip was a pilgrimage for him, and he now has a great appreciation for his heritage.

The trip was wonderful. Doug, our director was excellent, as were our local guide, Mariela, and our driver. The tour group was always on time and the schedule was interesting and educational. No complaints. Will recommend this trip to others.

We had a fantastic time. Our guides were extraordinary and they were very knowledgeable. Daniel was our guide and we enjoyed every minute of him. We so many animals. It was beyond our expectations. Seeing so many lions, eight cheetahs, and two leopards is beyond our dreams. The hotels were very appreciated. We will definitely consider Gate 1 again.

Superb! our tour guide "Jack" was the most conscientious and affable tour guide to date from any company that i have traveled within the last 30 years! keep your Discovery Tour rates reasonable and accommodation quality high and i will continue to travel with Gate 1 (the idea of value for money was echoed by my other 12 tour mates as well).

Fantastic. I loved it. Thanks to all for making it perfect. We were lucky to have perfect weather as well. Special mention and thanks to Roger who was exemplary in looking after us. I'll be watching your messages for future trips.

I had high hopes & expectations for this trip. I've waited all my adult life to go to Africa & finally, my husband agreed to go. Our expectations were exceeded & this was the best trip of my life. Beautiful scenery, friendly people, amazing animal & bird life - nothing was missing.

The Peru trip was excellent. Scenery was spectacular, activities all very interesting. Tour guide Egbert was fantastic and extremely knowledgeable. Felt very well looked after. Accommodations and food were above expectations and very enjoyable. I would highly recommend the tour. Touring at high altitude was arduous but all part of the travel experience.

My trip to Mongolia was much more fabulous than I ever expected. This was partly due to Gamba, our knowledgeable and fun tour guide and the other part due to the friendliness of the Mongolian people. It was wonderful to travel and see different parts of Mongolia and see their different ways of living day to day. I will highly recommend this trip to all my travel friends.

The trip was wonderful and 100% satisfied especially our tour manager Nicola. He is an excellent tour manager. I learned a lot of information and history on all the countries we visited.

This Tanzania safari trip was a wonderful life time experience. We have seen migration of wildebeests and zebras in Serengeti National Park and the sunrise balloon ride and English breakfast was also a wonderful experience. We saw a lot of wildlife in all four national parks. The three tour managers in our group were very nice and helpful. Our tour manager and safari driver, Malcolm, was able to help us find out when and where wildlife was so we could see them closely. We took a lot of very nice photos. The foods and accommodations were also very good.

By far the best vacation I have been on. Tanzania was an extraordinary experience. Beautiful country with very friendly people. I think for this type of trip the tour guide really makes the trip if they are as knowledgeable as ours Timothy was. He was so patient with us and really had so much knowledge about the animals and the bush. This trip was very well done especially with the accommodations for being really out in the bush.

Our trip to the Balkans was wonderful! Nikola was an amazing tour coordinator that helped make the trip a perfect one. Once more, amazing memories Gate 1 helped make!

The trip to Greece was fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone. Jenny, our tour guide, was the best tour guide I've ever had and I've taken many tours with various companies. She's extremely knowledgeable and also very conscious of her travelers' needs. I recommend her highly. I truly believe it was because of her, her knowledge and guidance that made the trip so enjoyable. She's a real asset to Gate 1 in Greece.

Greece trip was wonderful. The tour was excellent and Jenny was a fantastic guide. All of the sites we visited were incredible and very interesting.

This trip was fantastic! Everything! Malcolm, the guide was superb -- knowledgeable, experienced in everything "outdoors", interested and practiced in what was important to all of us, and just plain fun. Each day, each event was worthy -- New Zealand is spectacular -- its environs and people are very welcoming. We loved the variety and level of activities offered. And -- the food all along the way was wonderful.