 GAP Adventures - experiences? |
AfricaAntarcticaAsiaCentral America CaribbeanEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaOceaniaSouth AmericaOceans and SeasGAP Adventures - experiences?Africa » South AfricaTopic Type: Tour | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Various stories positive and negative regarding GAP adventures - there is no general consensus. All comments reflect the opinions and experiences of the individual posters.| 51 Replies: « back 1 2 3 next » | cibernauta JC Post Count: 4 Msg: #41 24 weeks ago, July 4th 2009 | some good feedback. | In December 2007 I went to Thailand and did the north with GAP (9 days total). The tourguide was Mr. Lee and he was a great person and great tourguide. It was the best trip of my life so far, and I have been in many places from Europe, to North America, Brasil, Asia, etc etc.. [Edited: 20:43 - cibernauta ]  The Steiners Manny and Jennifer Post Count: 12 Msg: #42 23 weeks ago, July 15th 2009 | WOW. I was about to book a GAP Africa tour but there is absolutely NO way when the only positive comments on this forum were posted by GAP's current staff. I guess it's true, you get what you pay for. Thank you all for sharing your experiences. There ARE two sides to the story - the truth from the customer's mouth and the delusions from the company's. | Cynthia103 Cynthia Post Count: 3 Msg: #43 22 weeks ago, July 16th 2009 | I had no idea there were so many problems with G.A.P. adventures! My husband and I went on one of the Peru/Bolivia tours several years ago and had a fantastic time. We've traveled with a lot of different companies in Central and South America as well as Australia, and the G.A.P. trip was excellent! Our group had 12 people plus our guide and it was so much better traveling with a relatively small group on a trip like this. The cost of the trip was also cheaper than some of the other companies. We stayed in smaller, more locally-owned hotels for most of our accomodations, but they were all clean and comfortable. Most with decent hot water for showers (something we can't even always expect in the States....seeing as how we enjoy B&Bs). I felt that we were able to actually see the countries we visited and the people who live them much better with G.A.P. than with others we have traveled with. Our guide was very knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. | My husband and I are getting ready for another trip with G.A.P., and I hope that we have another good experience. Based on our first experience with them, I would recommend them highly. I'll post back later after this new trip and let you know what we experienced this time around. Ciska Ciska Post Count: 1 Msg: #44 22 weeks ago, July 20th 2009 | Hello, after reading most of the comments I must say: I not that looking forward travelling with GAP anymore. I've already booked a 30 day trip with GAP in December!!! I don't know what to expect now... I've done a tour with Trek America and I really enjoyed my Asia trip with Intrepid 2 years ago. Of course there were things which weren't very great (like a Thai tour leader who was to lazy to organize things or did not show up on the first evening, or didn't do her best to at least try to speak with us), but over all I have a great time with very nice travelbuddies ect. | I don't know if I should cancel my GAP tour and book an Intrepid tour (It is still possible now). Are there people who did a GAP tour in Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam recently? I don't mind basic places, BTW. Thanks for your advice. cibernauta JC Post Count: 4 Msg: #45 22 weeks ago, July 20th 2009 | Hello Ciska, | As i mentioned before I went to Thailand with GAP and it was great. Did the north of Thailand with GAP and it was the trip of my life. I'm planning to go to India with them and I have been asking questions to people that already went with GAP and they say it was great too. In the trip we had basic to medium hotels/motels, a great tour guide (Mr. Lee) and great organization. Check the forum of gap and send private messages to people that already did the tour you are planning to do. Cheers, Joao hisdad Jeremy Sale Post Count: 4 Msg: #46 22 weeks ago, July 21st 2009 | Joao, | My son and his friends went with GAP and LOVED it! See: www.youtube.com/cinapsefilms rachellouise9 rachel mullaney Post Count: 3 Msg: #47 20 weeks ago, August 1st 2009 | Dear Sir/Madam, | I am writing in regard to a recent 'South America Overland - La Paz to Rio' trip that my girlfriend Rachel Mullaney and I took part in dating from the 8th of June till the 6th July 2009. We feel that various aspects of the trip did not live up to the itineray as sold by Gap Adventure and as such would like to make a complaint concerning the areas we felt we were miss sold, and request a refund for the unsatisfactory aspects of the tour. The areas we are concerned with include transportation, provision for meals and accomodation, all of which at points along the journey did not live up to what was advertised. Firstly the tour is advertised as an 'overland tour' in an overland truck. However we were actually given two 4x4 vehicles. Every other gap tour group we met had been given a different story as to why an overland truck was not available and the reason we were given that the truck could not get a permit to leave peru is not believable, as if this is the case why advertise this form of transport? The 4x4's broke down constantly (to the point where their road safety was questionable), allowed in copious amounts of dust, and more importantly one car actually only had space for four people, not five. This meant that if you were at either side you were sitting on both heightened plastic ledge and the lower seat. Given also that the suspension on this 4x4 went halfway through the trip, it was terribly uncomfortable. The journeys were often 10-16 hours long and to be barely able to walk for the next day after such a journey is entirely unacceptable. When booking a tour such as this you expect to be very comfortable, when in fact public transport would have been far more comfortable and a lot cheaper. The constant theme of the tour appeared to be that whilst the itinary never changed, GAP(or our tour guide, it was uncertain as to which) had cut a lot of costs. The accomodation was an issue here, where in Iguassu falls we were made to camp instead of being in a hotel room for three nights. Our tour leader told us that the hotel we were meant to stay in was 90 reais a night, whereas our camping was only 15. Therefore I would like to be refunded the difference for those 3 nights for myself and Rachel as we had in fact paid for those nights in the cost of the trip. What was also massively hypotrical was the tour guides response to our questioning as to why the accomodation had been changed. He was very rude and abrupt and upset my girlfriend. He also declared that if he had it his way the whole trip would be camping, and then upon arrival at Foz de Iguassu he promptly upgraded himself into a room and left us to camp. The fact that we were offered an upgrade to a room for a fee was even more insulting, as it was clear there were plenty of rooms for everyone that GAP just did not want to pay for. Another issue throughout the trip was the lack of included meals. We did not recieve half of them, particularly in Brazil. The GAP website advises to bring $400 for food, and we easily spent double that. When we would question our tour guide as to why the meals that were indicated as being included on the itinary were not included he was again very rude, stating that GAP do not give him a budget that would cover all the meals meant to be included in Brazil. If we were travelling for a whole day and arrived at the campsite at night he would also say it was simply too late to cook, again getting out of giving us the food we paid for. In Bolivia on a long journey we were once given a packed lunch, this would have been a satisfactory solution in Brazil also, however the guide said that there simply was not a budget for a packed lunch in Brazil. The meals that the tour guide did include were often questionable. For example one dinner in Chochis was a plate of horsemeat to be passed around and eaten, the next night a plate of beef. Whilst we were grateful to actually be getting a meal that we were entitled to, many of the group were not keen on just eating 'finger food' meat for every meal. Another example would be the one included meal in Paraty (out of 3 nights where all meals were meant to be included) when he asked us all to be back at 3pm for lunch, but did not cook it until 5pm therefore wasting our day and also avoiding cooking any dinner. It was at this point where everyone in our group had given up asking the guide why things were not included as doing so invited no useful response and generally illicted both rude and confrontational behaviour from the guide. Even more irritating was the fact that because we did not know which meals would or would not be included it meant that we would sometimes be left with no choice other than to miss meals and go to bed hungry. On journeys we would be left with no choice but to pay for food in expensive service stations/ roadside restaurants or wait until our destination where potentially no food would be offered. If David had been honest and said 'there are no meals included in Brazil' we could have purchased our own food from the supermarket as we would usually do when travelling instead of always eating out. Myself and Rachel were sold the trip as including a lot of meals, and the itinary indicated every camping meal included and many of the travelling days had meals included too. This is why paying £1150 and a $600 local payment each in total for the trip seemed worth it as we knew we could have a smaller budget as most food was included. However given that half the food was not included and we spent double the $400 estimated food cost, we would both like to be refunded for the food we had to buy. It is clear that we recieved a cut cost version of the trip that we paid full price for, and this is simply unacceptable.GAPs cost cutting measures for no other reason than to save the company money at the expense of the tour group chriskes Christoph Kessler Post Count: 2 Msg: #48 18 weeks ago, August 19th 2009 | So far I had positive experiences with GAP (Mexico, Morocco). I am in agreement with many, the tour leader, actually they are not guides, are pretty weak. My good experiences stopped when I booked my next trip to Vietnam. I booked the travel insurance with GAP as well. They charged my credit card with the insurance twice by mistake. When they discovered the error they initiate a refund. The refund was less than the original charge. When I complained I was told I have to deal with my credit card company. I think customer care has little priorty for GAP. I am speechless that they expect I have to pay for their system errors. | Travel insurance GAP is offering are pretty overpriced and do not include the flight. We had to pay more than 15 % of the tour price for insurance. I advice everyone to search for better deals on insurances including flights, as it makes no sense to get the tour refunded but not the flight. [Edited: 10:50 - chriskes - spelling] chriskes Christoph Kessler Post Count: 2 Msg: #49 17 weeks ago, August 20th 2009 | Up-date on reference # 48: Actually GAP has given in and paid me the fee their double charge has caused. Therefore the first comment is not valid anymore. | JanaZ Jana Zamecnik Post Count: 4 Msg: #50 9 weeks ago, October 22nd 2009 | Hi Ciska, | We are scheduled to start our third tour with GAP in November to Patagonia. The first one was Galapagos and most of Peru - including Inca Trail about 3 years ago. There were only 4 of us on the Peru part of the tour and it was great. The tour leader was fantastic - helpful, fun and she loved her country and knew a lot about it. The second tour included Thailand/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam. The group was much larger (about 15). The tour guide was trying to be helpful but it worked only if she could communicate with local operators in Thai. Some places we had been ruled by local guides - we were explained that it was a form of protecting jobs within the country. In some cases, of course, it was because of the political regime and censorship. Some of the hotels were real dumps and we complained about it. The train in Vietnam was crawling with roaches. I found most of North Vietnam quite dirty and perhaps the tour company has limited choices if they want to run on certain budget. Overall, it was an interesting experience, but the dirt often turned me off. I must admit that aside of Korea, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur I find Asia difficult to enjoy, so it might not be the tour company's fault. deleted_145020 deleted_145020 Post Count: 1 Msg: #51 22 days ago, December 2nd 2009 | Hi, | I tell you a little story about GAP Adventures, having worked for them for several years. I am not an agree employee who wants to get back at his employer but this is a story I feel that needs to get out there. Gap profiles them selves as a 'green' company with a 'do good for the local community' and a 'wow it's great to work for us company' The truth in the field is far less glamorous, the way Gap treats their local employees and operators is disturbing, they never pay them on time, I have heard in countries like China and Japan local operators refused to continue to work with them as payments had not been made for several months. Note these are bigger local operators that can stand up for themselves, in a lot of cases Gap is the bread and butter for smaller local operators and they don't dare to say anything sometimes not have being paid for over 6 months. If you do complain about not being paid on time they switch operators and make you lose all their business. The same with their staff, their local guides, their local and international tour leaders, all of them are not even legitimate to work in the designated countries (not one has an official work permit provided by GAP) People have been arrested and deported in the past and kept quiet. Gap has Europeans and North Americans working in all these countries all over the world, they all work as illegal aliens employed by GAP but without the proper documents as that would cost to much. And all of this just to make more money. WOW! And then seeing their http://www.planeterra.org/ And even more: Gap doesn't run more then 5% of their own tours, all they do is take a tour from a hard working dedicated local company and resell their tours with a mark up and put their brand name on it. These local companies are easy to find on the web. (support the locals next time you travel) instead of a company that uses these very same words as a marketing tool. They don't care about the locals in any country they operate, only in how much passengers they can ship threw and how much money they can get out of that country. Sometimes and that's where these complains come from those local guides don't even know who Gap is, they get paid a minimum wage (if they get it on time) so what do they care. It's disturbing and disgusting what's going on with these big travel companies, they are at this price war (GAP Adventures and Intrepid Travel) and their local employees (who they will deny are employees) have to suffer for this. Please spread this email so that people can know the truth. 51 Replies: « back 1 2 3 next » | Number of Users: 39 | Number of Posts: 51 51 Replies: « back 1 2 3 next » | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
