Gap Adventures

Over the years, we’ve taken several trips on Gap Adventures. I was amazed to learn that they have repackaged almost all of their budget tours under the label, «YOLO» and restricted them to 18 – 39 year olds. Those over 40 are not welcomed, and we need took at other trips, which they claim are the same. Clearly they are NOT, because they are several hundred dollars more expensive, not as frequent and doesn’t go to the same places.
Gap Adventure claims they want to market these to a select demographic, i.e. the youth crowd. If logic would prevail here, I highly doubt any 18 year old really has much in common with a 39 year old. But snap, if you are 40 — you are not welcomed now bc you are an old fart!
Well, old fart or not, I’m taking my money elsewhere like Intrepid, Gecko, etc.
And just for FYI, I was 18 once, and when I was young, I took Contiki trips because you know, they are all where the kids go to backpack and have ‘fun’ with each other.
I would not have taken a Gap trip at that age, even with YOLO tours. If Gap people were smart, they would figure out that us in our 40s have the money and now time to do things like travel. Go just look up Cruise lines. They love us.
Gap — I would give you zero stars. You are idiots.

Good for if you are looking for a pretty long trip, solo.
If you are booking a last minute trip (less than one month) I would not recommend this trip. People from NY are looking for last minute vacations, and GAP can hold you hostage as it takes them 3 – 4 days to confirm a tour, which you may need to book the flight. Our airfare went up by $ 400 waiting for GAP to get back to us… plus, when I initially reserved the trip, I guess I didn’t click the box agreeing to their refund terms. It took them THREE days to let me know I never ticked that box — don’t most websites not let you continue if you don’t agree to their terms?!
If I ever make it on one of their trips I’ll provide another fair review, but they certainly did not help in my preparing for a trip to S America.

I had a fantastic trip to the Galapagos traveling with Gap Adventures. We did the Galapagos on a Shoestring trip and our leader Zambo made our time truly amazing. He was extremely knowledgeable about, and truly passionate about, the islands and their diverse and incredible wildlife. Every day was packed from morning to night with activities — snorkeling with sharks, hiking, biking, beaching, camping, cooking, and of course — hanging with sea lions. We loved it. Our group became fast friends and we still keep in touch months later.

I went to Peru with Gap Adventures in the Summer. A bad experience!!! Mainly because of the tour guide.
She was rude, lazy, unethical, and she didn’t know much about the history of many places that we went. She took a girl in the tour group to a night club, and the girl got back at 4am. Well, the girl was my roommate. So I told the tour guide that I had a tour set up early in the morning, and asked her to assign my roommate a different room if she knew that they would be out so late.
After this instance, she started to ignore me totally. Once I asked her about the weather in Machu Picchu. She rudely told me that she didn’t know. Other people also asked her about information of the places we visited, she told us that she was not responsible for local information and told us to ask the local tour guide. How could she still knew nothing after working for GAP for over 5 years? Then I realized that she slept through all the local tours while the local tour guides were talking.
She took all of us to relatively expensive restaurants where westerners go. Once the restaurant owner even gave her money for bringing us there. I started to explore the towns myself and found places that I could eat with the locals. The tour guide liked to tell us about the next day’s itinerary during dinner. Since I decided to eat with the locals, she had to tell me the information before or after dinner. And it usually only took 5 min. So she started to complaint that she had to take extra effort to communicate with me.
I was also quite surprised that other people in the tour group were not interested in interacting with the locals.

Beware of G Adventures Galapagos tour guides!
I recently embarked upon G Adventures’ Galapagos on a Shoestring trip between October 22 and October 30, 2011. On the night of Wednesday, October 26, I experienced a very disturbing side of your tour guide, Daniel, who took advantage of the fact that I was sick by drunkenly molesting and harassing me.
For a full description of what happened, look at this thread:
I reported Daniel’s actions to a G Adventures representative immediately upon returning to our hotel in Quito. He asked me to leave my contact information at the front desk and to send a written report of the incident. I have not yet heard from him. I have also been in communication with a G Adventures «Customer Service and Quality Assurance Representative» representative via email, but so far have only been told, «We are currently reviewing your letter and have taken Daniel off any upcoming tours until we can determine exactly what happened.» So far, I have not heard back from the company in almost 2 weeks and this last reply was sent only after sending an additional follow up email after I had heard nothing in response to my report after several days. I feel like they are not taking this seriously enough and need to accept more responsibility for what has happened.
I urge everyone to avoid booking a Galapagos trip (or any trip) with G Adventures for the sake of your own safety. If they have employed one guide with a warped sense of professionalism and a total lack of respect for travelers, especially women, it goes without saying that there must be others like him.

To be fair, the trip itself was not bad — i did the highlights of Morocco trip for 2 weeks. Fellow travelers were nice, decent food, the guide was friendly and helpful.
However, the customer service is rather poor. I am not sure if they even read the evaluation that they asked clients to fill out at the end of the trip.
1. Why waste people’s time if they are not reviewed?
2. If they are read, then it is a shame that i did not get a response, not even a simple apology for my experience while on the tour.
Toward the middle of the trip, i encountered (or rather, was attacked by) bed bugs. I woke up one night with at least 2 dozen bed bugs on my bed, biting me (i killed 2 dozen at the very least — yep, i counted their red bloody carcasses, after which i gave up and let the rest go free)… my arms, legs and body were covered in bites (over 70 – 80 of them). But i didn’t really make a scene or fuss over it since it wasn’t really the tour guide’s fault and we were leaving the next day. We did inform the hotel so they know to exterminate that room (hopefully they did). The guide even said how fortunate he was that i was the one that got bitten and not someone else…
Upon returning, i filled out the evaluation as requested, and described my bad experience. I don’t know what i was expecting, but at the very least, a simple «we’re sorry that you had to deal with it» would have been nice, but i heard nothing back — this was over a month ago. This is definitely not the kind of customer service to be expected from a service company.

Went on a Gap trip to South America last year. Do not recommend this company. Paid a lot of money to be on the comfort tour. The majority of the hotels were awful (barely a step up from hostels). The trip had 4 inercontinental flights and b/​c Gap books the flights last minute to save money our group never flew together — we were broken up into 3 or 4 groups and put on different flights at different times, which of course ruined several days of the trip b/​c planned activities had to be delayed. Also, company won’t pay for tour guides to get travel work visas so at the borders the tour guides pretend that they don’t know you — which results in a lot of anxiety b/​c if there is a problem at customs you are on your own (in a country where you may not speak the language).
The majority of the people on the trip complained to Gap throughout the trip and after, and we were all told — too bad. That’s how we run our trips — if you don’t like it don’t come back. Umm, OK, we won’t.

HOLY. GAP.
I’ve been on the ground stateside for less than 12hrs and this review is already burning a hole from my pocket straight through my right foot.
**This just in, that burning was actually a blood clot in my right calf. One ER visit, several tabs of baby aspirin and 3 days later, I will now complete this review. No worries though — amputation, pulmonary embolism, stroke and all other possible crises were averted. Thx Bayer!**
Anyways… my 12 fans and anyone else ennui-​engulfed enough to suffer through more than 17 of my reviews might recall that I have a salt intolerance. This made me slightly skeptical of spending 5 days hiking the Inca Trail, eating food that had been hauled through the Andes by porters after (presumably) for safety’s sake being cured in salt and other deadly preservatives for an extended period.
W.R.O.N.G.
Welcome to GAP, where the food is served hot, three times a day — prepared from fresh ingredients hauled in giant coolers by human dump trucks. Eggs in the morning, soup before lunch and dinner, main courses involving chicken, fish, alpaca, quinoa, veggies and more. All concocted at altitude, from scratch, by chefs «with special training by Le Cordon Bleu.» I don’t care if it was a 1hr video-​conference. These guys are performing miracles at 14,000ft. There was cake!!!
Between our three main meals each day and a 5:30 tea with snackage, our reasonably-​sized group of 16 joked that all we did was eat. Of course, when we weren’t eating, we were hiking. Our guides were out-​stan-​ding — accommodating for the elders and less athletically-​gifted in our group and constantly checking-​in with everyone as to how we were feeling and fairing at altitude.
The weather was warmer than usual for the season and I was glad I opted to go with GAP. While this company is more expensive than most, they also employ more porters than most, allowing you to pass off 6kg of your personal effects. Who knew a sleeping bag weighed 3kg?
There’s no way to get around the fact that the Inca Trail is a tough hike through a mountainous region of rural Peru — hardly a vacation. Yet, with GAP I honestly felt more catered to than I have at 5-​star resorts in the past. I’d use this company again without hesitation.
Word to the wise: start doing squats now; after ascending and then descending 1,000 meters in a day you better be ready for this:

I recently traveled with Gap Adventures to Southeast Asia, and wow, what a trip! I had never traveled with a group and a tour leader before, and was not sure what to expect. I found it so helpful to have a leader who knew the cultures and languages, which enabled us to see and do more than I would have on my own.
I booked my tour through the Concept Store, where I found the staff incredible friendly, professional and helpful. I will definitely be booking another Gap Adventure in the future!

Simply put, GAP is an amazing company to travel with. This past September I traveled to Peru on their Inca Discovery tour with my girlfriend. The accommodations were modest but comfortable, the guides were very knowledgeable and friendly. We were given plenty of time to go off on our own (very important), but also had a good group to share the experience with. The tour was planned out perfectly. I always felt that I was seeing the most that i could see of the city we were in. We had a blast.
The store on 6^th Avenue is a great spot to visit, too. They have tons of information there and a great staff. They regularly have free events on Thursday nights. This is one economical way that I get my travel fix.: P

I heard about GAP through facebook, and recently went to a presentation on their partnership with the Discovery Channel (I’m a big fan). I was amazed at what this little store can do and was sold! They welcome you with open arms and you basically tell them where you want to go and what you want to do and they help you fit it into your budget. A lot of the trips are very affordable but you can also see ones that are more than 6 months NYC rent.
The staff was very helpful and funny and I felt like I was a member of their tight-​knit little family. I am going to take what little I have saved and try to go on a customizable trip to either Morocco/​Spain or India/​Asia later on this year.