Tour Operators - G.A.P Adventures

I am an experienced traveller, having spent over 4 years backpacking the globe independently and also in recent years having done "tours" with Imaginative Traveller and Dragoman. I also did a trip to Boliva and Peru with GAP. I had heard good things about GAP and had high expectations. I was extremely disappointed. I am in my early 40s and have no adversity to nightlife and a drink or two :-) I was one of the older travellers on my Imag Traveller and Dragoman trips but everyone on the trip got along amazingly. Back to GAP, our "trip leader" spent pretty much the entire time drunk or recovering from being drunk or sick... he would disappear for days at a time with no contact (that was confusing and disconcerting to say the least). Most "sights" etc., on the tour where missed as he would talk the very young group (with the exception of 2 of us) into going drinking or lying around the hotel instead. I thought we had it quite bad until we bumped into another group of GAP travellers with an older couple and their grandaughter.. their GAP guide completely forgot to get their permits to go to Machu Picchu and now there were none available... needless to say, this was the primary reason most on the tour were there. I still hear good reviews of GAP and possibly my experience and that of the other group we encountered is an anomaly, but I will not take the chance and travel with them again. Sorry this is so long, but hope it helps!

GAp, are not worth the money. They make you eat at expensive restaurants so the guides get free meals, and change your accomodtion then belittle you in front of the group for questioning it. We were on a tight budget and were made to feel like scroungers for complaining that the indivated m,eals were not included, and the hotels changed to camping. Our tour guide had 3 ppl crying, and almost everyone vowing to complain upon return. Will I hear from GAP at all after complaining? it reamins to be seen. Here is my letter- 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

Am a seasoned traveller having spent 3 yrs backpacking in Europe & Asia but travelled w/ Gap twice as I now have limited time. Had a great time in Antarctica - staff was professional and went beyond the call of duty in taking care of us. However, was extremely disappointed in Mali - our lead guide couldn't be bothered and often disappeared in the evenings; most of the time was spent traveling from one destination to another instead of actually seeing a place... Thankfully we had good drivers. I guess it depends on who Gap subcontracts out to. Friends who have gone with both Gap and Intrepid say they much prefer the latter – better bang for the buck. Even though they seem cheaper, unexpected payments on the Mali trip added up so you ended up paying more without the added experiences, benefits etc.

I did an 8 day Bali trip in January and was very disappointed and borderline angry at the quality of the tour. The tour leader was a Canadian who new nothing about the local culture or traditions of the local people. He did not know the language and had the worst organisational skills. The tour was a lot of time spent in a big bus driving through interesting places to the prescribed shiny tourist destinations that had little character or true connection to the local Balinese people. If you are worried aout travelling alone and want a group of people to travel with you may enjoy. If you want to understand and see the culture and traditions of Bali don\'t do a tour with GAP adventures as they no nothing of the country. I was also angered by the false advertising of sustainable travel when large hotels were used and they were used for excursions, thus our money was not going directly to the local people but the the large hotels. Plus we used huge buses that were twice the size required for our tour group so there is no consideration for the enviroment or how our money is distributed. Plus the tours hardly organises any of the excursions and as noted gets the hotel to do it. Finally all excursions are extra cost and seem to increase considerably when you are there. Also I think the tour guide was taking a slice of our contributions towards some tourist spots. Overall not up to my standard at all.

To anyone who is thinking on doing a trip with Gap Adventures: In general they are a good company but just please make sure you are booked on a guaranteed departure trip if not they can truly ruin your trip like they did to me. They canceled my trip on my just a month before and I already have my airline tickets and other plans booked. Now I am loosing money and they are not giving me a full refund so please just beware.....

I did the Mayan Adventure with GAP. We had a fantastic group of people, many of who I plan to keep in touch with. The tour itinerary was filled with the right mix of history (ruins) and fun activities (like snorkeling).

I'm posting this information on multiple message boards. I don't want anyone else to have to a similarly horrific experience on vacation. This is essentially an edited version of the report that I sent to them... (G Adventures recently changed its name from Gap Adventures.) 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. Earlier that day, the group traveled by boat from Santa Cruz to Isabella Island. Despite taking a motion sickness tablet, I was seasick six times during this particular boat ride, plus the tablet made me extremely drowsy. By the time we reached our camping site, I felt terribly sick and could barely keep my eyes open. I fell asleep right away on one of the extra beds in the cabin while everyone else made dinner, drank, and socialized through the night. Late that night, I was startled awake by Daniel suddenly 'massaging' me. He had apparently lifted up my shirt in the back, and I backed away and told him that I just wanted to sleep. He went back outside to the rest of the group and I fell asleep again. Later, in the middle of the night after everyone else had gone to sleep, I was awakened again by Daniel’s ominous 'massage,' but this time he was clearly drunk – his breath reeked of rum. A bit terrified, I told him that I wanted to sleep and moved away, but he moved in closer. He lifted my shirt away from my back and started doing some sort of perverted biting/breathing on my back and neck. I made it clear that I wanted him to stop. I tried everything from telling him that he was hurting my sunburn to physically moving away from him. It was very dark, I was still feeling sick, we were in the middle of the highlands on Isabella, and I wouldn’t have been able to find my way to the rest of the group without a flashlight, so I was trapped and scared and he knew it. I’m not sure exactly how much time passed, but over the next hour or so, Daniel reached into the back of my pants/underwear, continued with his disturbing biting/breathing, and climbed into bed with me, wrapping his arms around me despite my protests. I clenched the covers around me to try to keep him away from my body as much as possible. At one point, I heard what I believe was him unzipping his pants, and at another point he climbed on top of me and forced me to open my fist and touch his chest. All this time, he was verbally harassing me, asking me very personal questions about my phyical relationship with my ex-boyfriend, making inappropriate sexual comments, and breathing heavily. He was also essentially criticizing me, implying that I’m too sexually conservative and I should open up and do things like his 'people,' and other such nonsense. Clearly, this was the most uncomfortable, terrifying situation of my entire life. I tried to keep a calm, brave attitude throughout, but inside I was devastated, humiliated, tortured. Finally, I decided I would try to go outside and find the others in the pitch black of the night – anything to get out of this situation. I got out of the bed (upon which I had moved all the way to the edge while trying to get away from him) and told him that I was going to sleep elsewhere and then he finally got up and backed off. Because it was so dark, I decided it might actually be (barely) safer to stay there, so I laid awake in terror for hours while he slept in his own bed. Eventually, under the influence of the motion sickness tablets, I fell asleep. The next morning, upon checking into the next hotel with my trip roommate, I told her everything that had happened. She said that she had been verbally sexually harassed by Daniel several nights previous on the beach, and we decided it would be best to tell all of the other girls on the trip about what had happened so that they could avoid being in a compromising situation with our perverted guide. After I told another tour companion about the incident, she revealed that she was also physically and verbally assaulted by Daniel on the second day of the trip. Some of the other girls mentioned that they, too, were the recipients of Daniel’s inappropriate and uncomfortable sexual comments. This trip to the Galapagos was supposed to be my dream trip. I had wanted to see these islands for years. I work hard for my modest salary, and I saved for a very long time to afford to this trip. Now, thanks to our disgusting guide, my memories of the Galapagos will always be tarnished by humiliation, terror, and embarrassment. I felt that I could not trust the one person who we had paid to guide us around a foreign country. This ought to be the person that we should be able to rely on for help, questions, and assistance. I was too humiliated to ask him questions, and couldn’t even look him in the eye. It was clear that everyone was extremely uncomfortable with him by the middle of the trip, and we spent much of the trip trying to avoid him (although he consistently kept turning up near the group). My most important concern is that G Adventures should do everything possible to ensure that this will not happen to others in my situation. No one should have to experience this sort of humiliating treatment ever, and especially not while on vacation, inflicted by the person that we are supposed to trust, the person that is paid to lead the group but instead takes advantage of the travelers. The behavior of the guides that G Adventures hires reflects upon the company very poorly. 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 am currently speaking with my attorney to see if there is any legal action that I can take against Daniel. I am also consulting my therapist to see how deeply this has affected me emotionally, and she suggested that I post on travel forums to help with the healing process and to encourage G Adventures to take further action more quickly. I feel that I deserve some sort of compensation, but have not asked directly for a refund and they have not offered. No one should be expected to pay for an experience with the lack of protection against physical and psychological harm to which I was exposed. 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. Good luck in your travels.

GAP started out as a small but fine tour company. Now that it has gotten as big as it has, it thinks it can do things such as the above reviewer mentioned (i.e. cancel trips and not give full refunds). But, most disgustingly, it now has decided to limit some of their best trips to those 39 and under. This age discrimination has a lot of people angry, and anyone who feels that it is wrong should spread the word and boycott it.