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Gate 1 Travel to Iceland - Iceland Guided Tours

• Europe    
• Iceland    
• Capital Region    
• Reykjavik    
• Reykjavik - Things to Do    
• Iceland Guided Tours

A fantastic Golden Circle trip with Ian from Sunderland (I think!) A minibus trip, which picked us... read more

Golden Circle tour with IG Tours was fantastic. We were picked up at the harbour (We were on a... read more

Gate 1 Travel to Iceland

We booked the 5 day trip to Iceland with Gate 1 Travel which included airfare, hotel, breakfast daily and 2 excursions. I was extremely pleased with the whole experience including the guided tours. The tour guide has extensive knowledgeable of Iceland which she shared with our small group. For a short vacation, this was definatly the best thing to do.

Chose this company for the Golden Circle tour after reading Tripadvisor. Odinn, our guide for the day turned up promptly at our hotel at 8.00 am. He was very friendly, spoke excellent English and showed a good sense of humour from the outset. His knowledge and presentation were fantastic throughout the day. He was exceptionally informative and had a human approach to life in Iceland. There were about 12 of us on the mini coach. We avoided the crowds by a well planned but flexible approach. We also went to some other attractions the larger coaches couldn't get to. Well worth the effort of finding this company and can highly recommend them.

We had a brilliant day out with Brahim, he's so knowledgable and friendly, really made our day! Highly recommend this tour, great places, great people and a day very well spent!

What a fantastic tour company. We did 3 tours with IG and would thoroughly recommend them all. So much better than the big tour companies. The golden circle tour is a must and our guide Ragnar was informative and friendly. We also did the south coast with glacier hike and I didn't have as high expectations for that one but the glacier was incredible. They give you special shoe attachment so you can walk on ice. Views are incredible! Finally we did the northern lights tour. Ronni, our tour guide was passionate and really wanted to make sure his guests saw a good display and we were incredibly lucky and what a display! The big tour companies had all headed back but Ronni knew the best spots and made sure we stayed out as the main 'display' happened at about midnight. Can't recommend the company enough! 😊

Our family of 4 adults just returned from a 6 Day Iceland's Northern Lights with Gate 1 Travel. EXCELLENT!!!! As our travel agent, whom I worked with to book the trip, you were very informative, listening to our travel objectives and helpful to book us at the hotel in Reykjavik. This was centrally located to shopping, restaurants and touring options. Stores close by 7pm. For the winter, this hotel was hopping with tour groups coming and going at various times. After our final payment, we received 20 pages of detailed travel information, which included our airline ticket details and vouchers for each part of the trip. It was very helpful. We also booked 2 optional excursions prior to the trip starting – 1. The Blue Lagoon, 2. Golden Circle Tour. This was helpful since the Blue Lagoon sold out. We arrived Tuesday morning - We had our prepaid voucher to get on the Grey Line bus to our hotel. Our guide in Iceland – Gudlaug, was at the hotel waiting for all of us. Many of us had airline delays due to the weather. She accommodated the majority to start the Reykjavik tour as close to schedule as possible. She gave us a Reykjavik walking/bus city tour. A few of the places were - Stopped at the Perlman View Point – a Domed building – great panoramic views Gulla was her name, a real Iceland trooper. Hallgrimskirkja Church. Large Organ in side. Very nice. Then she met up with the others who were delayed longer, to continue their tour. Gudlaug provided excellent details and history during each of the tours we were on with her. Keeping the tour fun and informative, Gudlaug taught us some Iceland phrases and words. She was concerned for our safety, reminding us to use our seatbelts on the bus each time we boarded the bus. Also, when clamp-ons were available to use, Gudlaug alerted us to icy/snowy conditions and let us know how they will help us stay safe while walking to take in the sites. She was right!! When the northern lights were cancelled and our tour time period had ended she let us know we were able to go with another gate 1 tour. Gudlaug tried her best to answer any questions. Gudlaug informed us we can call her anytime, day or night if we had any questions or concerned. Rhocnan (spelling??) our bus driver, was very professional and felt safe with his driving, while we encountered a few snow storms where it was difficult to see. Rhocnan adapted the weather conditions keeping us safe on each of our tours. Wednesday - we went to the Blue lagoon - Geo Thermal spa. Range avg 100 - 110 degrees. It was worth the experience. I did ask if there was someone to take pictures, there wasn’t anyone. It was cold out, maybe they don’t do it then. We did get pics with our cameras. Saw one lady drop her ipad in the water. May want to get water protection for your ipad or camera. We all put the mud on our faces. There were spots that were cool, cool probably 80 degrees. Heehehehe. Lockers and towel included. Thursday - we did the Golden Circle Tour – Geo Thermal Plant – Hellisheioi Power Plant. Then the Skalhot Church – religious power of Iceland history took place. Gullfoss Waterfall. NICEEEEE!!!! Walked the long steps to get to both levels. Geysir Geothermal Area and Strokkur Hot springs. Saw the geyser go off many times. Sun came out for us to take in some beautiful scenery. Then to Thingvillir National Park - the Tectonic plates of Europe and North America Meet and one of the world’s oldest Parliaments were founded in 930 AD. You can drive to the end point and bus driver gave you the story if you didn't want to walk. It was about a 20 min walk. Drove through snow storm at times. Saw lots of Iceland horses!!! Provided clamp-ons for our shoes, very helpful! Friday – Our guided Tours with Gate 1 were now done. We did ask Gulla for a suggest Glacier walk. This was with Reykjavik Excursions - Take a walk on the Ice Side. They pamphlet said easy walk. It was a little steep climb to get to top of Eyjafjailajokull glacier. Doable for heathly 55 yr old and 25 yr olds. Nice view and they were able to see an Ice cave and blue ice. Also a waterfall and the horses came over for you to take pictures. The guide was very informative and kept the group safe. We saw the northern Lights !!!!! We tried since Tuesday night, and the weather finally broke on Friday. Remember the Northern Lights are a bonus since they are weather dependent. Sat – Stopped at the flea market and picked up the fermented shark which we will try when we are all rested. Picked up Brennivin - Iceland Spirit, which was recommended to drink with the shark. Then stopped at the famous hotdog stand across the street. Note: when Grey Line picks you up from the hotel, they bring you to their office. They have other groups come onto your bus and you need to go into the office to present your voucher and get a paid ticket. Small item - seemed like 45 minutes of wasted time. I mentioned to Gate 1. Really small in the big picture. Note - at the Tectonic Plates you need to pay for the bathroom. Only place we had to do this. Credit card was accepted. We have recommended gate 1 to other people already because of this positive experience with both booking and the tour guides and will recommend/ hopefully use in the future.

We did the golden cicle tour on Thursday 26th February was a brillant tour and not busy on a little bus with about 11 people a lot more personal our driver was brillant very good character and went that extra mile to make ur trip special Billy

6 Day Affordable Iceland with Northern Lights Pursuit

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• Tour the Aurora Reykjavik: The Northern Lights Center and gain insight into the Northern Lights On the South Coast, view stunning scenery including volcanoes and spectacular waterfalls Visit Gullfoss Waterfall and the Geysir Geothermal Area, home of the Strokkur Geysir At the remarkable historic area of Þingvellir, visit the site of the world's oldest parliament Enjoy the warm soothing waters of the world-famous geothermal Blue Lagoon Search the skies for the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), among the most spectacular phenomena on earth Please note: Northern Lights tours are subject to correct weather conditions and solar activity. Sightings cannot be guaranteed. If the tour is canceled locally, we will attempt to offer another Northern Lights tour on an alternate evening, conditions permitting. The Northern Lights tour departs in the late evening and may not return until after midnight

What's this trip about?

Attractions, trip includes.

• Round trip flights New York-Keflavik, Keflavik-New York Other departure cities available. Click on date of departure for selection and prices. For important information click Flights to Iceland Airline taxes & fuel surcharges 4 nights First Class accommodations
• 2 nights Hella 2 nights Reykjavik Hotel taxes, fees & service charges Hotel porterage Arrival transfer 9 meals: 5 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners with wine Sightseeing per itinerary in modern motor coach Services of English-speaking guide throughout Entrance fees per itinerary

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Dates & Availability

Check Current Availability, prices, specials with Gate 1 Travel .

The total tour cost includes the tour price (regular or promotional) and the compulsory local payment. The promotional price is subject to change. Check directly with the operator for the latest price offer. The tour operator requires you to pay only the tour price to purchase your travel. The compulsory local payment will be paid when you join the trip. All prices are based on double, twin or triple share occupancy. Solo passengers will be accommodated in a double, twin or triple room according to availability with a passenger(s) of the same gender. Single supplement only needs to be paid if the passenger does not want to share and requests their own room. Discounts can only be applied at the time of booking and cannot be added at a later date, regardless of any changes made to the original booking.

Prices may vary due to local taxes and trip seasonality. Click "Request Info" to inquire directly with the tour operator for the final trip price.

Gate 1 Travel Reviews & Ratings

Other gate 1 travel reviews, gate 1 cares about money and not customer satisfaction or safety.

We have loved Gate 1 and always sing their praises. We've been on 7 tours with another one booked for fall. We were supposed to leave for Ecuador this week, however ...

THE ABSOLUTE WORST

THE ABSOLUTE WORST. Dishonest, incompetent, fraudulent. We booked a trip to Europe with them, and it was a mess from start to finish. The flight that we paid extra...

Joyce Toler

Poor customer service

It has been about 7.5 years since I traveled with Gate 1 Travel. In the past, customer service was exceptionally great! Now I am appauded with the unprofessional and...

See all Other Gate 1 Travel reviews

Tour Operator

Gate 1 travel.

Gate 1 Travel offers escorted tours, European river cruises, independent vacations and customized international vacation packages for less. Our discount travel packages and tour packages to destinations worldwide provide exceptional value, saving our customers time and money. We have taken care of all the details so you don't have to. Find your dream vacation today.

Company Background & Highlights

Mission: To deliver More of the World for Less by developing quality, affordable vacations for North Americans. To provide exemplary service to our customers and to earn their loyalty. To respect our partners. To invest in our employees, providing a safe and comfortable work environment. To know and understand our products and destinations. To constantly innovate and be a leader in technology.

Founded in 1981 with 3 employees; now with over 200 employees worldwide

Headquarters: Fort Washington, PA (Suburban Philadelphia)

Overseas Offices: Hungary, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Morocco, Argentina, Indonesia, Great Britain, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Peru, Ecuador, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam

30+ years of providing travel services to clientèle

Product Types

Escorted Tours - Group Tours

Small Group Tours

European River Cruises

Escorted Bus Tour/Sea Cruise Combinations

Independent City Stays

Independent Fly & Drive Packages

Multi-Destination Rail Packages

Customized Vacations (Vacation Builder)

Custom Groups and Individuals

Target Consumer Market

Gate 1 Travel's target market is a traveler seeking high quality, affordable travel ranging from a superior tourist class to moderate deluxe class level of accommodations with the highest level of service.

Financial Security

Gate 1 Travel is backed by the largest, most well-respected financial institutions and insurance providers, guaranteeing the greatest level of financial security to every passenger. Gate 1 welcomes your inquiries of any of those independent offices.

Gate 1 Travel's active membership in USTOA (United States Tour Operators Association), a professional organization representing the world's leading tour operators, requires that Gate 1 meet a minimum requirement of $1 million professional liability insurance (Gate 1 maintains a $5 million policy).

Additionally , Gate 1 is required to participate in the USTOA $1 Million Travelers Assistance Program, requiring them to post $1 million in security, held by USTOA, in the unlikely event of bankruptcy or insolvency.

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• Not Included:Gratuities.

Additional Information: Land only price does not include departure transfer, but does include the group arrival transfer that departs between 7 and 8:30 AM from Keflavik Airport on day 2. Please contact a service agent to make arrangements to meet the group if your arrival flight does not arrive on day 2 of the tour.

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Did You Make Your Connecting Flight? You May Have A.I. to Thank.

Airlines are using artificial intelligence to save fuel, keep customers informed and hold connecting flights for delayed passengers. Here’s what to expect.

By Julie Weed

Last month in Chicago, a United Airlines flight to London was ready to depart, but it was still waiting for 13 passengers connecting from Costa Rica. The airline projected they’d miss the flight by seven minutes. Under normal circumstances, they’d all be scrambling to rebook.

But thanks to a new artificial-intelligence-powered tool called ConnectionSaver, the jet was able to wait for them — their checked bags, too — and still arrive in London on time. The system also sent text messages to the late-arriving passengers and the people on the waiting jet to explain what was happening.

A.I. still might not be able to find space for your carry-on, but it could help put an end to the 40-gate dash — sprinting to catch your connecting flight before the door slams shut — as well as other common travel headaches.

It’s not just United. Alaska Airlines , American Airlines and others have been working to develop new A.I. capabilities that could make flying easier for passengers. The carriers are also using the technology to reduce costs and streamline operations, including saving fuel, said Helane Becker, an airline industry analyst for the investment bank TD Cowen . Although many of the airlines are developing their programs independently, a successful innovation by any carrier could possibly become an industry standard.

A.I. is poised to change almost every aspect of the customer flying experience, from baggage tracking to personalized in-flight entertainment, said Jitender Mohan, who works with travel and hospitality clients at the technology consulting company WNS .

Saving fuel and frustration

A.I. has been helping Alaska Airlines dispatchers plan more efficient routes since 2021. “It’s like Google maps, but in the air,” explained Vikram Baskaran, vice president for information technology services at the carrier.

Two hours before a flight, the system reviews weather conditions, any airspace that will be closed, and all commercial and private flight plans registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, to suggest the most efficient route. The A.I. takes in “an amount of information no human brain could process,” said Pasha Saleh, the corporate development director and a pilot for Alaska.

In 2023, about 25 percent of Alaska flights used this system to shave a few minutes off flight times. Those efficiencies added up to about 41,000 minutes of flying time and half a million gallons of fuel saved, Mr. Baskaran said.

On the ground, American Airlines and others are working on an A.I.-powered system American calls Smart Gating — sending arriving aircraft to the nearest available gate with the shortest taxiing time, and if the scheduled arrival gate is in use, quickly determining the best alternate gate. All this could mean fewer frustrating minutes spent waiting on the tarmac.

American introduced Smart Gating at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in 2021 and now employs it at six airports, including Chicago O’Hare and Miami International. The airline estimates it saves 17 hours a day in taxi time and 1.4 million gallons of jet fuel a year.

Mr. Mohan said that using A.I. as a virtual parking attendant could save up to 20 percent of taxiing time, with the highest benefits seen at the largest airports.

Faster and better customer service

Rapidly evolving generative A.I. — think ChatGPT — is helping airlines communicate with passengers better. At United, a companywide challenge last year yielded a plan to make texts sent to fliers more specific about what’s causing delays. Passengers can get frustrated when flights are delayed with no explanation, said Jason Birnbaum, United’s chief information officer.

But tracking the details required, composing an appropriate message and sending it to the right people for 5,000 flights a day would be too much for the staff to handle, Mr. Birnbaum said. Generative A.I. can process all that data and create messages tailored to conditions. For example, passengers booked on a January United flight from San Francisco to Tucson received this text message, along with a new departure time and an apology: “Your inbound aircraft is arriving late due to airport runway construction in San Francisco that limited the number of arrivals and departures for all airlines earlier.”

Having a more detailed explanation can calm travelers’ nerves. Jamie Larounis, a travel industry analyst who flies about 150,000 miles a year, recalled receiving text messages last summer explaining that a storm and a related crew-scheduling problem had delayed his flight from Chicago. “Getting a specific reason for the delay made me feel like the airline had things under control,” he said.

Generative A.I. is also good at summarizing text, making it a powerful tool for wading through emails. Last year, Alaska was among the carriers that began using A.I. to handle customer messages more efficiently. The airline’s system “reads” each email and summarizes the issues raised.

“We used to read first in first out, handling the requests as they came in,” said Mr. Baskaran, but now the system helps prioritize emails. For example, an urgent request involving an upcoming flight may take precedence over a complaint about a past one.

The system also helps a human agent decide how to respond, such as offering the customer a voucher, and it may draft an initial written response. “The person makes the decision, but it’s streamlined,” Mr. Baskaran said.

For all the benefits A.I. promises to airlines and passengers, the technology still has some shortcomings. For one, it doesn’t always deliver accurate information. In 2022, an Air Canada chatbot incorrectly promised a traveler that if he booked a full-fare flight to a relative’s funeral, he could receive a bereavement fare after the fact. When he filed a small-claims case, Air Canada tried to argue that the bot was its own separate entity, “responsible for its own actions,” but a tribunal found Air Canada responsible and ordered it to pay about $800 in damages and fees.

Still, as A.I. develops and airlines race to find more uses for it, passengers could see even more benefits. “As a customer and a business person, this is one of the biggest technology disruptions in the last five to eight years,” Mr. Mohan said.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

An earlier version of this article, in a quotation from Vikram Baskaran, vice president for information technology services at Alaska Airlines, misstated the number of gallons of fuel an artificial-intelligence-powered planning system saved the airline in 2023. It was half a million, not half a billion.

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Open Up Your World

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Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .