Wonderful. Gate 1 has a real asset with Ben as a tour manager. This was my 9th Gate 1 trip. I tell everyone that the guides/managers are outstanding, but Ben stands out amongst even the best. The itinerary was excellent, as well. Three days in each place may be less stressful, but the time we spent in each place was well planned. The optional trips were perfect. The Great Barrier Reef, Outback BBQ, and 3 sisters were my favorites. Although only 9 days as a group, we became a bonded group quickly. Looking forward to my next trip.

We loved our trip!! New Zealand was even more beautiful than we imagined and Queenstown and Milford Sound with the optional trip to a remote sheep farm were breathtaking. Linda was a knowledgeable and resourceful guide who make us feel secure in her country. Australia was more fascinating than I anticipated and I loved the English influence on the foods, the architecture, and the culture. Melbourne's juxtaposition of old buildings and new, incorporating varying colors and shapes made it very artistic and lovely to behold. Vic was perhaps the best tour guide I've experienced with Gate 1; remember, this was my 12th tour. He went above and beyond expectations with his commentary, knowledge, good humor, and walking tours. The entire tour group (all 27 of us) agreed that he should receive tour guide honors for his work. As usual, the hotels were centrally located, impressive, and high quality; this is one of the features that I adore about Gate 1--location, location, location.

The trip to New Zealand was excellent. Richard is a great tour guide.

Had a wonderful time in Sydney Australia. Weather was perfect for taking in the many incredible sights. Flights were on time and everything clicked. Looking forward to booking again with Gate 1 travel for my next trip.

It was excellent. Our guide, Greg, did a masterful job ... The itinerary was well-planned, including the day at leisure in Queenstown, which was gratefully received. Coach tours all have their drawbacks, but they were greatly overridden by convenience and the relatively small group. We simply could not have been happier with the trip, including the hotels and meals.

Beautiful country and we had amazing weather. Food was incredible and our bus driver John was the best one we have ever had. Did lots of commentary and was fun.

New Zealand and Australia was awesome! This trip was the longest we had ever been on but it was worth every day of it! I can’t wait to plan our next Gate 1 trip! So far this company has been so good!

Our trip was great! We had beautiful sunny days everyday, even a few were close to 100 degrees ... Our Australia guide, Dana, was THE BEST! Cheers to her for showing us a fabulous time and giving us over and above attention and service. We would highly recommend the combination of New Zealand and Australia trip. I hope we can join another Gate 1 trip in the future.

It was lovely, Kevin our tour director was awesome!!! Fellow travelers were tons of fun & had similar interests, and the scenery was to die for!! Especially Milford Sound.

It was a great trip. We had a wonderful experience, the tour guide was fantastic. Everything was excellent, small group tours are the best!

The trip was excellent in every way. The itinerary was wonderful. Very nice hotels, good meals and Richard was a fantastic guide.

It was truly amazing. New Zealand was pristine from the Mountain Views to the ocean and spectacular lakes. The air was so fresh and the water so clean. Australia was our highlight, but everyday the tour was more and more amazing. The additional excursions were great for seeing the wildlife and experiencing Australia and New Zealand for it’s true beauty. We enjoyed the city life, but enjoyed the small towns and wilderness even more. We thought being away for the holidays might of been a draw back, but the group we traveled with and the amazing tour guides of Richard from New Zealand and Pam from Australia filled our days and celebrated the holidays as if we were one big happy family. Thanks to them we had a wonderful time. Gate 1 really out did themselves with this amazing tour! Thank you for a memory of a life time!!! We are looking forward to our next tour with Gate 1!

Both countries were great, both guides knew there stuff and were very informative. This was our 10th Gate 1 trip and all continue to be as advertised. We look forward to #11 in January to Italy. Thanks for all your hard work and making our trip special Gate 1!

It was spectacular. Unbelievable scenery. Food was excellent ... Both bus drivers were pleasant, safe and professional. Always felt at ease. Guide was very knowledgeable .. Will definitely recommend Gate 1 and especially the Discovery Tours.

We enjoyed everything about our tour of New Zealand. We felt it was well thought out. The hotels were very good. The itinerary was excellent, as were the dinners. Our guide, Malcolm, was superb. He was so knowledgeable about NZ and tied in the Maori culture whenever possible which made the tour that much more interesting. Thank you for an excellent tour of NZ.

Great trip! We enjoyed visiting both countries. Linda, our tour guide in New Zealand was amazing! She is extremely knowledgeable and very professional!

It was great! The people are so genuine and kind and it's a beautiful place full of history, culture, and animals. 2 thumbs up!

Trip was fantastic! New Zealand was amazing; people were great; and the Gate 1 experience was excellent!

The trip was fabulous especially New Zealand. The beauty of that country cannot be described. We had a great time.

We had a great rime in New Zealand and Australia. We were very pleased with the tour guides, itinerary, and hotel arrangements by Gate1. Again, you exceeded our expectations!

We had a wonderful time. We had a great group and excellent guides. All connections were good with ample time between flights. An extra day in Melbourne would have been nice. But we had a good taste. Would certainly recommend the trip and already have. Thanks for the excellent arrangements.

It was great! We had two wonderful guides--Claudia in NZ and Dana in Australia! It was a great experience!!!

Our trip to New Zealand and Australia was very interesting and enjoyable. We had seen and learned a lot about the both countries, their people and beautiful nature. Our guides, Richard in New Zealand and Mark in Australia, were very conscious, knowledgable and dedicated to make our travel comfortable and enjoyable. All the hotels were first class and travel arrangements were excellent. Overall had a great time and learned a lot about the life down under. The trip has been one of the best of the many trips we have taken with Gate 1 Travel.

Wife & I had a wonderful time--really enjoyed the way Gate 1 set up the tour. Never really rushed with adequate time to enjoy each day, lodging was always top of the line, great guides, and wife & I both agree we would love to go back to New Zealand again one day. This was our third trip with Gate 1 tours and we have always had a great time. Thanks for your wonderful tours!

Good trip good group. Excellent guides. Claudia in. New Zeland and. Mark in. Australia. Good hotels centrally located A highly recommended tour. One extra day in Melbourne is advised. Thanks for organizing a great trip which is bound to get more popular.

There is no place like home although the trip was great!! Both of our tour directors were gems and the weather was fabulous which is always a big plus. We saw everything that we dreamed of and more.

It was great! Another perfect itinerary. We especially enjoyed New Zealand and the variety of activities and adventures offered. In Australia it was the unique 'wild life' and beaches for us. Looking forward to finding out next trip with Gate 1 as soon as we recover from this one.

My trip was marvelous, cold in New Zealand beautiful country and the tour guide was absolutely wonderful. Claudia looked after us like mother hen to her chicks. On to Australia another amazing country my dreams have certainly come true Visiting those two countries. we thoroughly enjoyed every moment and the Sydney harbor was icing on the cake.

Great - excellent guides and good hotels and of course wonderful scenery and events.

Our trip was fantastic! Both guides, Linda, in New Zealand and Dana, in Australia were wonderful. Linda, especially, was extremely knowledgable about the history and topography of the area. The scenery was spectacular and the tours hit all the sites that we wanted to see and some that we didn't know about, but were a great addition. We are looking forward to our Gate 1 Russian River Cruise in September as we are so impressed with the quality and value of Gate 1's tours. We have become your "poster children" for your company and recommend you to friends and strangers alike!

We had a blast!!! It is hard to pick a favorite. New Zealand left us wanting more, Melbourne was OK and Sydney was very enjoyable. We loved the down time in which we could explore on our own. We lived in England for 18 months and we found so many of the English effluences that we enjoyed laced in their own history. Our tour guides were fabulous. We really enjoyed Richard. He was very comfortable to be around and took good care of us. Dana was very talkative and full of lots of energy. Once again, we are very happy with Gate 1 Travel, we are looking forward to our trip to Alaska the end of July.

This was a wonderful trip that met every expectation. My wife and I were focused on taking advantage of seeing things that could only be seen in ANZ, mostly animals. For many years I had a goal of petting a wombat, and we were able to do it at Featherdale. The other two of the big three for us were kiwis and platypus. Saw the former at Queenstown and the latter at Sydney. Also got to hold a koala. Except for the last, I'm not aware that any of these can be seen in the States. There were many other animals that we'd rarely or never seen, some I'd never heard of. Other highlights for us were the little penguin parade at Phillip Island, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and touring the gorgeous Sydney Opera House. We also saw a very good production of the opera Turandot at an outside venue near Mrs. Macquairie's Chair, with the Sydney skyline in the background. Of course, the scenery in New Zealand is spectacular almost everywhere you look, and Melbourne and Sydney are two of the most beautiful and impressive cities we've seen. Tour guides were both very good, also the driver/guide to Phillip Island. Hotels and meals were very good as well. Lots of free time that my wife and I took advantage of to do some serious hiking around, both urban and nature. My only problem, and it has nothing to do with Gate1, is that it is really a rough trip over and even rougher coming back. I am still getting over jet lag. You need to really want to do it.

It was a great Trip.We had two outstanding Tour Directors that made the trip very enjoyable.I like to go back to New zealand next year Thanks for the follow up

I had a wonderful time on my trip! I waited a long time for this one & it was definitely worth the wait. New Zealand & Australia are so beautiful & the people were lovely. I plan to visit again, some day.

Could not have been better!! To have everything planned and a guide to lead your every step meant so much. Thank you.

Had a fantastic time... Good group of fellow travelers, great tour guides and amazing countries... Thanks for checking!

The trip was great !!!   New Zealand was beautiful.  Had a great tour guide in Australia.  Loved the trip but with all the side trips we signed up for we were constantly on the move.  Just trying to recover now.  Thanks for all your help in setting up the trip.  We will be using Gate 1 again in the future. 

The trip was just super. David is the best tour guide we have EVER had.  We recommend that you use him as much as you can.  He gave us soooo much detail on New Zealand and the cities we visited that we felt like we were home.  Just cannot say enough about how great the entire trip was, and how super David made it for us.  Everyone in the group felt the same way.

Australia was also done well.  We very much appreciated the way you laid out the trip - everything was timed perfectly and we liked Melbourne and Sydney very much.  Mark was our Australian tour guide, and he did a good job. Two different couples had recommended Gate 1 to us before we took this trip, and because the trip worked out so well, we will recommend your company to our friends.

Thank you so much for the trip.

The New Zealand-Australia tour was just WONDERFUL!  Loved visiting those countries and was very impressed with how well Gate 1 organized everything.

The group was very diverse but worked well together.  The two guides (David in NZ and Pamela in Australia) were excellent.  Couldn't have been better.  Cool, calm, knowledgeable, patient, humorous. Very pleasant people.

So, all in all, I was very satisfied and very pleased and just loved every bit of it!

It was fabulous- as expected from Gate 1. We had the same tour director in New Zealand that we had in 2012 and we loved her, Linda, a walking encyclopedia of New Zealand- everything you always wanted to know and more! We had snow in Queenstown this trip and that was beautiful. In Queenstown we took the 4 wheel drive optional to Skipper Canyon and that was thrilling in the snow up the mountains--with chains on the 4 wheel drive vehicle. Such a beautiful view of the canyons and valleys in the snow.

The tour director in Australia did not see us much but she was really good, Pam. We had loved Sydney in 2012 and had done so much that this time we chose to do something different. We climbed the Sydney Bridge at night during Vivid Sydney and that was awesome. Took the ferry to Manly...gorgeous views from the water there and back. On Monday in Sydney we took a quick trip to Ayers Rock from Sydney and all worked out perfectly.

Gate 1 delivered an awesome vacation as usual! Thanks so much for helping us with everything.

Our trip to Australia and New Zealand went very, very well. My daughter and I can only smile when we tell our travel story. The countries were beautiful and the tour leaders were excellent. Fellow passengers were a lovely group of people. We had a great time together. I was impressed that so many fellow travelers had toured with Gate 1 on multiple other occasions and every one, without exception, reported about their great experiences with Gate 1 services.

The tour leader in New Zealand, Linda, was the most outstanding tour leader I have ever met. I have traveled quite a lot over the years and I was in awe of her knowledge, dedication and talent. She should be complimented for handling herself and all passengers with "extraordinary" skill. If polled, I know most of the group will agree with that statement.

I certainly plan to check out upcoming tours with Gate 1.

This was another great Gate 1 trip! We have toured both New Zealand and Australia on our own several times in the past so I was interested in the tour managers, hotels, and locations Gate 1 selected. The hotels were very good and located conveniently to attractions and points of interest. The staffs in the hotels were so friendly and anxious to please.

The tour managers in both countries (Angela in New Zealand and Dana in Australia) were wonderful. They shared their knowledge of the countries and history and made sure all passengers had the information needed to participate in the activities we wanted for our leisure time. New Zealand is so incredibly beautiful and one of my favorite places to visit. The penguins at Phillip Island and the Great Barrier Reef are certain to be among the highlights for all visitors. Thanks for putting together a great itinerary!

The trip was great!! Since it was my first trip with Gate 1 I didn't know what to expect. It exceeded my expectations. The tour coordinators / guides were very good. The hotels were top notch and ideally located. I heard many positive comments about Gate 1 from other members of our travel
group. I definitely plan to take more trips through Gate 1.

Absolutely the best Adventure ever and we <3 Gate 1 Travel so much I'm already planning our next trip!  Gate 1 allowed us to ..."Do it our Way" there on line web site is fabulous and their Travel Consultants are there as MUCH or as little as you need them!

Our Journey began in Sydney Australia...we left 4 days early, ahead of the tour group for some much needed R & R and to devour the City on our own. We used airline miles to get to Sydney, which was an amazing cost effective move. In Sydney, we stayed at the Menzies Hotel, (Gate 1 got us extra nights to accommodate our schedule) and it was a fabulous hotel because of their incredible staff and the central proximity to the entire city. From the mono rail, Opera House, Aquarium, Bondi Beach to the hop-on-hop off to Circular Quay, George Street opened the doors to a very exciting, extremely clean City. We were definitely "Spot On" mates! Also, because we had a little extra time, we went to directly to the Capitol Theatre as I heard that Andre LLoyd Webbers sequel to Phantom of the Opera was opening that week and we were able to snatch the last 4 seats in the house. We didn't care that they were single seats...we got to see LOVE NEVER DIES on its opening day.

It was hard to leave Sydney but on Sunday we boarded the Radiance of the Seas on our journey to New Zealand. No more shall I think of Ireland as the Emerald Isle, I have never seen lusher, greener, spectacular scenery than the North and South Islands of New Zealand. There are no words to describe Milford and Doubtful Sound, hopefully our pictures will tell the story better.

The Radiance of the Seas is a ship that is in a class all by its self, huge, (but not intimidating) beautiful, all new equipment and extremely smooth. Of course one does as much or as little as you want on a ship, and we really enjoyed our "at sea" days. Food was wonderful and plentiful, more than one needs but the Radiance also had Amazing gym and spa to try and work some of that off. The entertainment on the ship was "off the charts" incredible, we couldn't wait for the next evenings performance.

Our Ports of Call were also amazing and this ship was our home for two weeks! Some highlights include getting into Christchurch and going to the movie set for Lord of the Rings and where they are currently filming the Hobbit for release this December. I could go on and on with this little memoir but I will end by saying, if you have a yen for travel, zest for life and love to explore, give Gate 1 a call, this was our 3rd trip with them and certainly won't be our last.