Gapyear.com Reviews 21

I paid a lot of money to take out an ad with gapyear.com. Many months later I see via google analytics that there had been no clicks to our website from gapyear.com. It turns out the ad has been virtually impossible to find, and even then when people click on it , they got a "404 page not found". Money down the drain then.
Disgraceful then, that when I drew their attention to this , they merely said words to the effect of "please call us so we can show how you are mistaken and to discuss further advertising options". Total scam. Stay away.

The thing is with this company (I have learn't this through booking through them and going on a 5 month trip) is you have to take everything with a pinch of salt. Just because they say they are travel experts doesn't mean you have to believe that they are correct, no matter how correct and sure they sound. Don't do what I did and just accept what they are saying without doing some research yourself on some issues you are unsure of.

For example, when we got to Canada it turned out we needed some equipment for our camping experience even though they said that we didn't. We had to pay for this equipment which instantly dents your budget.

Don't expect rapid response from email inquiries you send them. They literally took about three weeks to answer a really important email I sent. You try sending it again and they still don't answer. You end up having to message a guy called Dave on their Facebook page. At least Dave got the actual job done.

Me and my girlfriend were given 2 days to get from Quito in Ecuador to Lima in Peru (plenty of time and loads of buses apparently). Our gapyear rep (Alex Butterfield) told us that we could get our bus tickets at the airport after landing. I contacted the airport via email and they said that I couldn't. I raised this concern of not making it in time with Alex but he said it was fine and named a bus company to use. He later admitted that this information was based on his experience from 4 years ago! Absolute joke!

I got to the hostel in Ecuador and spoke to the worker at the hostel that we needed to get to Lima in Peru in in 2 days via bus (it was now about 10.30pm in Quito) and she looked at us like we were a pair of idiots. Which we were for not questioning things earlier. Anyway, it turned out to be one of the most stressful nights of my life trying to sort it out and ended up spending an extra £1000 to catch a last minute flight.

I have since sent an email complaint to the Customer Excellence Team (excellence?!!!???) and they said that they took all steps and gave me 'all options to get there' despite me showing them emails giving absolute conflicting evidence from Alex. They could not face the fact that the information they provided as a company was wrong. They couldn't see that it was clearly their information that forced me to spend £1000 on a flight. They have refused my case for a refund, which I am furious with.

You can use this company if you want, it's up to you but don't take their answers as final. Question everything they say, research what they say and don't be afraid to do this.

Don't expect answers to your emails, especially when they have taken all payments. You have to work hard to get an answer from them which is a 100% p*ss take at times.

You want a travelling experience that has as little stress or unneeded stress as possible. Research a company that has a good response time to your questions so when it hits the fan they are there to answer questions, not leave you in s**t creek with no paddle like these guys.

Enjoy your trip, wherever you go. Thankfully, you meet people whilst you are out there that confirms that people are awesome for the most part and you kind of remember that it's about them and not the cash. It's all about cash for the puppets at the London HQ.

I've decided to book an almost one-year trip through the gapyear. Here is my terrible experience:

While I was booking and before I've paid a sum (which is really big) my manager was nice to me.

Immediately after I've paid for the trips, the travel consultant stopped being nice and stopped answering my questions. Or he answered just 2-3 questions of 5.

Moreover, when I had started travelling, strange things have started to occure. The so-called travel experts didn't reply to my e-mails, I had to write them the same thing for 2-3 times in order to recieve answer.

The 24 hours emergency service doesn't work, so do not expect any urgent help.

What was the most terrifying and really ruined my travel experience is that company has just simply stolen my money!

Let me explain it. The thing is that I've booked not only the trips, but also acommodations (hotels) through this company. Turned out that they didn't book for me the most of the hotels, although I had paid for them!

For instance, when I arrived to the hotel in Los Angeles, which was booked for me (Manager: Sam Webster Bell) and for which I've paid 400 pounds, it turned out that I'm not on the guest list. I had to find myself a hotel and pay for it, which absolutely was not in my plans. Same was with the hotels in Rio (I paid almost 800 pounds) and Auckland (300 pounds)!

As for Shanghai, they've booked me a hotel for July, despite the fact that I'll be in Shanghai in April and my trip finishes in May.

Summing up my experience with this company, I totally don't recommend it. The service I was recieving is awful, the employees are totally incompetent (Their names: Sam Webster Bell and Sophie Walsh). For sure, they are not travel experts. DO NOT book anything through this company, people. This company totally destroyed my gap year and made me feel nervous and depressed for the most time during my trip. I DO NOT recommend it to anyone.

Judging by the reviews from years 2014-2016, people had the same problems, as I had. The brand leader promises to improve the situation in his answers, however, as you can see, the situtation remains really awful in 2016 and 2017. Thus, I assume that the company simply lies to its customers. The only thing they do is get profit by ruining people's vacations.

I've paid an enormous sum of money for my trip and this is the service I recieved. This company has truly destroyed my dream trip and my experience.

Hope that those, who want to use services of this travel company, would see my review and it will prevent them from booking anything through this horrible company. Please never use this company for booking you trips.

I recently booked a working holiday to Australia with gapyear.com, along with a tour in Thailand before Australia. I spoke to a girl called Ellie and she was really nice and helpful and I would definitely recommend her

Had an amazing time, everything was exceptionally well planned by Ellie Gilmore. I would recommend gap year to anybody :-)

This was an amazing experience and the best way to get around America. You make amazing friends and amazing memories. 10/10!

I was recommended the gap year company through a house mate.

The consultant, Sam, was very friendly and helpful and understanding towards my needs.
I was pleased that when he was away his colleagues would help with any questions I had, rather than being left to wait for him to reply like some companies make you.
There were a couple of minor hicups I noticed along the way that we rectified, other then that I was all set to go.

This is where it all got a bit messed up, I arrived at my destinaion to find that although I had booked and paid for transportation to my hostel, the transfers had finished at 7pm, I arrived at 11pm, I had no method of comtacting anyone and ended up relying on the help of a stranger in the airport to call my Hostel to find this out.

The lady advised me what to do which ended up me spending money on a bus and a taxi, I was offered a refund if I supplied the receipts, but when you havent slept for 30 hours you don't think to ask the taxi man for a receipt.

I arrived to find that I had been booked in to the Hostel a week prior to my flight landing day! If it wasn't for the amazing receptionist at Base I would of had nowhere to sleep, this date mix up had a knock on effect to other aspects booked on my trip and was just a general nightmare.

Safe to say my first 24 hours across the other side of the world where made a million times worse by the lack of attention detail and organisation of this company.

Other issues include but were not limited to:

-Inflexible terms and conditions- I wanted to extend my trip but was told I had to arrive back in England before one year was up.

-Additional hidden costs- ammendement to date of travel, and obviously me having to book completely new flights due to the previous problem

-Not being given all the information I needed to make good decisions; I felt I was led to beleive I had to have a return flight, the consultant knew I was very up in the air about my length of stay, yet he didn't suggest a one way flight

I would NEVER recommend this company to a friend or anyone for that matter.

Essential I paid to have a half arsed trip organised by a really friendly person!

My flight from Birmingham to Dubai was fine, and so was the flight from Dubai to Dar Es Salaam. However, I only had a one hour layover in Dar Es Salaam, and so an hour to get on to my next flight to Kilimanjaro. The time it took to get my Visa and collect my luggage - which I had previously been assured would get to my FINAL destination, was well over an hour and I missed the flight to so called final destination.

Being stranded in Dar Es Salaam wasn't the best experience, and I was of course scared since I was alone. My phone would not make any calls while in Africa, so I had no way to contact anyone at home, GapYear or Gapmedics.

The staff for Precision Air were misleading and it took two hours to finally get boarding passes for the next plane - at an additional cost of 40 dollars of course.

GapYear should have known one hour was not enough time to change flights, and they should have known my luggage would be unloaded PRIOR to the final destination.

I used gapyear.com to book my flights for a gapmedics trip, and was really happy with the communication and flights, it was great!

I used GapYear to book my flights to Zimbabwe. Josh was the person who set up my flights. I should have dropped them right away because it started with Josh only answering a few of my questions in my emails with tons of questions and me having to repeat myself. Then after I just bit the bullet and bought the tickets, suddenly Josh wouldn't respond to my emails. I thought I had been scammed after using a foreign company and then he disappeared for a week with no response or even automated message. I emailed the company and got no response. I finally had to contact the company I used for setting up my volunteer experience who were the ones that recommended GapYear and they had to contact the company. Josh then messaged me saying he was away for holiday. Unfortunately, he then went on several more holidays right before my trip and even during my trip. Before the trip I had him arrange vegetarian meals for me on all my flights. He told me just to confirm with British airways right before I boarded the flight to just double check that my meal got on board. I did that and they laughed at me. They explained that no vegetarian meal was requested for me and that my travel agent should know better than to suggest a confirmation right before boarding. This was devastating because this was an 11 hour flight! I emailed him right away and got a notice that he was out of the office and to contact Amy with questions or concerns. So I emailed Amy. She was out of the office on holiday too! My 2 hour flight after this one also had no meal for me. So I emailed Josh a few weeks before I was to come back to the states to make sure this mistake did not happen on my flights home. I'm in a forgein country and he still isn't responding to my messages. I finally get an email when I get home to the states (again 2 flights with no set vegetarian meals) that he is sorry but it was the airlines fault for not having my meals and they cannot guarantee that their requests are approved. Are you kidding me? Had I done it myself I could have booked vegetarian meals for myself online in minutes but when I had him do it all, I was locked out of changing anything online. Don't use this company!

From enquiry to booking and a couple of queries following Josh answered our questions efficiently and fully providing the necessary reassurance to an apprehensive parent! A one stop shop for flights and insurance for our requirements. Easy access to e-tickets and itinerary.

I would highly recomment GYT

They are very helpful to begin with and very informative when booking the flight and usually this is just where it's left off.. Commonly a flight is booked and that's that, however what if something comes up?
This is what happened to me and they were the least informative and unhelpful people.
I decided I wanted to extend my trip, so emailed them. After I emailed them 3 times (because they just didn't respond) I got the most unhelpful reply. After back and forth-ing I told them they needed to call me.
This is where my hopes picked up just to be shattered again.
They said they'd call me back...... They SAID.. Did I ever get a call back? NOPE so I had to stick with my original flights and personally would not book through them again. I am very sorry.

I will certainly use the service again.

Myself and a friend spent 2 weeks teaching at a Language Centre in Causeni, Moldova, in July and August of 2015.

We were greeted at the airport by the lady that ran the centre, named Svetlana. She took us to our accommodation. We were housed with a Moldovan couple, Dima (aged 21) and Lena (aged 19).

The experience was fantastic and I would thoroughly recommend it.

Dima and Lena opened their home to us. We were made to feel very welcome by them and by their friends.

The teaching was thoroughly enjoyable. Svetlana was very relaxed and the students were a joy to teach.

It took me some days to book the flight, they were not very responsive. They did some mistakes with the booking, we had to book again and the flight price increased £230.

It would have been much easier and quicker with edreams, and probably cheaper.

Maybe other people had better experiences, but I would not recommend them.

Staff were keen to my payment as soon as possible and were cagey and unforthcoming about offering information regarding the programme. For example I did not even recover the name of the reserve before I arrived. Once I had paid communication entirely ceased to the extent that my emails were not relied to, and I had to phone up to confirm there was even transport from the airport, the details of which I was not provided with. The website details were inadequate and were not updated so I arrived at Durban airport unsure of whether I would be collected. I was entirely unimpressed by the company's conduct and would not recommend to anyone.

I wanted to book a trip of a lifetime, and I chose gapyear.com as I thought it would cater for younger, less experienced travellers like myself. During the booking process I felt pushed in to making a quick decision. Which lead to me having to arrive in one destination, not only a late for my tour but at 3am on the 2nd day. Whilst being expected to leave at 8 am the same morning.
After having paid for my tour, I had heard nothing from them for 2 months and had to chase to get my flight tickets and itineraries. I then realised the issue of the flights. The only alternative they offered was the change my flights at a cost of £300, at my expense. As a teen on a gap year, I didn't have that kind of disposable income.
I was also surprised, that when I arrived that my tours didn't have any teens, they were all mid 20's upwards. This was not mentioned during the whole booking process. Which seems odd as I had booked with a gap year company, supposedly aiming to cater for teenagers.

I used Gapyear per the on-line recommendation of the organization that my daughter signed up with to travel to South Africa (with no prior knowledge of that organization either!!! Lots of leaps of faith this summer!) I contacted Gapyear, and worked with Hailey France to make complicated travel arrangements that needed her in Richard's Bay, South Africa at a certain time for a private pick-up). So here I was, an American, working with Ms. France in England to arrange travel to South Africa. Hailey was amazing, organized, efficient, responsive, and supportive. She answered every question, anticipated problems and handled them, and reassured me all along the way.

Gap Year (a subsidiary of "Flight Center") severely mishandled my flight arrangements. Despite booking several months in advance with the intention of flying with my infant, we encountered significant issues. We engaged Flight Center's services to prevent any issues. They assured us multiple times that we would be seated together as a family on the 13-hour flight.

However, on the day of the flight, the airline went back on their promise and informed us that we could not sit together.

The following day, I contacted Flight Center and requested that they ensure this would not happen again on our return journey. They once again confirmed that our seats were booked together. I expressed my concerns based on previous unmet promises, and they gave me their assurance that this error would not happen again.

Unfortunately, when we checked in for our 13 hour return journey, they have made exactly the very same mistake again, that they have twice assured us would not happen.

Due to failing us twice with the very same flight booking, I will not use them again for bookings and would advise anyone else to instead look at competitors before considering "GapYear" (a subsidiary of "Flight Center")

Had a good experience with Olly.
Came up with a satisfactory itinerary for my return trip; Europe to the U.S. and for flights within the USA.
E Tickets sent and confirmed within hours of payment.