Impossible to work with. Extremely unresponsive and unprofessional. Gave me someone else's flight itinerary instead of my own and would not respond with any actual information for my own trip after dozens of attempts to reach them over weeks via many emails including directly to the individual who booked my extension to begin with, phone calls, contact forms, and trying to reach out via third parties like the trip coordinators. Gil Travel was completely unresponsive for 10 days leading up to my flight, so I tried to cancel the flight with the airline directly, which due to the war was only offering WhatsApp support through an automated system that required a booking number to get through. I of course couldn't get through because I had the wrong booking information. Gil remained unresponsive the entire time until well after my flight had already passed. The process to get the flight extension confirmed in the first place was also painful and required an extraordinary amount of follow up with Gil Travel. Many in my group shared the same stressful experience of not knowing whether we should take our original flights back because Gil Travel was not responding and did not end up confirming until the last minute. They'll try to blame this on the airlines -- but that doesn't really justify non-response to their customers experienced by several people. From start to finish, working with this agency caused unnecessary stress in an already tumultuous time. read more

I highly recommend Gina Bianchini from Gil travel,based in Philadelphia, for her exceptional services in planning a dream trip to Jamaica for my 60th birthday. Her prompt responses, unbeatable deals,and timely updates,particularly after a hurricane hit our destination, have been invaluable. Gina's expertise, knowledge,and friendly demeanor have made the entire planning process seamless. I strongly advise utilizing her services; you will be delighted with the results. read more

good experience they helped us a lot and helped put us in contact with the right people

These guys are great - they were able to get me a flight change to extend my trip in Israel last minute when there were barely any options available and prices were sky high. It seems like lots of people are upset when they can't get what they want, but I can assure that Gil will always do whatever they can for their clients. read more

I saw a trip that interested me and tried to call for information. I could not speak to a live person or leave a message. Their recorded message instructed the caller to fill out the form on the web site. I did so and received a message back asking if I was looking to join a group tour. I responded Yes and asked if was possible to actually speak to someone. They responded with a link to the web site where I could find group tours. Obviously, I was already familiar with the web site since I had filled out the initial inquiry from the site! Clearly, this company has no interest in customer service. If they won't even speak to a potential new customer who, I would think, they'd be trying to impress, I can only imagine what would happen if was I already booked on one their trips and needed to get in touch with them. Don't waste your time! read more

They are crooks don't do any business with them. They scammed me two times with a charge of $300. Didn't confirm with me before booking a flight and charged me a $150 fee to get back onto my original flight. Terrible service and communication with staff!! read more

My daughter is going on a trip that required her to use Gil Travel if she wanted to extend her stay. She initially contacted them six weeks before her departure date and was told she would hear back from them in ten days. When she didn't hear from them, she reached out by e-mail, their website, phone, and Facebook, and only received back automated messaged. When they finally did send her information, via e-mail on a Sunday evening three days before her departure, they required her to respond within a day. By the time she saw the e-mail, they had cancelled any arrangements and told her she would have to handle it herself. Other people on her program reported similar lack of communications from the company, which appears to be completely incompetent and lacking the ability to respond to queries. If they expect to take six weeks to respond, they shouldn't expect people to have to respond within 24 hours and if a response is needed that quickly, Gil Travel should pick up the phone to call their clients. read more

The agents at Gil Travel were great in helping us coordinate our daughter's Birthright extension flight. We were aware that we would probably need to pay a difference in the fare. They offered us several flight options at different price points. Once we made our selection, they emailed us the confirmation and actually managed to get us a lower fare than the one originally quoted. read more

Absolutely terrible customer service. Every review written here is true, I had the exact same experiences. It's truly a shame that Birthright partners with them. read more

great experience, so happy they were able to extend my trip and made it very painless.

My aunt and I took the Christian Pilgrimage tour in Israel and Jordan. In Jordan, my aunt and I had the scariest experience ever and to top it off it happened on my birthday :-( (1) We NEVER received any info abt crossing into Jordan. GIL TRAVEL'S RESPONSE: Didn't the hotel give you the fax covering all of the details about traveling into Jordan? (I guess it's easier to blame the hotel!) (2) Gil Travel NEVER notified us wht time CTO -the local Jordan Tour Guide company was picking us up in Israel. We had to email them cuz everything is in Hebrew when you call & they responded at 8pm. FYI-not all hotels offer free wifi & you will need it with this disorganized company. They changed one of our hotels while we were there. (3) CTO dropped us off with public transportation where we had to pay $2 each so they could drive us from passport control to immigration. No response from Gil (4) CTO greeted us & explained that we could get our Visas the the easy or hard way. Easy way -surrender Passport to them for 15-30 min & qualify for Free Visa. Hard way - Pay $60 each. GIL TRAVEL'S RESPONSE: No one has ever complained or had any problems. No client of mine has ever refused to surrender their passport to obtain a visa. In the USA it's illegal to surrender your passport for even 5 seconds because this can lead to fraud, human trafficking, etc. Since Gil Travel has sent hundreds of people encouraging this, I'm reporting them to the U.S. Govt. We were 2 women opting to pay $60 to keep our passports Gil Travel's guide began pressuring us to give him our passport cuz he didn't want us to pay. Mind you, all this is occurring in a very small local Jordanian border where no one but your guide speaks English. After 30-45 minutes they finally let us pay for our Visa and we didn't have to surrender our passports. Each person has different comfort levels. Apparently the guide felt bad about your experience and wanted to give you a gift as an expression of apology. Seriously, I don't want gifts, I want to feel safe especially in the Middle East. My aunt's nerves were so bad she got dizzy & nauseous that we had to miss our first tour in Jordan. At first, I was mad at our tour guide, but I booked through Gil Travel-an American Company-not thru the local guy who later I realized was sincerely nice & just a culture/communication barrier. (6) There were only 4 of us, so they paired us with a Spanish tour. The Spanish guide was passionate and knew material. Meanwhile, our guide had trouble conveying info in English, so we didn't learn anything! While he was nice, I didn't pay $3K-5,000 for a friend but rather a guide that's going to teach me about country I've been saving up for. Also be prepared because Israel charges a $30 departure fee, then Jordan a $60 Visa and a $15 departure fee. After spending thousands of dollars GIL TRAVEL cld care less. They never even offered us a partial refund, at least for the Jordan tour. Please note, I have amazing pictures cuz I made the most of it, but I had to google these sites later. My Tips: In Israel they contracted Rent-A-Guide Tour Company and Hilik Silfin (hilikms@gmail.com) was our tour guide. This company is EXCELLENT and even though our guide was Jewish, he personally saw to it that I was baptized and he was extremely knowledgable about Christianity, the sites and the Bible, the guy even recited the Beatitudes in Aramaic. My suggestion is find them on Trip Advisor and hire them directly. There was also a nice American couple who was on our tour and owned their own Israel/Jordan Holy Tour Company called Cornerstone Holy Land Tours. I can't rate it because we didn't use them, so all I can say is they were nice and extremely knowledgable about every site we visited. They are worth googling further. In Jordan, as far as knowledge I thought the Spanish guide was amazing. He knows English too. His info is Youse Abu Gharbieh 00962798392245 yousef_ag_c@hotmail.com read more

We worked with Susan at Gil Travel and she was fantastic to work with. She scheduled a trip for us to visit Israel and Jordan. From the minute we landed in Tel Aviv, we had VIP treatment which shuttled us through all of the hassles of travel like immigration, customs and borders. There was always someone waiting for us timely and they were prepared with everything we needed. The VIP treatment is definitely the way to go as we were able to bypass all lines. I can't say enough about Gil and how happy we are with them. read more

Terrible service, lousy communications. Had to call often to find out info. Overcharged me on some things then had to ask for my refund even when they said they would take care of it. Never use these guys as there are plenty of good travel agents out there. read more

Wow. If I could, I'd give Gil Travel 0 stars. Do not recommend to anyone. Who uses travel agents these days, anyway? Especially with sites like Priceline / Orbitz / etc? 1) Old school Paper files? Only one person in the office had access to my file. When I would call for information on my trip, they couldn't look it up on a computer and provide me info I needed. If I had a question, my file had to be "tracked down", and sometimes I would not get a response for days. I can overlook this if their customer service was good. But... See #3 2) Unorganized This trip I'm going on in a week has been in the works for MONTHS. I only received my itinerary last week (2 weeks prior to the trip) WITH errors. Even after I pointed out the errors and the uncertainty of the itinerary, it STILL came back with errors. RED FLAG especially for international travel. Not to mention, we had ordered a car service MONTHS ago, to be told today that a) they did not arrange it and b) the car service is now sold out. 3) Rude I had called and called and left numerous messages, to no avail. No call back? I'll just email them. For my sanity (due to the obvious lack of attention to detail), I preferred a paper trail anyway. What response do I get from my emails? "I am very tired of seeing all your emails." Copy/pasted directly from my inbox. Kid you not. What kind of customer service is this? read more

I started with Contact Us on their website. I received an email in response, and I provided details for a proposal for a group trip. I was told that the trip planner would get back to me upon her return from vacation, which would be soon. I waited 10 days, and wrote again. I received an email asking a few more questions, with an assurance I'd receive a quick reply. I waited another several days, I wrote again, and received no response. They clearly don't want my business. read more

My fiance' and I were undecided on where to go for our honeymoon this coming Fall, what the availability of having a small ceremony was and the best place to have one. We explored many travel sites but found them expensive with hidden fees and unable to contact any wedding coordinators. Gina Bianchini, an agent with this company, was very helpful and knowledgeable in addressing our needs. She even contacted the wedding coordinators on our behalf when their response was slow. She made the process very easy - I definitely recommend her! read more

If I could give Gil Travel 10 stars I would!!! Before my trip I had never been to Israel (I missed the boat on Birthright and am now too old), but I've always wanted to go. Knowing nothing about where to visit, I found their website EXTREMELY helpful. If you spend just a few minutes exploring the Israel trip itineraries you can very easily learn what places you're interested in visiting and if you have any questions you can call and they are very helpful and patient. One huge benefit is that the tour is guaranteed no matter how many people sign up - so you don't have to worry about wrangling a big group together. We ended up getting a few friends to join and it was amazing. We picked the Israel Classic Tour, extended for a few days in Tel Aviv and had the trip of a lifetime. Trust me, go to Israel with Gil Travel and you won't regret it! read more

I second the two earlier reviews. It sucks that birthright makes people use them. They so little work that I thought I had contacted a fake agency. Rude and incompetent staff with no communication skills whatsoever. read more

all i can say is wow. please, if you are going on birthright - do not extend a ticket through them. it is a complete headache. they will be rude and uncommunicative. read more

HORRIBLE company! When you pay to extend your flight back to JFK, they change it to NEWARK (because it's cheaper for them) and then when you complain, they tell you you'll have to pay for them to fix it! They're laughing at you, all the way to the bank. Birthright should choose a more reputable company. read more