Grand Circle vs. Gate1
 

I usually use Friendly Planet, Smartour or Gate1 for travel. But I wanted to go to Chile , Argentina and Brazil and Grand Circle seems to have the best price. They do not charge a single supplement. Has anyone done a South America tour With GCT. Do their groups tend to be older. I noticed they have lectures on subjects related to the travel Are these good. Any information on GCT at all would be appreciated. Thanks.

Grand Circle and Overseas Adventure Travel (OATS) are one and the same. We booked a trip with them in early 2013 to go on the 10 day trip to Peru that started in late September. I paid in full for our reservation, booked flights using miles and added other destinations that would follow after the OATS trip. Then, only 5 weeks before our departure, they called to tell me the trip was cancelled. They apparently did not have enough participants. They offered to put us on a trip that would have left 4 days earlier or one that left 2 weeks later. This would not work for us due to our booked and paid for reservations elsewhere. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. I had to scramble to put together a trip on our own. Based on my experience, I would say stay away from them.

Grand Circle and OAT do design their trips for "active, older adults." That is not to say that everyone on the trip is old. They also get a lot of repeat customers, so you will be traveling with experienced travelers. We've taken 15 OAT trips and 1 Grand Circle, and all have been excellent. The only South America trip we took was the Amazon River Cruise with OAT, but we have a friend who has taken the SA trip that you're interested in, and they found it quite enjoyable.

PIPERPAT is a big fan of OAT and GC. I, on the other hand, am not. My understanding is that GC has bigger groups than OAT, so I would never travel with GC, and once was enough with OAT. I have traveled once with Gate1 (to Egypt) and they seemed OK if you want a tour. Personally I prefer to travel independently and found it easy to do so in SA.