New Layout Is Horrible!!!

[Zuleika]

the new layout is not very user friendly, I cant find the dates of trips - which used to be on the first page of the trip - now I have to go through 'book now' even though I dont want to book now.
And then the dates used to be easy to navigate in an easily accessible list which would say which were guaranteed etc, now we have to put up with that stupid calender page having to scroll though months if we dont want to go immediately - just bring back the list - its SOOOOOO much easier.

It is definately harder to navigate round - and Im good at techie stuff!!

[Zuleika]

oh!!! - i just found the departures list!!!

ok - just bring that to the top then - get rid of the month thing and then its much more obvious and intuitive!

[jaycw]

Nice, thank you very much!!

[graybeard]

Nope, not impressed with the new format. I was helping a friend who was interested in a G(ap) trip research it and found it a challenge. The only reason I could find the "trip details" section, 2 clicks down is that I knew that it used to exist. Why hide such important information?? And, for some reason, even when I KNEW there was a certain trip, but did not know the the trip code, the "search" function sometimes did not bring it up and I had to keep looking for it manually by looking at every trip in that country, ie, Peru. Sure enough, as I thought, it was there. My friend was about ready to give up on the new G site as she could not navigate it easily. And, if there's one I bet there are others. Frustration with a site's ease of use will lose potential customers.

Overall, new set up does not seem ready for prime time.

[DanielBMe]

Actually I now like the new layout oddly enough. The only thing I would change at the moment is to move the link for the Trip Details that are at the very top down to where it shows the day by day itinerary. Once you scroll down to view the day by day, the top moves off screen so you don't see the Trip Details link. I think this causes some issues for new users. It's much easier to find it all in the same area.

[kiwikoalabaer77]

I don't care about the new name as I read the article why they changed it. But I don't like the new homepage. It is not very clearly represented and not user friendly I still haven't found the finishing hotels for the trips which were in former times easy to find. And I am on the G Adventures homepage frequently.

You are very right, guys, a change doesn't automatically mean an improvement. G Adventures should really go back to the old homepage layout.

[sinecure]

I don't believe G publishes the finishing hotel information anymore.

However if you need this information, you could possibly get this information from calling the 1-800 number.

[DanielBMe]

Personally I think the Before You Go link does not make for a very good title. It's a little confusing. People looking for trip details are looking for... surprise! Trip Details. Why on earth you would call it Before You Go? It makes ... bad sense. When browsing, people (potential customers) want to find info quickly and intuitively. I think you forgot the "KISS" methodology and went for something akin to "WTH". Just change the label to Trip Details or even What You Need to Know, either is better.

[kiwikoalabaer77]

If GAP or G Adventures doesn't publish the finishing hotel anymore that's a decline, a lack of information. I don't want to call the 1-800-number or my travel agent to get the major informations about a trip.

I was booked on the Essential Vietnam and Cambodia trip in October but because of some very bad incident I had to interrupt my trip and missed almost the whole Vietnam portion of that trip. Now I am considering booking the Best of Vietnam for 2012 or 2013 but I really want to know the finishing point hotel for that trip like for all trips I am intending to book. The hotel in Ho Chi Minh City G uses on Essential Vietnam and Cambodia was horrible and I would not want to spend additional nights there, the three nights we stayed there were already too many. So I want to know well in advance if the finishing hotel G uses for Best of Vietnam is the same like for Essential Vietnam and Cambodia or Classic Vietnam Hanoi to Saigon.

G should really go back to their original homepage which was fantastic giving clients all the major informations like joining and finishing hotels with prices, naming Trip Details "Trip Details" etc. Clients should not need to search for what they are looking for. Everything should be easy to find for everyone.

[sinecure]

To follow up on my previous post, when you book a tour it will say the start and finish hotels. You can then decide if you want extra days at that hotel and book them. They don't need to be booked from the start.

[Customer_Service]

Hi all,

Thanks for the many comments here. A change is always going to create some controversy with our valued travellers who look at the G Adventures website a lot. We are listening to these comments - actually, listening to our travellers is why we made the changes to the design originally.

We have received many positive comments also - but we do appreciate the common themes in this thread. Please rest assured we are taking all of this in.

[ExplorerWannaBe]

I'm not too fond of the new layout. I was researching trips over Thanksgiving and having a much tougher time pulling information together. While the popup calendars are nice, I preferred just getting a list of departures to choose from.

I tried looking at Expedition cruises and couldn't figure out how to change class of service to look for vacancies or price checks. The old website worked for me; of course there's always room for improvement but I'm not sure this is one.

I really hate all the white space around the central column. One of the worst features of CSS in the last 3-4 years are all the styles oriented around narrow displays. It probably looks good on an iPad -- not so much on a UXGA display.