Goway

A tailor-made travel company with a worldwide menu

Goway is a family-owned travel company that designs and books tailor-made trips, from private-guided tours and safaris to rail journeys and river cruises, for travelers who plan through a Destination Specialist. It sells the whole trip rather than running day tours of its own: the site says "We book every step of the travel journey, so whether you're looking for a private-guided tour, a luxury hotel, or the right insurance option, you can book it with Goway," and a Goway Air division handles flights. Its reach, in its own words, is "trips to over 115 countries on all seven continents." The destination menu is grouped as Africa (from Botswana, Egypt and Ethiopia to Kenya, the Masai Mara, the Serengeti, Kruger National Park, Rwanda, Uganda and Victoria Falls), the Arctic and Antarctica, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Central America, Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, South America, the South Pacific, and the US and Canada. The company says it was established by Bruce Hodge in 1970 and has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Manila and Sydney, which it describes as offices on 3 continents.

Ways to travel and sample trips

The homepage sorts trips by travel style: Private Guided Experiences, Escorted Tours, Custom Groups of 10+, Rail Journeys, Road Trips, and Boutique & River Cruises. A second menu sorts by theme, including Food & Drink, Arts & Culture and Safari & Wildlife, and further menus offer collections and featured trips.

Sample trips on the homepage show the range: a Thailand Island Hopper through Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi; a Philippines Island Hopper covering Cebu, El Nido and Boracay; Chasing Totality, an Egypt and Red Sea trip built around the 2027 solar eclipse; a Lord of the Rings road trip through New Zealand from Christchurch and Queenstown to Rotorua and Auckland; and an independent London and Paris journey. The site presents these as starting points: "Every vacation with Goway is tailored to your exact travel needs." It promises "up to 5-star accommodations and private-guided tours."

For groups, Goway GroupsOnly plans trips for groups of 10+ only, and the site calls it "one of the largest and oldest dedicated group travel divisions in North America." Travel advisors book through a separate GowayPro portal.

How a trip comes together

Planning runs through a Destination Specialist, whom the site describes as someone who has "lived, worked or travelled extensively in your chosen destination." You request a quote online or by phone on 1.800.557.2841, or go through your own travel advisor. The homepage frames this as a "dedicated, personal Destination Specialist" for each trip, and the careers page shows how the team is spread: travel sales consultants work from Toronto and Vancouver or remotely within Canada, while travel customer success and finance roles sit in Manila. The testimonials the company chooses to publish describe what that looks like in practice: one guest mentions 15 flights on a single trip, another a 3-week Japan itinerary with every hotel voucher, train ticket and tour voucher prepared in advance, and a South Africa guest describes a detailed day-by-day plan for a Kruger safari with hotel pickup and drop-off. These are the company's selected reviews, not a description of any fixed product.

For safari travelers, the Africa menu is the relevant part. Beyond the big names it lists Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and Safari & Wildlife is a theme of its own. The safari review the company quotes describes a 3-day Kruger trip that began with a hotel pickup in Cape Town, included flights to and from Johannesburg or Mpumalanga airport, and came with an itinerary that set out the order of activities from start to finish. Other published reviews describe drivers meeting guests at every stop on a France trip, a 10-day Australia tour, and a Greece trip where, when one tour went wrong, the guest's specialist sorted it out. The pattern is the same across regions: a specialist bundles hotels, flights, transfers and guided touring into one booking, private-guided or escorted depending on the style chosen.

Booking, protection and reputation

The why-Goway page says Goway is a member of the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), "with its $1,000,000 customer guarantee," and of the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) Tour Operator Program, programs it says let customers "know your hard-earned money is safe when booking with Goway." The homepage shows a Trustpilot score of "Excellent 4.8 out of 5 based on 5,256 reviews," while the why-Goway page refers to "over 5,000 verified reviews with TrustPilot."

The footer links a Travel Insurance page and Terms & Conditions, and a customer service page. The about page says Goway employs "over 800 specialists across the globe," while the careers page gives "a team of 600+ specialists"; the site does not explain the difference.

On giving back, the company says it supports Tourism Cares and has a partnership with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), under which travel purchases contribute to MSF's general emergency fund; the page notes that MSF works in more than 70 countries. The homepage blog carries a series of first-person pieces on the company's history, including one on how it began selling trips to Asia after its start in 1970.

What the site leaves open, and who it suits

No sample trip on the site shows a price; everything runs through a quote. Deposit, payment and cancellation rules are not set out beside the trips, and the site points to its Terms & Conditions for those. Because trips are assembled from hotels, guides and ground operators in each country, the site does not name the local companies that deliver the touring, so ask your specialist who runs the safari or tour on the ground.

Goway suits travelers who want one company to plan and book a complex trip, flights included, across a region or several, and who like a named specialist to call when plans change. It suits groups of 10 or more through GroupsOnly, and travel advisors booking for clients. Travelers who want to compare fixed prices online and book instantly will find the quote-first process slower.