Alaska-Wildlife-Guide LLC — Attraction in Alaska

We chose this company to book an Arctic Circle and Northern Lights tour from Fairbanks. When I booked the tour the company seemed very friendly until we finished the tour and my review on TripAdvisor upset the owner. I want people to know exactly what they are buying as I think the description can be elusive and not very detailed. This is how are experience went. They picked us up in a passenger van with very narrow seats and very little leg room. I had called earlier to acquire about this, as the trip was long, I spoke with the owner and he told me it was a passenger van (not a coach) but assured me that it was comfortable. It was not for that length of ride. They did agree to pick us up at the house we were staying at in Fairbanks. They showed up promptly at 2pm and our guide Dave seemed like a friendly guy. We loaded into the van and off we went. Very quickly we realized we couldn't hear anything as there is no speaker system , so unless you were in the front row any commentary was not heard. All but two of our 8 people experienced this. No big deal as the scenery was what we came for anyway. On the way up we stopped 6 times (I believe). One was the pipeline, two for gas: once after the pipe line to use restrooms, and once at the Yukon River Camp. We also stopped at the J Dalton Highway sign and one other stop for scenery all about 5 to 10 mins each. We were supposed to stop at finger mountain I believe as it is in the tour description but the guide did not. Once you ride for about 7 hours you turn off into a dirt parking lot at the edge of the arctic circle. You spend about 15 minutes taking pics, going to the bathroom. Our guide did feed the gray jays that will land in your hand, that is cool but we had done this in Canada. That is it there is nothing else there. They do not go any farther into the Arctic you turn around and start the trek back. On the way back you are supposed to look for northern lights and wildlife but we saw neither. I guess there was and owl and fox but because we couldn't hear anything and we were on the go we didn't see it. I understand both are not a guarantees and we had planned other tours for those any way but regardless this tour just seemed weak for the money you spend. The tour cost $225 per person and we had 8 people in our group so for around $1800 we drove 7 hours to a dirt parking lot and back to Fairbanks. In my opinion we could have rented vehicles and have done the same ride ourselves for a lot less money and in much more comfort. They promise you lunch that you get to eat in a cramped van on the go. We got ours at the Yukon camp. They were handed out right as we took off for the last leg. Ours was a cheese sandwich with a snack bag of Cheetos, Belvita breakfast biscuits and a bottle of purified drinking water (the cheapest you can buy). We were supposed to get warm beverages but I guess you only get those if you get to see the Northern lights and since it was rainy and cloudy that night we did not get those either. We did try to make the best of a less than great situation by laughing through it and we met some great people that run the Yukon camp (they were a highlight and they make great cookies too!) Dave our guide seemed nice but if you weren't in the front row you didn't hear any commentary. Windows in the van had to stay open to keep the other windows clear so hearing him without a speaker system was impossible. This company may do other tours that are worth it but this is not one of them in my opinion. At the end of the tour the company will push you to review them. Well you better post a good one or the owner will call you. He seems nice at first but doesn't take criticism well and ends up telling you that your experience with his tour is wrong and "many people enjoy it" as if to say your experience isn't valid. The funny part is he contacts you we never contacted them at all after the tour was over. We chalked it up to one of those funny bad experiences that you can share at parties to your friends over the years...

This is going to be a bit of a long review... Some good! We're 2 seniors in decent health so we did not think this trip would be a problem. This is a 14+ hr long tour in a 10-12 passenger van. The seating is not optimal if you are a taller person with a need for legroom. 14 hrs is a long time to be cramped up in small quarters even with breaks. Our tour guide, Jessica, was outstanding. She is friendly, funny, professional and very competent. I never once felt uncomfortable or unsafe even when the roads looked dicey and the snow continued to fall. She is also a veritable fountain of information and easy to listen to. The pluses of the trip? For me it was reaching the Arctic Circle which was a bit of a bucket list thing. Seeing a moose on the side of the road was also great. I think one of the biggest highlights was the incredible sighting of not just one, but 3 Canada Lynx! What a find! There was very low expectation on our part to see the Aurora... The forecast just wasn't right for viewing. Now for the things that made the trip less than stellar. Communication about the trip was spotty, emailed questions were not answered so we had to guess about some things from what we read on the website. There was a clause about rotating seats in the van to give everyone a chance at different locations ( i.e. the front passenger and first row seats where you could see out the window). We were the last passengers picked up and had no choice whatsoever about where we sat, but thought it wouldn't be an issue because we'd move around. It DIDN'T happen. We even talked to our guide about my husband's comfort and the hope he could move and rotate into a better seat. We were ignored. My husband with his longer legs and poor knees had one choice for a seat and it's a much narrower than normal seat near the sliding door. He had legroom but the seat itself wasn't very comfortable. 14hrs is a long time to be uncomfortable! It would have been nice if the rotation of seats had been enforced. Reading the website, it's also very easy to misunderstand about the provided meal. It lists 2 sandwiches and snacks. To me, that says 2 meals and some snacks. There is also mention of hot drinks and a snack provided at the Arctic Circle. Again, that didn't happen. I assumed we would be handed the sandwiches fairly early in the trip so we could space out our food as needed. Believing that, we had breakfast at 10 am. We did buy a small snack at the first stop, but I didn't want to overeat because I watch my food intake carefully. It was quite a surprise when we were not given the sack lunch until almost 8 pm when we reached Yukon River Camp. So it was not optimal, and hard to know that was going to happen with no clear communication from the website or via email. By the time we reached our hotel again I was glad for the trip to be over. If you're taking this tour....I recommend you take your own meals especially if you need consistency. Be prepared for a very long day of driving with only a few stops where you get some real time out of the van. Understand that, if you're going in the winter, there is no watching the scenery out the window because they're frosted up and it's too dark to see anything anyway. You're taking the trip for two reasons. To say you've been to the Arctic Circle and a small possibility of seeing the Aurora. If a 14 hr round trip is worth it to see a sign in the dark that says you're at the Arctic Circle.......

Our tour guide, Ricky, picked us up from our Inn in Fairbanks on time. Including Sue and I, there were 7 guests. Ricky was an entertaining, capable, and knowledgeable fellow, and provided both factual and humorous anecdotes on places, people, everything to do with this cold and remote land. Because of the early sunset, the huge majority of the trip was at night, where only a fullish moon and the van headlights provided illumination.

After crossing - and walking on - the mighty, frozen Yukon River, we reached our prime objective, the Arctic Circle. We were given plenty of opportunity for photos, either by ourselves or by Ricky, and each of us was given a Certificate of Achievement, something to be cherished as it is not attained by many.

On the long way back, as fatigue set in, we got to see just how indefatiguable Ricky was. He kept up the banter cheerfully, even as one by one, his audience fell by the wayside. This was one of those 120% trips, where we'd hit the 100, but the Northern Lights, the other 20, stubbornly refused to come out. And, people, this cannot be held against the adventure. We booked this trip on a full moon, which mitigated against the ideal seeing conditions of a dark sky. The Aurora is always there, just sometimes you can't see it. There was a hint, but for practical purposes it was a strikeout. Ricky was more mortified than his guests, but always cheerfully optimistic, and never once stopped trying to pick it up for us, stop after stop.

Food, and hot and cold drinks, were freely available and adequate. There were downsides, and they will be mentioned in the hope that they are factored in in the future:

Apart from the front, the more rearward van windows iced up on the inside, making viewing difficult to impossible for most. This simply has to be rectified.

Different guests had different heating requirements. One at the rear (who appeared to be suffering from a cold or slight fever) said it was too hot, so the reduced setting made it generally too cool for the others, who refrained from speaking up.

I would have liked to take a turn closer to the front of the van, where viewing and hearing were better. But those at the front were happy, those behind me were happy, mine was a lone voice, so I gave up. I suggest regular rotation, firmly applied in accordance with the published guidelines, whether the majority likes it or not.

Van acoustics, especially down back, were generally poor on the rough-ish Dalton Highway, making it difficult to get the best out of the very good repartee being delivered by Ricky. I think sometines he forgot to turn the mic on.

But not a single word of what are intended to be constructive criticisms are directed at Ricky. His effort was just so brave, optimistic and unrelenting over 13 or more hours that he gets the full 5 stars from Sue and I. But the trip as a whole could have been better with a little more co-operation from the guests, and a...