Orca Island Cabins — Hotel in Alaska

My husband and I vacationed in Alaska for a week (labor day weekend) with Orca Island Cabins as our last 3 night stop. After reading reviews "stay as long as you can", we decided to trust the reviews and splurge to spend 3 nights in the yurt.

LENGTH OF STAY: Three nights (if you can) was PERFECT amount of time to see everything we wanted, account for a bad weather day, and fully settle in to RELAX and soak in everything it has to offer! One day (although nice) is too short by the time you arrive on the island and then depart the next day. I feel like it would be "rushed". If you're just wanting to purely relax by lounging around (and not sea kayak, fish, hike, etc.) then one day/night could be sufficient.

YURT: I am a clean conscious traveler (as in at some hotels I don't like the top layer touching my face). This yurt was VERY COZY, comfortable, CLEAN, and had everything we needed! I love weight when I sleep and there is a THICK top layer which just made it so cozy. Beds were very comfortable. Our compost commode never smelled while we were there.

COST: Yes, it is expensive when you quickly look at the price. Try to weigh all the amenities and experiences you can have there. I felt like it was soo relaxing to not have to "book" anything and rush back at a certain time. My husband and had our schedules FREE to sea kayak everyday (however long we wanted), hike, build a fire, relax on the AWESOME porch with food/drinks, and fish (although we don't care to fish so we passed on it). To not have an "itinerary" for once on vacation was so relaxing and freeing. To me it's hard to put a "cost" to feeling free to do whatever you want.

p.s. the hike is a

The whole experience was wonderful. Picked up by owner in boat to bring us to Orca Island. Saw eagle and otters on ride over. A bit to cloudy to see the Glaciers. Upon arrival we were shown places to kayak and then docked boat and our personal items were brought to our yurts. Traveled with total of 6 people so we rented 2 yurts. Each yurt had everything we needed. We got right to a hike that lasted about 3 hours(i'd say easy/intermediate but with some challenges). A great start to our 2 night visit. We used the grills to make our dinner and then used the firepit to make some smores. Nothing like sunlight until midnight to get the most out of our visit. Next day we took our kayaks over to the waterfall. On the route we had a family of otters follow us. We saw an Eagle and fledgling overhead and settle into a tree nearby. So when we saw the bear of course we were happy but also happy to be in the kayak as he was in the woods. traveled a little further to see the salmon heading upstream right near the waterfall. what an adventure for us city people! tied our kayaks up and walked over to see the falls. Be careful about the tide and which side to leave the kayaks. (stay right). We had to cross the stream which added to our challenge. Cold water and lots of salmon to circumvent because of rookie move to go left of stream. Took a leisurely paddle back to the island. Settled back on the island and decided to take a walk around the property and pick berries. Turned them into a jam that we spread on bread for a snack. Went well with our charcuterie board and happy hour drinks. We took up to the social area and spent some time relaxing and watching out over the water to see what other wildlife we may see. The tides really effect Orca Island and allow you to wander and see sealife you might not normally notice. Just beautiful. While at the social area we ran into the father of current owners who had actually created the space with his wife, We got to learn how Orca came about and what the island is like in different months. A special treat indeed. Because there was much sunlight left a few of our group went out on a small row boat to try their hand at fishing. We all checked out the art gallery where they have with their mom's work and some other products that you can purchase. We really took advantage of most of what the place offers for use. It was just a wonderful experience and highly recommend giving this...

Made reservations 9 months in advance and stated in notes that we would have a 14 month old. Operations manager okayed the reservation anf took half our payment. Within a month we spoke on phone to same operations manager to move dates - confirming again that we would have child & they were excited to see us. Month later third point of contact made paying remaining balance in full to reserve our stay. 8 months later we receive a call forcing cancellation 2 weeks prior to our trip from operations manager. She called to ask if we had a sitter that there was a childrens policy on age. After speaking with her she gave us the impression that because we had a child she was forcing our cancellation and we were out of the refund window for refunds. Granted we had spoken three times and all three stated that we would have a child. Operations manager stated that day she would have owner call me in about two hours after asking to speak to her. I never received a phone call. Returning my phone call was not important to them because they didn’t care about customer service. I called back the following day before close of business to ask, she stated we would be refunded minus the $50 processing fee. This took days of calling and asking and emails due to her stated “technical difficulties” or may I suggest it as lack of funds? We finally were able to get refunded nearly a week later of hounding but left with no help in finding accommodations after Labor Day (which is challenging due to Closures in AK)I would suggest finding another place rather this over...