Denali Tundra Tours — Local services in Alaska

I am basing this review on my experience today 7/13/24. I booked this tour through Alaska Tour and Travel, not directly through Denali Tundra Tours. We did not stay in any of the 4 major lodges, but outside of the area in Healy, so we were to drive ourselves to the pickup location of the tour. We did not get any information from the tour company in advance letting us know the exact time or other details of our tour. I made a phone call to find out early the morning of our tour and was told to be at the Denali Park bus lot 1/2 hour in advance of our 1:20 tour. We Google the location of the parking lot and realize when we get to the location that it is not correct, it sent us to a rest area. I could not find any information or a phone number for the tour directly, (the number I called in the morning had no answer) so I called Alaska Tour and Travel and they were able to get us to the correct location just in time for the tour. Very helpful. Because of the mix-up with Google maps, we end up last in line. We are ok with this, thinking we will be in the back of the bus. Ok, no problem . When we get on, the only seating left is for my husband and myself to sit way far apart, about 9 rows separating us. I'm really not ok with this as we paid quite a bit for this tour. Some people were trying to help out by switching seats but it all became a disaster when we felt like we were imposing on and inconveniencing everyone by this move. People were complaining and we were humiliated. My point is this. The tour company needs to leave at LEAST a couple of seats per tour for these types of situations. Nobody wants to pay this much for a tour and not be able to experience it with the only person you're traveling with. Packing these buses to capacity is not ideal. We were unable to take this tour after paying for it. We honestly just had to get off the bus because we felt like we had done something wrong. I am genuinely sad that we came all the way to Alaska and were unable to see the park in it's entirety. We just needed to get off the bus so people would be happy. So much complaining and I get it...they too were inconvenienced. It just felt unbelievably personal and miserable. I am asking the tour company to please consider this in the future. It cost us a lot of money and a once in a lifetime opportunity that we...

While trying to minimize the impact on the park, stuffing 50 people into a glorified school bus that does not allow anyone to get off to take photos doesn’t cut it. They either need to use smaller busses with smaller groups or limit the busses that hold 50 to 35. Our driver was great but imagine what it’s like to have to cram against a school bus window with dozens of others trying to get a glimpse of a moose 300 yards in the bush. They have to keep moving moving moving. It would be better to cover less than the 40 miles in that we went and provide more lookouts where people can get out and look around 360 degrees and maybe wait more than five minutes for an animal to be spotted as opposed to yelling stop I see a tiny dot that might be a sheep at 3 o clock a half mile away. Overall it is something I would never repeat. They need to find a better way. These photos were taken at one of the three brief stops along the way. The scenery is spectacular but hard to appreciate when moving at 30 mph in a cramped and crowded bus.

Update: I just downgraded this review due to the fact that this tour does nothing in keeping people safe from Covid. The bus was stuffed full of fifty people. There was zero screening/asking the normal questions. Very few wore masks. With the exception of breaks and stops, we were on a closed bus for six hours. Seems like a Covid cluster bomb. Not sure if this is where I contracted Covid and we did wear masks, but I would not be surprised if this is wear...

This was a OK tour, pretty long and no heat in the bus so made for a long cold day. Saw a few bears but nothing else, yes i get it, it is the wild, nothing is for sure, i'm good with that. Using school buses, so not comfortable and guess where the window frame is for upper window, yes right in your line of sight, so you have to get up to look in the upper unit or slouch down to see thru the bottom unit. Just seems to me you would have a custom built bus for this application for maximum comfort and viewing. the camera the driver was holding to zoom into the action and view on screens was in principal a good idea, but the screens are low quality and hard to hold a camera still zoomed in 1/8 of a mile away. A proper 4k PTZ pod mounted camera on top of the bus with joystick control with 4K displays would be the best thing here. Today adding FLIR option to camera would be easy and set for scan mode, it would be able to find the wildlife using IR even while driving so you could maximize the sightings and experiences and not rely on the driver as for he is paying attention to the road which can get hairy after the river crossing. But over...