Fantastic Service from Pilar Toppings. Being a former travel agent, I was impressed with her expertise & flexibility. Yes it's expensive to overnight in Denali-we did 1 nt Cabin at main entrance & 3 nts at the Back Country Lodge & loved every minute of it. It was an experience of a lifetime & think it was worth every penny we paid. The staff was super friendly & totally accommodating. Meeting other fellow travelers was great. The food is plentiful & fairly good quality. The Naturalists who took us hiking were so informative. We were lucky to see Mt. Mckinley all three days while staying at the Back Country Lodge. Also it was delightful to be there at the Kantishna Music Festival We felt very blessed- that we didn't have to be a day tripper as most people are. We savored that we could become disconnected-no WiFi for a few days. Such a treat.... We highly recommend Pilar & Alaska Denali Tours. Expect a Rustic outdoor once in a lifetime Experience. You will enjoy it as much as we did! read more

AwSome service and people they even call me to remind me I have a credit w them and come get a ticket

Comfortable bus, driver spent too much narration on sights of value to him, some time spent on center line as driver waved at other bus drivers, DVD videos played too loud, driver had to be reminded to turn on air vents after stops to cool back of bus, Wasilla stop has one toilet at top of tall stairs for a bus load of people (so don't delay), free bottled water on bus, toilet on bus Denali Cabins & Denali Backcountry Lodge very comfortable, packaged walking tours in backcountry OK. Very expensive and they expect tips! read more

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Alaska Denali Travel is a travel agency specializing in...Alaska. They also operate (and perhaps own) lodges near and in Denali National Park. This is a review of ADT as a travel agent (the lodges have their own yelp location, which I may also review). TLDR: you may need to book with ADT to access certain properties, but don't expect personalized service, and be super careful reviewing your vouchers to make sure you get what you've paid for. Even then, you might not be able to get what you paid for. First, be aware that ADT is a travel agency mill. They really don't specialize in personalized service; rather, they seem to have a core series of trips that they like to book. This leads to my first annoyance with them. When you call (even if you have emailed your "agent" fifteen minutes earlier), and identify yourself (hi! this is matt h), they express no memory of you, but ask for your booking number. Perhaps this leads to the first substantive problem I had with them (Karen Siegfried was the agent working on my trip). My trip consisted of two couples and one single. Most of the hotels don't have special rooms for singles, so trips usually have a "single supplement" to deal with the additional per-person cost. I noticed (as a part of one of the couples), when paying the second half of our bill, that our bill seemed disproportionately high. I figured out that Karen had simply split the trip total by 5 and billed each person 1/5. I asked her to fix that to deal with the differential cost for the single person. Simple request, dealt with frequently by travel agents? Seemingly no. It took at least 6 emails and 3 or 4 conversations to get it fixed (by which time I had done my own rough calculation). Once on the trip, things went *mostly* as planned. Ah, but the exceptions were a bit of the face palm variety. In Seward, we showed up at the office of our planned fjord trip and said we were ready to check in for our multi-hour boat tour. They said that there was no such tour that day. Long story short, we'd been booked for a trip that exists, just not that day. The boat operator did get us out that day, just not on the boat we expected to be on (ADT compensated us for their screw-up). Later on, we checked into one of the properties that ADT manages. Our room seemed small (well, most of the rooms in NYC places have been bigger). Oh, and there was no ventilation in the bathroom (no fan, no window. Where I live, that's a code violation). We finally figured out that we'd been given a single room when we'd paid for a double (or larger room)(after several calls, ADT refunded some amount to us). Long story short, you may need to book with ADT to access certain properties, but don't expect personalized service, and be super careful reviewing your vouchers to make sure you get what you've paid for. read more

Having spent some years in the hospitality business, my search for a tour company to plan our expedition to Alaska was important. I found Alaska Denali Travel via the Internet and requested information. They timely sent a brochure providing many options and most importantly, they answered their phone, when I called, and patiently answered my questions and walked me through everything. Most importantly, they took the time to get to know our travel dreams and needs. Most folks think if you are going to Alaska, you are taking a cruise. Yes, that is certainly and option; however, we felt it would be frustrating to sail along viewing the unbelievable scenery and not being able to explore it. With Alaska Denali Travel's assistance, we chose the "Two National Park Wilderness Adventure" which was structured to include activities we chose and enjoyed. I highly recommend this tour and travel company. The experienced team will work with you, modify as necessary, and take care of any issue that may come up. Now, as for bus drivers. My guess Larry is no longer with the company because we so much enjoyed Pete, who was fun and extremely knowledgeable about Alaska. The website does not do justice to Denali Cabins or the Back-country Lodge. If you are looking for 5-star, room service accommodations, go to the big city. This is Alaska people, the most beautiful place I have ever seen, our 49th state and I recommend you put it on your "must see" list. As you can tell, I am a fan. Alaska Denali Travel will work with your budget and fulfill your travel dreams. We worked with Shawn; however, all of the staff was helpful. Our experience included, Denali Na'tl Park, Alaska Train, Kenai Fjords National Park, ATV sunset adventure, Sea Kayak adventure (fantastic), whitewater rafting on the Nenana River, Catamaran cruise with Major Marine. Accommodations included Comfort Inn, Ship Creek, Anchorage, AK (newly remodeled and close to the train station, great staff and very comfortable), Denali Cabins (rustic, quiet, wonderful cafe with full service bar, transportation provided by staff into town) , Backcountry Lodge (fantastic, comfortable cabins on Moose Creek, all inclusive buffet food service prepared by a Chef that greets his guests and describes the meal. Screened gazebos for enjoying a campfire after dinner. We chose enjoying our campfire along the Moose Creek, under the night sky. Only problem, it didn't get dark until after 11pm...who cares, we were on vacation! The staff sets everything up and plans activities for guests...hiking, all levels, gold panning, and transportation into Denali as well as offering additional adventure experiences such as air tours of Mt. McKinley. This "laid-back" destination was just what we were looking for with full-service accommodations in a beautiful mountain setting). We rented a car (The Comfort Inn, Ship Creek driver took us to the airport to pickup-very helpful) and traveled, on our own, to Seward, AK, which is a beautiful drive. Next time, we will ride the train from Anchorage to Seward instead of Denali to Anchorage. In Seward, we stayed at the beautiful property, The Seward Windsong Lodge; very nice accommodations with the cabin feel and friendly, helpful staff. Put Alaska on your bucket list and go... read more

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To Kristin and all the other travelers I met on my last trip, and your many compadres from past trips If you are going to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to visit someplace, how about learning something about it before ya go? they have books and dvds and park rangers and stuff. I thought Larry the bus driver was great, though he certainly got a lot of post-tour discussion among our group. many found him grating or annoying. He certainly was preoccupied with the comings and goings of every other bus and driver, but he was hell-bent on spotting wildlife, and that was what we were there for. When I shouted out for him to stop for Ptarmigan (birds) he sussed and said something like he never bothers to stop for birds because by the time I saw them the bus has scared them and they fly away and when they back up they never see them. I told him they hadnt flown very long and should still be around. He sussed more, but to my surprise he backed up and we all saw them right out the window, posing for us. Larry also stopped the bus for a wolf that he spotted and the thing pranced and posed right outside our window. Hot dang. Alaska Denali tours package was very reasonable, they gave us an "internet special" discount which made the price quite reasonable, and they did all the work. I thought it was a good value. read more

It was expensive but the three days we spent visiting this lodge were highlights of my first trip to Alaska. I enjoyed the remoteness and the lodge-style activities -- the guides were great -- and the weather was great when we were here. I was surprised by the volume of people that came on day tours -- we spenttwo nights and itdid not seem long enough! read more

I am negatively reviewing only the ADT travel agency. The backcountry cabins themselves were terrific - those I would give at least 4 stars if not 5. But the travel agency (Karen Sigfried was also our agent) was indifferent to us, forgot our plans and requests each time we called, and failed to give us sufficient information. I had to separately requests itineraries - we only got vouchers for different segments, no overall itinerary. I had to request transfer info - how were we to get from airport to hotel? Then to the lodge for a (truly wonderful) dog sled ride? We were dropped into slots, that's all. No real travel agency services here. Most annoying, however, we paid extra for an upgraded dogsledding trip. It seems clear that this was a fiction on paper only - we were herded into the same group with the same amount of time as everyone else. I have made three phone calls to ADL to get refunded the extra $90, and have yet to see it refunded. The activities themselves were wonderful. I suggest booking them separately and going around the ADL travel service. read more

I go the Alaska Denali Travel Planner and found a three day Backcountry Express for $565 per person. At first they didn't have dates available that I asked for... finally after several more inquiries for dates I got a quote for $1188.06 for same plan...see the quote didn't include TAX AND FEES! To me that is called False Advertisement. read more

I have never had a more horrible experience in my life. I traveled with Denali Alaska Tours last August and their accomodations were disgusting, dirty, outdated and out of order (our door didn't lock!!) and their staff was not knowledgable or even courteous. Stay away from this company!!!! They lost our reservations then acted like it was our fault even though we paid months ahead of time! Not even an apology was given,. read more

I will start off that I'm not an outdoorsy person but I'm not high-maintenance either. The cabins were more than I could handle - even only for 2 nights. Even though it was only 8 miles south of "town" there seemed to be other options that were closer to restaurants and shopping and much cheaper. For $200/night, I expected much more and was very disappointed. What was even more disappointing was our day trip through Denali. If you take this tour and Larry is your driver, demand to get off the bus and find another bus to get on. He was by far the worst tour guide I have ever had. He didn't know anything about Denali and he has been a bus driver/tour guide for 7 seasons. No fun facts or even knowledge about the park. If anyone asked a question, the answer was usually "I don't know." the tour was from 6am-7:30pm - by 6:30am, I knew this was going to be a very long day. His lack of knowledge and mindless prattle was beyond annoying. He definitely ruined my trip to the Denali National Park. There are other options to view the park. Although I didn't experience those, I would recommend a different tour. read more