In short, we paid $100 each for a bear tour in early July 2014 and what we got was a breakneck van drive down a dirt road for 3 hours that left us all jostled, five of us feeling carsick and all 11 of us feeling like we'd been taken for a ride in a more metaphorical sense.
We consulted the review sites and saw the positive reviews for Teckk, and so chose them. We did this trip instead of other ziplining or other adventure tour things, and clearly for $1100 total, we expected some of the great things we'd read about.
We were greeted by the two young drivers who packed us into two vans and headed down the dirt road. We were not told what to expect, so all of us believed we were barreling down the road toward some destination where we'd have a chance to get out and search for some bears. That's what other travelers and the website say happens, you get out, search the woods, find some bears.
We traveled at 30 mph the entire trip out and back, which I think led to the car sickness our passengers experienced. It was difficult to see out the sides of the van and had there been bears at any of the clearings or creek sides we crossed over, we had only seconds to spot them as we sped past. We didn't slow down at all, particularly on the way back.
It seems to me in retrospect from something our tour guide told us just after we left, that the salmon weren't running yet and therefore there would be no bears along the rivers where your tour likely more reliably encounters them when the salmon are in. My guess is that once the kids all started getting carsick, he was just in a hurry to get the trip over as quickly as possible, leading him to speed even more. If there was any discussion in the front of the van during the entire return trip, I didn't hear it, as we mostly struggled in silence to avoid throwing up.
In short, this trip was clearly not the excursion we paid for, was not as advertised or reviewed and as provided, the only way we'd have possibly seen a bear would have been if one had run out in the road in front of us.
The guides seemed to know there wouldn't be any bears, and I think it would have been fairer if they'd given us the option to cancel the trip and abandon the deposit we'd paid, or offer us a discounted price. In the future, I'd recommend offering your guests the option of going at a reduced rate at times when you have not recently spotted bears, or the salmon are not available to them. I'd also recommend briefing customers at the beginning to be on the lookout for bears in particular areas as you drive, and then to slow down significantly at open areas and by creeks, so that passengers can look for them. Our kids were all asleep on the drive, thinking as we did that we'd be getting out somewhere to look. Lastly, I'd suggest having the tour guides provide some sort of organized presentation while driving. At first our driver spoke with the front seat passenger about his activities and his wrestling and about the new hospital. Once one of the kids went to the front seat due to his carsickness, all conversation stopped and we didn't get the personal stories, information about the island, bear trivia or whatever other stories that might have made the trip more valuable and welcoming.
We spoke with the owner after the trip who gave us a small refund (after about 5 emails and 3 phone calls, and a couple of "Oh, I don't know why your credit didn't come through earlier" messages), but we still blew close to $1000 for a 3 hour van ride down a rutted road. If you have a tour booked with Teckk, I'd recommend you ensure that the salmon are running. They seem, from the reviews, to at least be able to find bears along the river when the salmon are in. If they are not, cancel your trip and abandon your deposit. Also there have been many reviews of the good experiences people have had with the owner. If you arrive and find that you're being ferried around in vans by high school kids, you should ask to have the owner come and guide you instead, or ask for your money back.
This excursion could not have been more of a disappointment for the kids who are still confused about what happened and why we didn't even look for bears. It would have been a nice consolation to at least have been able to look through the woods to compensate the kids for a hugely long car ride where they either fell asleep or barfed up breakfast (or both).
Visited July 2014 read more
