Kat S.
3/5
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.... Then please go.
