Northern Lights Experience and Cabin Dinner

We took the excursion to the Arctic Circle marker on August 13th. Our guide Paul was magnificent and brilliant in explaining many things about the flora and fauna to us.

George was our tour guide. George was wonderful, friendly and very knowledgeable about Northern Lights and things around Fairbanks. There was an unexpected incident on our tour. George picked up a passenger in a wheelchair. George was unaware that there would be a passenger in a wheelchair. George was very accommodating to this passenger and family. This was extra work needed from George. This was not a fault of 1st Alaska Tours at all. It was a fault of the family for failing to notify the tour company that a wheelchair passenger would be transported. Kudos to George. The yurt was nice perfect to get out of the windy cold weather. Viewing was ok. I with recommend 1st Alaska Tours.

+1

1st Alaska tours (Joseph) picked us up for Dinner and The Northern lights tour. When we arrived at the yurt there were six other people and their guide Paul. Instead of hearing stories about Alaska or the Northern Lights, we had to listen to Paul. Paul talked constantly about himself and even spoke very negative about previous guests. He spoke to Joseph about previous specific female guests being idiots. Paul was very interested in talking about all his photography equipment and showing his photos and even tried to sell them to us. The guides just announced that we could keep going outside and checking on the lights but they stayed inside to continue their conversation. At one point, I cut the light on in the porch to see where to walk. The outside was very slick and snow/ice piled uneven and not easy to walk on. Paul raised his voice and said to keep the light off. Joseph said he hoped we didn’t fall because that would be a lot of paperwork but showed no concern. Paul’s group wanted to leave an hour early. It wasn’t until I told Joseph all of my complaints and disappointments that he started to actually talk to us and be a tour guide. He even offered to take our picture. 1st Alaska tours was a waste of time and money. Save yourself the hassle and book with someone else.

This takes full advantage of tourist brain. 1st Alaska isn’t the service provider. They are the shuttle. (They pick you up, they drop you off, they don’t care, they’ve already been paid). There is no “tour”. The sledding and dinner are hosted by another company. I have no problem with off the grid (peeing a bag in an unheated room with frost on the walls). What I have a problem with is paying over $300. to be served salad and dessert on paper plates and not having a bread plate; and despite two sinks being in the yurt, we were all unable to wash our hands after petting the dogs, going to the bathroom or before eating. While Aurora viewing can’t be guaranteed, decent companies will give you the chance to re-book for a different date if viewing predictions are low. 1st Alaska’s “Aurora viewing” tagline is in there for marketing purposes, to catch all the bucket list hopefuls. My tour was cut short because it was snowing and they knew chances of viewing were very low. You will have a better experience and save a bunch of money if you go with different companies for each activity, and not this bundle of disappointment.

It was amazing!! The dinner was delicius, was perfect for the auroras expirience!! The chef was great... Dan, our tour gide was very attentive, thougful and helpful.. All this made a great expirience...

The experience was phenomenal. I would recommend it to anyone. The tour guide Paul was very knowledgeable and very thoughtful on time and kept us entertained for the entire trip. Joe was our cook. The food was sensational. Jerry was our dog guide. He was very knowledgeable about the area and the dogs. I felt safe as we were on our sled ride.

+5

The tour, salmon dinner, and Elijah’s guiding were great. Elija told us stories based on local lore (including Big Foot, he neither accepts nor denies seeing it ;-) ) and his travels to Arctic circle and other places. He was our driver as well. Overall we had a great experience, it was a great tour. Thanks 1st Alaska Tours, Elijah, and Joe who prepared our dinner. I recommend this tour.

Our guide Joe was very informative,down to earth,personable,friendly,definitely would take another tour with him.

I’m going to be brutally honest here, so buckle up. There was ONE good thing about this tour and that was the communication between the scheduler and us. They kept us updated about the tour and the times of pickup. Pickup was on time and then the tour went downhill from there. Our tour guide was Paul who was polite, but told stories that were inappropriate, and crass. He told us of a dare he took to slap a moose on the rump, thought it was funny, and compared slapping a moose’s rump to all of the other butts he’d slapped. When we reached the “lodge”, a yurt, another guide, Joe, was there with his group. He talked non stop and showed us pictures on his phone of some moose by his place for an hour. No one was interested and he just didn’t get it that we weren’t there to look at his phone pictures. While he was “entertaining”us, Lisa, our cook was preparing our meal of “charcuterie, a stale cracker with salami and sweaty cheese, a very limp green salad and ranch dressing, and a pretty presentation of dry, overcooked salmon and rice. We were the first table served and it took about twenty minutes to serve the rest of the salmon to the other guests. MEANWHILE, Joe and Paul were tag teaming telling us stores, showing us more pictures from the phone, and Paul reciting a decent, but long, poem about a gold miner. Paul then brought out objects from a ziplock bag, including a oosik, a walrus penis bone and excitedly told us about it and asked us if we wanted to hold. There were three teenagers in the room and this seemed inappropriate and vulgar. Paul and Joe kept going outside to see if there were any northern lights, and there weren’t, but we knew that there was a risk of not seeing any, and that was not their fault. When we left at 2:00 after sitting there since 10:30, we then had to listen to more of Paul’s inappropriate non stop talking until we got back to our hotel. I WOULD NOT recommend this tour to anyone . I would give this experience a terrible review even if we had seen the northern lights. It was a long, painful night!

What an incredible experience seeing the Northern Lights for the first time! It was a jaw-dropping experience to watch the dancing light show caused by the solar wind. And to think we were just about to leave but Ash, our tour guide with 1st Alaska Tours, caught it and it was an experience I will never forget! I can't say enough good things about Ash. From the time he picked us up until the time of drop off, he was so accommodating and considerate of the needs of the entire group. He had boundless positive energy, and shared his passionate and unique perspectives of life in Alaska. We also opted for the dinner as well and it did not disappoint. Overall, I highly recommend this tour, especially if you get Ash as your guide!

+5