Private Alaska Native Excursion (Cultural, Scenic Experience)

We arrived 15 minutes before our pick up at the temperature sign beside the tourist office .. confirmed we were at the correct area with another Clan tour guide leading out the wildlife tour .. who called our guide , but no answer .. Called the Clan office twice and just an answering machine service . We waited a full hour .. No show .. Terrible service ..

awesome. we had a fantastic guide she was very friendly i highly recommend this to anyone. we got to see a bald eagle in the wild

It is a private or very small tour. We were 5, it was only our group. Of course, there is never a guarantee to see bears. We did!

Our guide Metaa was terrific. She is extremely knowledgeable and pleasant.

Meta was incredibly knowledgeable and also patient with our kids. Appreciated the flexibility and her making sure we got to experience as much as we could!

We almost had to cancel this tour because our cruise ship changed the back at ship time. I texted the tour organizer and he was able to adjust our tour start time. Our guide, Echo Hawk, was awesome. She was so knowledgeable of the area and local culture. She took us to Herring Creek, in hopes to see some bears. Then, we went to the Totem park where she gave great information about the Totems and the way the natives lived. Highly recommend this tour.

My family and a friend traveled on a Disney cruise and we wanted a catch-all tour of Ketchikan. Alaska has a large amount of native history, so we decided it was best to hear from them. I am so glad we did. I have to say, don’t be fooled, this is not just a tour about native culture. In fact, this is not even a routine tour. When booking, they asked us what we wanted to see. When we got there, our guide Echohawk had a perfectly curated plan for us. We saw a totem park, a clan house, an estuary with dozens of eagles, a waterfall, and an awesome little spot on the coast. Everything she showed us was unique and special. In most of the places I thought to myself “how is there nobody else here?!”. Along with the stops, her anecdotes and information were deeply interesting. This was a very personal and satisfying tour. I imagine some of you, like me, don’t know how to feel about the history between native nations and settlers in Alaska. This tour did not overwhelm with stories of atrocities, but it did not shield us from them completely either. What we learned, we ought to have learned. And there is something satisfying about finding that balance between shame and knowledge. I truly cannot recommend this tour enough. If you want the entire, beautiful story and scenery of Alaska with a very personal, private, and engaging touch, please do this tour. And thank you so much Echohawk, I will truly cherish that day forever.

Great experience with our tour guide Meta. We learned a great ton about the history of Ketchikan, she is very knowledgeable.

Overall disappointed in my experience. I had communicated months ahead of time about our desires for our tour and about meeting early at 6:30am to begin our tour as our time in port was limited. I also provided the name of our ship and our docking information. We pulled into port a bit early and didn’t see anyone but didn’t worry about it because we were still a bit early. At 6:30 there was still no driver so I began to make phone calls and sending emails to the provider making sure we were in the right spot. At 6:50 I was finally able to reach Dan and after a bit of back and forth he recalled that we agreed to start at 6:30 and that he would be leaving shortly and that we needed to walk to dock 1 (we were at dock 4) to meet him. I told him we were at dock 4 and he gave me walking directions to dock 1 (which were wrong). It was pouring down rain so we hired an uber to pick us up and drive us to dock 1. When we arrived at dock 1 he was still not there and we waited and watched as the group tour from the same company met and drive off. Eventually Dan showed up and asked us what we wanted to do. I reminded him of our emails and renamed the list of places I wanted to visit. He took us to our first stop which was an overlook and shared a story about fishing. We then went to what I assume was Herring Cove, but we were never told the name. He shared stories about how his family harvested the plants and berries for food and medicine. He pointed out where an eagles nest was, although we didn’t see any eagles. He made a valiant attempt to find us bears, but that did not pan out either. He then took us to a waterfall which was nice. He even took pictures of my family there. But managed to cut my son out of the picture. I initially expressed interest in going to Saxman Totem Park, but was persuaded to go to Totem Bight instead for a more authentic experience. While Totem Bight was lovely and his family members helped to carve the poles there, there just wasn’t a lot present. There was a clan house and maybe 6 poles. We ran into his daughter’s tour group there and heard her tell the story of the totem meaning. I am disappointed we didn’t get to experience seeing a carver in action, which Saxman would have offered along with totems and a clan house. After that he took us to the Salmon ladder and explained the function and dropped us off at Creek Street, about 3.5 hour after our 3hr tour began. While I appreciated the extra effort to make up for the late start, it limited our time to explore the rest of the area and eat lunch before having to get back on the ship. There was also a large box of snacks in the back of the van, but at no point were we offered snacks. Throughout the tour we heard a lot about his personal life story, how his business started, his family, and their indigenous culture. Overall, we got an in depth look at Dan and his family, versus an in depth look at Ketchikan which was my goal. I could have just done the standard group tour and probably had a better experience and saved some money. For a private tour, I expected more.

Our group of 9 had a very interesting experience with Rebecca. She was really informative and answered all of our questions. Loved hearing about the intricate history of the Alaska culture and family units and seeing the Clan House. The totems were magnificent!!