My grandson and I flew with Bald Mountain to Katmai to view the bears at Brooks Falls. What an…read moreincredible experience. Extremely cool flight, over the Cook Inlet, volcanoes, tundra, glaciers, and all the breathtaking Alaskan wilds. At Katmai, the numerous Brown bears were an incredible feast for the eyes, as they feasted on an unusally fat run of salmon. Our pilot was skilled and knowledgeable. The Katmai Rangers were wonderful as well. Not cheap, but well worth it. An experience we will never forget.

We flew with Bald Mountain Air Service on a recent trip to Katmai to view bears. They made…read moreeverything very easy for us as guests, and Patrick, our pilot, was wonderful! You have a brief introductory meeting the day before your trip where they tell you what to expect, and to get to your weight. The aircrafts they have are 2 (10) passenger de Havilland DHC-3 Otters. They are smaller airplanes, but make for a fairly smooth flight. We spent about 1.5 hrs. on our trip from Homer to Katmai, and we even passed over the Augustine volcano in the Cook inlet!! Awesome! You may want to bundle up, and wear layers on the plane as it gets pretty cold here in Alaska. We will definitely use this service again, and thank you for providing us the opportunity to travel with you!

Great experience. Most expensive thing we've ever done and didn't regret it. Did have the first…read moredate canceled due to weather, but that's out of their control. Everybody involved was super nice to work/interact with.

What an amazing experience! Five star team! The pilot also acts as a tour guide and knowledgeable…read moreof the history covering most areas of the flight!

If I could more than 5 stars I would. We found this company by accident but glad we did. We were…read moretreated like a king and queen. This trip took us out of our comfort zone. Did so many things we normally would not have. I even got sick on the trip and missed a few things. The guides took super care of me, went to the pharmacy and got what I needed (even though did not know what they were looking for). I have recommended to many of our friends. And truly hope to travel with them again.

WOW, wow, wow....! I cannot possibly rate this trip and this tour company highly enough. This was…read moreour third trip with Gondwana (the first two were to Tanzania and Rwanda) and once again, this trip did not disappoint and far exceeded our expectations in every way possible. I am a seasoned traveler and some of my most special, endearing, beautiful travel memories have been on Gondwana trips. The company is built on impeccable ethics, fair and honest business practices, transparency, top-notch staff and seamlessly planned interesting, meaningful and exciting adventures. Being in Fairbanks in the fall season was magical; and in one week we were treated to so many diverse and fun activities and had the opportunity to connect with locals on a personal level and learn about life in Alaska. Seeing the spectacular Northern lights, visiting with the reindeer, interacting with the sleigh dogs, and sharing dinner with a local family were some of the highlights for us. Our Alaskan guides Greg, Ryan, and Laurie would not have been more enthusiastic, eager, personable, energetic, informed, fun and positive people to spend the week with. The local connections that Gondwana has made added to the personal, intimate and genuine experiences for our group. If you have ever considered being a participant on an organized small group tour, look no further; it doesn't get any better than Gondwana, a company that genuinely cares about guest experiences. Tours are well planned with so much attention paid to details, leaving guests with beautiful memories and an imprint on our hearts that will last forever.

We combined a wildlife tour with a self-led hike to Glacier Lake for a fabulous all day outing with…read morethe utmost care provided by Bay Excursion: Gareth and Indigo. We saw dozens of puffins, otters with pups, eaglets, and thousands of nesting birds on Gull Island. It was a private tour and a delightful day all around! Couldn't recommend them more.

Tours of the bay for birders. Reasonable - $75 for a 3 hour trip…read more Captain Karl Stoltzfus is soft spoken, low key & highly knowledgeable. He found us Common Murrelets, a Long-tailed Jager, ayellow-billed loon, marbled murrelets, Glaucous-Winged Gulls, (also commonly seen at the pier); Black-legged Kittiwakes (ditto), Harlequin Ducks, Barrow's Golden-eyes, Brants, Pelagic & Red-faced Cormorants, Tufted & Horned Puffins. He's a great resource for birders.

Northwind normally does bear viewing tours which are pretty straightforward, but we had a group of…read more15 with very complicated logistics on a wilderness camping & packrafting trip. They needed 2 planes to pick us up from one location in the Kachemak Bay State Park to bring us to another spot. Not all of us could fit on both planes with our gear, so one plane had to come back to get the rest of the crew. Additionally, 1 member of our group was set to go straight back to Homer them; at the last minute, 2 others also decided to go to Homer as well. We also brought them a ton of gear before our trip which they also flew in. They also flew back to Homer with our trash and some extra gear so we had less to carry out of the park. Overall it was 7 flight legs between the two planes! There was a little bit of back and forth as we had set up a single 3pm pick up, but they had mechanical issues and initially offered separate 3pm and 7pm pickups instead. When we pushed a little (one couple in our group had just gotten married and this was essentially their honeymoon!), they agreed to a single 2pm pickup which worked out perfectly. As a sidenote our pilot unfortunately dropped his phone in the water when dropping us off. He came back the next day with a strong magnet to try to fish it out but did not succeed. We made him a burrito, which he very much appreciated, and the helped us out by bringing even more of our trash back to Homer for us.

Unreliable. Cancelled with no notice on a perfectly sunny day. All the other tour companies still…read morewere able to safely takeoff that afternoon while we were left extremely disappointed. Hard to believe the "safety" excuse when you watch plane after plane take off in front of you. Hope the pilot enjoyed his afternoon off because he ruined our trip.

Absolutely beautiful in every way. I came to alaska to go to a retreat at this Homer mansion…read more There were many woman so I didn't see some of the spaces but WOW! A movie theatre that's so comfortable you will likely doze off... a candy room next door.. then a room with games and space and books and did I mention the views? I found a great deal of peace at this home and couldn't be more thankful for alteredself.com for bringing me to Alaska (I chose alaska for two reasons, this retreat and between beaches - don't go there as they lie about it all). In any event, I loved the spa area. They have the COOLEST pool and I had heard about them but wow... I will strive in life to have one! Treadmill, wave pool, swim assist and warm... steam room and sauna are amazing as well....next door is the Turkish bath that has jets and just beautiful natural surroundings... there was so much thought put into this home! Every space is wildly different but all just work so well together.. I loved all the different sinks... and I was almost getting bored at how perfectly done this place was that when I found a black splash I didn't like... darn it, I can't remember which room but it literally made me laugh out loud as I loved everything else about this place. Observation room is so relaxing! A Magical place that I can't wait to explore and will get there earlier so I can take more photos :)

BEWARE! Terrible…read moremanagement,cleaning and grounds crew My family stayed there with a wedding party a couple weekends ago. Lawn was overgrown the night before the wedding, the guests at the house mowed and raked the grass, even after the maintenance guy stopped by, who never offered to do it himself, no trimmer/weed whip. 4 kids cut their feet on a sharp drain in the pool, one getting a staff infection. Hot tub had cigar ash where a cigar was put out from the guests before. All the pool and hot tub water smelled terrible. If your having a wedding reception, expect a phone call at 10pm to shut your music off while having a dance out on the deck. To top it off management kept the bride and grooms deposit on a bunch of false accusations. Never an apology or explanation for any of the issues. This place is tens of thousands of dollars to rent for 4 nights. They are so off from classy management it's not even funny. House is cool though!

Crazy small airport in the middle of Alaska. Flew into this airport for a fishing trip. One of…read morethe Deadliest Catch guys was on our plane. Pretty cool. The crazy part - no airport security. I guess they don't have to bother with it being such a small, regional airport. But coming from SFO, it seemed surreal. Walk up, drop off bags, walk out onto the runway, board your flight, takeoff.

We booked a water taxi to/from Kachemak Bay SP. Galen & Noelle were super informative on where to…read moremeet, what hiking trails to take once we got there and what to bring. Galen and his first mate Julep (sweetest dog ever!) made the boat trip to and from Kachemak Bay so fun and he pointed out eagles on the shore and stopped to see puffins floating in the water. They are best and I highly recommend them!

What a wonderful water taxi experience by the fantastic captain and his furry first mate, Julep,…read morethe most adorable and well behaved border collie (perfect therapy dog). Because of the gorgeous weather during our pick up trip back to Homer, the friendly captain (sorry I can't recall his name) took us on a detour to see a few sea otters, and even were fortunate enough to catch a sighting of a puffin. Highly recommend this power duo