Caleb was an excellent guide! He was very informative, friendly, & knew the best places to see the lights.
The hot springs were interesting, and I’m glad we did that. It’s hard to imagine being warm - hot even - in a hot spring when it is -20 degrees all around you. Yet, we were hot.
I recommend bringing flip flops, which I forgot to back since it was a February trip to AK.
If possible, make reservations for a specific time at dinner ahead of your trip. I’m not sure if that is possible or not. We waited over an hour to be seated for dinner. The food was good and the service was fast once we were seated. We purchased a deck of cards in the gift shop to help pass the time.
The ice museum was interesting to see. The ice carvers are the best in the world.
As a bonus, we saw moose on the ride to the hot springs and stopped to see the pipeline on the way back.
Even though it was cloudy and later snowed on our trip, the Aurora shined and danced better than any other night on our trip. If you think of canceling because the weather is not perfect, don’t. You just cannot predict what kind of Northern Light show you will have. Even had the lights not danced and given us a good show, the hot springs, ice museum, and dinner would have been an amazing night. The lights were the scrumptious icing on the cake for a great evening.
Caleb was the best guide of our entire trip! I hope you get him as a guide if you go.
(We also loved the dog mushing, dinner, and northern lights tour, which was our other favorite night in Alaska. This hot springs tour and that dog mushing-dinner-lights experience were our favorite tours.)