FamilyLuvs2Travel
Aug 2024
My husband and I visited Alaska for my first time in early August. We knew we wanted to experience a fly over Denali National Park. After researching the various tour operators offering this service, it was a no brainer to book with Talkeetna Air Taxi. Not only were their Trip Advisor and Google reviews great, but what sold me was their policy to rebook or refund their tours. The other companies had a much more rigid refund policy. For those who have never traveled to Alaska, the weather changes daily and can be dramatic as well.
We originally booked the Mountain Explorer with a Glacier landing for the first tour time of the day. There are multiple tour times offered throughout the day, so if the visibility or weather cancels an earlier tour, it’s possible to book a later tour if there is availability. We left the rest of the day open in our planning just in case.
Unfortunately, the weather was not great on the day of our tour so they called us to tell us it was cancelled. The rest of the tour times were cancelled as well. But they offered to rebook us on the Mountain Explorer tour the next day without the glacier landing with a refund of the difference in pricing, so we rebooked it.
When we arrived for the 4pm tour time the next day, they actually booked us on the South Side Explorer with glacier landing and we still received a refund on the difference in price. We were happy because we did want to have a glacier landing and we didn’t even ask, it was automatically done!
Our pilot was Luke. He was fantastic! Super chill and greeted us wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I actually sat in the first passenger seat behind the cockpit and watched him fly the plane. It was fascinating. Each seat of the plane had a headset with volume knobs on each ear. Luke pointed out the names of the mountain formations as we soared around them. It was magical! Ruth glacier is huge and glorious in the air. Unfortunately, Denali was hiding in the clouds but the views of the other mountains was spectacular.
The glacier landing was smooth. We had plenty of time to walk on the glacier and take pictures. It was worth every penny to have had the opportunity to do so.
Since we sat in the same seats on our return, Luke made sure to fly back the opposite direction so we could see the views we missed on the way up. As we left the Denali mountain range, we could see views of the Talkeetna valley and various rivers which were breathtaking! Smooth landing back at the airport.
Talkeetna Air Taxi is the best company for a fly over to Denali Park, hands down!