Kodiak

[djwho]

Will be in Kodiak early July and there are a few wildlife shore excursions I like but find they are pricey. Has anyone out there done the HAL wildlife shore excursions and feel they were worth the money or have other suggestions?

 

Donna

[epixx]

Will be in Kodiak early July and there are a few wildlife shore excursions I like but find they are pricey. Has anyone out there done the HAL wildlife shore excursions and feel they were worth the money or have other suggestions?

 

Donna

 

Taxis wait right at the dock. We paid about $15 for one to take 4 of us to Ft. Abercrombie Park, where we went on a really enjoyable and beautiful hike on our own. We asked the taxi driver to meet us at the drop off point at a specified time later in the day, and when we arrived at that point 10 minutes early, he was already there. Have a great day.

[greatam]

Will be in Kodiak early July and there are a few wildlife shore excursions I like but find they are pricey. Has anyone out there done the HAL wildlife shore excursions and feel they were worth the money or have other suggestions?

 

Donna

 

 

If you are talking about bear viewing trips, please be aware that most are NOT on Kodiak Island. The operators fly you to the Katmai. To see bears on Kodiak (with a good chance of success) you have to spend two or three days or more at "bear camp". The Kodiak bears are almost impossible to see on a short shore excursion. http://kodiakisland.net/bear.html Note that almost all except for Kingfisher Air require stays of 3-5 days. Kingfisher Air flies to the Katmai during the summer.

 

If you are interested in bear viewing, you can get the same trip out of Homer with operators who own PRIVATE land in the Katmai. The owners LIVE there from mid May until October. They KNOW where the bears are and what they are doing. So they guide the planes from Homer DIRECT to the bears. http://www.hallobay.com/

 

Some of the air transport companies fly around and around LOOKING for the bears. Waste 1/2 your time looking instead of actually seeing.

[Assateague Island Princes]

This past Aug., we booked a 3 hour tour w/Dake from Memorymakers. He picked us up at the ship in his nice, comfy six passenger van and drove us all over, showing us the wind turbines on top of the mountain with beautiful views of the town of Kodiak and the harbor where the Amsterdam was docked. Then we drove out the road a bit to see if we could see any bears fishing for salmon, they'd recently been sighted in the stream near the flats (no luck, but gorgeous scenery and a fun adventure), then we went out to Ft. Abercrombie for a short hike and to take in the views, then back out in another direction to look for bears and afterwards he dropped us off in town, where we spent a leisurely few hours touring the small museums, having lunch at the harbor, and spending a bit of time at the Kodiak Brewery on our walk back to the ship.

 

Dake is an interesting character, lots of stories about his life in Kodiak, and will take you wherever you want to go to see whatever you want to see. Would love to go back sometime and try our hand at fishing with Dake. Price was reasonable - $75 per person for the three hour tour. Very enjoyable!

 

As a previous poster stated, we had chartered a taxi when we stopped in Kodiak in 2010 - but we used them for the entire 3 hours (splitting the cost with others from our Roll Call). Wished we had have him drop us off at Abercrombie for the entire time, but instead had him drive us around. Not as enjoyable however - his first day on the job and even tho a long-time Kodiak resident, he seemed bewildered with what to show us on his beautiful island, and his driving skills let a lot to be desired:o - more than once I saw my DH's hand creep over as if to grab the steering wheel while we were driving up the steep dirt road to view the wind turbines;)!

 

Another option for Kodiak is to rent a car - they now have an office right in town, and when I inquired, the cost was very reasonable - $45 for the time we were there. Kodiak's Visitor Guide (order it free thru their website) has several scenic drives clearly outlined so there would be plenty of areas to explore in your port time.

[frugaltravel]

Will be in Kodiak early July and there are a few wildlife shore excursions I like but find they are pricey. Has anyone out there done the HAL wildlife shore excursions and feel they were worth the money or have other suggestions?

 

As always, definitely know in advance where any flightseeing or bear viewing tour visits. There are several operators in Kodiak that do day bear viewing trips into the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. One is Seahawk Aviation but there are others. Partly it depends on how much time you have on the island. Often the cruise ship stops are very short in Kodiak (5-6 hours).

[djwho]

Thanks for the replies... Donna

[trophy_23]

As always, definitely know in advance where any flightseeing or bear viewing tour visits. There are several operators in Kodiak that do day bear viewing trips into the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. One is Seahawk Aviation but there are others. Partly it depends on how much time you have on the island. Often the cruise ship stops are very short in Kodiak (5-6 hours).

 

We are in port from 7am-3pm and are looking at the Seahawk bear tour, I suspect this should be doable? 8am flight tour should easily be back by 1:30-2pm giving us time to get back aboard the ship. Does this sound about right? It sounds like you have some experience with their tours