Huna Outfitters
Huna Outfitters
4
Nature & Wildlife Tours • Kayaking & Canoeing
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Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
4.0
15 reviews
Excellent
8
Very good
5
Average
0
Poor
0
Terrible
2
Kerry N
Melbourne, Australia21 contributions
Jun 2013 • Couples
The two reviews here should highlight that wildlife watching is not a staged show. Sometimes you get lucky and see amazing things and sometimes you see lots of trees and little else. The day we went out, it was an extremely hot day and we really shouldn't have seen anything (bears would rather be hiding in the shade than running around entertaining tourists) but we saw 4 bears.
We saw a huge cinnamon bear, a nice sized brown bear, then a male brown chasing a female brown right across the front of our van. So, of course I'm completely satisfied with my experience. Lots of tours say they are 100% guaranteed to see bears, but beware that nobody is paying the bears so they might not cooperate. Huna did say they would refund some of the fee if we didn't see anything, but luckily that wasn't an issue for us.
Tess isn't a trained naturalist but she is a local and knows the area well, what's in it, and seems to have a knack for finding bears. She is also married to a Tlingit and hearing about life in Hoonah, raising a family as a Tlingit, how the native corporations work, and all the rest of that was pretty interesting.
We saw a huge cinnamon bear, a nice sized brown bear, then a male brown chasing a female brown right across the front of our van. So, of course I'm completely satisfied with my experience. Lots of tours say they are 100% guaranteed to see bears, but beware that nobody is paying the bears so they might not cooperate. Huna did say they would refund some of the fee if we didn't see anything, but luckily that wasn't an issue for us.
Tess isn't a trained naturalist but she is a local and knows the area well, what's in it, and seems to have a knack for finding bears. She is also married to a Tlingit and hearing about life in Hoonah, raising a family as a Tlingit, how the native corporations work, and all the rest of that was pretty interesting.
Written July 1, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Renee T
Pelzer, SC9 contributions
Aug 2014
We booked our trip independently, Our guide (Chelsea) was very knowledgeable, interesting and took us to the bears. She also stopped along the way to pick some of the wild berries for use to try.Highly recommend the bear excersion. Beautiful scenery.Thanks for everything.
Written September 5, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
travelstkilda
Australia18 contributions
Aug 2014 • Couples
A very professional tour presented by a very passionate tour guide.
We missed out on booking a fishing tour - found out that these need to be booked before arrival. Walked into town and luckily found the Huna Outfitters shop. Brittany booked us on an afternoon tour.
Picked up by Chelsea the business owner. She was a little late in starting the tour, but after our tour finished I could understand why. We were also late returning and enjoyed an extended tour. Chelsea loves the outdoors, fauna & flora and is happy to keep sightseeing as long as her guests are interested. We were not rushed from stop to stop, but spent as long as we liked at each point. She found bears in three locations - a mum with 2 cubs, bears fishing in the river and even a big bear that appeared right in front of the tour bus and then galloped down the road. She picked and fed us wild berries, told us about the town and life living in Hoonah and more.
Highly recommend you book a tour with Chelsea if your ship is stopping at Icy Strait Point port. The walk into town only took 20 minutes and after the tour Chelsea dropped us back at the gate to the port area.
Peter & Sharon
Melbourne, Australia
We missed out on booking a fishing tour - found out that these need to be booked before arrival. Walked into town and luckily found the Huna Outfitters shop. Brittany booked us on an afternoon tour.
Picked up by Chelsea the business owner. She was a little late in starting the tour, but after our tour finished I could understand why. We were also late returning and enjoyed an extended tour. Chelsea loves the outdoors, fauna & flora and is happy to keep sightseeing as long as her guests are interested. We were not rushed from stop to stop, but spent as long as we liked at each point. She found bears in three locations - a mum with 2 cubs, bears fishing in the river and even a big bear that appeared right in front of the tour bus and then galloped down the road. She picked and fed us wild berries, told us about the town and life living in Hoonah and more.
Highly recommend you book a tour with Chelsea if your ship is stopping at Icy Strait Point port. The walk into town only took 20 minutes and after the tour Chelsea dropped us back at the gate to the port area.
Peter & Sharon
Melbourne, Australia
Written August 12, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Carmen K
1 contribution
Jun 2013
Totally disappointed and waste of $800 dollars for six people!! This was recommended as an almost guaranteed bear sighting tour. After driving around the mountain for over 2 hours in relative silence, one of the passengers spotted a brown bear. Our driver, Tess, zoomed by and the bear was startled. No further attempt was made to see another bear. Tess felt her mission was accomplished and quickly returned to town and that was the end of the tour. Tess only addressed the passengers in the front seats and we could not hear anything in the back. It could have been so much better had our driver used a microphone to shared a little history of the area, information about the bears and their habitat and allowed us to get off the van, even if just to stretch our legs. We called Chelsea, the owner, twice while in town and she NEVER returned our call. Save your money and do not use this company until their drivers are trained to give tours!!!
Written June 25, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
NDubu
Pittsburgh, PA24 contributions
Jun 2013 • Friends
We had the good fortune to stop at Hoonah on our cruise. We experienced a wonderful morning touring the area, learning about the history of logging, the history of the island, viewing the forest. We saw a mama bear and her cub and watched them run across the mud flats. Tesh, our driver was well informed, knew a great deal about the botany of the island, the habits of bears, answered all our questions about life in a small town/island. The salmon were not yet running upstream, which would make the bears easier to spot instead of hiding in the underbrush. We watched the mama and cub for over 30 minutes until they were out of sight. Our tour took place even though there were only two of us (our afternoon whale watch with another company was cancelled due to too few people). We would have stayed out longer, but had to get back to meet other family member who were coming off the ship at noon. It was incredibly beautiful. We saw nesting eagles; plenty of ravens and learned about what tricksters a raven can be. I would do it again in a heartbeat, next time I'm in Alaska.
Written June 29, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Mark R
Valparaiso, IN932 contributions
Aug 2017 • Couples
Our guide took us inland in search of Brown bear in their natural habitat. We witnessed multiple bear fishing and scavenging berries along the way. Beautiful scenery also.
Written September 2, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Karen B
Columbia, SC63 contributions
Jul 2015 • Couples
We booked the 3 hour bear watch tour in advance using the Alaska TourSaver coupon book. We are not morning people, and had to meet our guide at 7:15 AM, which was a struggle, but we were so glad to got up early that day.
We met Mike, a local police officer, right off the ship after a short walk past security in Icy Strait Point. Mike was clearly someone who loves the outdoors and the animals, and was very knowledgeable. He pointed out many of the interesting aspects of Icy Straight Point as we drove, and we saw several bald eagles, including one on a nest. We met up with another tour group whose guide Mike knew well, on a bridge overlooking a stream in which salmon and Dolly Varden trout were swimming. We did not see any bears, in spite of his best efforts looking in all of the places they were known to frequent, until the last 15 minutes heading back to Icy Strait Point, when he stopped the car because he saw two bears fighting in the road behind us. He was able to use our camera to get quite a few great photos for us. He also got some good photos of black tail deer for us.
This tour was very enjoyable, we had a good time talking with Mike and getting to know him a little, as well as learning about the area. This tour felt very personal, as it was just my husband and me, and we felt Mike went out of his way to try to fid bears for us to see. Well worth it!
We met Mike, a local police officer, right off the ship after a short walk past security in Icy Strait Point. Mike was clearly someone who loves the outdoors and the animals, and was very knowledgeable. He pointed out many of the interesting aspects of Icy Straight Point as we drove, and we saw several bald eagles, including one on a nest. We met up with another tour group whose guide Mike knew well, on a bridge overlooking a stream in which salmon and Dolly Varden trout were swimming. We did not see any bears, in spite of his best efforts looking in all of the places they were known to frequent, until the last 15 minutes heading back to Icy Strait Point, when he stopped the car because he saw two bears fighting in the road behind us. He was able to use our camera to get quite a few great photos for us. He also got some good photos of black tail deer for us.
This tour was very enjoyable, we had a good time talking with Mike and getting to know him a little, as well as learning about the area. This tour felt very personal, as it was just my husband and me, and we felt Mike went out of his way to try to fid bears for us to see. Well worth it!
Written July 20, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Lee K
Prairie Village, KS993 contributions
Jul 2015 • Couples
Our guide was a native and a well educated science teacher that knew the geology, flora and fauna, marine life, native history, folk lore, and medicinal properties of several plants. He was by far the best naturalist guide that we had in Alaska.
Written July 26, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Chesirecat88
Graz, Austria21 contributions
Jun 2013 • Couples
We had a really good time on our bear viewing tour with Huna Outfitters. Tesh, our guide, was very friendly, told us a lot about the area and the nature, explained plants and tried hard to make the bear search as comfortable as possible. Although we were told that chances of spotting a bear were quite small due to the hot weather, we managed to find one - it was sitting just right next to the van :) We also watched an eagle landing on his nest and saw deer crossing the road.
Unfortunately one girl on the bus needed to get back to the cruiseship early, otherwise Tesh would have prolonged the tour even though we had already seen a bear and time was actually over.
Chelsea and the team were super friendly and the Root Beer Floats, coffee and breakfast croissants at their place taste awesome!
Thanks for a great day and a special expierence :)
Unfortunately one girl on the bus needed to get back to the cruiseship early, otherwise Tesh would have prolonged the tour even though we had already seen a bear and time was actually over.
Chelsea and the team were super friendly and the Root Beer Floats, coffee and breakfast croissants at their place taste awesome!
Thanks for a great day and a special expierence :)
Written June 27, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
LeaderInAction
Los Angeles, California386 contributions
Jun 2017 • Family
This is a must for nature/animal lovers. It's about an hour boat ride to the bear sanctuary. However, keep in mind that you will not set foot on land. You can only view the bears from the boat for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then ride the boat back to the dock.
Written June 14, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
