#1 of 13 hotels in Denali National Park and Preserve
Location
4.8
Rooms
4.3
Value
3.8
Cleanliness
4.6
Service
4.5
Sleep Quality
4.4
Exclusive helicopter access. Private cabins. Stunning views. Warm hospitality and unmatched adventures. This is Denali Backcountry Lodge, where guests experience the best creature comforts in one of the world’s wildest landscapes. Located at the historic settlement of Kantishna, the lodge is a perfect base for exploring the ruggedly beautiful backcountry of Denali National Park. Return each evening to fresh and seasonal cuisine, a cozy fire and a serene sense of wonder.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
The Denali Backcountry Lodge experience, while the Park Road is closed, can't be beat! The accommodations are comfortable, with all the necessary amenities, plus Wifi. The rooms are large enough to comfortably accommodate up to 4 people.
After the 35-minute helicopter ride over the park, with incredible mountain views, you are greeted by a staff member who immediately shows you to your room, which has a large hiking pack and 32-oz water bottle for each member of your party to use during your stay. As your luggage is taken to your room for you by staff, your staff greeter shows you where the main lodge is for lunch and you can meet them there after you freshen up for a couple of minutes in your room.
Lunch is a fixed menu of about 7 selections. There is also a different soup and side each day. After lunch on arrival day, your staff greeter takes you on a short tour of the property to share the amenities and how your days will be structured. Then you're led to the desk where you sign up for which hikes/activities you'd like to do that afternoon. All hikes/activities are optional. Only on arrival day, you pick your dinner from a menu of three items so that it can be prepared before you sit down for dinner. After arrival day, you choose your dinner during your breakfast each day. There's a meat option, a seafood option, and a vegetarian option for dinner, with a new kind of roll, flavored butter, and dessert each day. There's also a plentiful snack bar, coffee carafe, and espresso machine for in between meals. Breakfast is a fixed menu of about 5 items, with a fruit cup.
At dinner, you look over the hiking options for the following day. Each day there is a casual hike, a moderate hike, and a challenging hike to choose from. When the moderate hike we wanted to do was filled to capacity (due to NPS rules), we asked about arranging another time of the day that we could do the hike and the BCL readily accommodated us and made sure that we'd get to do the hike we wanted. Each day there are also multiple shuttle rides to Wonder Lake to see what wildlife may be out and about. At Wonder Lake, on a clear day, you have a beautiful view of Denali and the north side of the Alaska Range.
We booked 3 nights at the lodge, so on our 2nd full day, I booked a massage for after our Tundra Trek. The spa is an adorable little building with a wood burning stove in the massage area. On a 45-degree day in July, the heat was heavenly! The massage was just what I needed after 2 weeks in Alaska. I had the deep-tissue massage and left feeling relaxed and like I had actually been worked on.
While the star of our time back here should have been the park, the food gave the park a run for its money! The lodge has a chef, a baker, a sous chef, and other kitchen staff to make the most delicious meals. We cleaned our plates AND our dessert plates every night. Then, when you get back to your room for the evening, there's an extra dessert treat to tide you over until breakfast! You will not go hungry at the DBL! There's also a well-stocked bar (as in it has a good stock, not that it only has well drinks) on the upper floor of the lodge that "officially" opens around the time one of the staff members gives a nightly presentation on an element of the flora, fauna, geology, or adventure of Denali National Park, though the bar is always available during the day.
While it's difficult to get to, the experience of being at the Backcountry Lodge is well worth the time and the expense. The staff obviously love their jobs and love meeting people from all over the world. They make you feel comfortable asking for anything and everything you could think of to make your stay absolutely perfect. If you have any desire to live this experience, go now. Once the park road reopens, this experience will never be the same. The isolation and limited capacity back there is what really made the experience magical for us. The road is slated to be open again in 2027, as of today.
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Date of stay: July 2024
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Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:Â Spend at least 3 nights. Also have a "buffer" day at the end of your stay in case the weather is...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Christopher Hudson, General Manager at Denali Backcountry Lodge
Responded Aug 21, 2024
O83KSlesliew, We were proud to host you while you were here in Alaska. Thanks for your very detailed review and information that you have passed on for future guests. We are very lucky to have suck a beautiful location in the middle of the national park, and have wonderful staff members that are excited to share their passion with our guests. Your visit sounds like it was amazing and time well spent in Denali. Best, Chris H.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Don't miss the chance to experience Denali via Denali Backcountry Lodge! The price may seem high, but when you consider that it includes bus fare, meals, and personalized tours, it is actually a very good deal. The bus rides are long, but very comfortable, and even with masks and social distancing, it gave us a chance to meet lots of wonderful people. Dennis, the property manager, gave us a warm greeting upon our arrival and personally handed us our room key. During our stay, we observed him interacting in a positive manner with patrons, and he regularly checked in on us during meals to make sure everything was satisfactory. The room was warm and clean. The entire staff was extremely friendly and accommodating. Of special mention is Sebastian, our guide for a couple of events. We learned so much from him. He is extremely knowledgeable and personable. We would also like to thank Sabrina for her genuine cheerfulness in the dining hall. The food is five-star!!!! Nice variety, great presentation, fresh, healthy, delicious, and super great portions! Dessert is killer! Believe me, it is a fantastic experience! Hard to believe this is all possible in the middle of the wilderness!
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Date of stay: July 2020Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
My husband and I just came back from staying at Denali Backcountry Lodge for three nights. Three nights seems to be just the right amount of time as the first day you arrive late in the day in time for dinner so you have two full days at the Lodge. Why stay overnight at the end of the road? Because it takes 6 hours to drive to the end and the drive itself is one of the highlights. On the bus ride in is when you see the most animals and breathtaking views of the mountains. Once you get to the end it's a good idea to stay a couple nights. The cabins are comfortable with their own bathrooms. The meals are very good. Breakfast offers eggs, bacon, hash browns, yogurt, fruit, etc. Lunch is hamburgers, sandwiches, salads and Dinner offered fish, steak, chicken with vegetable and a salad option. They also have desert each night. They organize a variety of hiking trips each morning to pick based on effort and in the afternoons they have trips to the lake to see if Denali is peaking through the clouds or not or you might go to the old Quigley house or a botany walk. The cabin we stayed in was along the river, which I recommend. We went at the end of July and did not have any mosquitos which I heard were horrendous in June. There are not a large variety of trails in this area and much of the land is soft and mushy so be prepared to walk in mud or soft tundra. Your shoes and pants will get wet. We wore waterproof pants one day and regular hiking pants with gaiters the other day. We also wore our face nets for little bugs in some areas of the trail, not mosquitos. It was cool at night so sleeping with the window open is not a problem. You can charge all your devices inside your cabin but wifi is only available near the dining room. The only thing I might have done differently is instead of taking the bus out and doing the 6 hour bus ride again to the park entrance, I would recommend taking the flight out to the entrance and then catching your bus or train to your next destination unless you are staying overnight near the entrance then it might not be such a long day but we did the 6 hour bus ride then 7 hour train ride to Anchorage which was too much traveling to fully enjoy it.
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Date of stay: July 2021
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Our family of four spent three nights at DBL last week (end of July 2021) and had a wonderful time. We originally looked at the 13 hour one-day bus ride but then found that the same company that offered the bus ride also had a lodge. We are so glad that we did the lodge! The recommended stay of three nights versus two was perfect because of the long bus rides to the lodge and out again, three nights gave us to full days at the lodge. If you have the time, we recommend staying at least three nights. If you really enjoy long hikes then an extra night may be better. If you only stay two nights, you only get one full day and depending on the weather and clouds, you may miss seeing Denali altogether. We didn't see Denali at all our first day but saw it the second day and saw it best the morning that we left. The other thing that you optimize by staying at the lodge is your animal viewing opportunities. Our animal viewing on the bus ride to the lodge was fine (two bears, a couple of caribou) but our bus ride out three days later was awesome (9 bears, moose, Dall sheep, caribou). We considered flying out to save time but we're so glad that we didn't; while the early morning bus ride was a bit painful (especially for teenagers who really wanted to sleep), the animal sightings made it worthwhile. The staff at DBL were great. Our kids went on a long hike themselves with Pika and had a great time while my husband and I went on a casual hike with another group with Valerie as our guide. Pika showed the kids caribou and moose antlers, ate blueberries with them on the tundra and took videos of them doing their tundra rolls. Valerie was very knowledgeable and shared so much information with us on our hike. Pika and Valerie are just two examples of the wonderful staff at DBL that made our stay wonderful. They have several vans that can take you to Wonder Lake at set times but the staff are also available to take you whenever you want to go. We saw that Denali was going to show itself and one of the guys drove our family over to Wonder Lake and waited for us for 30 mins while we got our photos. Dinners at DBL were particularly good and desserts were really good! Breakfast was the same menu every day but also very good. Lunch were sandwiches and wraps, also the same each day. Rooms were good size though bathroom was a bit small but still a luxury for being in the middle of the park. Very comfortable for a family of four. Highly recommend DBL!
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Date of stay: July 2021
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This place is very nice and has a great location but is not worth the $1250 per night price tag. Staff were nice and did the best they could, but were largely 20 year olds working in an austere environment with little supervision. Save your money and stay outside the park, take the bus in
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Date of stay: June 2021
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Yes this is expensive, but given the location and surprising quality of food and accommodations, it was a great experience. The value proposition is maybe less because we had 4 people in our cabin (2 children) and there was no discount for the 3rd and 4th, so it was a lot for 4 people for 2 nights. It was also completely full, and the staff did a great job managing the large volume of people. The cabins are small but in excellent condition and although we found a couple of dead hornets in the room, it was otherwise clean and comfortable. The other bugs on the property can be problematic. I would highly advise long sleeves and pants as well as a head net (I would consider this a must). We tried gold panning, but lasted only 5 minutes because of the large number of bites on our hands and scalp. No amount of bug spray seemed to repel them, so beware. They have bikes to ride, fishing poles and a shuttle to Wonder Lake, all of which proved to be great experiences. I enjoyed the meals, which was impressive given the remote location and number of guests. The staff were pleasant and seemed to enjoy their work. It seemed one of the few places where they did not have signs saying services were cut due to lack of staff. We saw plenty of wildlife on the long bus ride there and back. I'm glad we had the opportunity to experience it.
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Date of stay: June 2021
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Stayed for 3 nights in June 2021. Positives: The staff is exceptional. LOVED our waiter Brady, guide Lilly and Pika. Food is great for the remoteness of the location. Beds are amazing! Lodge has mosquito head nets, rain pants, hiking poles and umbrellas. Negatives: Yoga, Stretching….advertised but not offered. Guided hikes available in the morning. The same trip to Wonder Lake is offered every afternoon. No guided afternoon hikes are offered. When hikes are full no additional hikes are offered. Day trippers come in around 1 pm and the place is swamped with people until about 2:30. We stayed in cabin 16, every morning at 5 am when people depart the whole cabin shakes as luggage is rolled by.
Tip: Flight seeing around Denali with Kantishna Air Taxi is well worth it. Don’t miss out.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: June 2021
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Best part of course was getting to see parts of the reserve that most don’t, but the staff and accommodations were also excellent. Creek side cabin was perfect - clean and comfy. Staff was friendly, knowledgeable, energetic, and courteous. Every staff member we interacted with was friendly, attentive and had very personable. Patty the tour bus guide - great driver and full of knowledge, Steven was fun, entertaining, and had a great big personality, Which we really enjoyed. He went over and above. Stephanie also knowledgeable and enthusiastic, with a bright and energetic spirit. Didn’t get the chef’s name, but he took time to talk with us and shared a cooking method with us. He also showed genuine concern for accommodating my nut allergy. I didn’t get the names of the servers but they were all friendly, attentive, and efficient. We had one very small miscommunication/misunderstanding about meal times, but Dennis, who I think was the general manager showed genuine concern, was understanding, and quick to resolve the issue, going beyond what we expected to make up for what was truly a small matter to us. Lots to do while at the lodge, or if you want to you can just relax and take in the beauty of creation. A really wonderful experience.
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Date of stay: July 2020Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed 4 nights at the Backcountry Lodge. Based on the reviews we had read before our visit, we had high expectations. Denali is certainly a beautiful National Park and we saw quite a few animals from the uncomfortable bus on our 6 hour way in, less so on the 5 hour way out. It would seem to us that for the amount of money that is spent visiting the lodge, the buses could be more comfortable than a school bus and the windows could be configured in a way that one can take pictures easily without having a bar in the middle. The lodge itself felt like a bus station. Especially during the midday hours, over 100 people would be brought to the lodge for lunch and some activity (walk on the tundra etc). These people did not stay at the lodge but actually had a very long day to ride all the way in and all the way back. Our cabin was dark (2 small windows partly covered by curtains) and we had several wasps each day (so did others). We never figured out how they got into the room. The food was ok. There were choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the portions were of good size. To our disappointment (we are avid hikers), there were very few maintained hiking trails. Only 1 trail (McKinley Bar Trail) was somewhat maintained (Moose Creek Trail was an old road but had many deep and large water puddles)). Walking through tundra is no fun and we were even told to fan out when walking and not to walk in a single file. Not clear why boardwalks could not be installed to protect the flora (and fauna) of the shorter "trails" around the lodge. One wonders how many spruce trees get damaged by each group each day. We had 3 female guides (unfortunately, always a different guide for each actiivity), who were very nice and knowledgeable. But because we always had a different guide, there was a lot of repetition in the information. The staff members at the lodge were professional, and the waitresses in the restaurant were very nice. On 2 occasions, the morning activity we sought was already filled, they were very accomodating and opened up another group. Overall, however, we felt, this lodge suffered from the turnover of both overnight and day visitors and the large number of guests, somehow reducing the opportunity for creation of some sense of ambiance for the overnight guests.
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Date of stay: June 2021
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We went to the Denali Backcountry lodge hoping to have a "not to be missed" type of experience. While the Backcountry lodge and experience are nice it turned out to be very average and not worth the money. The dining was "fine" - average at best. The activities we did - hiking and biking could all have been done at the entrance area of Denali and just as challenging with great views. Overall the experience was fine but in our opinion not worth the money. We were also part of the unfortunately group who were impacted by the road closure which delayed exiting the park so much so we missed the last shuttle to Fairbanks. We were totally on our own to find alternative lodging on our own dime. It also caused us to need to rebook flights. The total cost was about $600 and pursuit did not offer any compensation even though the lodging and transportation were all booked through them. Very disappointed! I do not recommend Pursuit.
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Date of stay: August 2021
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Come with a negative test (with 72 hours( or you will be required to pay $250 at the airport for one - and then quarantine until results are received - usually up to 72 hours. We just stayed there and loved it!
In the evenings around dinner there are so many people using it basically rendering the internet unusable, and pages don’t load at all. The mornings around breakfast it’s much faster
You can meet the bus either at the Denali cabins or at the entrance to the park. The Denali cabins are about 8 miles before the park entrance (if you are coming from anchorage). They weren't very well sign posted and we missed them at first, but it was a handy and safe place to leave the car and we were able to get lunch there too. They will communicate with you prior to departure as to where you want to be picked up
There are more places to choose from in the Denali National Park and Preserve area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
denali backcountry hotel denali national park and preserve, hotel denali backcountry
LOCATION
United StatesAlaskaDenali National Park and Preserve
NUMBER OF ROOMS
12
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