Hallo Bay Lodge Bear VIewing, Alaska, United States

3lovetoexplore2 5:00 PM Aug 18, 2010

Mixed experience - great bears sub standard hospitality
Four of us visited Hallo Bay Wilderness Camp in July 2010. Our trip can best be described as a Curate's Egg. We are all extremely well seasoned travellers who have visited most of the worlds best wildlife viewing opportunities, so are by no means novices at any of this. The good stuff first - the bear viewing itself is an utterly remarkable experience. To be within 3-4 metres of full-grown brown bears on more than one occasion is undoubtedly breath-taking - and in this context the experience well lives up to the billing. And if you get Herb as your guide... the guy is an utter superstar! However - at a daily rate of $600 (excluding transportation) there are a number of areas where the experience very definitely is not out of the top drawer ... Firstly - you need considerable flexibility in your travel plans to include Hallo Bay in your itinerary. We were only delayed 1 day on our departure, but some other guests were delayed by 4 days - and 'new' guests had arrival delayed by upto 3 days. All due to inclement weather restricting flights to/from Homer. From comments made by on-site management, other guests and the staff at the air transport company, this is a very regular occurrence - use of float planes would reduce this risk considerably, but they aren't used. So unless Hallo Bay is the entirety your trip, you need to build in considerable buffers to your timetable. You would also be well advised to read the payment & refund policy very carefully... Secondly - 'Domestics' - due to over-booking (NOT weather delays) there were 14 people in the camp, not the 8-12 noted in the marketing literature. As a result, two of our party did not have their own cabin but had to share with two other guests (no compensation or refund - or even apology - was offered by Hallo Bay); - the food was generally poor (unless eating undefrosted peas smothered in mayo is your idea of a delicious accompaniment to a small portion of lasagne for dinner) and the quantities were not generous; - the 'odorless' sanitary facilities were most definitely not; - for photographers, there are inadequate battery recharging facilities; - due to the over-booking, the mess tent was uncomfortably over-crowded at meal times such that finding a seat was difficult Thirdly - Bear viewing (THE BIGGEST ISSUE) - there were only 2 guides for 14 people (not the ratio promised on the advertising material) -- even when both guides were available to go out (which was only about 30% of the time) our group sizes were far from the small, intimate viewing groups we had been promised; - insufficient number of guides also meant that each viewing group could only go at the pace/distance of the slowest member - as a result of which we pretty much spent whole time we were there sitting on the same piece of driftwood about a mile from camp; - our guides commented that the size of the groups we had resulted in bears not coming as close to us as they would expect, finding our large number off-putting. Would I recommend Hallo Bay to friends? Not in the full-throated way I have done for many other places. I'd say the bear viewing opportunity is unique, but I know wilderness camp operators elsewhere in the world who could show these guys how to do it properly. Interestingly, an email to Hallo Bay on our return setting out some of the above issues has not been replied to - which does not overly surprise us Other tips - take more than one set of waterproofs (the 'drying room' doesn't); - take plenty of bug spray and seriously consider a head/hat mosquito net

3FrequenTraveller6700 5:00 PM Aug 20, 2017

Disappointment with Hallo Bay tour company in Homer
"Hallo Bay" Tours in Homer We had booked a half-day-bear viewing trip with that company in Homer assuming we would be taken to Hallo Bay in Katmai. The very name of the company and all the information we had let us believe that we'd be flying to Katmai (1 hour flight, list of what we had to bring etc; and even the video we were shown in the office while waiting for the flight was about Katmai). Our first surprise was when the lady in the office told us we would not be needing wellies, then that the flight was only 35 to 40 minutes. We flew across Cook Inlet to a place we're not even sure of and saw 5 very lazy bears mostly inactive and lying around (it was early afternoon). We feel that the company is purposedly not very clear about the difference between half day and full day tours (there is a mention of another national park on their site online (Lake Clark National Park) but it is not said that half-day tours fly there instead of Katmai. It was only after the tour and the disappointment after paying each 650 dollars that I looked at the map and assumed we had flown to a beach across the Inlet (perhaps Chinitna Bay ???). Hence, we do not recommend this company for bear viewing and it is wiser not to book in advance from abroad sonce many other tour operators based in the Spit offer bear viewing. Make sure you fly to Katmai ! Gilles (France)