Gray Line Tours in Alaska

[GMoney]

Hi - I am currently planning an Alaska Princess cruise + post cruise tour for May 2007. In doing some research, I've stumbled across Gray Line Tours, which appears to be owned and operated by HAL. Does anyone have experience using Gray Line?

 

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Chenega]

They are the biggest tour operator up here and are owned by HAL. Lots of experience in Alaska.

[mom23guys]

We booked independently with Alaska Tour and Travel. They use Grey Line for the train. We were on HAL's cars for our trip from Denali to Anchorage. Nice dome car. I liked AK. Tour and Travel because we could build our own itinerary.

[GMoney]

Hi Mom23 - Building your own itinerary sounds very intriguing; I've been looking into that, so I'm glad to hear you say positive things. I sound the website of the company you mentioned as will dig a bit deeper. Let me know if you have any other hints or suggestions. Thanks very much.

[wdworbust]

I second the vote for their McKinley Explorer dome cars. Nice ride for the money. We booked our train segments independently, taking the rail from Fairbanks-Denali-Talkeetna-Anchorage and had a wonderful experience!

 

Have a Great trip!

Laura

[greatam]

Alaska Gray Line is WAAAAY overpriced on most tours. Example: day trip to Barrow from ANC-Gray Line-about $750.00. You fly Alaska airlines and when you arrive in Barrow, your tour is generally with Tundra Tours. IF you book directly with Tundra tours, price is in the $595-620 range. So you are paying Grey Line almost $150.00pp to book the trip for you. Pretty steep commission.

 

Most of GreyLine's bookings are through other operators. They don't run much stuff themselves-it is all subcontracted out. You can book anything you want almost DIRECTLY from the provider, instead of going through a third party. Booking directly not only saves a WHOLE lot of money, but ensures that maximum money goes into the pocket of the local tour operators, instead of a large, impersonal corp.

[wdworbust]

We paid just $8 more per segment for the Grayline/HAL McKinley Explorers than what the AKRR standard railcars cost. That's $32 for the Fairbanks-Achorage upgrade to dome cars for some wonderful views and a great ride! AKRR wanted $80 per segment more for their GoldStar domes. Look here for some pricing http://www.railsnw.com/tours/akrr/mckinley001.htm#tours

They may also be a 'broker', not sure but all of our documents had Grayline written on them.

 

It helps to decide what you'd like to do, then price things out using various methods, since there are so many ways to put a 'package' together for yourself. But it is so worth the time, my DH, MIL and I were so pleased with the trip we took and we will always remember the great Alaska trip we had!

 

Have fun planning!

Laura