Place to stay in Denali National Park

[Kaiser]

Any of you travelers have any recommendations for where to stay WITHIN Denali National Park?  My wife wants guided hiking tours - and I just don't want the hassle of transportation to-and-from the park.

Seems like every place within the park gets ripped a new one by the reviews on TripAdvisor.com.

Any advice from personal experience is appreciated.

[X Ring]

Don't have any advice on where to stay but when I lived in AK we had to use Bens 100 to keep the bugs at bay.  Don't even kid yourself about Skin So Soft.  The bugs up there considered it gravy and came in droves. 

Marty

[Black Pearl's Captain]

Any of you travelers have any recommendations for where to stay WITHIN Denali National Park?  My wife wants guided hiking tours - and I just don't want the hassle of transportation to-and-from the park.

Seems like every place within the park gets ripped a new one by the reviews on TripAdvisor.com.

Any advice from personal experience is appreciated.

Where else is there to stay WITHIN Denali park other than park stuff??

You didn't say if your camping or motel-hotel-resort staying.

We stayed just up the road in Healy in a nice campground right in the center of town.

Remember, it's Alaska and there is not much to choose from at times. Most people don't go to Alaska for fine hotels, they go for the lack of fine hotels everywhere.

The trip from anywhere within 25 miles of Denali doesn't take long anyway, No traffic jams up there other then in the parks!!

If you want somewhere WITHIN Denali you better reserve it now. One reason we stayed in Healy was because Denali was full up.

Raymond

Get some strong pepper spray if your going way out back hiking. We saw more then 10 grizzlies in one day at Denali. Take the bus back to Wonder lake for sure.

Raymond

[Kaiser]

Thanks guys.  Wife is flip-flopping and now wanting to stay outside the park (probably the south side).  We might end up in Healey as we have a distant connection there we might be able to use for lodging.

Thanks again.

[MP]

I have stayed at some of those places that have been "ripped" by travel advisaries.  I guess I must have pretty low standards!  Places described as absolute dumps have been pretty good.  Not 5 star hotels, but certainly OK. Especially when you are looking at Park properties.

Look at the pics posted by the places, and if look good, stay there.

MP

[Kaiser]

Thanks MP - will do.  Most of those "rippers" are people who said "I've been in the hotel industry for 30 years" or "comparing this to the places we stayed in Africa and Europe...".  I'm not a hotel expert and I'm not a world traveler, so I'm betting my standards are lower than most as well.

Looks like we're leaning towards staying at some small places - the types that only have 3 or 4 cabins.  I think I'll like that better than the huge hotel/resort type places.

Details are finally coming together for this trip.  Now I just gotta find a nice camera so that I can take lots of pics!