We drove about a half an hour out of town to the site where we had to change our clothes. We wore winter heavy boots, pants, jacket etc., but our guide wanted us to put on even heavier clothes and balaclava around our face/neck. Our guide said he is retired, but does these tours in the winter.

Most of the trip was fine except one incident. Our guide said we would have to pull over on the narrow trail if a dog sled team came by. Sure enough, there was a group of 4 dog sleds stopped on the path near the lake. The woman driving the snowmobile in front of me headed left into a snow bank. I followed behind to get off the path, but didn’t go as far into the side bank as she did. Our guide said he would have to get her sled out of the snow, so had them get off the machine. For us, he just said to come back onto the path. Keeping in mind this is the first time we have ever sat on a snow machine, we were quite scared when I slowly moved the machine out of the snow, down the bank, and we thought it was going to tip over. We both put out our feet to stop from rolling. Our guide came back and said to never put our feet down! … It was an understandable reaction. I told him that if we were in a situation like that again, I would appreciate it if HE would get the sled out for us, and not leave it to us when we are not sure of what we are doing.

About half way through the day, after our stop at a lookout, he said we could change drivers. (Two people share the snow machine and each has a turn at driving.) Then he said the following section “was going to be a bit technical”. That’s scary. Now we have a NEW driver, and the trail is going to get tougher to drive? We went a short distance and he said it was going to be too tough, and had us all turn around to head back down the hill where we had come from.

Had such a wonderful experience with up northern. Staff was nothing but kind, helpful and attentive. We booked an ice fishing tour. It was cold but beautiful. Tour guides provided warm clothes, made sure we had all instructions and were safe. They even gave us hot chocolate and cookies during ice fishing. Definitely recommend!

Amazing aurora view your. The guide was super friendly (Derek), and really cared about us experiencing the northern lights. When we were about to leave, the northern lights started their show and he went running to the van and said: come come, it’s happening. We stayed around 40 min more than the limit, and was an unforgettable experience. He was extremely nice, outgoing and caring.