We just returned from our first trip with Austin Adventures. We did their Yellowstone Family Winter Trip, and it was a fantastic trip. I would definitely book another trip with them. In fact, I’m actively considering booking with Austin Adventures for Africa in 2019 to take advantage of a 10% bounce back discount if we book another trip within 30 days of returning home. Depending on which Africa trip we choose, this discount could amount to a savings of $3,000 to $4,000 for our family of four! And, as a past Austin Adventures traveler, one perk is that new bookings are fully refundable up to 45 days out, so it would essentially be a risk-free booking if we go ahead.
One interesting thing is that even though this was technically a family trip, my kids (13 and 15) were the only actual minors on the trip. There was another family of four with 20- and 23-year-old sons, both in college. The other guests were three adult couples, and we had one other solo adult traveler, who I would guess is in her 30s. It was a great group of interesting people, and my kids had no issue at all blending in. It made me realize that we can branch out for our future trips and don’t have to consider only family trips going forward.
Here are the things I really really liked about our Austin Adventures trip:
--We had 15 guests and 3 full-time guides. (Austin’s stated guest to guide ratio is 6:1, so our ratio was right in line with that.) So vastly different from the 2 guides we had for 49 guests on our
ABD Baltics cruise add-on, for example. All three guides currently live in Montana (where the trip started and ended), and each has guided in Yellowstone for multiple years, so they were very knowledgeable about the area, including Yellowstone’s geothermal features and history, the flora and fauna of the region, etc. They were friendly, personable and enthusiastic, but somehow also low-key, which I really really liked. They handled all of the logistics, including baggage handling. (The bags were waiting in our rooms at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge when we got to our rooms there, and they were delivered to our individual cabins at the 320 Guest Ranch within about 3 minutes of our arrival there, so no waiting at all for bags.) They also participated in all of our activities and meals and were our drivers in the Austin Adventures dedicated vans that we used when we weren’t in Yellowstone itself.
--The trip was very active (both from a physical activity standpoint and from the standpoint of having minimal down time), including cross country skiing, snow shoeing, hiking/walking, dog sledding and a sleigh ride. We had one afternoon on our own at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, but all of the other days were pretty full of activities. We’d typically have an hour and a half or a little longer to relax, shower, etc. before dinner each day. The trip was really well planned out with a minimum of dead/transition time, but it never felt like the guides were rushing us or herding us around. There was plenty of time to stop to take pictures of the wildlife we saw (which included many many bison, as well as elk, coyotes, Trumpeter Swans and bald eagles, and grizzlies and wolves at our stop at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, MT) or to have the guides answer any questions about what we were seeing/doing.
--We received lots of Austin Adventures swag, starting with these water bottles when we first met as a group in Bozeman, MT before starting out for Yellowstone:
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On our first night at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, these draw string backpacks were waiting for us in our rooms after dinner, filled with the goodies shown:
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After our farewell dinner, we all received these t-shirts (they are navy, even though they look black in the pics):
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We also received flash drives of the slide show the guides put together for our farewell dinner (similar to what ABD now does).
We did an evening Steam, Stars and Soundscapes tour while in Yellowstone, and everyone got to take home these travel mugs that were used for hot chocolate during the tour:
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--The guides were constantly pulling out trays of goodies or pouring hot drinks in the middle of cross country skiing or hiking or snow shoeing. These included hot chocolate and hot apple cider for the drinks and trays of chocolate chip cookies + peppermint bark, oranges + salted caramel chocolates, dried fruit arranged in the shape of a morning glory flower for our cross country ski to Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone, salted caramel pretzels, etc. During our evening tour in Yellowstone, they brought along bottles of Baileys and Peppermint Schnapps for the adults to supplement our hot chocolate. On New Year’s Eve, they brought bottles of bubbly to our dinner tables.
--All meals except for one lunch were included. Non-alcoholic beverages were also included, including espresso type drinks at our lunch in Big Sky, Montana. (Alcohol was extra, except for the examples above and unlimited adult coffees or hot chocolates on our evening sleigh ride in Big Sky.)
All in all, a really great, well-run trip, and I was very impressed with Austin Adventures. I think it is very likely that we will be traveling with them again. I’m happy to answer any specific questions.