We shouldn't have been here, but were moved by our tour organiser because the hotel we should have been in was full. Not a great start, then they couldn’t find our reservation at the desk, but eventually worked out that we had already been checked in (?) so gave us the keys to A106. "A" block is the closest to the main lobby, which was about the only good thing about it. The room was old fashioned with several maintenance and quality issues such as the smoke detector hanging off the wall, unbranded toiletries, a window which couldn’t be locked (on the ground floor), a leaky tap which sprayed water randomly, a blown light bulb above the sink, thin walls and sticky doors. The décor was dated as well. We had two queen beds in separate rooms with a small bathroom between and a washbasin in the second bedroom. The bathroom had a plastic bath and shower unit stuck to the wall, although the shower itself was not too bad. There was no air conditioning, just small kick plate heaters which made the rooms very warm. No refrigerator. We had to unplug lamps, fans etc to plug in phone chargers. We were told at reception that WiFi doesn’t work in the bedrooms, only in the central lobby! No housekeeping services. The location is ok, within walking distance to shops and restaurants, which was good as we vowed on arrival not to spend a dollar extra in the hotel!

Semi-rustic rooms with old uncomfortable beds. Everything in the surrounding area is a tourist trap with overpriced souvenirs of poor quality. Food in this village is of mediocre quality at a high price. Does anybody know how to make a good coffee outside of Anchorage? Disappointing.

We stayed three nights. We ate three dinners at the Karstens. There is a pricier steak house we never tried but I’m sure it’s good. We were just happy with Karstens so we never felt the need to go elsewhere. Servers were all great! Musicians were great! We had breakfast sandwiches and cinnamon rolls we ate at the bar there. We loved the stores and the photo shop where we had an awesome picture taken for our Christmas card. The walk to and from our room was a bit much especially in the rain and in the dark it was impossible to see especially if there were animals. Luckily they deliver your luggage to your room and back to the train station for you. There was a shuttle we could have waited on but you still had to walk so rather than wait we just walked. The room was in desperate need of updating. No wifi in rooms. It was spotty. The main lobby had WiFi. The amount of dust along the edge the walls was gross. The faucets were very dated and didn’t work well. The ceiling paint was chipped. No mini frig or safe. Our door lock quit working the last day. The transportation to and from the park was great! It’s close to the park. We heard there was one hotel that had been updated. I’d have chosen that one maybe.

Great overall experience the two nights we spent here. The staff were very friendly and always extremely helpful. We stayed in a Signature Creekside Cabin duplex which was perfect for two people. The cabin was very clean and spacious and right on the creek. Love the sound of the creek especially sitting on the porch having coffee in the morning or a drink at night. Room was equipped with a coffee maker, refrigerator, microwave and a full bathroom with tub and shower. You can tell a lot of thought went into rooms to make you comfortable including nice little touches like fresh ground coffee, paper plates and utensils, can opener / cork screw and if you needed anything you just had to ask. The cafe onsite was as good or better than any restaurant in Denali. We ate dinner there both nights, ordered breakfast to go one morning to eat at the cabin and had a piece of rhubarb coffee cake one day. The salmon dinner my wife had one day was the best we had in Alaska and the halibut fish & chips and turkey pot pie were both good as well. For dessert the rhubarb pie was good but our favorite was the homemade apple pie. For breakfast in the cabin we split the blue berry pancakes which were awesome and enough for two. Overall this place tries to do everything to make your stay perfect and a special shout out to our server one night (Megan) and everyone who worked at the front counter for the great service they provided. I would suggest making dinner reservations for parties of 4 or more during your stay since the wait can be long. Unfortunately they do not make reservations for parties of two which is something I hope they reconsider in the future for people staying in their cabins. We will definitely stay here again since Denali National Park is so big and beautiful it needs to be visited multiple times.

The view is great, but beware if you are not part of a tour. Although we were independent travelers that had our own car, we were assigned to the lodge that does not have parking. Therefore we were required to leave our car at the main building. There is a shuttle that is supposed to service the entire property but it was only available once during our stay. This was an easy downhill walk to the lodge but required a steep climb back to the main building. The lodge has no wifi availability. The steakhouse was pricey and, other than the chowder, the food was unremarkable.