A true adventure into a little-known environment. An eye-opening and enriching experience. Hillstar was organized, accommodating, responsive, took care of all arrangements and details with the participants' interest at the foremost. Guides were extremely knowledgeable and well acquainted with the area..

The Seabird Cliffs at St Paul are a sight to behold and the island itself is a birding mecca. While our time in Nome was limited it was an amazing visit there. Additionally, I had an amazing visit to the Anchorage area besides birding St Paul and Nome as planned and that is because George and Alvaro worked diligently to maximize the birding opportunities the group had in all three of those areas. They are knowledgeable birders and teachers who are fun to be on a birding tour. It turned out to be a great trip if not exactly according to script.

The trip to Utiquiagvik was wonderful and fulfilled all of my expectation. The birding was as good as we could have hoped for with some wonderful, surprises, and amazing displaying nesting shorebirds. The eider show was great and getting out to the Point Barrow to see the Polar Bears was thrilling. George and Alvaro kept us moving and tracked down as many of the rarities as we could track down in our time there and it was the highlight of my time in Alaska with them.

With the dynamic duo of George Armistead and Alvaro Jaramillo, how could a trip get any better? Whether you’re chasing Asiatic vagrant birds or wishing to see shorebirds and jaegers on their breeding grounds, this is absolutely the trip for you. Not only are the guides extremely knowledgeable about finding and identifying birds, they also gave us some great scientific and cultural information. They were even helpful for those of us who were scared of tromping on spongy tundra. Beautiful photographic opportunities exist, especially with the amount of golden hour light conditions in that part of Alaska near the summer solstice. This was my very first experience on a group birding tour and it definitely didn’t disappoint. It definitely wasn’t what I expected, but in the end, it was quite enjoyable.

Great team - great group, and great trip. Two thumbs up, would do again!