Visiting Katmai National Park, Alaska

[BearInKatmai]

Long shot perhaps but has anyone visited Katmai NP from the UK to see the bears at Brooks Falls?
Hubby and I are planning to go for the salmon run in 2028, visiting Katmai has been on my bucket list for years.
Questions if you've been lucky enough to visit-

Did you travel independently or through a travel agent? The only agent I can find is Audley which is quite expensive as seems to do tours around Alaska.
Did you just do a day trip to Katmai or stay in the Lodge / campsite?
Roughly how much did it cost altogether? Trying to budget for £10k for both of us but don't know if that's realistic or not,

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I know it's slightly off the beaten track. Thanks

We’ve just done mainland Alaska but not Katmai.

Flew to Vancouver, 2 nights hotel, 7 night cruise from Alaska to Whittier. 10 nights hotel and car hire in mainland Alaska, including 2 nights in a Wilderness Lodge in the Kenai Fjords. Flights home, came in at £14k for the whole thing so I think £10k is ambitious. Anything that involves a private plane/helicopter to get there is going to add thousands- we decided not to go out to a Lodge in Denali because the accommodation was £1k per night and the flight in and out (20 mins!) was £1.5kpp.

It was really really complicated to book because getting accommodation in remote places is hard- they open at different times in different National Parks and sell out fast. Therefore we used Trailfinders and they were INCREDIBLE- managed all the differing bookings and timelines and we didn’t pay a penny until they had confirmed everything on the timeline we wanted. They have contacts with all the different wilderness lodges and experiences so would assume they can manage Katmai too (it’s on my list for another trip!). The wilderness lodges we did in Kenai was their recommendation and was the best experience of the trip.

The whole of Alaska is absolutely phenomenal and it’s a bloody long way to go so make sure you’re seeing a good variety of parks, scenery and wildlife, cannot recommend Kenai enough for wales and sealife.

We travelled independently, use Alaskan state ferries and rent a car or better still a compact but self contained camper - ours could be off grid for 72 hours before you needed to go to the disposal station (common there). If you have the time fly to Seattle, take the ferry up the inside passage to Juneau then the ferry across the gulf of Alaska before taking the train up to anchorage where you can easily rent a camper, as well as the bears there, try and get up to Denali and Fairbanks plus the hot springs.

Thanks for the replies. Tbh I thought 10k wouldn't be enough - i was looking at flights from Anchorage to King Salmon and they were pricey and then the cost of the seaplane over to Katmai. I just want to see the bears 🐻!!
user1471548941 & hahabahbag
Sounds like you both had an amazing time! Off to have a look at Trailfinders now. Thanks again x

If you want some inspiration for the rest of the trip, our itinerary was:

2 nights Vancouver
7 night cruise including Juneau, Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point and Glacier Bay (magical).
1 night Seward
2 nights Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge
1 night Talkeetna
3 nights Denali
1 night Fairbanks
Denali Star train back to Anchorage
1 night Anchorage
Fly Anchorage to Portland, Portland to LHR.