iris

We want to see Alaska and initially my husband and I (from Florida) planned on cruising the glacier route from Vancouver to Seward, then spending a week seeing Alaska inland. After doing more research, I am wondering if we wouldn't be better off flying into Anchorage and then renting an RV for sightseeing and taking a shorter glacier cruise in Alaska. We have frequent flyer miles which will help, and thinking if we save $2500 not taking the cruise maybe we could afford to stay two weeks in Alaska RVing instead. Would we see enough incredible scenery without taking the 7-day cruise. If so, which area would be best to cruise/best tour operators for a 1-3 day glacier cruise? Also considering a flighttour, do you feel that is money well spent and who is the best operator for flights/which would be best trip. We are more nature lovers than city folks, so what are some more recommendations you might have? We were thinking of a Kenai Fjord tour and Denali. What is the best month to visit to avoid some of the crowds and see wildlife. What's not to be missed in your opinion? I know this will be the trip of a lifetime and I figure someone who is so much more knowledgeable could steer us to make better choices. I certainly will appreciate any insights you can offer. Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Take care, Iris

The Comptons

We've done the Anchorge-Fairbanks-Tok triangle with side trips and enjoyed it very much. But our favorite was using the Alaska state ferries staying in six different towns in southeast Alaska over two weeks. Do you have a copy of Milepost -- that's the bible.

Our experience is on this web site . . .
http://www.geocities.com/judcomp -- then click Alaska. (Unfortunately, we're anti-cruise people.)

Kay

We haven't done the Inside Passage so I can't do a comparison, but we, too, are nature lovers and wanted to see the natural beauty, native culture, and wildlife. We flew into Anchorage, rented a car and drove down to Seward. The Fjord entire day trip was fantastic--whales, glaciers, birds. You could see more glaciers on some of the other trips, but the Kenai Fjords is a great mix. We drove to Denali and took the bus trip, got off and hiked to top of hill to picnic. The bus is rough and dusty but a great experience. My husband has a checklist of every animal he hoped to see and each one appeared, some at quite a distance, but be sure to bring binoculars. We would have liked to stay inside the park so we would have had more time to hike (avoid tundra). You'll see great scenery and a variety of wildlife (take the earliest bus in the morning). We drove to Fairbanks. Our splurge was an overnight "tour" to Barrow. We flew up, were given a tour of the town in a van, cultural show with great crafts for sale, then we were on our own to wander around, talk to locals, go out on the Arctic Ocean at midnight--it was a great experience.

We went in early June. The road into Denali was not completely open, but we saw quite a bit and the crowds weren't too bad. There were 4 tourists going to Barrow the day we went.

We are planning to go back this July. We have to fly into Anchorage for a meeting. My first thought is to undertake a driving marathon to Haines and Skagway to see some of the beauty of the area, but as we are making our decisions I realize that we would even be happy to go back to some of the places we went 8 years before--it was that beautiful and wild.

globetrotter

We have cruised to AK twice and plan on returning.The first time we flew into Anchorage and cruised to Vancouver. You get to go to five towns that way and partake of tours offered in each town,railroad rides up mountains, mining camps to pan for gold-whale watching cruises where we watched stellar seals run a couple off THEIR beach-they(the seals) are very territorial.The second trip was made to Vancouver north when we realized we had missed much not going inland when in AK> That time we went to Seward and then were bussed to Anchorage. We rented a Jimmy at the airport and took off for Denali-stayed in a motel ten miles from the park and went early the next day to get on their bus (for $16.00-Princess was asking $74.00!)same box lunch but we made it ourselves and saw the same blonde grizzly and various other animals.The bus will stop and let you off to hike as much as you want and then another will stop to pick you up.
We went on into Firbanks and saw the U.of AK with several interesting displays, a paddlewheel ride down the river to see Susan Butcher,the three time Ididirod winner,at her home on the river where she was training more dogs.The pilots at Northwest finally went off strike so we drove back to Anchorage and flew home.I like the cruises as we know where we'll be sleeping up the passage,and also the tours by the ship are top notch with lots to see and learn. A trip to Haines was a highlight seeing an eagle perserve and totem pole carvers all in the same visit! Juneau is land locked so you would need to use the Alaska Marine Highway-ships that take on people and vehicles to take them to all the ports if you drove. This Floridian simply loves ALASKA!!have fun!

Jean

We were in Alaska for 3 weeks last June. We arrived on June 3, and had 9 days on our own, before doing a Princess cruise from Seward to Vancouver. Although we loved the cruise, I would not trade my time inland for the cruise. We rented a car, stayed at a B&B our first night, then headed to Denali on day 2. When we left Denail we went to Seward, then on the other side of the Kenai Pen. to Homer. Everywhere we went was breathtaking beautiful. We saw lots of moose on the homer side of the Kenai Pen. around Soldonta. We fished there for 3 days and loved that also. We did not do a day cruise because we were going to be on the ship for 7 days, and I hate we didn't do that. Each town we went in on the cruise was beautiful, but mostly shops, shops, shops. There were lots of side trips you could book through the cruise for each port city we went in. I am very glad we did the cruise, but we liked inland and being on our own better. We stayed at one B&B on Cook Inlet for 4 nights while we were fishing. We loved everything we did and saw. Let me know if I can be of further help.