My wife and I are going to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary by taking a cruise and land tour of Alaska. The thing we're most interested in Alaska is gold panning and mining experiences. But my biggest question is about avoiding flying on one of the legs. I don't fly since having a really bad experience on a flight, and need to find an alternative to the return leg, or to get there for a cruise back without having to fly there. HAL had no information, all they do is book cruises, all other travel is on the customer. I can understand their situation, they offer a flight for the return trip, and that is fair. Like I said, I do not fly and do not want to abort the trip because of my personal issues. Does anyone have any ideas as to how we can do this? Thanks!

You can always take a cruise back, that is option #1.

The second option is to rent a car and drive the famed "Alaskan Highway" through Canada.

Taking the bus would be the third option.

Personally, if I don't want to fly, taking the cruise back would be the best alternative, and probably chepaest as well (other than flying).

Thanks, Eschew! I have thought about that. Still working on it!

It should be easy enough to do a 3- or 4-four week trip with the first and last weeks being one-way cruises from Vancouver or Seattle, leaving you free to make your land arrangements separately. From what I have seen in my planning for a June 2013 cruise-tour with HAL, the gold panning and mining experiences aren't a big part of the cruise lines' land offerings anyway, as they concentrate on scenery and wildlife. I bet local outfitters and tour companies can put together any land arrangements you want, so start googling .

Thanks Kayd I appreciate the advice.

Be aware of the gold mining "panning for gold" toursit traps. There are plenty of those around and many are offered as "gold panning experience" by the cruise excursions. They have a "set-up" and you "play". Nothing real about those experience. I had done some sluiceboxes gold panning on my younger days on a river bend many many summers ago so I do know a few things about gold panning.

Recreational gold mining by small prospectors are enjoying a come back. Check out Pedro Creek near Fairbanks, not too far from the original 1900 Fairbanks gold discovery site.

There are quite a few popular recreational mining sites with easy access. Caribou Creek (east of Palmer) and Hatcher Creek (north of Palmer) are quite popular.

Below is a link to a fact sheet providing information to Recreational Mining in the Hatcher Pass Public Use Area in Alaska. It might come in handy.
http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/mlw/facts...s/hatcherp.pdf

Hi!

You can do a round-trip cruise from either Vancouver or Seattle, but I caution you that you miss half of Alaska on those cruises. Some of the most rugged, wild parts of Alaska are seen on the cruise to Seward. The Alaska Highway is really, really, really long and you would probably want to do an RV rental - which is easily accessed. You could ride the Alaska ferry to Bellingham, WA. and while it would be a more spartan experience than the cruise ship, it is feasible.

The flight from Anchorage to Seattle is only 3 hours and Anchorage to Vancouver is closer to 2 hours. Alaska Airlines is wonderful; I don't fly with anyone else if I have a choice. Several friends are pilots or crew members, they will pamper you and put you at ease. You could have an adult beverage, take a sleep/pain reliver OTC to sleep on the overnight flights. Perhaps if you had a good flight experience?

Best Regards,
Julia

Having taken a HAL cruisetour (which we enjoyed very much, by the way), I agree that they spend very little time on gold panning and mining.

HAL's cruisetours are structured so that people headed northbound from Vancouver disembark in Skagway to start their land portion, while people headed southbound board the ship in Skagway after doing their land portion.

MAYBE (perhaps a long shot, but worth inquiring about) you could arrange with HAL to go from Vancouver to Skagway, then get off and independently do several days of gold mining/panning activity in that area and up into the Yukon, and then take the "other half" of the HAL cruise back to Vancouver. So you would book a round-trip cruise but just have a break (probably one week) in the middle.

Whether it is even worth asking depends on whether there are places to pan for gold (and people who can guide you) in Skagway, Whitehorse, Dawson City, etc. Certainly Skagway is worth seeing for Gold Rush National Historical Park (http://www.nps.gov/klgo/index.htm), which also has a unit in Seattle (http://www.nps.gov/klse/index.htm).

The disadvantage, of course, is that you miss the spectacular scenery of places like Denali and the Kenai Peninsula. The advantage, however, is that you don't have to take a second cruise all the way back from Anchorage/Seward (or try to do an expensive one-way vehicle rental between Anchorage and Skagway, if that is even possible).