My husband and I have never been to Alaska and are just starting to plan a 12 day trip. I am looking for suggestions for best places to visit, any train, bus, or boat tours that are good, and lodging suggestions.

Welcome to Fodors. Alaska is enormous and there are hundreds of options. What sort of trip are you thinking? Driving, a cruise, cruise+some land days?? Twelve days is short (assuming you mean 10 days on the ground plus travel days) so you'd have to be very selective. In summer, rental cars are very expensive and do book up months in advance.

Thanks for the reply. We will probably go for 2 weeks, which should give us 12 full days in Alaska. We do not want to be on a large cruise ship, so I was thinking about rail and maybe a smaller 2 day cruise. I'm assuming we would have to rent a car for some of the time, but didn't want to make that the main mode of transportation. We wanted to go to Denali, Sewall, Valdez?? I think the train goes from Anchorage up to Denali and on to Fairbanks. We took a trip to the UK a few years ago and, while we had a great time, we packed too much into the itinerary. We drove the whole time and stayed at 8 different hotels!! Too much for us! We were exhausted by the end. Wished we had picked a few nice spots and spent the time there.

A few points to consider...

1. The Alaska Railroad runs from Seward to Fairbanks via Anchorage and Denali National Park. There's a spur line that runs from the main line to Whittier, a seaport on Prince William Sound. The train ride between Anchorage and Seward or Whittier is very scenic. The ride between Anchorage and Denali has a few scenic spots, but is not in the same class as the Seward/Whittier lines.

2. Visiting Denali involves riding a bus into the park interior. At present, and continuing at least until summer 2027, the park road is closed short of the halfway point. Denali is a worthwhile destination, but with the road closure you might want to reduce the number of days committed to Denali.

3. I'm not aware of any 2-day cruises but that doesn't mean anything . There are one-day excursions to places like Kenai Fjords National Park (from Seward) or half -day glacier viewing cruises from Whittier, or, of course, longer trips using the Alaska State Ferry, although there are limited services in Southcentral Alaska; most ferry routes are in Southeast Alaska, a plane ride from Anchorage.

I know this might sound a little negative, but trust me, Alaska is a marvelous destination. It takes a lot more work to plan visits because it's so big and so hard to get around, but it's worth the effort.

We’ve only seen Denali from a distance on some perfectly clear days. The drive north of Anchorage can be pretty boring once you get past Palmer. But the drive from Anchorage to Seward is spectacular. There is more to see and do in fewer miles if you skip Denali.

Seward is best place for boat ride to see glaciers and sea life, we saw quite a few orcas and were close enough to a humpback to smell whale breath. The aquarium is nice. You might find sled dog puppies on display in one of the shops. Walking in dock area to see sea otters.

each town has a different personality. Anchorage is big city but trolley tour is interesting and public market good place to find some edibles.
Kenai/Soldotna are very suburban but Kenai visitors center is interesting. If it’s time of year for net fishing the beach on the river can be busy. Fishermen were happy to chat nd we got a free salmon to cook. You can google salmon runs which are interesting to watch. Find out if there are any salmon running when you visit.

Homer on the Kenai Peninsula is an artsy fishing center. Wonderful view of the Spit as you near town. Also from Skyline Drive. Interesting exhibits at the museum. Our narure cruise was interesting but not as exciting as the one from Seward.

Whittier is a former military base you can het to by water or by driving thru a one way tunnel. If you don’t have time I would skip.

Fun tram ride up Mt Alyeska in Girdwood. Even more fun if a fair is going on.

North of Anchorage you might want to visit Iditarod headquarters. We found Museum of Transportation a little dusty interesting. Talking to docents can be worthwhile. I loved Independence Mine area with building to visit. Think about how remote it must have been before motorized transportation.

We did not do much hiking. Most of moose and eagle sigtings were when we were on the KP. Talkeetna was as far north as we got. Stayed in a cabin near Talkeetna with warning that bears were around.

I read local newspapers online to find things to do that matched our interests. One time it was a garden tour of an Anchorage neighborhood. Another time it was a quilt show near Kenai. We went to several farmers markets. Title Wave bookstore in Anchorage was a great place to find books about Alaska. My favorite was true story of a young teacher who travel by horseback before WW2 to teach in a remote town.

I've only been to Alaska once for three weeks in 2024, so my info is limited. But I think you can easily fill your 12 days by focusing on the Kenai Peninsula. We stayed in Cooper Landing, Seward, Girdwood, Anchorage on that leg of our trip. That will easily fill up 12 days. What we did, partially:

- Full day raft trip down the Kenai River to Skilak Lake
- Kenai Fjords boat trip, amazing
- Exit Glacier hike
- Excellent Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
- Crow Creek mine near Girdwood
- Fabulous Anchorage museum
- Decent Alaska zoo
- Potter Marsh bird sanctuary
- Tony Knowles Coastal Trail
- Blue Ice trail near Portage
- Various other small hikes
- Watched the surfers in the bore tide in the Turnagain Arm

We had a car. We also went up to Denali State Park and Talkeetna, where you can see Denali, and not as far as going to Denali Park.

From Anchorage you can also take flights to see the grizzles in Lake Clark or elsewhere, which we did not do, but that's would be another amazing day.

On the red-eye return flight we sat on the left side of the plane and saw the northern lights.
Good luck planning. Bring good rain gear.

We went to Alaska in July of 2023. Three couples and we rented a van and traveled from Anchorage to Seward. As people have said it is a beautiful drive.
We took a boat wildlife glacier tour out of Seward and saw puffins, whales and otters. We were able to hear the glacier caving.
In Homer some of our group went deep sea fishing and caught halibut,
Salmon fished in the Kenai River, saw bears fishing for salmon also.
We didn’t drive to Denali but took a plane tour out of Talkeetna and flew over the mountains and landed on a glacier.
However you chose to do your trip it will be great. Alaska is beautiful.

We visited Alaska a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I’d spend a day or two in Anchorage, then head to Denali National Park. The train there is great, and the park shuttle makes it easy to see wildlife. In Seward or Whittier, take a glacier or fjord boat tour. Staying in small lodges or inns worked well, and it’s best to book early in August.

We did a rail trip last summer late July/early August. It was terrific and most overnights were two days. We did the Alaska Railroad package tour, but I would suggest checking Vacations By Rail which is a guided tour instead. We were all on the same train and tours for the most part, but Vacations had better customer service. The 9 days might fit your needs and then have an extra day to arrive in Fairbanks and a day or two in Anchorage. You could also extend to add in Valdez.

The train is a great way to travel. We didn’t rent a car. We just used Uber or Lyft to get to places too far to walk in Fairbanks and Anchorage. (Fairbanks museum was terrific) Enjoy!

It's time for the OP to come back with some reactions to these posts.