2 weeks in Alaska
 

My husband and I are planning our 30th wedding anniversary trip for Summer of 2015. (best month?) We love wildlife viewing, photography, some hiking, would like to try salmon fishing. We have 2 weeks to spend and would probably fly into Anchorage. We definitely want to visit Denali and Kenai Fjords and possibly Homer. Would love any advice on an itinerary. We don't want to come away feeling that we "crammed" everything in. Would prefer to spend a 2-3 days at places that are must-see's. I am reading alot about rental cars not being allowed in certain areas. Is there a rental agency that does allow you to take your vehicle on dirt roads? One of the places I am looking at staying suggest a SUV. My husband would really like to go to Katmai for the bear viewing, but everything I've seen is very expensive. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I have only been to the Kenai Peninsula for a week of salmon fishing in July. End of June thru August is the best time to go. We flew into Anchorage a few days early and spend a few days in Seward. We loved it. So beautiful. Very lucky in doing the Kenai Fjords tours as there were tons of killer whales and humpbacks, birds, sea lions. I don't think you would need an SUV. But yes, things are very expensive. Food, lodging, transport, it is all very expensive.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...30-2013.cfm?13

Here is our trip report We went to Alaska last July--not June as it is titled.. There was salmon fishing the last 2 weeks in July. Get your dates and book your car now. Wish we had been able to plan a year in advance like you. Cars are expensive to rent in Alaska. The major car rental agencies do have restrictions on driving unpaved roads but I only remember the Denali Highwasy being one that we could not drive. If access to your lodging requires an offroad vehicle, they often have the contact information for renting those vehicles. I would ask the owner of the lodge or B&B for that info.

<<My husband would really like to go to Katmai for the bear viewing, but everything I've seen is very expensive.>>

Bear viewing flights are all expensive. Katmai is not reachable by road, especially not Brooks Falls where the ursines sit on salmon-catching stakeouts. Thus, there is no viable competition for the transport market. The bushpilots have to make a year's worth of income in a few months and the costs of fuel and maintenance are high. Owners of planes for small companies that specialize in bear-viewing are not taking their yachts to Hawaii during the winter.

If you're going to rent your car at Anchorage Airport, you will have the usual choice of major rental car agencies and they all have the same dirt road restrictions. That does not mean that their renters adhere to those restrictions. We rented at Avis for the price and were pleasantly surprised upon return - we had not noticed a crack in the front fender when we rented the car but the franchise found it when we returned. The franchise kept a log book in the trunk that had noted the crack upon a previous return, so it had been there and we would not be tagged with it.

If you are going to go fishing and want to bring home your catch you SHOULD transport it home on the plane with you. The fish processors charge about $1.10-$1.25/lb to process the fish, then charge about another $20-25 to package it for you. If you want them to ship it, the charges will reach $150 or so for 15 pounds (what it would have cost to ship the halibut I caught) or something in the range of $300-450 for 50 lbs. Adding the price of your fishing charter and license to these costs makes the process of fishing in Alaska higher than the costs of buying fresh in your top-end supermarket (even at Whole Foods). The charge for the checked luggage on your flight home is a lot less. The question is where you take your trip - do it close to your return date because the processor's packing should last 3 days.

And yes, food and lodging and gasoline (Alaska has oil, not refineries) are all far more expensive than what you would expect to pay in the lower 48. About 25-35% higher.

We flew from Homer to Katmai for the day to see the bears a while ago and it was very expensive. However, we felt it was worth every penny. It is one of our top travel memories and we have traveled all over the world. Go for it!

<< we felt it was worth every penny.>>

We heard this sentiment from others staying at our B&B in Homer - they saw 30 bears at Brooks Falls. We just were not going to shell that money on four, half of whom would not enjoy it, instead of two.

Many questions, a few (attempted) answers -

When to go. This can be tough because Alaska is a very big place, with weather and climate conditions that can vary widely over a short time frame and within short distances.

For Southcentral Alaska (including Denali, which really isn't) my preference would be for mid-late August. The bugs are usually past their peak, the silver salmon are running all over the region (IMO the most enjoyable salmon fishing), toward the end of the month you can start getting nice tundra color in Denali NP, the temperatures are still warm enough (usually) and everything has had a long enough "shakedown" time that services and systems are working smoothly.

Itinerary - With two weeks you could consider a big loop - Anchorage to Denali to Fairbanks to Valdez, ferry across Prince William Sound to Whittier, then the Kenai Peninsula, then back to Anchorage. (Or of course you could do this in reverse.)

Katmai/bears/flightseeing - Expensive and worth it. But just flightseeing - Denali, Prince William Sound, volcano country on the west side of Cook Inlet - is (IMO) a "must-do," especially for photographers. You can do a twofer - salmon fly-in fishing, for example, from Lake Hood in Anchorage - see Rust's for example - http://www.flyrusts.com/

I also am a bit of a broken record about taking the opportunity to mix a bit of human geography into typical moose-and-mountain itineraries. For example, for less than the cost of most flightseeing trips, you can fly round trip on Alaska Airlines from Anchorage to the bush villages of Nome or Kotzebue. Nome is an historic gold rush town (end of the Iditarod race) on the Bering Sea. You can see historic sites, watch the loonies diving for gold off the beach, or rent a car and drive out into the subarctic tundra of the Seward Peninsula, to a couple of native villages. Kotzebue is an Inupiat village above the Arctic Circle on the Arctic Ocean. It's an important center for Eskimo culture and governance - cultural sites, midnight sun, stick a toe in the Arctic Ocean...

Both towns have decent hotel accommodations that will cost roughly the same as Anchorage/Fairbanks, and you won't need a car, so the net cost can be surprisingly affordable compared to the same (couple of) days on the road system. Just a suggestion.

<i>I am reading alot about rental cars not being allowed in certain areas. Is there a rental agency that does allow you to take your vehicle on dirt roads?</i>

GoNorth is one - http://www.gonorth-alaska.com/index....n_reiseservice

Oops, forgot - for a sense of what you could do with a car in Nome, look here - http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm...ewardpeninsula

Rental car...

I cannot think of anywhere 95% of that people that visit AK (in the summer) need any "special" type of vehicle. I'd rent the cheapest car that will comfortably fit the travelers and their luggage.

Book the car as soon as you know your dates. Check car rental prices frequently to see if you can get a better deal. A summer approaches, prices get high (very high).

We just came back from our 30th Anniv trip--see trip report posted under MCHS. You will love it! We only had 10 days so you could stay longer in several places. We landed on July 3. When we reached Kenai the salmon had just started running a day or two earlier. Not sure if this is typical or not. Denali highway is rough. We liked it, but ran into a lot of people who didn't. We had a VW Jetta not an SUV. Do book accommodations early--we did most of our reservations in March and was a little bit of a scramble for some of the places. A lot of the B&B places aren't open in the winter so getting call backs can be slow. The challenge with the loop from Denali is either backtrack to Anchorage, Denali Hwy -with it's challenges or up around Fairbanks, which by everything we heard is not that scenic. They were also working on Hwy to Fairbanks this year making that trip very long--check to see if they will be done in 2015. I will be happy to add my 2 cents on any other questions.

After doing more research, the possibility of renting an RV seems like a great way to explore and save $$$$. Is Alaska a place to "pull over and park" or must we stay in campgrounds? We have never used an RV, but it looks like a great option. Also, if we went in late Aug. early Sept. should we still make reservations for places like Denali, and would there be any possibility of seeing the northern lights during that time?

When we were in the Brooks Range in early/mid Sept, we saw the northern lights. I don't know if that is the norm or not, but Gardyloo can probably help you more with that.

"Is Alaska a place to "pull over and park" or must we stay in campgrounds?"

There's lots of places to pull over and park; no need for campgrounds if you want to avoid them.

Though....

If in:
- Denali, book a site at Riley Creek (or in the park) see: http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm

- Seward, stay at their city campground; see: http://www.cityofseward.us/index.aspx?nid=864

- In the Girdwood/Portage/Whittier area book a site at the Williwaw Campground; see: http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/chuga...=6604&actid=29