I am now starting to plan our 2010 Alaska vacation. My husband & I are in our mid 50s and fairly active. This is what I have so far & the questions I have:
1. Fly Austin TX to Seattle WA & get to Bellingham to catch Alaska Marine Highway Ferry-reserve a suite. (Does anyone know the easiest way to get to Bellingham from Seattle without a car?)-may need to spend the night at Seattle or Bellingham depending on when flight arrives in Seattle
2. Take ferry to Juneau and spend a couple of days in Juneau going whale watching. What else is there to do?
3. Fly from Juneau to Anchorage & pick up rental car.
4. Drive to Seward & spend 2-3 days - see Alaska Sea Life Center & take Kenai Fjords boat trip
5. Drive to Homer & spend 2-3 days - take an all day bear viewing trip with Emerald Air
6. Drive to Denali - take 2 days? where to spend the night?
7. Stay at Denali Wilderness Lodges for 3 nights
8. Drive back to Anchorage, turn in rental & fly back to Seattle
Now for some more questions:
1. what is the best time to go? I am thinking about the end of August. When are the puffins near Seward? When is the best time for Denali?
2. Is there any place on the Inside Passage that we might want to get off the ferry & spend the night in order to see something really special?
We are primarily going for the scenery & wildlife.
3. How early do I need to book the ferry/suite, hotels, bear watching, whale watching trips?
I am in the very early stage of planning. We have never been to Alaska and are open to any changes, modifications, etc. We can take up to 3 weeks for the trip.

I went in July 2007 and hope to plan a 2010 return trip. May I suggest a book that was very helpful to my planning? Alaska for Dummies. Go to Barnes & Noble and buy an issue today. It's a great book to help you start planning. Phone numbers, web sites, etc.

Kristine

There are no suites on the ferry just a bare bone cabins with a window or without. They are very clean but you get bunk beds and may opt for a private bathroom with a shower. No suites. If you have to have a suite they are available on many cruises. You can book the ferry as soon as a schedule for 2010 becomes available. For 2009 it became available some time in November or October 2008. For summer 2008 it became available in February 2008. So you need to check frequently. Call Central Reservations Office (907) 465-3941 or (800) 642-0066 in September and ask when they expect to have a schedule posted
https://www.dot.state.ak.us/oars/res...chMainFM.amhsf

Personally I wouldn't take the ferry just to visit Juneau. I would make stops in Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. Consider visiting Bay Glacier National Park from Juneau and staying there for a couple of nights.

From Anchorage go first to Homer for 3 nights, then Seward 2-3 nights and Talkeetna 1 night before arriving in Denali NP.

Reserve your bear watching trip with Emerald as soon as you have your dates set. Emerald is a great choice. The end of August is a wonderful time. Take a tour with Rainbow Tours from Homer to see puffins. Scenery is everywhere in Alaska, plenty of wildlife in Denali NP. To see black bears fishing for salmon go from Wrangell to Anan Wildlife Observatory but the end of July -beginning of August is a prime time. Go whale watching from Juneau with Harv and Marv. Start looking at a car rental in September 2009 for the best rates

The Alaska Ferry is basic travel and meals are extra. IF you are taking this, I would suggest you look at far more locations to get off and on at in addition to Juneau. I wouldn't consider this without probably 3-5 stops at least. Otherwise, why not just fly to Juneau?? I would also suggest you find out what else Juneau is going to offer you?? I wouldn't be heading there just for whale watching.

Puffins are going out of Seward the first week of Sept. with usually no sightings by second week and few the first week.

Denali Park is wonderful in the fall, and the begining of Sept may offer you wonderful fall colors. It's a short season, peak only a few days.

For the Alaska ferry cabins, these are in very high demand with bookings a year ahead.

I would continue to fine tune your itinerary and determine why you are going to the particular areas and what is going to occupy your time??? It's probably too early for your list to be so fixed at this point and may improve with more information you can get.

Quickshuttle offers a bus to Bellingham from Seatac.

Have you thought about taking a cruise ship, we enjoyed it immensely and found it was very good value. We enjoyed exploring the various ports along the way.
We did the Wonder lake 11 hour return trip from the Wilderness Access centre in Denali N.P. on 1st September 2008. It was the highlight of our trip the weather was stunning and the autumnal colours were amazing plus saw lot of wildlife. We stayed in Talkeetna on the way from Anchorage but cannot recommend the place we stayed as it has now ceased as a B&B.
We never saw one bitey insect the whole time and we had 10 days touring and did 1800 miles.
We rather liked Valdez as we were interested in the salmon fishing and stayed at Brookside Inn B&B with great hosts, Gerry and Suzy.
Good luck with your planning, I did my booking etc May/June 08 for our trip.