Alaska & Seattle Trip Report
 

Thanks to all those who answered all my questions on Alaska and Seattle. My husband and I had a wonderful trip, even though it rained almost every day. We started off with a two night stay in Juneau, followed by a Glacier Bay Cruise for 6 nights, than 3 nights in Sitka and finished it off with 2 nights in Seattle.<BR><BR>Arrived in Juneau for a two night stay at the Westmark Baranoff. The hotel was ok, nothing to write home about. Had breakfast in their cafe, Capitol Cafe, which was really good. We also ate at The Twisted Fish, which was excellent and The Hanger, which was good. Visited the Hatchery, Mendenhall Glacier, and the Brewery. All of these I would recommend. We bought our Smoked Salmon here (at the Hatchery), turns out it was the cheapest on our stops. Included in our cruise was a rafting trip by the Glacier. This was a lot of fun and our guide was great. <BR>

The cruise was also a great way to see Alaska. I'm not talking about the ports, but the nature and beauty of it. We took Glacier Bay Cruise Lines for an inside passage tour. This was the highlight of our trip , the crew and ship were wonderful. Our boat held about 90 passengers, but we only had about 60 on board. We also had 3 naturalists, who could tell us about the land and wildlife we were seeing. The amount of wildlife we saw was incredible. We saw seals, porpoises, sea lions, sea otters, whales, bears, eagles, and puffins. If we spotted something on the move, the captain slowed down or even stopped the boat for us. The ship was also equipped with kayaks on board. We went to a bay every other day and got to kayak. If you didn't want to do this, they had other things to do, like a skiff ride or nature walk. But kayaking was the best part. We were able to touch an iceberg, see starfish up close, and were even followed by a sea lion once. Another group got up close with a humpback whale! The only down-side to this cruise was we didn't kayak enough. We would have like to do it everyday. <BR>We also went up close to 3 different Glaciers, 2 of them really active. The sound of them calving was incredible. I highly recommend seeing this up close. In Skagway we took a helicopter to a glacier and got to hike around a bit. This was really interesting and was a great compromise from the dog sledding option. The helicopter was 189 verses 369 for the dog sledding. <BR><BR>

I had heard the food on this cruise was mediocre, but was pleasantly surprised. The new head chef created a lot of wonderful meals. The crew was also wonderful. They even hung out with us on their down time and played board games or watched movies at night. I was also surprised at the age range on this cruise. There were a lot of families on board, with teen-agers. There were also a lot of 40-50 year olds. Every one got along great! We even exchanged address when we left.<BR><BR>Our 3 nights in Sitka was about 2 nights too long. You really need 2 full days to see everything. We initially stayed at the Sitka Hotel, but ended up changing to Westmark Shee Atkia after the 2nd night. The Sitka Hotel was an old run down hotel, but with a good price. The first morning we were woken up at 6:15am with construction outside our window. After finding out this was to last all week, we asked to be moved to another room. After coming back from dinner, we discovered our room was really hot. Turns out the furnace was set on high and broken. They didn't want to switch our room again, but we insisted and were given a room that was already occupied. Needless to say we switched hotels and was happy to pay the extra 30 a night.<BR><BR>Here we ate at some wonderful places. For breakfast and lunch try Victoria's and Harbor View. For dinner I highly recommend the restaurant at the Shee Atika and the Channel Club-they will pick you up and drop you off! <BR><BR>For things to do don't miss the Raptor Center and Totem Park. Also if you have time go see the Tlingit dancers, they put on a great performance. Don't go to the Arch Angel dancer, we were very disappointed.<BR><BR>

In Seattle we stayed at the Madison Renaissance. This was beautiful hotel, but far away from everything. We went to the Pike's Place Market both days. This was a great place to eat breakfast and lunch and just walk around. I wish we had something like that at home! We went to the Space Needle and the Science center. We really enjoyed the Center and wish we had spent more time there. We ate one night a McCormick's, but the meal was only ok. The second night we missed our reservations and ended up eating at an English style pub. Really great fish and chips!<BR><BR>Overall the trip was a great success. I felt I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was. I wish that I had brought warmer clothes and more water proof things. We had only 4 days of sunshine and it took a long time for everything to dry out. Because of the weather we didn't use as much film as I thought. But everything else I packed I used. If anyone has any questions, please post or email me. Thanks again! Tracey

I am planing a trip to Alaska in sommer 2003.<BR>What is it necessary to know( lodging , kayaking companies , trains , campsites , whale watching...) ?<BR>Thanks<BR>S&eacute;bastien

Thanks, Tracey,<BR>Your report makes me want to flash forward to next summer and our own planned Alaska trip. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Tracey<BR><BR>We flew into Anchorage and rented an RV this summer (our first trip to AK). We are seriously thinking of doing a cruise but aren't the big cruise type. Your description of the smaller ship sounds like something we would really like.