Alaska- Best tours
 

Hey guys!

I'm traveling to Alaska in August (I know, peak season, great), but I am looking for advice for the best tours/tour companies, or recommendations on places to stay and things to do. My partner and I are 21 and have 3 weeks to spend here, coming from Australia. We are adventurous and are open to trying anything. There is just so many different travel companies and so much land to cover, I need some help!

Thanks!

WIll you be able to rent a car while here?

You don't need a 'travel company'. AK is easy to plan/do without a travel company.

One of our favorite things was a helicopter tour that landed on a glacier, permitting us to walk around:http://www.coastalhelicopters.com/tours/adventure-tour/
You can also land on the glacier and take a dog sled tour. Another favorite was taking a sea plane and landing on a glacier lake.

The Alaska Marine Highway ferry system is a fun way to get around.
We spent time in Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Seward, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Denali and enjoyed them all.

I would also recommend renting a car and putting together your own trip. Three weeks is a great amount of time!
What sort of activities are you looking to do?

<<I would also recommend renting a car and putting together your own trip.>>

She and her "partner" are 21 - that makes it hard to rent cars.

As for "Alaska in August (I know, peak season, great)" - what's your real option? You wouldn't go over the Aussie holidays because summer in Oz is frozen tundra in much of Alaska. Even in August you'll be lucky to get temps anywhere from 22-25C or above. More common will be 10-17C or so.

And considering it's the size of South Australia with < 1/2 the population (and no city near the size of Adelaide), you're not going to be confounded by crowds.

All that said, know that Alaska is one of the most expensive regions in the United States. That applies primarily to food (which has to be shipped) and many of the tourism activities. This is fully understandable - Alaskan tour operators have a 3-4 month window to make a year's worth of money and have high costs for maintenance due to the weather in winter. The Aussie dollar is currently not your friend in this regard.

A one-way cruise is an easy way to explore the panhandle part of Alaska. The mainland Alaska can be travelled by rental car, eventually combined with flights to more remote places (like Barrow). There is absolutely no need for tour companies. The roads are surprisingly good and you find sufficient accomodation and food. So, go on a cruise from Vancouver or Seattle to Seward or Whittier and then rent a car and explore on your own. Denali is certainly a must-see, and the museums in Anchorage, and at least one of the few accessible glaciers (Matanuska is great) and a boat trip through the Kenai Fjords. A special experience would be close-ups with bears in Katmai.

At many places in Alaska, you will be offered mini-tours like seaplane flights or helicopter flights to glaciers or kennel and dogsledding tours. These are offered by local operators and in my experience, there is not much difference in quality and price. Much depends on weather and availability. (When we were in August in Seward, for three days in a row, there was no boat trip available, due to rough weather. And we had to wait for our very last day until the fog retreated for a time window of an hour or so that allowed a heli flight to a glacier.)

As said, these tours are pricey (because the season is so short). So, carefully select what you do. A heli flight combined with dogsledding on a glacier is about $450, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A summer kennel tour on the ground with a ride in a cart at $75 is not worth the money, especially if you can do the same thing at $10 in the Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. In Denali, you can book an expensive bus tour or you just board the shuttle and have the same sights and the same type of vehicle for much less money.

For things to do, places to stay and tours and the general feeling how it is to travel Alaska you may read my extensive trip report:
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...-land-tour.cfm

Since you are probably going to have trouble renting a car, You might want to explore the possibility of using the train or bus to get from Anchorage to Denali or Seward and ferry system to go to places like Juneau, Skagway or Ketchikan.

I rented cars at 21. You'll pay an extra fee, but it's possible.

<<The roads are surprisingly good and you find sufficient accomodation and food.>>

Well, where there are roads, they are US roads. It's not gravel and rocks.

<<I rented cars at 21. You'll pay an extra fee, but it's possible.>>

Which gets back to the budget issue the OP will have. She's picked one of the most expensive areas in the US, the car rentals are also proportionately more expensive than in the lower 48, the gas prices are 25-30% higher than in the continental US, and now she'd have to pay an additional fee.