Just fishing for ideas. Would like to plan a family trip to Alaska - 2 adults and 2 children (ages 8 & 10). Figure two weeks - prefer warmer weather when kids are out of school (end June - early Sept). Coming from Eastern Pennsylvania. Would like some outdoor activities hiking is OK (probably keep to 5 miles). Interested in natural beauty and wild life.

Should we consider a cruise? If so, which cruise lines? What to avoid? Other suggested itineraries.....thanks.

We took a cruise with a land tour. We found out that we're not really cruise people.

We loved Alaska. Loved Denali. Loved seeing the animals, the fantastic scenery, huge rugged mountains, glaciers, etc.

OTOH, my brother and his wife and sister and her husband loved the whole trip. The trip was large and comfortable, the food was ok. The pace seemed very slow to us and the feeling that we were being charged too much for what we got especially if we took the tours provided by the ship. We found we could do much of the same tours for less when we got to port. You won't really experience much of the state unless you get off the ship and hit the countryside.

There are smaller ships that you get more interesting experiences as part of your package and if I were ever to consider cruising again I would do that. I'd love to go back and rent a car or RV and travel around and perhaps use the ferry system to get to the areas that you can't drive to.

If you use the view by state search box, scroll to Alaska and you will find lots of threads here, check out the ones that have trip report flags and check out what other folks have found.

It will be costly in any case, but a wonderful place.

Thanks emalloy I appreciate the feedback.

http://www.highadventureair.com/hunting_trips.htm

We used the above outfitter and thought they were great.

I would vote against the cruise, myself.

There are basically two cruise route/options, round trips from Seattle or Vancouver that visit just the southeast "panhandle" of Alaska, and one-way cruises between Vancouver (not Seattle) and southcentral Alaska, using either Whittier or Seward as their start or finish points. (Both towns are within a couple of hours of Anchorage, where one flies to/from before or after the cruise.) The vast majority of cruises are for seven nights, so with two weeks you could easily do one week cruising, the other on a land tour. So depending on whether or not you cruise one-way or round trip, the extra week could be spent touring Alaska, or in touring, say, the Pacific Northwest or western Canada.

If you choose to spend the week in Alaska, then with a week you can include Denali National Park (north of Anchorage) and parts of the Kenai Peninsula (south and east of Anchorage) in a busy but doable land tour. Or, if you're ambitious, you could include either Denali or the Kenai, plus maybe a short trip to the bush - maybe Kodiak Island or the arctic - in order to see parts of Alaska not visited by the majority of tourists. That would involve flying, maybe in a bush plane, which might be a real treat for all involved. Or, maybe, spend a couple of days on a fishing trip, or a "loop" drive around and across Prince William Sound. There are many, many options.

As for the cruises, well, they're all basically mass-market tourism. Some will argue that certain cruise lines have "targeted" markets - Disney, for example, or some higher-end cruise lines that are very adult-oriented (big emphasis on wines with meals, etc.) But the vast majority are very similar in terms of style, ports visited, excursions offered, and all that. If you want to know more (more than you ever thought you'd want to know, actually) then visit www.cruisecritic.com and be prepared for information overload.

If you decide to do the "combo" - land plus cruise, my recommendation is to cruise northbound, so that the 4-hour time change from the east coast is covered while you're not behind the wheel of a car, watching for moose on the Parks Highway. In a collision they are very unforgiving.

If I were going to do a cruise I would go with a very small intimate ship. One that has kayaks, etc for lots of extra exploring. I do get the appeal though. My parents did a cruise and then spent 10 days on land. They liked the land better, but they did enjoy the cruise too.

OP; this may be the kind of trip that would benefit from a close look at the Alaska Marine Highway (alias Alaska Ferry System).

http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/


They have 4 bed cabins (or 2 2 bed cabins), you can get on and off as per the schedule and bring your own car or RV.
It does require careful review of the schedules, route planning and you can use the Alaska rail system to get from ferry Port to Fairbanks and then to Denali combining best of sea & land travel.

The ferry system primarily serves southeast Alaska and offers service across the Gulf of Alaska (from Juneau to Whittier) only a couple times a month. With the OP's schedule I don't think the ferry is a particularly good solution, and as they're coming from eastern PA I don't think driving all the way across the country and back is a good solution either.

If you don't want to cruise, then 2 weeks is an excellent amount of time for a more in-depth visit to Alaska. You can spend more time in Denali Park, or visit other parts of southcentral Alaska, without feeling rushed. Or you could spend, say, 10 days in southcentral Alaska, then fly to Juneau in SE Alaska and take the ferry back to Bellingham, WA (between Seattle and Vancouver.) That way you'd be able to see both the interior and the beautiful "inside passage" of SE Alaska and British Columbia.

Like I said, many options.

It's worth noting, however, that on a per-person-per-day basis, the cruises tend to be cheaper, often significantly cheaper, than an equivalent amount of time touring on land. Rental cars, RVs, food and hotels are all quite expensive in Alaska in the summer, so the cruise can actually be more budget-friendly IF you control spending on the "extras," in particular the shore excursions and on-board expenses like alcohol and gambling.

To clarify, I did not mean to drive cross country from Penn.

They can fly into Seattle p/u rental car or preferably an SUV, drive 1 hour north to Bellingham and take the Alaska ferry to Alaska. The Southwest circuit is the one we took and it picks up some of the same ports the cruise ships do.

If taking a commercial cruise would rec Holland.

Here’s what we did several years ago on a 3 week vacation in the Pacific NW/Alaska with boys that were a bit older than yours.

We flew into Seattle WA /returned from AK (you can find better deals on flights if you fly within the US rather than flying into Vancouver). We rented a car and spent 3 days in Portland OR, 3 days in Seattle WA and 3 days in Vancouver before boarding a 7 day cruise that left from Vancouver and ended in Seward.

The cruise went to Ketchikan, Juneau, past a glacier, Skagway, and ended in Seward. We did walking tours in all the locations which I researched ahead of time. We didn’t buy “extra” cruise tours to keep the cost down. The boys enjoyed the kids club on the ship and made several friends on the cruise.

We stayed overnight in Seward after the cruise and did a small ½ day boat tour of Kenai Fjords. The next day we picked up an RV in Anchorage for our week in Alaska. We drove inland to Fairbanks and stopped at places along the way and at Denali for the park shuttle tour and overnight at Denali. In Fairbanks we went to the University of Alaska. For the kids, we stopped at a Gold Mine so they could “pan” for gold. Just outside of Fairbanks, your kids might enjoy visiting “North Pole, Alaska”. Santa is there year round.

Whenever we traveled with our children, we had them do their own research of places they wanted to visit while we were in the area. If they didn’t give us any input, we made the decision and they couldn’t complain. As a result, we went to art & history museums, science museums, baseball games, national parks, aquariums, botanical gardens, fun parks, an airplane factory, locks & dams on a river, a fish hatchery, and places that everyone was able to enjoy.

If you rent an RV, be sure to stock up in Anchorage before you leave. Plan ahead for meals and be sure to bring sandwich items/drinks/snacks if you take the park shuttle tour because there is no food available in the park, only at the store at the beginning of the park (unless it’s changed since we were there). Also, purchase a copy of “The Milepost” before you drive anywhere around Alaska. This book is a valuable resource.

Friends of ours did the small boat ferry and camped.

Just so you can start comparing costs. Your car alone for 2 weeks will be about $1000--unless you are planning for 2014. If you are, pick your dates now and reserve a car. People get amazing car rental rates when they book at least 11 months in advance. Hotel and cabins will be $150-$250/nt. We are spending about $150/nt on our lodging but it is just the 2 of us. An RV for a family is often a good choice. You would save on food and lodging. Even first time RVers seem to do well renting in Alaska

Cruises are actually a very efficient way to travel to see SE Alaska. The small cruises get great reviews but they are very expensive. Many travelers seem to really enjoy a one way cruise from Vancouver that goes to Glacier Bay (I think just Princess/ Holland America and one NCL ship go to Glacier Bay)and then to Alaska. They rent a car or RV for a week and do the Kenai Peninsula and possibly Denali as Gardyloo described above.

I have not cruised Alaska. We are doing a 2 week driving trip this year but I hope to cruise one day. What a fabulous trip for you and your family. If you go to Alaska, please report back.

Wow so much to consider thanks so much for all of the replies. I will be doing lots of research.

We went last summer and opted not to go with a cruise because we aren't really sure that we are cruise people either! We only rented a car overnight in Anchorage and once we got to Fairbanks and managed ok. We flew into Juneau and covered SE AK from there with smaller flights to get to Scagway, Glacier Bay NP, and Sitka. Then flew to Anchorage,drove down to Seward, took a day tour of the Kenai Fjords, back to A., then the train up to Denali, several nights there and then the train the rest of the way to Fairbanks. All that said, my suggestions (and plan to do when I go again...)...
I would fly straight to Glacier Bay National Park and stay 2 nights at the Lodge there- they have packages, I think that include pick-up/drop off at the airport and meals - and take the park cruise. We saw whales from the pier at the lodge and regret not having enough time to walk around the shore there. Sitka was very interesting -the Park service maintains a piece of Russian/American history not found any where else in the US - and there is a park with totem poles, etc and a raptor center there. It was all very walkable. Juneau was also very walkable if you stay in the downtown area - except for needing a taxi, etc to/from airport. You can easily catch a bus tour out to Mendenhal Glacier from the port area.
The train was serviceable but would spring for a car next time to get from Anchorage to Denali - found it frustrating to depend on shuttles into/out of the hotel area to the Park shuttle pick-ups. The Kenai tour out of Seward was also great - very different from the Glacier Bay one as far as wildlife (mostly birds, etc) and land features. In Denali, if you can manage, try to stay at least 3 nights so that you can get all the way into the park - or better yet, book several nights at one of the lodges at the far end of the road.
Alaska is amazing - not cheap but well worth every penny and every ounce of time you can squeeze out. As said earlier, you have to get off the beaten path and out of the cruise-run commerce to begin to appreciate it but the effort for doing so is greatly rewarded!
I kept notes along the way but am sort of embarrassed to post them at this late day - plus they are rather lengthy. Also please excuse spelling, grammar errors, etc.....not enough coffee yet!

Thanks ausc59 - I think you should post sounds like valuable info and it is great way to relive the trip.