Alaska Itenerary help
 

Could you please review this and see if it looks okay.

Day 1 – arrive Anchorage 11pm; stay Fairfield Inn

Day 2 – Talkeetna flightseeing tour with glacier landing (Talkeetna Aero)
Denali (poss. Short hike or dogsled demo); stay Denali Lakeview Inn

Day 3 – Bus to fish creek

Day 4 – Nenana river raft; leave Denali ~noon
Stop at Ididarod Headquarter in Wassila
Poss. stop at Independence Mine and Hatcher Pass
Poss. stop at Eagle river nature center
Stay at Girwood Alyeska Prince


Day 5 – Alyeska Tram; Portage – Glacier Visitor Center; Wildlife Conservation Center
Exit Glacier, Seavey Ididarod tour
Stay at Seward Windsong Lodge

Day 6 – KenaiFjords tour

Day 7 – Hubby and son Silver Salmon Fishing; Me and younger 2 Sea Life Center ; family kyak

Day 8 - Head to anchorage
Natl Native Heritage Center
Stay at Dimond Center

Day 9 - day bear tour; souvenier shop; poss. museum of history & art

Day 10 – bike Tony Knowles Coastal trail; 5pm fly home

My only question is this: you're going to arrive in Anchorage at 11 pm (which will be mid-morning for your jet-lagged body), and the NEXT DAY you'll be in Denali? How exactly do you plan to get from Anchorage to Denali on a day when you'll wake up completely zonked from a long flight, a late arrival, and several hours of jet lag to overcome?

Please do NOT drive this!

I would skip the Ididarod demos and do a more realistic and personal experience instead. Do the one in Seward (Godwin Glacier) or the one in Alyeska(Dario, who has run the ididarod and even trains other dogs in the summer). We did the one in Alyeska (Girdwood), (www.highadventureair.com),both are on real snow, not dirt. It is truly incredible. On you Kenai Fjords tour, make sure you go with one that is all day and takes you to the glaciers. Renown tours is the best, although their food is lame. We Kayaked in Seward (midnight sun tour 4hours) www.kayakak.com. it was very good. I would combine a bear tour with a fishing tour. You get to see the best of both worlds at the same time. Make sure you know what time of year you are going. Salmon runs are very different throughout the season. If I ever go back to Alyeska I am going to parasail off the mountain. It looked great. The lunch is good at the top of the tram. If you could spring for a meal at dinner Seven Glaciers restaraunt at the top of the tram would be worth it. Double Musky is a good Cajun Restaraunt in Girdwood also. The Sea Life Center in Seward is good, but it can be done in a couple of hours. I think you might better just plan on getting to Talkeetna the first day and not really doing anything. One thing that is really super is the train from Anchorage to Seward. Or do it in reverse Seward to Anchorage. One thing that is hard to do in Alaska is sleep. The sun never really goes down. You might even want to bring something to put over the windows. Alaska is huge, it takes some time to get from one place to another. Your trip looks very exciting. We did a flyout fishing/bear landing in water, and a helicopter glacier landing for the dog sled ride. I want to do Talkeetna glacier landing sometime also. We didn't do the Godwin Glacier dogsledding, but on that one you can even spend the night on the glacier. The one we did with Dario is on the travel channel. You will be the only one there. He lives on the glacier for 3 months without water or electric. They haul everything in and out by helicopter. Even the dog poop. The glacier is a huge area, and he takes you on a nice long ride. You get to pet the dogs, and when we were there he had 10 week old puppies that we held and that is going to be our Christmas Card this year. If you can work in a train ride it would be worth it. The ride from Seward to Anchorage is about 4 hours and it is the most scenic.

You certainly have some fun activities planned! I hope you have a fantastic time. I also wonder about your late arrival to Anchorage and then your plan to spend Day 2 in Denali. Are you flying there? Driving? If driving it is a long drive and you may want to stop along the way for photo ops etc. Seems a little rushed to me especially if you're jet lagged.

Also; Day 4 seems rushed. The Nenana White Water Rafting is fun. We've done it twice. What time are you going out and for how long? If you're going on a short morning trip it's possible you may be able to leave Denali at noon but many of the trips aren't that short or that early in the day. If you've already done your research, fine. Then you're driving a long way back to Girdwood with several planned stops along the way. If your stops are quick, in and out, it's possible especially if you don't mind getting to Alyeska until possibly late evening. I don't blame you for trying to squeeze in as much as possible. I do the same when I travel. My only caution is to be flexible in case some stops takes longer than expected, if you want to slow down the pace a bit, if you want more time to relax, and if you want to make unexpected stops on your road trip. Have a great time!

Would changing to the train up to Denali help?

I chose the car so that we could go our own pace and take some food / snacks.
I can see the benefit in the train to be able to get up and move about.

What about skipping the Denali thing and just take a flightseeing trip of McKinley?

> What about skipping the Denali thing and
> just take a flightseeing trip of McKinley?

First thing to know about Denali National Park: the mountain is almost an afterthought, it's the animal viewing that's the main feature. The area became a wilderness preserve because of the dahl sheep, for instance, and the mountain is nowhere to be seen (due to fog) about half the time. If you skip animal viewing in the hopes of seeing the mountain from a distance, you-
1) are missing the best part of Denali.
2) will have a 50-50 chance of seeing nothing.

By all means, stay on the ground at Denali, and get to see some truly wild animals more closely than you will likely see them at a zoo.

Don't skip Denali! McKinley aside, our bus tour through it was some of the most beautiful scenery we saw in Alaska.

I will agree with the others. Mt. Denali is not the main attraction in Denali nat'l park! We were there for 3-4 days and only saw the mountain on the drive out :) The best part was the amazing wildlife, something I will never forget!

I don't know how old your kids are, but if they are on the younger side you might want to slow down :) Your itinerary seems quite ambitious to me. I would skip a few things, depending on your interests and priorities. We were there for one month and still didn't get to see everything - all the more reason to go back!!

Your Days 4 and 5 are really packed. You probably won't get all of that done even with the extended daylight.

I appreciate all of your help
Does this look better?

Day 1 – arrive Anchorage 11pm; Stay Fairfield Inn

Day 2 –Denali (poss. Short hike or dogsled demo); stay Denali Lakeview Inn

Day 3 – Bus to fish creek

Day 4 – Leave Denali
Stay at Girwood Alyeska Prince

Day 5 – Sodonta bear trip
Seavey Ididarod tour
Stay at Seward Windsong Lodge

Day 6 – KenaiFjords tour

Day 7 – Sea Life Center ; kayak

Day 8 - Head toward anchorage
Visit exit glacier; Portage – Glacier Visitor Center; Wildlife Conservation Center
Stay at Dimond Center

Day 9 - Natl Native Heritage Center
souvenier shop

Day 10 – bike Tony Knowles Coastal trail; 5pm fly home

kbouvette,
I think thaat your second itinerary is more realistic. On Day 2, I think that it IS possible to get to Denali even with jet lag - in fact we did it that way earlier this year with no problems ... except for the fact that we did most of our 'stopping' on the way up and ended up spending MUCH more time at places than we intended, thus getting to Denali pretty late :).
Before you leave Denali for Girdwood, try to take in the dogsled demo - it's different to any others you will see and is great fun and very interesting ...it's one of the things I'm VERY glad I didn't miss!

Two things to note - the Kenai Fjords trips can get cancelled because of weather and sometimes even if they do run the seas are pretty rough ... this happened to us this year and we ended up not getting to go on the cruise so just a heads up.
Also, if it works with your itinerary, there are some bear watching trips out of Anchorage too so if you wanted, you could actually stay in Anchorage on Days 4 & 5, doing the bearwatching from there (with the Toursaver book there was a coupon for 2-for-1 nights at the Dimond Center too). If you did it this way it would save you changing accomodation as often. The bear watching trips out of Anchorage are a little more expensive than from Homer but I'm not sure what would be the difference in price from Soldotna. We found that we liked to have a couple of nights in one place together so that we didn't feel as rushed ... just a thought!

We also stayed at the Dimond Center Hotel and it really is a great hotel ... rooms are HUGE and that Bathtub is AMAZING!

No matter which way you do it you will have a fantastic time!

kbouvette, I just realised I replied to your other posts before so I've given a lot of duplicate info :S

I have another idea for your itinerary.

Day 1- Arrive Anchorage.

Day 2- Drive to Talkeetna. I wouldn't pass on the flightseeing out of Talkeetna. We debated long and hard on that one, not sure if the expense would be justified. It turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Way up there on the Wow factor. But you need a good day weatherwise. (Same for the Fjords tour and bears.) Your schedule doesn't have any margin of error in case you get bad weather, which is very likely to happen at some point.

Would highly recommend the "upper house" at the Eye of Denali for lodging. http://www.talkeetnatravel.com/lodgi...x8a&id=001 These pics don't do the place justice. The front is very impressive but not pictured. The interior is very nice. We rented the main house. It would be perfect for your family.

Anyway, as you know, the flighseeing tours depart at various times. You could shoot for the late afternoon flight on Day 2. If it had to be cancelled due to weather, you could try again in the morning of Day 3.

Day 3- Drive the 2.5 hours to Healy/Denali. You could do a rafting trip in Denali in the afternoon of Day 3 or a hike. (BTW, we very much enjoyed our stay at the Denali Lakeview Inn. Be sure to ask for the AAA rate if you're members. If not, that membership will probably pay for itself if you like to travel.)

Day 4- Denali - Bus to Fish Creek.

Day 5- Head to Girdwood. Possible ranger hike in Denali in the am before leaving.

Day 6 Head to Seward.

Day 7- Seward/Kenai Fjords tour.

Day 8- More Seward stuff, including another shot at the Fjords tour if weather was bad the day before. BTW, we did the Salt Water Lodge's "combo" tour which combined the wildlife viewing with fishing and had a great time, even though the weather was pretty crappy and greatly limited the wildlife and precluded a glacier viewing. We also stayed at their lodge. http://www.alaskasaltwaterlodge.com/...e_watching.htm

Day 9 You could head back to Anchorage, taking in some of the sights you've already mentioned. Like everyone says, and it's true, leave time for a WalMart trip in Anchorage if you plan on buying souvenirs because the stuff you see everywhere else in Alaska is also there and cheaper.

Day 10- Do the Coastal Bike tour and/or visit the Native Heritage Center and leave at 5:00pm.

Wow you all are very helpful.

I like the shift in the schedule you made dcd.

Which kenai fjords tour company do you all recommend -- renown or kenai fjords?

I just wanted to add, my advice is to not skip the Native Heritage Center. We really found that fascinating, and an aspect of Alaskan life we hadn't learned much about previously.

I like everything about Renown except the food. The food was a cold smoked salmon, bagel, cookie, chips, and coke. It wasn't bad, but was just ok. So you might want to take a little snack of your own along. The good thing about Renown is they have Catameran. Much faster, much smoother. They get you out there and back quicker. And in the event rough waters, theirs will be smoothest. Major Marine, Kenai, and Renown offer large ships. You might also want to check on the much small ships that only has a few people on it. Those look interesting as well. Just make sure whatever you do that you get to go all the way to the Glaciers. You do not want to do just Resurrection Bay. A lot of the other companies offer Salmon Bakes with their tours. But I do think Renown is the best one.

I was thinking about doing the Tony Knowles trail as well when I visit Alaska next June. Do you know if it is 'bear free' and safe to do alone? I will be by myself.

My understanding the Tony Knowles trail is bear free but often with moose around. I cannot comment on the saftey for a single rider. Sorry.