sallyky

For the first time we are using a tour rather than working out our own travel plans. It's age, i suppose. Anyway the tour folks want to sell us a food plan, and the price seems exorbitant to me. The plan would average about $35 a meal. The agent says dinner could well cost $100. I said surely there are less expensive places. She said yes, but you wouldn't want to go there. Don't know how true that is. We will be in Fairbanks, Dawson, Whitehorse, and Skagway.

On the good side, we can order whatever we want, which means we'd probably choose pricier items than usual. Also, we wouldn't be wasting time wondering around looking for a place we'd like. I presume they would pick a restaurant for us, but I forgot to ask how that works. I'm torn between the ease of just letting them take care of it and going -- it costs what?

Thanks for your thoughts, Sally

sdpryde

When agent said dinner could cost $100, you don't say if that's per person. If it's appetizer, salad, entree, dessert, alcohol. Too many variables without specific information.


Anchorage pricing (probably cheaper than the communities you've listed):
Fine dining...
- Simon & Seaforts: appetizers $9-$15; entree $18 (basic pasta) - $50 (a great steak or crab)
- wine (cheap bottle = $28, good = $40-$60, great = better have a high credit limit on your c.card

At a chain like Red Robin, Chiles, Applebees; a typical burger/fries will be $9.95-$14.95. A pop/soda will be $2-$3 (refillable). Olive Garden entrees = $12-$25

From what I've seen over the past couple years in traveling to Fairbanks & Whitehorse; without alcohol and per person, I'd say a good breakfast could be $15-$20 (coffee/tea/pop included). Lunch would be the same as breakfast. Dinner would be $15-$35.

I'd add $5 per meal for Dawson & Skagway.

BigRuss

Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula probably have more competition and more access to supplies than anywhere else in Alaska and the dining prices are 30-50% higher than what you would expect to pay in the lower 48; yes, even in NYC or San Francisco.

sallyky

This deal isn't even as good as first thought. I found a description in the company book, and dinner includes soup or salad, an entree, non-alcoholic beverage, and dessert, plus gratuity. So I don't think starters would be included.

The agent was talking about $100 each for dinner. The plan averages out to about $72 per day per person for breakfasts and dinners -- lunches are still on our own. So even if breakfast were $20, i would have to buy a $52 dinner to break even. That doesn't seem likely, though I guess I could go for crab or steak every night. Or I could spend a lot less.

PaulRabe

Another thing to remember -- you can walk into a grocery store in any city; buy some fruit, rolls, cheese, cold cuts, snacks, and juice or soda; and then have a perfectly fine lunch made how YOU like it, for a lot less money and time than sitting at a restaurant. We've done this around the world (literally!); so doing so in Anchorage should be no problem.

As one guidebook explained it, the main reason for high prices in Alaska restaurants isn't that food has to be shipped up there; it's that it's hard to find unskilled labor willing to work for low wages. Make your own lunch and bypass the restaurant middle-man.

dfrostnh

This is old info but I think our best dinner in AK was a little family take-out place in Kenai. Great halibut bites and peanut butter milkshakes. Pizza at Moose's Tooth in Anchorage was great. I don't recall sticker shock in Skagway just that restaurants after 5pm weren't crowded because all the tourists had gone back to the cruise boats. I'm unclear whether you are traveling with a group tour that goes to specific restaurants or not. If you have the freedom to choose, I agree with PaulRabe to get some of your meals in grocery stores or make your own. Fairbanks should have large grocery stores but Skagway is a small town. I remember in Talkeetna they only "grocery store" we could find was more like a convenience store but lunch was a great sandwich and fries.

BigRuss

>

There's a cause and effect issue there: the food has to be shipped, the supplies are limited, and that means prices are higher. Once the cost of living baseline is set high, the willingness of unskilled labor to work for peanuts is minimal.

Gardyloo

I think your agent is misinformed.

Why not look at a couple of menus from decent places to get a sense?

Fairbanks - http://www.chenas.net/
Dawson - http://aurorainn.ca/
Whitehorse - http://www.klondikerib.com/

Remember, at present, CDN$1 = US$0.80, and also there's no sales tax in most Alaska cities (local option.)

fdecarlo

IMO calling it misinformed is generous. The tour company is there to make as much money as possible from the booking.

"The plan would average about $35 a meal. The agent says dinner could well cost $100. I said surely there are less expensive places. She said yes, but you wouldn't want to go there"

How would she know? I would have told her the only thing worse than choosing a bad restaurant yourself is being forced to eat at one by a tour company. So personally I'd decline the meal plan just for freedom of choice, regardless of cost. An average of $35/meal/pp borders on ridiculous for breakfast and lunch, even in Alaska. What you're really paying for is having your food arrangements made for you, which many patrons of organized tours prefer.

kayd

Skip that meal plan. I was on a tour that stopped in those towns and we had no trouble finding places to eat at reasonable (for Alaska and Yukon) prices. Sometimes we ate at the hotel restaurant (Dawson's was great, Whitehorse not so much), but were glad to have several other options. I can't imagine dinners at any restaurant on that route costing $100 for one. I cannot remember any prices, so I guess they were not much different than what we spend for dinner at mid-priced restos in Washington DC, which might hit $100 including tax, for two with a beer or glass of wine for each. A lot less at breakfast and lunch, of course.

sludick

While I agree with the general consensus about declining that meal plan, I do have to say that the meal prices can be steep. I'm thinking about areas like Healy (near Denali), where I spent $20 for a plain and simple grilled cheese sandwich (no sides) in 2008. On the other hand, last year we had a wonderful dinner at the Alyeska Resort - Seven Glaciers Restaurant - that included the tram ticket at a pretty reasonable price.

The problem of course is that, being on a tour, you are limited in your choices of dining to where the tour plants you. I have worked in a luxury convention hotel, where we sold tour companies and organizations like Amway a price for meal packages for a pittance that they in turn resold to their attendees at obscene prices.

I think the meal package is more of a convenience than a value, especially considering that you are used to non-tour vacations.

kayd

The towns where this tour stops are so small that everything of interest is in walking distance of the hotel, or a short taxi ride in Whitehorse or Fairbanks.

sallyky

Thanks everybody. Good comments. I appreciate your help. I did check for eateries near the hotels where we'll stay and I learned the plan requires eating at the hotels, which (surprise! surprise!) are owned by the cruise company. Then I checked menus. Since the plan doesn't include alcohol or starters, which I'd often rather have than dessert, it is the convenience rather than lower prices we'd be buying. We'd rather try different places, and can always eat with the tour if time or circumstances make it needful.