We will be in Anchorage for a couple of nights in June.. We plan to visit the museum, Tony Knowles Coast Trail and the Alaska Native Heritage Center. We have a travel gal who is helping us organize our trip and she actually has us at the Lakefront in Mid town. We usually stay in town so I was surprised by her choice. Any suggestions for lodging? Would you stay in town or the midtown area? We will have a car so could drive or they also have a shuttle available and I think the city bus goes every 30 minutes.
Also, I am rethinking the quest of the train to Denali. It will cost anywhere from $1000 to $800. If we drive it would only cost an extra $250 for the car?? and we could make stops etc. We have no problems with driving I just thought the train might be a nice adventure.

Take a look at the Historic Anchorage Hotel. https://www.historicanchoragehotel.com/

It is a well-kept historic property with vintage furniture, located in the heart of downtown where you can easily walk to shops and to the Alaska Railroad station. It survived the 1964 Alaska earthquake. We stayed there once in late May/early June 2014 (50 year anniversary of the quake). A storm rolled through one night, leaving widespread power outage in Anchorage. Nobody staying in the Captain Cook could get downstairs (tower), but we used used the wide grand staircase to come to the lobby in the Anchorage Hotel (they do have an elevator as well).

Here is an excerpt from their website:

Famous Hotel Guests

For dignitaries and celebrities traveling to the new territory of Alaska, The Anchorage Hotel was the premier place to stay. Will Rogers and Wiley Post stayed with us just two days before their fateful flight to Barrow. Famous mountain man Bob Marshall stayed here as well. Perhaps the most notable guest of The Anchorage Hotel, however, was famous artist Sydney Laurence. Many of Mr. Laurence's years in Alaska were spent painting in his studio, which was located in the hotel lobby, while he lived in an upstairs apartment. Mr. Laurence is most remembered for his beautiful paintings of Mount McKinley and Alaska's scenery.

Our Haunted Hotel: Where Ghosts Are More than Just Stories

Curtains rumbling, shower curtains swaying, pictures flying—it's all par for the course at The Historic Anchorage Hotel. Stories of ghostly happenings have been circulating at the hotel for many years, and are considered to be related to the death of Anchorage’s first Chief of Police, Jack Sturgus. On February 20, 1921 at 9:15 p.m., Police Chief John J. "Black Jack" Sturgus was found shot in the back with a bullet from his own gun, steps away from The Historic Anchorage Hotel. It is rumored that his ghost returns to the scene of the crime each year, haunting the location of his untimely death and seeking justice for a crime still unsolved to this day.

Sightings are so frequent that we keep a ghost log in which a number of our guests have shared their encounters. In addition to the ghost of Jack Sturgus, past guests have seen several different specters make their way through our halls and facilities. A more detailed account of some of these ghosts were featured on Today MSNBC.com.

How many days would you need the car? I'm thinking you can get a rental car for less than $250 depending on the number of days and the demand at the time.
DW and I flew to ANC (morning flight) in late May 2016 and got a rental car at the airport. We spent several hours seeing the sights in Anchorage before heading out to the MicroTel in Eagle Creek. I would have stayed there again on the return but they were booked.
As much as I love train rides, we went with the rental car for the ease of setting our own schedule. There is a Fred Myer gas station in the north end of Eagle Creek. There is a Costco gas station in the east end of Anchorage (membership required).

I don't think the Lakefront is a bad choice, particularly since you'll have a car. You're only a few minutes from downtown, and - to me - sitting on the edge of Lake Hood watching the float planes come and go is about as good an introduction to Alaska as there is.

IMO the train to Denali is overpriced and under-delivers on scenery. It also limits you to accommodations - those accessible by shuttle to/from the park and train station, while having a car allows you to cast a wider net on the lodging front. The car would also allow you to make some stops coming and going, for example at Hatcher Pass and Independence Mine near Palmer, or at the Eklutna village cemetery, things like that. Google the places on this map - https://goo.gl/maps/4nv12cti3q4mufj39

What are your plans after Anchorage and Denali?

thank you, thank you, I had just decided against the train last night so your opinion confirms my decision.After Denali we will head home. here is my itinerary as of now.
Arrive in Sitka (May 21 & 22)
May 23 @ 3 Pm begin our cruise, 7 nights
May 30, 31- Juneau
June 1 flight to Anchorage, spend the 1st and 2nd there (I think in town then)
June 3 either to Homer or Seward- I originally thought to visit Seward 1st for 2 nights but now I am thinking maybe we should go to Homer first for 3 nights, then back to Seward for 2 nights. Regardless, we would then drive maybe to Palmer (shorter drive from Seward). WHAT DO YOU THINK HOMER OR SEWARD FIRST?
June 8th night in Palmer
June 9th- drive to Denali and stay outside of park

Please give your thoughts, am I rushing anything. I think from Palmer we could do Hatcher Pass? IS THAT A DIRT ROAD?, I wonder if it is, is there a problem with a rental.
June 10 & 11 to Mile 92, stay at Backcountry Lodge
June 12th- drive back to Anchorage and I think stay at the Lakefront then
June 13th fly home

We did not stay in Seward at all. We went to Seward as a long day trip including a hike up to the foot of the Exit Glacier. The rooms in Seward tend to be expensive because of the cruise ship traffic.
As for a dirt road we drove a few miles of the Skilak road in the hopes of seeing some wildlife. There was a short dirt road up to the B&B we stayed at on the hill above Homer. We saw a cow moose and yearling while we were eating breakfast. They walked by about 25 feet from the window.
Be sure to buy your bus tickets online before getting to Denali. There is daylight even after 10 PM the second week of June. Before the red eye flight from ANC, I took a good sunset picture at midnight.
We did spend a night in a hotel in Palmer. It was not as good as the MicroTel in Eagle Creek.
North of Palmer we enjoyed the musk ox farm.

The road from Palmer up to Hatcher Pass is paved; the road from Hatcher Pass to Willow is partly paved, partly gravel. If you're doing a round trip from Palmer, you'll be fine.

Just be aware that you're traveling in the very early part of the tourist season, so depending on how the rest of the winter goes, you might well encounter "breakup" conditions at higher elevations - rotten snow, mud, etc. You'll also need to be aware of daily conditions. Driving up to Hatcher Pass in fog and rain is not much fun.

As for Homer v. Seward first, I don't think it makes much difference. What do you plan to do in those places?

I'll reiterate a point I made in another of your threads. You might think out of the box and plan a side trip from Anchorage to some community off the road system. Why not have a look at Kodiak, Nome or Kotzebue? All are available by direct flights on Alaska Airlines from Anchorage, and all would add a dimension to your Alaska visit that most visitors wouldn't experience. Kotzebue especially would be fascinating as it's above the arctic circle, will have 24 hours of daylight, and you'll experience the unique Inupiat Eskimo culture and a totally different kind of landscape and environment than you will in the rest of the trip.

Kotzebue sounds interesting. Tell me a bit more...where to fly in to, how long would we need etc.

sounds like a great trip. thanks for the info about Seward vs Homer. I considered the flight to Katmai NP but we are there too early to see the bears with the salmon, I guess that is July- August. we will be early June.

Kotzebue (native name Qikiqtaġruk) is an Inupiat Eskimo community located on an inlet of the Arctic Ocean. It's above the arctic circle, so in early June the sun is going to be up for 24 hours, or close to it (24 hour sun starts on June 3 and lasts until July 9.)

As Native villages go it's a big one (population around 3300) and an important one, as it's the administrative (Northwest Arctic Borough, like a county) and commercial center for a big region. The local economy is based on government, education, and business associated with the local Native corporation and the Borough, but also (a lot) on traditional activities, most especially commercial fishing and subsistence hunting (caribou, whales, etc.)

Alaska Airlines flies 737s to Kotzebue a couple of times a day from Anchorage; the flights stop en route at Nome (either coming or going) and round trip airfare from Anchorage to OTZ is around $300. There's a comfortable Native-owned hotel and restaurant complex, the Nullagvik - Nulla?vik Hotel :: Home located across the street from the Arctic Ocean waterfront. There's a terrific cultural and heritage center, you can visit a fish camp (which might or might not be running in June - pretty early) and just walking around the village will give you terrific insight into this remarkable region and way of life. Highly recommended. You could spend a day and a "night" there (ha ha) and have an excellent time.

Along the same lines, you could fly to Nome instead of, or in addition to, Kotzebue. (As I said, the plane stop there en route, and stopping in both towns will only add a little to the price of the plane ticket.) Nome is not above the arctic circle, so while the sun will set, it won't do so until 1 or 2 in the morning, so if you want actual "midnight sun," you'll get it.

Nome is an historic gold rush town set on the shore of the Bering Sea. Gold mining is still VERY big business in Nome, both on land and on the Bering Sea. (Catch the TV show Bering Sea Gold to see the nutters diving to the bottom of the ocean to vacuum up the pay dirt.) It's a very colorful town, full of characters. Nome also possesses a surprisingly big road system that radiates from the town out into the Seward Peninsula bush. On the roads you can see historic sites, vast landscapes unlike anything you'll see in the rest of your trip, and LOTS of wildlife, including muskoxen, moose, caribou and reindeer, maybe some bears, foxes, and LOTS of birds, including many not often seen in North America. You can rent vehicles in Nome to explore these roads, or probably arrange a tour locally (ask at the hotel.) There are numerous decent places to stay and places to eat. If I were to choose Nome, I'd probably want three days there, in order to have time to explore the area a little.