Best travel Alaska options
 

As retirees who have seen much of the US and some of Europe, we are now considering Alaska and want to come up with some enjoyable options. We would say that it would probably be about 2 weeks or so maximum and would appreciate ideas on cruises, driving on our own, hand holding tours[ but prefer more on our own, I think], combination land and sea,etc.etc. We are sure that there are positives and negatives for the time of travel and would apprecate hearing those. As ones who have answered others' questions, we appreciate all ideas.

Hopefully, BudgetQueen will see your post and answer. I would do a search on the Fodor's cruise forum, and also join Cruisecritic.com Great info on both.

Not an Alaskan expert, I can't give you any recommendations except to tell you it was one of the best trips we have ever taken. I loathe cruises and was almost dragged to Alaska for my in-laws' 50th anniversary blast. The trip was wonderful, and ours lasted only a week. Happy planning! :)

Great decision! First start doing text search here under Alaska. Tons of very helpful information. Then post specific questions.

Having just returned from spending 25 days in Alaska, I drove the whole thing from Minnesota. I also planed the whole trip myself. And the #1 thing I would strongly recommend even if you do not drive, is invest in the Milepost. That was soo much help to me. Excellent web sites to check out etc. Also go to the Alaska web site and just start checking out everything. I made all reservations online, no problems with any of it. We spent many days in Fairbanks, there is so much to see and do in and around there. Denali Park of course, out of Anchorage we took the train to Seward for 3 nights and took the Kenai Fjord tour and also another all day tour that included the dog sled rides, Exit Glacier, tour of Seward, and SeaWorld. Then we took the train from Anchorage to Whittier and did the 26 Glacier tour. Both excellent tours. We stayed at the Edgewater in Seward, highly recommend it. We were extremely disappointed in Anchorage, and I had booked several nights there. The museum is well worth it. We are also retired, in our late 70's so hiking etc we just are not into that. I drove up and down most all the streets of Anchorage, alot of restaurants. Outside of Anchorage in Palmer and Wisilla is very interesting. The Independence Mine is excellent, also the Air and Transportation Museum is well worth. We explored and visited afew old mining towns, Talkeetna, Ester, Nenana and Hope. All unique and different. I could go on and on. But this is just afew things we did. We saw alot of wild life, both on our tours and just driving. I have several pictures of grizzly bears, two darling little cubs just along side the road we were on, plus moose, dall sheep, caribou etc etc. We saw it all. We also was blessed on our Denali tour to have a absolutely clear beautiful day and saw MtMckinley in all its full glory. Awesome. So have a great trip and enjoy.

If you type "BudgetQueen" into the search box, you'll be able to find her recommendations on Alaskan cruises, also try searching same on the cruise board.

Also search the other experts' names like Repete, Pat2003, Gardyloo, Jetset1, etc. There is so much great information already on here that I'm sure you'll find lots of great useful advice, plus please be sure to ask specific questions so we can tell you about our own experiences. I'd definitely recommend independent traveling for the land portion of your trip. Also, JC98 recently posted a great trip report where they did a cruise followed by a very brief independent land trip. You might search that screen name to read those threads.

Good luck with the planning!:)

For objective suggestions don't forget to search under BayouGal

You cannot go wrong with a cruise, we went skeptically 6 years ago and it was fabulous, we've been back twice for cruising and self touring. Many people fly in a few days early and tour and do the same thing at the end of the cruise. I recommend the itinerary that goes 1 way Northbound or Southbound and goes to Glacier Bay

Hilda, I haven't been on an Alaskan cruise yet, but the one you described is the way I think I'd like to go.

z, thanks, but you know far more about Alaska than I ever will! :) [Unless DH finally succumbs and I get to move to Homer, that is. Then I, too, intend on becoming an Alaska travel expert! ;-)]

We have been both to 'mainland' Alaksa and the Inside Passage.

For the first we rented a motorhome for three weeks, a small one - 22 feet. We loved traveling in Alaska that way because we could be flexible, and lodgings are not awfully plentiful and can be far apart. We stayed both in state and city parks and in RV Parks. We did Denali, of course, and flew over Mt. McKinley in a small plane from Talkeetna. Also took a 6-hour boat trip out of Seward with Kenai Fjords to see glaciers and wildlife. This included a salmon bake on an island.

This past May we took a Cruise West trip on the Inside Passage. I felt sorry for all the persons on the huge HAL and Princess ships. Our boat only held 90 people and was small enough to get into fjords and passages that the big ships could not. We sat in front of a glacier for a couple of hours one day watching wildlife - sea lions floating on ice floes, bald eagles, black bear with cubs, puffins. Then they put us out in 10 person DIB's (like pontoon rafts) and we putted even closer to shore. When whale sightings were made during the trip the captain slowed the ship down and sailed in circles so that we could observe. A copy of THE MILEPOST is a must. Fantastic maps, information ot every step of the way on the highways, You can order it online and it will help immensely with your planning. I don't remember the website but I am sure that just googling The Milepost would take you there.

Have fun planning.