First timers to Alaska- where to go?
 

My family ( myself, husband and three children, 12,11 and 6) have traveled the lower 48 pretty extensively and would now like to go to Alaska. I've looked at so many different sites but would like to know what you would recommend for about a 10 day trip to Alaska? What airport to fly into? Places to stay? We are most interested in scenery, hiking, outdoorsy type stuff and maybe some Native Culture. Any suggestions on where to go for our first trip to Alaska?

Edited to add it will be late July- early August.

Short answer: fly into Anchorage and do a car-based trip that includes Denali National Park and the Kenai Peninsula including Seward and possibly Homer. Map - https://goo.gl/maps/Kp1GFirXYNQ2

Longer answer, actually questions: What's your budget? How off the beaten path are you willing to go? How do you feel about small planes?

The reason for these questions is that because of its size and very limited road system, many of Alaska's wonders aren't accessible by car and/or are quite pricey. Flightseeing trips to see bears cost upwards of $600 per person for a day's outing. Guided halibut or salmon fishing excursions cost $200-$300 per person and up. It's just not a cheap destination.

Then there's another big question. What about a cruise? For example, you could fly to Anchorage, do a tour of the city and a flightseeing trip on a floatplane from Anchorage to Denali, then head to Seward and do a Kenai Fjords tour - whales, glaciers, seals, birds... - then board a cruise ship in Seward and cruise to Vancouver via the (incredibly beautiful) Inside Passage - glaciers, historic cities, Tlingit culture, more wildlife...

For families with kids this can be a real advantage. No unpacking and schlepping to the next overpriced hotel, the ships have great kids' programs, there are food choices for even the fussiest eaters, babysitting services so that mom and dad can have an evening (or three) to themselves, and the prices are usually cheaper than the same number of days spent on land, counting car, hotels, meals. With three kids at those ages, I frankly would opt for this in the first place, and save other parts of Alaska for later. (Take Denali - how are your kids on 8-12 hour days on a schoolbus with occasional rest stops?)

And it's not like the scenery on the cruise is second rate. Far from it - the variety is incredible, and it comes to you.

Just thinking out loud.

We just did a 10 day full land tour called Majestic Alaska through Trafalgar Tours... even if you can't afford this tour, look up the itinerary online for the best things to see and do... it was ideal for our family of eight...

We drove to Prudoe bay
Outstanding scenery and animals.
We drove in late August (I recall) when fall colors were changing!
Must do.

Vaga

Thank you all for your replies. We are not opposed to the cruise option you mentioned. I've shared with my husband.

Our budget I would say is moderate. We might could do one or two larger tours like you mentioned but couldn't do one each of the 10 days. We are perfectly fine with driving and then getting out and hiking, looking around etc. I'll also look into the Trafalgar Tours for ideas.

What do you mean "what airport to fly into"? The lone airport that will have any sort of frequency for direct flights, and variety of airlines, is Anchorage. No other airport is even equivalent to a small local airport in a secondary city (like Albuquerque or Pittsburgh).

<<Our budget I would say is moderate.>>

This says nothing. Speak in nightly lodging costs and overall trip numbers.

Understand that going to Alaska will cause additional costs: food and gas are each 30% higher, at least, than what you will find in the 48 (even if you shopped exclusively at Whole Foods before Amazon bought it). This means your daily unavoidable costs are higher. Lodging costs are a bit higher for what you get than they would be in the lower 48 as well.

I don't want to try to over-sell the cruise or under-sell the advantages of a land-based trip. A lot of it really comes down to your preferences and how your family "travels," if you get my meaning.

The Trafalgar Tours itinerary mentioned by
<b>garyt22,</b> is fairly basic - Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage, Seward. You wouldn't have the opportunity to take off hiking or detour down some side road, which with kids might be a disadvantage. Certainly the price of the "Majestic Alaska" tour is pretty high; a ten day trip with seven included in the tour would probably end up costing several thousand dollars more than a comparable visit using rental car and hotels.

Using back-of-the-envelope calculations (so don't take this to the bank) and after looking at some cruise prices for July/August next year, it looks like a 7-day one-way cruise from Vancouver to Seward or Whittier (or v.v.) with three days on the ground in southcentral Alaska (Seward/Whittier/Anchorage) would have the potential of costing roughly $5000 less than the car+hotels option. (Don't know where you live so airfare is an unknown, but that figure is an "all things being equal" one.)

The one-way cruises all follow fairly similar routes, including a couple of "sea" days where the ship doesn't call in any port, one where you're at see but touring glacier areas - usually Glacier Bay or the Hubbard Glacier in Yakutat Bay (sometimes both.) The port calls almost always include Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. In all three communities it's easy to undertake family- and budget-friendly activities or excursions - ride the city bus in Ketchikan ($1) to a state park featuring many totem poles and other Native American artifacts; walk around historic Juneau and see its old Russian Church, or ride an aerial gondola high into the mountains surrounding the city. In Skagway, rent a car and drive through spectacular scenery into the Yukon to visit a tiny desert, historic mining towns, even a ghost town.

While three days in southcentral (before or after the cruise) isn't very much (and if you could extend your trip to two weeks it would make a BIG difference) but you can still get a pretty good feel for the scale and diversity of Alaska, enough that you'll probably be planning a return visit when the kids are a bit older (which is what I'd frankly recommend, but again, don't know your kids.)

The cruises are mass tourism to be sure, but the ships are huge and have lots of nooks, crannies, and activities, and - just me, maybe - sitting on a packed bus in Denali for 8 hours isn't my idea of being far from the crowd, as it were. Again, personal tastes.

One other benefit of the cruises is Vancouver, but enough said.

Now I'll shut up and go away.

Being on a cruise ship is not being in Alaska... it's being on a cruise ship... percentage of time on land is small...

Seeing mountains from a boat hotel is artificial compared to the Alaska Railroad or Denali...