mocha_dolce

I'm planning a 2-3 week Alaska trip for August 2024; the last 9-10 days will include an inside passage cruise (already booked) and post-cruise days in Vancouver.

I would appreciate help in planning the other 5-11 days. We are in our mid-60's and interested in seeing Alaska's natural beauty and wildlife, not really into hiking, fishing, or adventure travel. This will likely be our one and only trip to Alaska. The budget, not including the cruise, but including everything else is about $10,000. We also have a strong aversion to one night stays, much preferring at least 3-4 nights in one location.

I suppose we could book a land tour through the cruise line, but I prefer not to cede control of the entire trip as we are usually DIY-ers. Taking the organized land tour option would commit us to short stays, and we'd have little choice about our accommodations and timing.

Given the above, what's the best use of our 5-11 days: north to Denali/Fairbanks, south to Seward/Kenai Fjords Park, or both. Any suggestions on where to stay and for how long would be appreciated. Open to driving or taking the train for a portion of the journey.

Thanks so much.

Madam397

The first thing that I would do is read the Fodor's Alaska guide and you can also write away for information from various state travel offices, VisitAlaska.com or something like that. If you are going on a cruise southbound you are either departing from Whittier or Seward and so you can plan around that. You do have time to get up to Denali either by car or train. We traveled in Alaska in 2021 without a cruise having done the northbound cruise ten years ago and spending a week in Vancouver prior, part of which was business trip for my husband. So in 2021, we arrived in Anchorage and then traveled the next day by Park Connection bus to Talkeetna staying at the lovely Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge and traveled by train from Talkeetna to Denali the next day with the dome car service. In 2021, post pandemic the train did not go northbound every day and so Park Connection bus which was incredibly convenient. All booked through Alaska Tour and Travel, very helpful people and all the transfers between Talkeetna and Denali were arranged We checked our luggage at the train platform and next saw it in our room at the Denali Bluffs. The return trip from Denali to Anchorage, same deal as our luggage was picked up in our room and we saw it again on the train platform. Spent a day touring Anchorage and picked up our rental car for our trip to explore the Kenai Peninsula, stopping in Seward for two nights, Homer for three nights (family wedding) and then one night in Girdwood at the Alyeska Lodge before heading back to Anchorage for our red-eye flight.

Much easier and most people recommend planning a Do It Yourself road trip. You do need to make reservations for car rental early on as well as hotels as they do book up and there is limited availability in some places.

christym907

You might consider just going to Talkeetna and taking a flight seeing tour around Denali. they are spectacular and then you don't have to spend so much time getting to Denali. Depending on the weather, you are more likely to see Denali from Talkeetna anyway. If you have a car, consider going to Kennicott/ McCarthy in the Wrangell/St Elias National Park. It's an old copper mine. I'm partial to that area as not many people, percentage wise, go there. You could spend several days there. Homer is always at the top of my list. Since you are going on a cruise, the boat tours out of Seward might be too much time on the water. You could go to the Sea Life Center there on your way to Homer if you just want to see Seward. I don't know where you are starting your cruise so maybe you're going to Seward anyway. Since there aren't many roads, there will be some back tracking. whatever you decide, it will be a great trip.