Author: Jacquie
Date: 07/11/2004, 10:48 pm
Message: This was our second trip to Alaska and we decided to spend two weeks traveling through the Kenai area. I set up the following itinerary and we had such a fantastic time that I thought I'd share it with the forum in case anyone was interested in doing the same trip. We purchased the toursaver book and saved quite a bit on lodgings and excursions.

Day 1
Flew into Anchorage and rented a car with Alamo. 16 days came to $941.41 for an economy car. We stayed at the Hampton Inn, $176.90 for the night. Ate dinner at Simon and Seaforts, great!

Day 2
Drove to Copper Center and stayed at the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge for two nights. Used the toursaver---$179 for both nights. Decided to drive to Chitna, small town on the way to Wrangell. Even when you're there, you say, where is Chitna, but the scenery is gorgeous.

Day 3
Took a float trip on the Copper River, very enjoyable.

Day 4
Drove the Richardson Highway to Valdez. Arrived in time to do the Glacier and Wildlife Cruise. Used the toursaver coupon, $85 for both. Stayed at the Aspen Hotel, cost $129/night with AAA discount.

Day 5
Took the Ferry from Valdez to Whittier. Used the toursaver coupon. Checked into the Edgewater Hotel for two nights. Had dinner at Ray's Waterfront, very good. Visited the Sea Life Museum. Used the coupon. Very worthwhile

Day 6
Took the Kenai Fjords National Park Tour. Used the coupon, saved $139. Fantastic tour, we saw lots of calving at Aialik Glacier, lots of wildlife. I highly recommend it.

Day 7
Left for Kenai Princess Lodge. Stayed 2 nights with coupon, saved $254. Cooper Landing is absolutely beautiful and the lodge has a fantastic location.

Day 8
Took morning hike to Russian River Falls, about 2 miles each way. Saw a young bear at the falls catching and eating salmon, very exciting.
Took Alaska River Adventures Upper Kenai Float Trip at noon. Saved $104 with coupon, very enjoyable.

Day 9
Drove to Homer where we stayed 5 nights at the Victorian Heights Bed and Breakfast. I highly recommend this place. The house is gorgeous, located in the mountains overlooking the Homer Spit, surrounded by mountains, glaciers, the water. Our room, Joy, had this magnificent view with a balcony, cost $129/night. Breakfast was gourmet every morning, a real treat. Had dinner at night at the Homestead, excellent.

Day 10
Woke up early for our Bear Viewing Trip with Hallo Bay. The most amazing day and worth every penny of the $450/person. Highly recommend it if you can afford it.

Day 11
Spent the day visiting the Pratt Museum, the new Cultural Center and some of the galleries in town. At 5:00 we took the Danny J over to Halibut Cove for a look around and dinner at Saltrys. Just a couple of galleries, but the ride there and back was lovely. Stopped at Gull Island for a look around on the way home. Nice area to just walk around, and dinner was very good.

Day 12
Went to Seldovia today using the coupon. Had lunch and walked around, but even though the boat ride was pleasant, I could pass on this one, not much there to see and do. At night we had dinner in restaurant at Lands End on the spit.

Day 13
Went Kyaking today, just great. Saw a few otters and a puffin, but the scenery was amazing. WE were lucky because it was very calm. Had our last dinner back at the Homestead because we really enjoyed it.

Day 14
Left for Alyeska Resort in Girdwood where we stayed for two nights. Could have used our coupon here, but they were having a summer special that was even better so we took advantage of that. It included four tickets that could be used for the ski lift or an hours bicycle rental. Had dinner at the 7 Glaciers Restaurant at the top of the mountain. It was excellent, but very pricy and small portions.

Day 15
We went white water rafting today with Class V. They do a three canyon raft, but you have the choice of doing one, two, or all three. We only did one, but it was exciting. I chickened out, sorry to say, because this was only my second time rafting and I wasn't too confident of my ability. Our guide was great, though. We stopped for lunch in a little town, Hope. It was once a flourishing place during the mining period, but now it has a population of around 200. The 6mile River runs through it. That's where we were rafting.

Day 16
Drove to Anchorage, checked into the Hampton Inn once again. Went to the museum, shopped at the Native American gift shop at the Native American Hospotal. They have the most amazing collection of Alaskan arts and crafts there. Had dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse, very good.

Day 17
Good-by Alaska. It was an amazing trip. Highly recommend it. Glad to answer any [email protected]

Thanks for the great info. I will print it for future reference.

We are planning a second Alaska trip and want to focus on the Kenai Pen. this time.

Thanks Jacquie,for your report. Very helpful, and you have affirmed my choice for an itinerary.We leave for AK end of August to tour the same areas by RV (flying to ANC, then renting RV). Your comments on Seldovia are similar to what I read elsewhere, guess we will skip that, but maybe do the Halibut Cove trip.

Thanks for the great info Jacquie. We leave in just a few days for our first Alaskan vacation. One quick ?...how was the Alyeska Resort, and did you see/do anything worth noting in the Girdwood area. Thanks for your help again...

We also just got back. We did the Boardwalk Hotel package in Seldovia which included a nature cruise over and a flight see back. Fog delayed our return flight but once it lifted, the ride was great. I would have been very disappointed if we had had to go back on the boat. Of course, you can take a flight see with Smokey Bay out of Homer without staying at Seldovia. I think they charged $45 for a half hour flight. Once in Seldovia we got behind in time and decided not to take the recommended hike. Everyone said it was a great hike, though. We spent some time watching some children fish and waiting for 4 eagles who were calling to each other to do some flying. Seldovia is good if you want some quiet time.
On a previous trip we enjoyed the tram ride up Mt Alyeska. This trip we visited when the Forest Fair was going on. It was a free event with two music stages. We drove up from Whittier where we had enjoyed a visit to the Portage Glacier visitors center in the morning. Despite starting an exercise program last Feb I was not in as great a condition for hiking as I thought I would be. Others have recommend the hikes around Girdwood which sounded good. We had hiked the Horsetail Falls trail in Whittier and forgot to check about bears. My husband clapped rocks together to make noise. At the Forest Fair a black bear cub came up to one of the tents probably attracted by the food vendors so I would definitely make a lot of noise hiking in Girdwood.

Thanks, Jacquie for your trip report!

jacquie, did you use toursaver book for all the savings? when you call to book reservations do you confirm with the hotel at that time that you have coupons? thanks for the info. i printed it out and will use for upcomming trip in late august.

Apologies to those who posted on the 15th and after. We were out of town for a few days. As for the Alyeska Resort, it's a lovely place. We did white water rafting while we were there and walked around Girdwood, but that's about it. As for the toursaver book, that was the only coupon book we had, and we used it for all the savings. If there are others, I'm not aware of them. We mentioned that we would have the toursaver coupon when we arrived as we booked each of the reservations. They only required that we let them know that we will be using the coupon. Actually, when I booked the hotels, I didn't even have the book yet. There's no particular information on the coupons that they need. I also highly recommend the Milepost. I had AAA do a triptik for us, but we wound up using the Milepost for most of the trip because it not only had great maps, but had lots of information of places to see and things to do in each area.

Sounds like a great trip. Glad you enjoyed Alaska. Just for clarification for those who don't know, but you probably forgot to say that you traveled in your rental vehicle from Whittier to Seward, AK where the Edgewater, etc are located on day 5.

Thanks, Shea, for the clarification. Indeed, we drove from Whittier to Seward. The tunnel must be right on schedule with the ferry arrival because we drove right through with no waiting. The ride to Seward was lovely, even got to see a moose on the side of the road. One other thing I'd like to add. Just outside of Valdez, at the Airport, is a museum called the Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum. If you have the time, it's well worth the stop In addition to all the Alaska wildlife on display (stuffed, ofcourse) they have a wonderful collection of Native Alaskan art and artifacts. There are models of different aircraft and a beautiful ship carved out of Ivory and baleen.