Kenai Peninsula
 

Is it better to stay on the Kenai side or the Seward/Whittier side? Top priorities are fishing and berry picking. We will be there beginning of August.

First, we didn't care for Whittier.
Seward side is beautiful, very mountainous. Fun little town. The other side of the KP is flatter, more open land around Kenai/Soldotna, more chances to see moose but if you go to Homer it's back to mountainous. Popular for fishing. There should be salmon around. In late July/early August trip we saw lots of fishing in Bird Creek that goes under the Seward Hwy.
Homer also has a nice farmers market, check times. I think it was on Friday mornings. We don't eat oysters but I believe they are available at the market.

If you are keeping the fish ... you might need to check about where to clean them. When we stayed in Whittier, there were signs "no cleaning fish in sinks". If you plan to cook, you might choose a location based on cooking facilities at a b&b or cabin.

I would choose Seward or Homer.

We just returned from a 10 night trip where we stayed on both the Kenai and Kasilof rivers -- fishing was amazing for both reds and kings but we were very lucky as we arrived just when the reds started running. Fishing the Kenai for kings was an experience but we prob won't be returning to that chaos in high season again. The river has way too much fishing pressure and resembled the LA fwy more than the images of Alaska we had conjured in our heads. The Kasilof was a totally different story -- tranquil, beautiful, uncrowded and our group of 3 caught 5 kings (released 2 larger females) ranging from 28-50 lbs. Kings on the Kenai were a little larger (my group caught 3 in the 40-55 lb range) but after you keep a king on the Kenai, you have to pull your pole out of the water. This means if you hook up at 7 am, you're in the boat for another 7 hrs just watching -- people say bring a book. It feels pretty slow with 4 ppl in a boat with only one pole left in the water with 4 hrs to go. In the Kasilof, we were all able to continue fishing even after keeping our 3 kings. Good guides are a must.

That said, we also did an excellent ocean charter out of Homer (limited out on both lingocd and halibut) and a spectacular 9 hr fjord/glacier out of Seward -- and drove back to Soldotna/Kasilof each night. We don't regret doing it this way as the drives are gorgeous and we'd see moose and even an adult bear fishing in the river on our way back up. If we had more time, we might have elected to stay in Seward for a couple of nights and then drive straight back to ANC airport. From what I recall, finding waterfront lodging in Seward and Homer were expensive compared to condo-like cabins on the Kenai and Kasilof.

I'd highly recommend a fly-out in lieu of a charter if you can afford it -- it was the clear highlight of our trip. Have fun -- this was an unforgettable trip for us.

Just noticed you mentioned Aug which means kings are over but silver season is open - i hear silvers are really fun to catch (as opposed to reds which are tasty but you're basically just snagging them). We plan to return next time in early Aug to catch the silver run.

We did a fly out fishing from Soldotna. Here is a link to pics from Kenai. Fishing pics with bears is on Wolverine Creek. I'm like fishee-- a little to crowded, but was amazing to us. We caught sockeye(reds). Dog sledding pic are from Alyeska/Girdwood. We drove to Soldotna and Seward, then caught the train back to Anchorage. Kayaking was in Seward/Res. Bay. If you do a boat tour, do the one that goes all the way to the glaciers.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsWLF