Hi there,
Our Alaska cruise will end on Sep 08 in Whittier; right now we plan to leave Anchorage on Sep 10 or Sep 11 (hmmm, 911).
Certainly Denali is impossible.

We plan to stay one night in Girdwood, may be one night in Seward (is it worth visiting?), and check Kenai Peninsula and drive around Turnagain Arm.

How's our initial plan? time is too tight? any suggestions?

thanks a lot!

Seward is a nice small town. Even though you have been on a cruise boat, a Kenai Fjords boat trip is different. You are closer to everything. Seward has some nice shops and we liked the Sea Life Center. But you are short on time.

I liked Homer even better because it was more artsy and funkier (see Cafe Cups), lots of eagles and fishing. But it's also a long drive. It will be about 5 hours back to Anchorage.

You can go to the Portage Visitors Center. I was fascinated to hear recordings of what it was like during the earthquake. Views from top of Alyeska are very nice. The scenery is spectacular along the drive to Anchorage. You may want to do a lot of stops and take pictures.

We liked Independence State Mine north of Anchorage. Amazing to think of building a mining town way back when. Good displays.

If your trip gets into Anchorage in the morning (ours did), rent a car and drive up to Denali, you can easily be there by evening. Spend a couple of days there and head back. We were there in early September and the fall colors were fantastic. Take the bus from the VC as far as you can, we saw lots of animals too.

thanks a lot!
emalloy, if we plan to visit Denali state park, we will drive to there on Sep 08, take one day bus tour on Sep 09, drive back to ANC airport on Sep 10. Will this plan make us too tired?

You could drive up to Anchorage and make that your base, stopping on your way up from Whittier at Portage Lake for some easy hiking and at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see the animals. The scenery is beautiful with turnouts to stop and enjoy it. In and around Anchorage, there's the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and a little further afield are places like Eklutna (spirit houses), the musk oxen farm, and the Independence Gold Mine.

If you decide to go in the other direction towards Seward, I'd stay both nights there rather than move around. The Alaska Sea Life Center is great, you could hike to Exit Glacier, and you could do a Kenai Fjords cruise (I'd recommend the full day cruise to get the full effect).

If you'd like to see some pictures and read about some of the places I mention, you can check out my blog (http://2totravel.blogspot.com/) -- all of the Alaska trip posts are in the August 2010 archive.

We explored Alaska on land for four days after our cruise. We disembarked in Whittier and rented a car. (I would highly recommend renting a car, however, it took 1.5 hours waiting in line at the Avis counter in the local hardware store with only one clerk for 15 people.) We drove through the tunnel to the Alyeska Resort where we spent the day. We ate actual Alaskan salmon and halibut (the ship didn’t have Alaskan seafood) and road up the mountain on the tram. We watched several paragliders take off and then hiked up to the top (through snow) to see the bowl glacier and a great mountain view. The next day we drove to Denali National Park and got a great shot of Mt. McKinley at milepost 118. (There are also formal viewpoints along the Parks Highway: Denali Viewpoint South, milepost 135 and Denali Viewpoint North, milepost 162.) We rode the shuttle bus to the Eielson Visitor Center the following day and saw caribou, grizzlies, Dall sheep, and a wolf carrying what I think was a caribou leg in its mouth. (Did no one think to mention how terrifying riding 2,500 ft. up on the edge of a gravel mountain road without guardrails was?? And I thought the train ride in Skagway was scary!) We really liked the Touch of Wilderness Bed & Breakfast in Healy and the Black Diamond Grill was a winner for dinner. We had a great lunch at the 49th State Brewery in Healy--good beer selection on tap.
Enjoy your trip!

thanks, musictub.
We plan to rent a car in Anchorage, not in Whittier. I think the price diff is about $200-$300 for 2.5 days car rental.

We plan to rent a car in Anchorage, not in Whittier. I think the price diff is about $200-$300 for 2.5 days car rental.

Fair enough, but don't forget to add in the per person cost of getting from Whittier to Anchorage x the number of people traveling.