Please help with itinerary for Kenai Peninsula
 

We are a family of five (kids will be 11, 14 and 17) and we will be travelling to Alaska early July, 2010. We have 10-14 days and want to really take our time and hike, kayak, bike, etc. I would very much appreciate any suggestions you may have, including great hikes and lodging advice. I am thinking that we will spend a chunk of time in Homer and Seward. What else should we do in between? Kenai? Cooper Landing? Is Valdez worth the side trip? We are reluctant to spend all the time it takes to get to Denali, particularly the long drives in and out of the park. I would love to find a remote lodge for at least part of the trip. It seems like the good ones are a splurge, but it may be OK for a few days. The kids are great travelers, and prefer to be active and outdoors. Thanks so much.

There are some wonderful wilderness lodges a short boat ride from Home, around Halibut Cove and Kachemak Bay. Some are prohibitively expensive, but others are not. I'll dig out my research on this (as we are thinking of doing this too) and get back to you.

Assuming you are flying into ANC, I would include activities in that area such as Independence Mine and the Iditarod Museum. There are some hiking trails in the Mine area. We enjoyed staying at Alaska Garden Gate B&B in Palmer. I would also make a stop at the huge bookstore, Title Wave, in Anchorage for reading material. They have a terrific section about all things Alaska. (although the writing isn't great I enjoyed Joe Reddington's biography)

Also on the way to Seward the tram up Mt Alyeska and hiking. Check to see if there are any weekend events in Girdwood. I liked the visitors center at Portage very much. You can listen to recordings of what it was like during the great earthquake. Portage had to be abandoned after that.
Kenai and Soldotna are more suburban like but there's a nice display at the Kenai visitors center. Also, if you need any kind of outdoor gear/clothing, there are some good shops. Might be fun to get a warm hat/mittens/hiking socks as souveniers. If you are there for 4th of July, Kenai has a big parade.

We did an overnight package from Homer to Seldovia. Nature cruise over (not as good as the ones from Seward but nice), stayed at the Boardwalk hotel, and short flightsee back the next day (flew over a glacier). It's a very quiet little town. Check to see if there are any special activities for kids while you are in Homer. check out
http://www.homeralaska.org/events/index.htm
scroll to the bottom to see the kinds of activities and programs available during the summer months.

There is a lot to do @ Alyeska/Girdwood, and the resort is less expensive in the summer. You might want to take a guided Glacier Hike there. Definately hike The Winner Creek Trail there. You gross the creek in a hand pulled cable car device. It is small and just hold 1 or 2 people. you pull yourself across. There is tandem paragliding off of the mountain, that your kids might enjoy. Although expensive, the helicopter/glacier landing/dogsledding is great. Double Musky and a couple of places @ Alyeska offer really good dining. Even the ski cafe at the top of the tram had really good salmon chowder.

Near Seward is Exit Glacier hike. Do have bear spray and do hike together,make sure nobody wonders off . Take the full day Kenai Fjords Tour, all the way to the glaciers(half day tours, don't go that far).

We did some kayaking out of seward www.kayakak.com. enjoyed it. The half-day trips are around $75, which is what we did from 7-11pm(still very bright at midnight). The full day trip to Ailik Glacier is what I will do next time and skip the Kenai Fjords cruise-as you would see the same thing. This is $300, but would be so so awesome. They might cut you a discount with 5 people. They also offer lodging there that looks good.

The train is very scenic from Anchorage to Seward. I think my daughter was 12 when we went, but she is pretty adventurous and very athletic.

You might want to check out The Sea Life Center in Seward for a couple of hourse.

July the 3rd there is a huge race in Seward that runss down a mountain.

We did a fishing trip out of Soldotna on a float plane. Saw 20+ bears as well. Bears were just a few feet from the boat. Saw many eagles, although we saw those about 10 minutes outside of Anchorage as well and then everywhere else we were at.

You might watch high/low tide at Turnagin Arm. i don't remember what this was called, but it is one of the most dramatic places to see this in the world. Occasionally, it is so big, that people surf it.

Wilderness lodges near Halibut Cove/Kachemak Bay with reasonable rates (that is, not $400 ad day per person!):

http://petersonbaylodge.com/

http://www.hideawaycovelodge.com/


Self-catering cabins:

http://www.ottercoveresort.com/

http://eagle-bluff-hideaways.com/cabins.htm

http://www.halibutcovealaska.com/



Nature camp with guided kayaking and overnight yurt stays:

http://www.akcoastalstudies.org/naturetours.htm


Multi-day kayak tours:

http://www.homerkayaking.com/multiday.htm

ccubac---are you out there, checking in? People here have given you some good suggestions, and we need to know if they are in the right direction.

Between Soldotna and Homer, in Ninilchik, there is a very interesting Russian Orthodox Church, just off the highway. There may not be any road signs pointing to it, so it is better to find a business establishment and ask them where it is. Bring your camera, as it is very scenic.

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Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. Enzian, I will definitely check out that information you sent. I keep finding those $400 pp/ night cabins - which adds up quickly with five of us!!

Here's my latest question. I really like the idea of finding an ideal lodge location, from which we can hike and kayak and get away from it all. Maybe even stay for four days. If we do that, is it better to do it outside of Homer (Halibut Cove or Kachemak bay) or Seward (Kenai fjords Glacier Lodge, if we decide we can afford it)- or both? Would we miss out if we skipped staying in Homer or Seward and just did remote lodges?

Thanks again. I'll check back and respond more quickly this time!

Peterson's at around $115 pp/pd day is probably the most reasonable. That does not include meals, though. We have friends (former Alaskans, like us) who stayed there and really enjoyed it, especially the kayaking. I think we are more interested in hiking and I am looking at Hideaway Cove.

For a family like yours, the most cost-effective would be a self-catering cabin, but that involves a lot of planning with respect to bringing your food and other suppplies. Also you would want to make sure you have access to kayaks. Otter Cove offers kayak rentals and guided kayaking; their cabins sleep 5 easily. According to the website, the cabins would be $110 per night for the 5 of you. ?So if you can handle the logistics, that might be a good way to go.

I don't think you miss anything by skipping a "town stay" and going to one of the remote lodges instead. Unless things have changed a lot since I lived there, Alaska's attractions are the scenery, the wildlife, and the people who live there---not the towns. They are pretty utilitarian and generally devoid of charm. (Although lots of people claim Homer has a bit of charm, in a salty-dog, fisherman sort of way. But I'd still rather spend my time across the bay at Kachemak Bay or Halibut Cove.)

Enzian's post is interesting since I enjoyed meeting and talking to people in the towns but we also spent some time with friends who live there in a not very remote cabin in Knik. Although we enjoy the outdoors, we weren't entirely comfortable hiking by ourselves. DH clapped rocks so we were noisy. Once,a critter dived into the bushes, maybe an otter. It's very quiet at night when there's no tv reception (Whittier). When you sign in at a remote, self-catering cabin and you are warned that bears and moose have been hanging around, we thought twice about wandering too far. Closest encounter with a bear was seeing the bushes move. We were at a craft fair in Girdwood and apparently a bear was attracted by smells from the food vendors. I don't mind cooking and we enjoyed the gift of a salmon from a net fisherman we met when we walked a beach in Kenai/Soldotna. But I preferred trying different things we don't have at home, even ordinary to an Alaskan deep-fried halibut chunks that someone else cooked and picking up breakfast treats at a farmers market (the one in Homer is nice).
But our best lodging bargain was $125/night for a good-sized cabin and it was much better than the $100/night room over a garage with lumpy beds and a bagel breakfast. A cabin with guided kayak tours sounds great. Hiking alone makes me nervous. Maybe the family cook should make the final decision about a cabin.

I have to admit that I'm a little uneasy about the cabin in which we'd be entirely isolated. I'd probably be up all night listening for bears, especially since we'd have to have two separate cabins. I'm perfectly happy without tv reception, though! Peterson's looks great. We might splurge for a night or two in a little bit of a higher end cabin. We have to sit down and go over our budget. When you consider that some of the places include food, guides, kayaks, boat tours, etc. it might not be as overpriced as it appears. It's amazing how expensive everything is. A whale watch from Boston is about $20!
Thanks again, everyone. I appreciate anymore suggestions.

Just a little input. The 'destination' places can be, to quote a previous comment, cost prohibitive. Just the economics of operating a nice place where remote is spelled with a capitol 'R'. There are far more competitive places (and some even nicer) that can be far more affordable.

There are tons of hiking opportunities, kayaking and bicycling, not to mention great fishing, available all around the Kenai Peninsula.

Check out www.cariboux.com and www.goingnorth.com have always been top drawer.

The only problem is that you are looking for July 2010 and that is the peak of season. Most of the 'better' places might already be reserved.

Good Luck
Sterlingchuck

Thanks all.

A fun bike ride is the coastal trail out of Anchorage. We saw lots of moose grazing along the trail.

The recommendations I've received for lodging in Homer are great. I'm waiting to hear back from several. Does anyone have any suggestions for places to stay in Seward for our family? Thanks.

Thank you so much for all of this wonderful information! My husband and I are in our early 70s and will spend about 10 days on the Kenai before taking the train to Denali in early June. You've helped our trip planning enormously.

Advice for Halibut Cove is good. Many years ago stayed in the "Quiet Place", think it was spendy but we had our own boat.

If you b&b in Homer it's a fun little town to just tootle around in -- bookstore, bakery etc.

I love Seward because you can watch the cruise ships come in and out. If hotel rooms were prohibitive for 5 of you there, you could rent a motorhome, camp there, and also on the Spit in Homer, stop at Hope, maybe Bertha Creek in Turnagin Pass, even the camper park for the Kenai Princess.