apaflo

I'm less humble about it. Spending a fortune to see the part of Alaska that is most similar to what can be found in the Lower-48 isn't smart, even if it is interesting. Getting away from the road system is really and truely different. That's the smart thing to do when visiting Alaska.

Yes I am biased by decades of living in Alaska. Out of almost 50 years, the middle 20 was on the road system and the rest has been in the bush. I've lived for years in a small villlage. I spent a few years being paid to travel to villages, and have been to most of the villages in the Interior, Western, and Arctic Alaska. One thing I can absolutely atest to in addition to the above, is that visiting small villages, even for significant periods of time, is never quite the same as living there full time. Even people who spend decades living in towns like Kotzebue and Barrow never quite understand what the smaller villages are, and can't understand the attitude of people who live there.