rcross23

My fiance and I are going to Hawaii for our honeymoon next year. However, we want to fly first class, and the date we need to leave does not have saver award space for first class. But there is saver award space on United or AA to Anchorage for that day. Therefore, we were thinking it might be cool to fly first class to Anchorage for 2-3 days, and then fly on to Hawaii from there, and then either fly straight home from Hawaii or back through Anchorage (I'm new to booking award flights and need to figure out the best way to maximize my points). My question is, would it be worth going through this extra hassle just for a few days in Anchorage? I have never been to Alaska and have ZERO knowledge of the area (or the Northwest in general as I am from Florida). We have been wanting to go to Alaska, and will do an Alaskan cruise in a few years either way, so is this just a waste of a few days? Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

SFO777

Here I though you were asking if any honeymoon is worth it?

Alaska is great but not for just two days. The best way is see Alaska is to take 7 day cruise. Plus United First Class is not exactly real first class anyway.
Personally, I'd recommend honeymoon in Hawaii, and then 1st anniversary in Alaska.

rcross23

So theres not a whole lot that you can do in just a couple days?

Why do you say United First Class isn't real first class? Mind you, I've never flown international first class (or international anything), so I don't know what to compare it to. Would you say its a waste of points to fly first class to Alaska (or Hawaii?).

84fiero

Personally I wouldn't spend the miles for domestic F, even to HI on honeymoon. You'll get opinions both ways. But the product and service is like any other domestic F, which is to say it's nice but nothing that will blow your socks off.

djp98374

Alaska isnt small....map distortions make it small....but distances are larger.

Doing 2-3 days is really really hard and fiven thr cost it isnt really worth it.

For Alaska if you fly there you need to do 7-10 days.

An example itinerary over 10 days:
day 1: fly in
day 2 get to Seward
day 3-5 Do boat tours and other things around seward
day 6 go to Denali
day 7-9 Denali
day 10 return to Anchorage
day 11 fly home

Another option is dao a 7 day cruise from Seattle/Vancouver to Alaska then spend 4-6 days explorering Alaska either near Seward or Denali.

As a honeymoon...not sure when the wedding is...

Do Hawaii or do the Carribean (since you lie in florida).

Since you live in Hawaii either trip will be LONG...it would be easier on your body to travel to europe.

fti

True.

"Best" is very subjective but most people posting on FT who visit Alaska would probably strongly disagree with you on this point. I have taken 3 Alaska cruises and they are a great way to see SE Alaska, but you miss so much just spending a few hours in 3 Alaskan ports in SE Alaska. And if you take a round trip cruise and don't spend time in southcentral Alaska before/after the cruise, you really miss out on a lot of Alaska.

Sure there are things you could do in Alaska for 2 or 3 days. But the problem is that distances in Alaska are huge, there are no interstate highways (just two lane roads) and travel takes time. I can't imagine an instance when 2-3 days in Alaska is really worth it. You might get to Whittier or Seward for a boat tour but that is really about it. Hardly worth it IMHO. I love Alaska and travel there several times a year. But I just would not recommend such a short trip. Now if it were purely a MR and you just wanted something to fill your time for a day, sure the drive south of Anchorage and a boat tour would be fine. But the purpose of the trip is totally different.

Most people strongly recommend that tourists spend a night en route between Seward and Denali. If all is in your favor, it takes 7-8 hours to drive straight through without stops. But you stop for meals, gas, photo ops, etc. Then if there are delays due to construction (very common), slow RV's, or worse yet an accident, it can easily take 12+ hours. I drove from Seward to Talkeetna a couple of years ago with just a stop for lunch and some grocery shopping for Denali. No traffic to speak of and it still took 8-1/2 hours. It is another 150 miles or almost 3 hours from Talkeetna to Denali.