Alaska
 

We'd love to travel to Alaska this spring, preferably in June when the sun never goes down.

Can anyone give us advice on whether it's best to fly up to Anchorage and explore on land (which is pretty hard to do when you're trying to maximise AA miles) or whether it's worth taking one of the several cruises which leave from Vancouver and travel up the coast? A final question - if it's the cruise option, which cruise company?

Make certain your hotel has dark curtains, else the extended daylight may disturb your sleep patterns. Also, the northern lights are not visible in the summer, because it never gets dark enough.

Anchorage is a comfortable place to visit, with friendly residents and a cool climate.

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Middle_Seat

Our vacation to Alaska was one of the most exhiliarating experiences of our lives.

We arrived in Vancouver a few days early for the "must" city tour (including Stanley Park), motor coach/ferry excursion through the isles to Victoria, and a drive to the mountain resort of Whistler.

We choose Holland-America's Ryndam, which travels one-way in seven days between Vancouver and Seward. Our port calls were Ketchikan (took a canoe rowing adventure on a mountain lake), Juneau (rented a car, visited Mendenhall Glacier and the island town of Douglas, and ordered the requisite glass of microbrew at the Alaska Bar), Sitka (successful whale-watching excursion in a small boat), Valdez (motor coach tour to glacier). Our glacier-peeping on the ship included Hubbard Glacier and College Fjiord. We had one day at sea. Ship was beautiful. A staff naturalist enhanced our knowledge of the topography and wildlife. Food was unexciting. More than half of the passengers were retirees.

From Seward, we spent a couple of nights each at the Westin Alyeska Prince Resort in Girdwood (at Alyeska Ski Area, a scenic 40 miles south of Anchorage) and two nights in a B&B on a mountainside overlooking Homer, Katchemak Bay, and assorted glaciers on the mountains beyond the bay. Many cruisers purchased a rail package from Anchorage to Denali National Park for a few days. Denali lies in our future.

Andrew, I have family in Homer (our only grandkids), and have visited Alaska 9 out of the last 12 years. There is no one "best" way. Just what sounds good to you and your wallet.
I would get the "Alaska state planner" and the "Milepost Magazine" (any bookstore)for a start to see what type of trip you want. The first few years we mostly flew into Anchorage and rented an RV. Lots of freedom to go where you want and stay for how ever long you can.
We did the "cruse" through the inside passage once, because we got to see many places you can't get to by land only. We went on the "World Explorer" www/wecruise.com a small to med size ship that I would highly recommend. Holds about 700 people. You can also use the Alaska State Ferry system, but must plan way ahead for that.
Use eye shades to sleep. Most drugstores in Alaskas carry a good cheep supply.
We also used many B&B's. They are 100 times better than the hotels and much cheeper also. Finding them on the internet is easy.
Good luck

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Some women are born wise, others achieve wisdom, still others have wisdom thrust upon them as they wonder through the posts of this board. Thanks one and all.

Alaska is going to have a huge tourist season due to some person's fears of travel to Europe. Whatever you intend to do, make your bookings quickly. Curiously I recently got a discount cruise offer from Crystal Cruise Lines. Excellent, by the way!

While people seem to think that tourism to Alaska will be big this year for the reasons you cite, the cruise companies recently have been announcing locally that bookings are down and Juneau should expect a down year.

Regards Andrew's comment about the sun never going down, you have to go up inside the Arctic Circle for that, visit Barrow, Nome, Kaktovik, etc. BAsically, it depends upon what you like and have experience with as to what type of trip you want. I'm not much a cruise type person but they are certainly right for a lot of folks.

Re: the comment about not being able to see the northern lights in the summer, depends upon where you are, I've seen the northern lights in the summer here in Juneau quite a few times actually, of course we have to get a clear night for it and that doesn't happen to often here.
jerry

Although I live far away, I have been to Alaska half a dozen times, including once in the winter (because my middle son wanted to experience COLD -- and dark, too!). I've flown, driven, taken trains, and a cruise. Here are my views:

1. Anchorage is a nice city, but there's much more to see in Alaska, and you can't get hardly anywhere by car. (You CAN drive to Fairbanks, however, or take a train.)

2. Cruises go all through the panhandle, but they miss the vast bulk of "northern" Alaska. Still, they get to places you couldn't possibly see otherwise.

3. If you want 24-hour daylight in the summer, you must get north of Fairbanks, which basically requires a plane flight. I have been to Barrow, which is worth a visit.

Bruce

[This message has been edited by bdschobel (edited 01-26-2002).]

Alaska is a land of superlatives (as the tourist brochure says.) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

It's more than twice the size of Texas.
(The second largest state in the U.S.)

It has more coastline than all of the rest of the U.S. combined.

There are more than twice as many caribou as people in the state.

Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the U.S.

It is the Northern most, Western most, and Eastern most point in the U.S.

Okay . . . you get the idea. Seeing all of what Alaska has to offer is nearly impossible on a vacation. You might want to check out ( http://www.alaska.com/akcom/regions/ ) and read about the different regions of Alaska and select a couple of the most interesting to you. All of them have their own charm, beauty, and attractions. See what appeals to you and then post some specific questions for the Alaskans on the board. It's a lovely place, and I do hope you come for a visit.

Nome is not inside/north of the Arctic Circle, but it certainly does stay light enough there during the summer for you to get the idea.

As has been said, it all depends on what you want to do when you decide whether to cruise or fly-drive.

For our trip, we flew into Anchorage, then rented a car and went to the Kenai peninsula, did some kayaking in homer, then did some hiking (the harding icefield trail is pretty awesome, i'd say, although somewhat of a strenuous day) and went for a glacier cruise (saw whales, bears, birds, dolphins) from Seward (which is where all the cruise ships go), then drove up to Fairbanks, hung out around there for a few days, then went camping in Denali before heading back to Anchorage, hanging out for the sunset in Anchorage over the water before heading to the airport to find out that we'd missed our flight by 24 hours (but that's another story)...

I'd definitely recommend seeing some of the interior of Alaska. Up around Fairbanks is pretty cool, and Denali national park is worth the trip, I'd say -- don't take the "wilderness tour" bus, though -- just take any shuttle bus and you'll see more wildlife than you've ever seen before... (unless you've been to Africa, i guess...)

We also camped most of the time we were there, which made the whole long-daylight thing a major issue (although we were there in August, so the days weren't as long as they are in June). Mostly we went to bed later than usual (around sunset, which was at 10-11 pm), then woke up late-ish to find that we were the last ones in the campground. It's great to have 18 hours of daylight to play in, though..

Dan