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Itinerary
Choices - Statewide
Question:
Should we tour the Inside
Passage or
national parks?
Question:
Should we visit Glacier
Bay as well
as Tracy Arm?
Question:
Cruise through Glacier
Bay or to
Hubbard Glacier?
Question:
Should we pick Nome or
Barrow for an Arctic sidetrip?
Question:
Should I go to Kodiak
Question:
How should we connect our destinations?
Question:
Can we see wildlife and keep
our 11-year-old happy?
Question:
Should we do a driving tour from Anchorage and go
to Southeast
Alaska?
Question:
Should we do a road trip or Southeast
Alaska?
Question:
Should we tour the Inside
Passage or
national parks?
Thanks to
your
Frommer's book "Family Vacations in the National Parks", my family
has enjoyed wonderful trips to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand
Teton and
Olympic! I have
poured through your Frommers Alaska 2003 and need your advice in
choosing an
area on which to focus: either an inside passage itinerary or the
National
Parks itinerary. We'll have about 8 days. The challenge is that we're
bring my
parents, in their early 70's, and my two boys, ages 7&9. Your
advice as a
frequent traveler is great, but your advice as a parent of young kids
has been
invaluable!!
Answer:
Generally,
I think I
would advise an Inside
Passage trip for
your group. I have two
reasons. 1. The Southeast towns have more you can do in town. Older
people
going to the parks are pretty much stuck as passive observers on buses
and
boats, but in
Southeast
Alaska they can
enjoy the streets, docks and shops
of the towns, too. 2. A national park trip requires more time in the
car, which
is not what our kids like to do. If you travel Southeast, you spend
more time
on ferries and other boats, which they adore. Also, kids have an easier
time
getting interested in shorelines than they do the tundra of
Denali.
All that said, you can have a great trip either way.
Question: Should we
pick Nome or
Barrow for an Arctic sidetrip?
We have
been utilizing
your 2003 book extensively to plan our trip to Alaska in
September. We are
planning a side trip while there. We are trying to choose between Nome and
Barrow. Do you
have any advice as to which location would be the most interesting?
Answer:
Either Nome or
Barrow would be
good in September. Barrow is better if you want a formal guided tour,
or you
can get a good personal tour in either town. For self-guided wandering,
Nome is
better, because
you can rent a car and get out of town. On the other hand, Barrow may
have
whaling going on, which could be neat to see, and their Native cultural
facility is miles beyond anything of that kind in
Nome. So it
depends on
your interests.
Question: Should I go to
Kodiak?
I have a
few more days
I was interested in a 2 day or so 'off the beaten path' adventure. My
timeframe
for travel is 5/17 - 27 and I was thinking of maybe flying right from
Anchorage after my
arrival to
Kodiak and exploring the island and mabye one of the native villages. I
read in
the book that there is a crab festival at the end of May but I think
that I
would prefer to avoid the crowds. You also mentioned that it is pretty
easy to
walk into the office of one of the mail/passenger planes and arrange a
trip,
I'm wondering if it is really that easy. Do you recommend one of the
native
villages on Kodiak over the others? Also, one last question, with the
warm
weather trends in
Alaska does
that change the
time of year that the salmon run. My timeframe for travel there seems
to be a
little early for many of the salmon runs listed in the book. Thanks.
Answer:
I love
Kodiak and I
think your plan is a good one. The crab festival is over Memorial Day
weekend.
It is a purely local event: I wouldn't worry too much about crowding.
There
might be more to do during the festival.
I haven't flown to any of the Kodiak villages in a number of years.
When I did,
it was just as easy as I suggest. However, if that's something you
really want
to do, I think you are right to plan ahead. I really enjoyed
Larson Bay. It is
on a lovely
fjord and has an old cannery. Why not contact the visitor center in
Kodiak for
advice? They're very good.
Late May is early for most salmon fishing, although there may be early
run
kings available. Halibut are always available. I doubt the weird
weather
pattern will affect salmon run timing much; if it does, it is
unpredictable.
Question: How should we
connect our destinations?
First of
all I want to
say that your info in the Frommer's Alaska has
been a great help but I need a little more info.
First of all, I try to do all of my vacations (USA) without
a travel
agent
and have done a good job so far. We only have two weeks to do the
Alaska Tour and want to hit the most important points. I have planned
the following but have not made any reservations:
l. Fly into
Fairbanks and rent
a car.
2. Travel to the Arctic
Circle and come
back.
3. Tour Fairbanks for a
day.
4. Denali for a
day or two? My understanding you can
only see it by bus
per your book.
5. Travel down to Anchorage and
spend 2-3 days
traveling down route 1 and
on to Cordova (Per your recommendation)
6. Fly out of Anchorage to Whitehorse
7. From Whitehorse I am
sure there must
be a bus line that takes you to
Fraser to take the Whitepass Train to Skagway
8. Skagway for a
day
9. From there a boat to Juneau...Can we
take the
Yorktown Clipper out
of Skagway to Juneau or can
you recommend
a line that is comfortable to
take us to Juneau.
10. Juneau for a
day or two and then on to Vancouver and Home
(Boston)
Answer
Your
itinerary sounds
workable. You should research rental cars carefully, as they may charge
you a
large fee to rent in Fairbanks and drop
off in Anchorage. Also,
most won't let
you drive the gravel highways that lead to the Arctic
Circle,
although National
Car Rental in Fairbanks will
(they're listed
in the book). Also, I would recommend two nights in Denali so you
can have one
full day for the bus trip.
The White Pass and Yukon
Route railroad
offers the
bus/train service you are looking for between Whitehorse and Skagway daily in
the summer.
They're listed in the Skagway section http://www.whitepassrailroad.com.
For the half-day boat ride from Skagway to Juneau, either
take the Alaska
Marine Highway state
ferry or the day boat listed in the
book.
Question:
Can we see wildlife and keep
our 11-year-old happy?
My
husband and 11 year
old daughter are planning a trip to Alaska this
summer (probably
10 days). We plan to fly from DC to Anchorage, spend
1-2 days
getting settled and then fly to Katmai for the day. Then we plan to fly
back to Anchorage and take
the train to Denali for the
bus trip,
etc. and spend 2-3 nights in and around the Park. After that we want to
go to Sitka for 2
days or so and
then back to Anchorage and fly
home.
Does this
make any
sense ?? We want to see as much as possible without risking our
daughter's
wrath (she wasn't happy sightseeing at Glacier in Mt. and has a limited
tolerance for hikes etc.) I'm desperate to see bears after 2
consecutive trips
to
Montana where
the only grizzlies we saw were
in a preserve. I wondered whether you thought we should minimize our
time in Denali and
whether there was
a way to fly from Denali to Sitka (I
gather there
isn't, except for a charter). ALso, do you think we'll be able to see
bears at
Katmai in late June or is July a better bet? This may be our only trip
to
Alaska for
quite a while and
we are intent on avoiding cruise ships at all costs and we like the
offbeat and
the unspoiled, but must bow to the demands of an 11 year old. Plus, I
get
seasick.
Answer:
1. You
probably don't
need to spend a third night at Denali. The
special part of
the park experience is in the backcountry, on the bus and hiking. The
developed
front part of the park doesn't have much you can't also find in the
mountains
around
Anchorage. On the
other hand,
even if all you do is a one-day bus ride, to do it right requires two
overnight
stays. Don't overlook flightseeing at
Denali.
2. There is no reasonable way to get from Denali to Sitka by air.
You will have
to return to Anchorage or Fairbanks and fly
Alaska
Airlines. You may be able to save money with a stop-over on your plane
ticket
to Alaska,
returning to DC from Sitka. Alaska
Airlines
flies to Dulles. I used their Seattle-Dulles flight both ways in
October and
the planes were nearly empty, which made it very comfortable.
3. Do not go to Katmai (Brooks Camp) for bears in June. Go there at the
peak of
the bear season in July or not at all. If you have to travel in June,
however,
you may be able to get to bear viewing by air from
Anchorage, Kenai
or Homer
(services are listed in the book, Emerald Air in Homer is supposed to
be
exceptionally good). Ask specifically what salmon are running that the
bears
are after, as that determines if you will see them in numbers. You will
probably see bears at
Denali, but
smaller ones at
a greater distance. There is bear viewing around Sitka, too,
although I
haven't researched it. The guy who has the Camp Coogan Hide-away would
know, as
would the airservice there.
Question: Should we
do a driving tour from Anchorage and go
to Southeast
Alaska?
I've
spent a great
deal of time with Frommer's Alaska. My
husband and I
will be visiting next May and need to narrow down what we want to see.
I don't
know that our budget or time will allow us to travel a loop including
Anchorage, Seward,
Paxton, Denali AND a
trip to Juneau and Glacier Park. My
husband and I
enjoy the outdoors and want to spend some time off the beaten path. We
have no
problem being budget travelers but don't want to rush through the
scenery.
The questions are: 1) If a southerner only has one chance to see
Alaska, which
is more
stunning: the Glacier Bay Area or the loop mentioned? 2) Can we
reasonably make
the above mentioned loop and go to Juneau or do we
need to
choose one or the other. We have 10-14 days to travel and $3,500.
Answer:
I think you can do both in two weeks, one week in each place, if you
fly in
between. I wouldn't do it with less than two weeks, and if you want to
do much
hiking, kayaking, or visiting of small towns, I would suggest going to
one or
the other, which will also save a lot of money. With your budget,
spending two
weeks, and adequate money for car rentals, boat rides and guided
activities, I
would recommend at least some nights of camping or hostelling; or cut
your
time. For ordinary hotel rooms you have to pay $140 a night, so that's
the biggest
place to economize. You should not economize on guided activities and
boat
tours.
I can't say which is better to visit, Southeast or
Denali and
Kenai Fjords.
Southeast/Glacier Bay is more expensive, because you can't do as much
without
boats, guides, and such. In southeast, you probably won't see bear,
caribou,
wolves, and the other terrestrial wildlife
Denali is
famous for. You
will see whales; you would probably see those at Kenai Fjords as well.
On the
other hand, the quaint towns, rainforest scenery and "off the beathen
track" discoveries are richer in Southeast.
Finally, you mention Paxton. Paxton is really just an intersection, not
a place
to visit.
Question:
Should we do a road trip or
Southeast
Alaska?
We're
trying to decide
between following your "Covering a lot of (Alaskan) ground in two
weeks" itinerary and combining the "Appreciating Southeast Alaska on
a one-week Juneau Journey" with "Exploring the national parks: Denali
and Kenai Fjords in one week". We're looking for scenery, wildlife and
some native culture. In your view, which is the better of the two (we
would
probably take out the Barrow day if we did the two week itinerary).
Answer:
These
itineraries are
in Alaska For Dummies. It depends on your interests, of course, but I
think it
would make more sense to use the two-week itinerary. The
Kenai
Peninsula portion
will give you
great scenery and wildlife similar to what you would see in Southeast
Alaska. The Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage and the
University of
Alaska Museum in Fairbanks will be
good stops
for Native culture. The alternative, using both one-week itineraries
going to
Southeast and the central part of the state, you would spend more money
and
more travel time without gaining much.
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