Diy alaska land tour

I would appreciate any suggestions for must see's or do's for the following itinerary. Also any suggestions of good places to stay & eat for each stop.

Day 1 fly in to Anchorage & pick up rental.

Day 2 Explore Anchorage & drive to Girdwood. Alyeska overnight.

Day 3 Drive to Whittier. PWS cruise.

Day 4 Drive to Homer.

Day 5 Tour Homer area.

Day 6 Drive to Seward. Exit Glacier.

Day 7 Kenai fjords tour.

Day 8 Drive to Talkeetna.

Day 9 Dive to Denali.

Day 10 Denali NPS shuttle.

Day 11 Drive to Anchorage

Day 12 Fly home

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would appreciate any suggestions for must see's or do's for the following itinerary. Also any suggestions of good places to stay & eat for each stop.

 

Day 1 fly in to Anchorage & pick up rental.

Day 2 Explore Anchorage & drive to Girdwood. Alyeska overnight.

Day 3 Drive to Whittier. PWS cruise.

Day 4 Drive to Homer.

Day 5 Tour Homer area.

Day 6 Drive to Seward. Exit Glacier.

Day 7 Kenai fjords tour.

Day 8 Drive to Talkeetna.

Day 9 Dive to Denali.

Day 10 Denali NPS shuttle.

Day 11 Drive to Anchorage

Day 12 Fly home

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would continue on to the Denali after Girdwood . Do the north end first and then good towards Seward and Whittier . Unless your into fishing I personally would bypass Homer and spend extra time arround Seward.

Basically do one end then the other . With your plan you are spending a lot of time duplicating the roads . Keep in mind there realy is only one road between Seward and Fairbanks .

I'd flip the itinerary so that on the last day you're close to Anchorage. Don't know what time your flight is but if you end your trip in Girdwood you're only 45 minutes from the airport.

As for places to stay .... it depends on your budget and requirements. There are chain hotels, lodges, cabins, B&B's, even hostels. I suggest reading thru trip reports on the Alaska forum of tripadvisor.com to get some great first hand suggestions. ( the reports are under the Top Questions area). There are trip reports on this forum as well (see STICKYs above) but not many DIY land reports that will provide the detail you need. tripadvisor is far superior for land travel.

When is this trip? I think, it's a little backwards to ask for "must dos/must sees", after you have made an itinerary?? What caused you make these choices and routing? What activities have you already selected? Interests? There isn't a "standard" in my opinion. That's whats great about diy planning. :) Include and go where YOU want to.

There are hundreds of "must dos", in Alaska. :) You rarely see, reports that aren't raves- Unless, someone was dragged along and shouldn't have gone to begin with, since the interest wasn't there. :) If you haven't already, look at each selection's visitor web sites and narrow down your interests. Keep looking over the list and eliminating the selections for your reasons.

I would appreciate any suggestions for must see's or do's for the following itinerary. Also any suggestions of good places to stay & eat for each stop.

 

Day 1 fly in to Anchorage & pick up rental.

Day 2 Explore Anchorage & drive to Girdwood. Alyeska overnight.

Day 3 Drive to Whittier. PWS cruise.

Day 4 Drive to Homer.

Day 5 Tour Homer area.

Day 6 Drive to Seward. Exit Glacier.

Day 7 Kenai fjords tour.

Day 8 Drive to Talkeetna.

Day 9 Dive to Denali.

Day 10 Denali NPS shuttle.

Day 11 Drive to Anchorage

Day 12 Fly home

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would drop Homer. Add a day Seward and Denali . Whittier doesn't really have lot of places to stay . Whittier was originally built by the US Army because it was the only ice free port in the area. Your doubling back a lot to see and do things.

When is your trip?

Unless there is something special about the exact time frame I would head north and do Denali first then work my way back south.

Also the AKRR offers a day train to Whittier that would allow you to do a PWS tour I believe that it makes a stop in Girdwood if you are staying there.

We planned on flying in to Anchorage on May 24. My reasoning for doing the southern part of our tour first was so that we could be in Denali for June 1 so that we could go farther into the park. Also, lodging costs in Homer & Seward go up significantly in June. I probably did not word my post adequately. I basically would like suggestions from people who have travelled the area to give me ideas of what they did. I am unable to go through all the past trip reports due to time constraints. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

We planned on flying in to Anchorage on May 24. My reasoning for doing the southern part of our tour first was so that we could be in Denali for June 1 so that we could go farther into the park. Also, lodging costs in Homer & Seward go up significantly in June. I probably did not word my post adequately. I basically would like suggestions from people who have travelled the area to give me ideas of what they did. I am unable to go through all the past trip reports due to time constraints. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It doesn't take long to take a look at each area's visitor guide. there are HUNDREDS of possibilities to fill your time. Again, I will ask- what caused you to select these areas? Was there anything you knew about it that you were interested in? You haven't listed any details about anything- your priorities for your trip, what you like to do, what type of tours you want to include, budget, flying, fishing, mobility limits etc etc etc???? There is no point in me, spending the time, to detail, all the touring I have done when it likely isn't going to be what you would do.

http://www.seward.com http://www.homerak.org can help you narrow down your interests.

I think your route planning looks good given the time frame that you have if your goal is to see as much of the countryside as you can and check out the area.

I can't be too helpful with regard to where to stay at each of your stops because when we did the land tours that we have done we flew into Anchorage and rented a motorhome in Anchorage so we did not need to reserve lodging except that we did reserve space at Riley campground in Denali for the nights that we planned to stay there. we also made an advance reservation for the shuttle bus in Denali. I purchased a book called Milepost and used that to determine what we wanted to stop and see and if there was a restaurant in the area where we were driving when we wanted to eat. We also had the motorhome stocked with food so we did not have to rely on eating out unless we wanted to.

Even if you decide to rent a car I think Milepost would be helpful for you.

Thanks Cruisin. I have a copy of Milepost that I have started using to plan our route.

This is very similar to a trip I am planning for the end of May next year too. I have the same basic layout. Some of the things we have planned include helicopter dog sledding out of Girdwood, a trip to Chinitna Bay from Anchor Point (near Homer) to see bears, fishing for halibut from Homer, a trip to Knik glacier on our way from Seward to Talkeetna, horseback riding in Seward. I have to add the HUGE disclaimer that this is a trip I'm PLANNING- therefore I can't comment on any of these tours- but I thought it might help. I found this helpful:

http://kenaipeninsula.org/

sign up for their mailer- it had lots of good stuff in there. And travel books- I used lots of those too.

We spent two weeks in Seward, Denali, and the drive in between. Stopped to hike on the way down to Seward in Chucagh State Park. Also stopped at the Wildlife Center, located right at the point of Turnagain Arm. In Seward: Sea Life Center. Did the 'feed the puffins' add-on. Hiked up the trail above Exit Glacier to the edge of the Harding Ice Field. We also did this in early June, and the last 1-1/2 miles still had snow. Take a spare pair of socks. I wrung mine out after we got back down off the snow (it was a warm day, so my feet were wet, but not cold). Did a couple of excursions into the water part of Kenai NP. We were supposed to kayak on one of those, but the winds proved too strong that day. Stayed at Adams St. B&B, which I heartily recommend. Nice mile walk along Resurrection Bay to the downtown area. Did the little museum. Stopped at Talkeetna on the way up to Denali. Nice artsy town; walked around; didn't do any excursions there. Stayed overnight the North Country B&B in Trapper Creek. It had a great view of Denali and the only mosquitos we ran into, which bit me through my hiking socks. :eek: Spent 5 days in Denali, hiking (including getting off the bus) and wildlife viewing. Stayed at the Denali Touch of Wilderness B&B up in Healy. Was a bit of a drive each day, but in a great, quiet location and very accommodating people. Stopped to hike in Denali State Park on the way back down to Anchorage, but the mountain was hiding. Went to the Anchorage Museum. Enjoyed everything we did. As others have said - it depends on what YOU want to do. What kind of things do you like? Hiking? Wildlife? Being on your own or taking excursions/tours?

There is no wrong way to do Alaska. Enjoy what you see and don't worry about whether you've got the perfect itinerary.