Has anyone done an Alaska land tour on "their own"?

My DH & I (with another couple) are considering doing the land tour on our own (in 2007), the whole thing. Rent a car, book our own lodging, etc.

We have found it to be a totally different experience when we do this on our own.

Question, has anyone done this? If so, how did it work out for you? How did you know what to do and where to stay? OR Would you just stay with the cruise line land tour?

Or maybe you know someone who does private itinerary planning?

Thanks for all input.

Thanks!

Julie

Good for you! If you do a search for all the posts by "Budget Queen" - you'll get some great advice!

I'm planning an independent post-cruise land tour for June 2007, and I have learned a lot by hanging around this board for a year. I've also been reading Frommer's Alaska by Charles Wohlforth, which I highly recommend.

I too am doing an independent land tour next June. When I first started to plan, I was just going to do a cruisetour and let the cruise company do all the planning. But the more I read on these boards, the more I realized I can have a much better experience for less money if I do it myself. And it's not like Alaska is a foreign country.

Once I had read a lot of advice from Budget Queen and others on this board, I figured out the best itinerary for my group of 4, got advice on good B&B's, etc. and I am finding it very easy! If you search these boards, you will find that a lot of other folks have gone independent and had a wonderful time!

Some other good books besides Frommers are the Milepost, which gives you a mile by mile breakdown of the Alaskan roads, and Fodor's.

It also depends on what you want to do. The first time, we did the ship's precruise (Princess train, Denali, etc). I'm glad we did that the first time.

The last time we went, we planned our own precruise. We got a lot of great advice and suggestions on this board, and we booked everything via the internet. Our main goal was to see bears catch fish at Brooks Falls, so we took the planning from there.

Anchorage (2 nights -before/after Brooks Falls):

Rust's Flying Service to Brooks Falls (an all day trip)

Train to Seward (the next day)

From Seward - boat to Fox Island for one night

From Fox Island - Full day Northwestern Fjords tour, then back to Seward

1 night in Seward

Taxi to Whittier (reasonable price)

Caught the ship in Whittier for Southbound cruise.

No matter what you plan, I bet there is someone on this board who has done it and can offer you helpful tips. That was certainly my experience!!

We did an independent tour since we were on Carnival and weren't enamored with their tour. We didn't want to drive wanted to do the train. I booked our hotel independently over the phone after checking on the internet. We also used Alaska Tour and Travel to book some things for us. They have tours but you can pick and choose what things you want and they will do all the work. Everything went smoothly with the trains etc. that we booked through them.

We did! Just returned a few weeks ago - we had a fantastic time. We had issues with one hotel, otherwise everything was very smooth. We spent 2 nights on Kenai Peninsula and 3 nights at Denali, post-cruise. If you have specific questions or want to ask about particular hotels, activities, etc. feel free to email me at libbyt@charter.net.

Like NancyIL, I used Frommer's book and this board for input primarily! The only thing we would have done differently was to plan more time there!!

Lots of times...Just packed up lunch and took my Mother's car for the day or two or three...lol.

You are lucky MrBass! :D

Guess I will head to Barnes & Nobles, or Borders tomorrow to purchase Frommers &/or Milepost. So, everyone, how much in advance do I need to book my things? Car, lodging, etc

And being realistic, how long do you think we need for our own "land tour"? We have never been to Alaska before and are hoping to book our cruise in the next week or so. We are considering cruising early Aug 2007 (hopefully there will still be rooms available - or we will adjust our dates to the availability of the cruise)

Thanks!

Julie

You are lucky MrBass! :D

 

Guess I will head to Barnes & Nobles, or Borders tomorrow to purchase Frommers &/or Milepost. So, everyone, how much in advance do I need to book my things? Car, lodging, etc

 

And being realistic, how long do you think we need for our own "land tour"? We have never been to Alaska before and are hoping to book our cruise in the next week or so. We are considering cruising early Aug 2007 (hopefully there will still be rooms available - or we will adjust our dates to the availability of the cruise)

 

Thanks!

Julie

You ask great questions. First I would check out your local library for books before you go buy a bunch. You definitely don't need Milepost yet for example - that is best to buy (if you buy it) shortly before you go since it is published annually.

Alaska is a vast state and many people try to cover too much at one time. Do a lot of reading on this board and you will get an idea of what people have done before you. My gut feeling is that you will want 5-7 nights for the land tour. Not sure if you are doing the northbound or southbound cruise. Most people who do the land tours generally take the southbound cruises (it is easier to go from the land tour to the pampering on the ship) and the cruise lines know that so they price the southbound cruises $100-$200/person more for the identical itineraries.

If possible, I would try to get to Denali NP. It is a 4 hour drive or 6 hour train ride from Anchorage heading north. Or only 2 hours by train or car from Fairbanks heading south. But if you drive, renting in Fairbanks and dropping in Anchorage/Seward/Whittier might be expensive.

Another option is to concentrate on the Kenai Peninsula (Seward, Whittier, maybe Homer if you have time).

Depending on how many of you there are, you can rent a car in Anchorage and drop it in Whittier (if you are cruising Princess or Carnival) and with the huge dropoff fee it still would be cheaper than transfers from Anchorage to Whittier (same in reverse if you are doing northbound).

Take a look at the past 2-3 months of posts on this board. Maybe even do a search for "denali", "seward", "whittier", "kenai" for starts. Those are the places most people go on land tours. When I decided just recently to possibly go to Seward, Katmai or Denali, I just did an advanced search by thread title in the Alaska forum for these words and bingo, had a ton of posts to look at.

The sooner you can book things, generally the cheaper it will be. You can always cancel hotel and car reservations for no charge - just check how far in advance before cancellation fees apply. Just this weekend I decided to go to AK for a land-tour-only vacation next July. I already booked a car rental and one night of hotel in Anchorage because the rates seemed really good. I can cancel the car for no charge up to day of arrival and I can cancel the hotel up to 60 days before arrival for no cahrge. I can keep looking over the coming months in case something better comes along or my plans change. I had my flight ticketed today because I am using frequent flyer miles and those seats notoriously get booked months in advance.

Good luck. Post any questions you have.

Sweet Tooth,

We booked our own tours, cars, hotels etc., and only used a TA for the cruise, and only went through Princess for one tour, The Rainforest Ropes and Zips in Ketchikan.

We were extremely happy with our results, but, we did a ton of research before hand, including extensive use of this board, Budget Queen's advice in particular. She has a knack for seeing when you are over-booking your time or itinerary, and we were very happy that we followed her advice. I have a friend in Anchorage who was also able to help, especially with our fishing. Many of the people we encountered loved Alaska, but didn't like the regimentation of a cruise-line land tour. We were able to get up when we wanted, go where and when we wanted etc. If you are comfortable with doing this yourself, and have made your own travel arrangements in the past, this shouldn't be much different. See my review of a week or so ago on our southbound trip on the Diamond Princess for our land and shore itinerary.

However, if there are mishaps, missed departure times, weather emergencies, medical emergencies, etc, your deposit or even the full fee for whatever activity you have reserved may be your responsibilty. Any trip or travel insurance for your cruise may not extend to your own activities or airfare if you arranged it yourself. There are some protection plans you can purchase that may provide this, but be aware of this possible pitfall. No one expects these things, but no one expected the biblical floods they just had in Alaska either. In addition, someone has to drive or fly to get your group from place to place. I don't mind it, so it worked well. The Toursaver coupon book also saved us hundreds, and that was only with 4 coupons!

Good luck and ask questions.

Mike

Kenai is an area I wished we had time to explore. We just went from Anchorage to Talkeetna, then Denali for two nights, we then returned to Anchorage. With a precruise night in Vancouver we were away for two weeks. I wish we had time for more.

We were very tired after our cruise. We did one or two excursions in each port. I would suggest planning a day to just relax before planning your post cruise excursions. We used our time in Talkeetna to just veg, walk around the town, and wait for the mountain(which didn't appear during our stay.)

We did this after our cruise in July. We took the train from Seward to Anchorage and spent the night. Picked up the RV from Great American RV in Anchorage and spent the next week covering 1,100 miles of interior Alaksa. This was by far the BEST vacation we have ever taken! In the RV, we spent one night in Anchorage, one night in the Willow/Wasilla area, 3 nights in Denali, one night in North Pole (outskirts of Fairbanks), and one night in Glenallen.

The RV was very easy to drive, and we saved a ton of money on lodging, food, etc.

I would highly recommend it! We hope to return somedya soon and do it again!

We also are doing a land tour on our own for June 2007. Like others who have suggested BQ has some great advice, she will try to let you know how to fine tune your vacation plans to make the most of your time in Alaska. I started planning our June 2007 vacation this past March and we have changed our itinerary several times. As things stand we will be landing in Anchorage and driving to Talkeetna, spend two nights there, go on to Healy, spend the night and from ther head to Anchorage, spend the night, head to Homer where we are spending 5 nights since we plan on doing some major halibut fishing here, off to Seward for two nights and then finally to Whittier where we will board our ship for our cruise. For both myself and husband fishing was one of our top priorities for our land tour and we are mostly interested in halibut so that is why we chose Homer to do the majority of our fishing. I think you need to decided what your top priorites are and plan for accordingly. Good luck and have fun planning.

Since you have only 9 posts, I assume you are fairly new to this site. You will probably have more information than you want by the time you finish researching here.

We did an eight day land only tour in July. We landed in Anchorage, spent the night and picked up our rental car the next day to begin the 240 mile trip to Denali (4 hours would be tough if you follow speed limits). After two nights and a trip to Wonder Lake, we then drove south stopping at Talkeetna for a couple hours (not nearly enough) and then drove to Soldotna to spend the rest of our time with relatives. While there we drove to Seward for an eight hour marine tour, to Homer for halibut fishing, and spent a day fishing on the Kenai River. The city of Kenai also has an interesting museum and Russian church worth seeing.

I would strongly recommend at least a week and to see Denali and Kenai National Parks. After those two, there are tons of lesser sights and activities to fill your time. You will also see when investigating that if you avoid the month of July, it is much easier to find motels and car rentals (and sometimes cheaper).

The bottom line-do as you are now. Continue asking questions and listening to advice. You won't believe how many people on the site have done the same things you ask about and are willing to share their experiences.

You will also see when investigating that if you avoid the month of July, it is much easier to find motels and car rentals (and sometimes cheaper).

Generally this is true. However, the sooner you can start forming an itinerary and even making tentative reservations that you can cancel, the more likely it will be that you will snag a cheaper rate. Last weekend I just booked for next July - a car rental for a week from Anchorage for $133 + taxes, a hotel in Anchorage for $63/night (Ramada). These are much cheaper than I paid for last month's trip, and ironically I also booked way ahead for last month's trip.

We just did the Radiance cruise from Seward to Vancouver 8/12 - 8/19, and spent a week independently in Alaska before that. I am not a "tour" sort, and the cruise itself was plenty of organized group travel for me.

In most ways, you plan it like you'd plan travel anywhere in the lower 48. We got a AAA tourbook, did some online research, booked a week's car rental through Hertz.com out the the Anchorage airport. We went from Anchorage to Denali, to Fairbanks, up the Dalton Hwy (not in the Hertz car, see below), back to Anchorage through Delta Jct, Paxton and Glennallen. The road between Glennallen and Palmer is spectacular. Returned the car to Anchorage airport and bought the RCL transfer from Anchorage airport to Seward. Everything worked out great.

Things to bear in mind:

Lodging books up FAST for the summer months and is quite expensive (the Anchorage Motel 6 is like $120/night). We booked motels in April for our August trip. Do not expect to be able to find last minute motels. Plan your days. Things are far apart in AK, and there is not much in between towns (and some "towns" aren't much more than a gas station and a post office. Some towns skip the gas station). Keep a 1/2 tank at all times. Gas was reasonable, about 10 cents cheaper than here (WA state), most places. Expensive around Denali and on the Dalton (to be expected).

We took the shuttle to Toklat River and back in Denali, and had bought the tickets through the website, again, some months in advance. Shuttle is cheaper than the "tour" and is just as good Goes over the same road, and sees the same wildlife. Bus is green instead of tan and you don't get a box lunch. The driver kept a running commentary going.

Dalton Highway (pipeline haul road to the Yukon River, the Arctic Circle, Brooks Range, and Prudhoe Bay)-- if you want to do it, be aware the major car rental companies specifically exclude use of their vehicles on it. If you break down on it, they will charge you literally thousands of dollars to get the car back and fix it. BTW - excluding any incidents, they will likely know you've been naughty, our legitimate rental had 1 1/2 inches of mud in the wheel wells and mud inside the door sills, aside from having gone from white to brown and white two tone. A quick run through a car wash might not have gotten it all.

There is a company in Fairbanks called Arctic Outfitters that rents cars specifically for use on the Dalton, and equips the cars with 2 full sized spares, a CB radio and emergency kits. They also guarantee they will get you back to Fairbanks at no extra charge in case of genuine breakdown or other trouble (they will charge you for self-induced trouble -- they have some pretty stiff no-stupid-stuff clauses in the contract). With that said, the road is decent, some gravel, some pavement (the paved part that starts about 20 miles north of the Yukon river is really bad pavement -- gigantic potholes -- the gravel sections are better), and nothing to be scared of if you have common sense. We got up to Coldfoot, 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle and didn't have to use either of the spares. It is definitely an adventure.

We just did the Radiance cruise from Seward to Vancouver 8/12 - 8/19, and spent a week independently in Alaska before that. I am not a "tour" sort, and the cruise itself was plenty of organized group travel for me.

 

In most ways, you plan it like you'd plan travel anywhere in the lower 48. We got a AAA tourbook, did some online research, booked a week's car rental through Hertz.com out the the Anchorage airport. We went from Anchorage to Denali, to Fairbanks, up the Dalton Hwy (not in the Hertz car, see below), back to Anchorage through Delta Jct, Paxton and Glennallen. The road between Glennallen and Palmer is spectacular. Returned the car to Anchorage airport and bought the RCL transfer from Anchorage airport to Seward. Everything worked out great.

 

I'd be interested in more details of your itinerary, such as how many nights in each place during your week of independent travel.

zephyr, I am with Nancy, I would like to hear more!!

:)

fti,

I agree with everything you say. Booking early can be much cheaper.

The point I was trying to make is that July is the busiest month and the toughest to rent anything-and the most expensive. My cousin owns a motel on the Kenai Peninsula. By March the motel was completely sold out for the month of July. In August there were some nights with vacancies or they did not sell out until the day of the stay.

With research you will also find rentals with different rates in July than other months. As you point out, book early and save some money. You have found some fabulous rates for next summer.

The first time we went to Alaska, I took the advice of a seasoned traveler and booked flights into and out of Anchorage, at the end of May, just before high season. Daylight for almost 20 hours a day!

We rented a car in Ancorage and drove up to the Denali National Park area, spent a couple nights in the nice Princess hotel in Mc Kinley Village.

We took the bus tour into the park, as well as drove to the park headquarters and visited the kennels, drove to the 14 mile point where you can drive no further, hiked a bit, saw a LOT of wildlife. Took a kennel tour at "Huskey Homestead" which was great.

Drove down to Talkeetna and stayed at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge (?) which was a wonderful and reasonable hotel, took a small plane ride up to McKinley base camp and around Mt McKinley summit. Enjoyed the quirkiness of rural Alaska.

Anchorage has some interesting shopping and restaurants, an interesting Earthquake Park. Then drove south around Turnagain Arm, to Seward. Took a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park, visited the Seward Sea Life center, visited Exit Glacier, did some hiking, had some wonderful meals and just stopped at what interested us.

We didn't have children with us, but everything we did would be of interest to the young people in your party. There is a lot to do at McKinley village in terms of tours and treks: you can go boating, dogsledding, take airplane and helicopter tours, all kinds of adventuresome stuff that the younger members would enjoy and find memorable.

The distances to drive to these areas is not as far as it looks on a map. A few hours to drive from Anchorage to McKinley Village--the roads are good and the traffice is pretty sparse so you can make good time. It is not a "pound the road" vacation.

I was SO glad my friend recommended seeing this part of Alaska by car since the flexibility afforded was so much greater than being on a ship.

We are now taking an inside passage cruise this fall, which makes sense for that part of Alaska. But to see the Denali and Kenai Fjords areas in some depth, I would recommend the auto trip.

winegirl - thank for your post. I will be in AK in late May next year. Was there anything of note that you couldn't do b/c it was too early in the season? Thanks.

winegirl - thank for your post. I will be in AK in late May next year. Was there anything of note that you couldn't do b/c it was too early in the season? Thanks.

Not winegirl:) , but the park road going deeper inside Denali NP doesn't open until June 1. Until then you can't get past about mile 15-20. The date of June 1 depends of course on the weather, especially the snow conditions.