Looking for Suggestions! Between June 11 - 19 in Anchorage

[West Coast Gal]

We recently booked a Princess Northbound that lands in Whittier on June 11, we are not leaving until June 19th on Holland out of Whittier again.  Looking for Suggestions on things to do for the week.  We have spent several days in Anchorage in the past, but wanted to see what ideas others might have for my DH and me.

[AKStafford]

Are you open to renting a car? So many options...

In addition to your research here, I'd also suggest the Trip Advisor forum for Alaska: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28923-i349-Alaska.html

The Matanuska Glacier is a great experience. You could overnight in the area. Denali National Park's road is only open to mile 43 this year due to road damage. So do some research to see if that's something you'd want to do. The Alaska Railroad's Glacier Discovery train is scenic.

[oaktreerb]

If I had a week I would drive to Homer, stopping along the way at places that interest me,  A couple of nights in Homer, a couple of nights at Alyeska, a couple of nights in Seward.  There is so much to see and do, Homer has small boating  opportunities to see places nearby (Peterson Cove, etc) and interesting places in town also,  take a side trip to Hope on the way.  Check out the visitor information online.  There is a lot of information for each community.  TravelAlaska.com and each community has a visitor web site, except maybe, Hope, but you can say you’ve been there!   If you check the trip reports at the top of this page you will get lots of recommendations.

[Ferry_Watcher]

You will have a crazy amount of daylight during your Alaska visit.  I would bring clothespins or clips to help fasten your drapes at nighttime, and maybe silk sleep masks.

Have fun!

[disneyochem]

We have a very similar trip planned this summer as well—NB Princess Majestic, SB Norwegian Jewel—and will have about 12 days to play with.  We saw a lot of Alaska this past summer (3 week DIY land tour) so our trip this year is focusing on those areas we missed.  From our summer travels I highly recommend the Matanuska Glacier Trek, Gold Star level train ride, Homer, and kayaking in Resurrection Bay.

 

This year (we’ve rented a car), after spending the night in Anchorage, we’re staying two nights in Kennicot Glacier Hotel visiting the Wrangell Elias NP, two nights in Valdez, one night at Sheep Mountain Lodge for another glacier trek, two nights at Denali before returning to Anchorage.  We’ll take the train to Seward and spend a day there before boarding the Jewel.

 

You can do quite a bit of traveling without a car but having a rental will certainly give you a lot more options.  Just prioritize what is important (wildlife, water sports, hiking, fishing?) and focus on those activities.  Alaska is huge—you will not be able to see it all but what you will see/experience is spectacular!

 

 

[dfilpus]

3 hours ago, disneyochem said:

This year (we’ve rented a car), after spending the night in Anchorage, we’re staying two nights in Kennicot Glacier Hotel visiting the Wrangell Elias NP,

How are you planning to get to the Kennicot Glacier Hotel? The McCarthy road in the park is quite tough. 

[disneyochem]

2 hours ago, dfilpus said:

How are you planning to get to the Kennicot Glacier Hotel? The McCarthy road in the park is quite tough. 

Parking the car at the Chitina Airport and taking a flight with Wrangell Mountain Air.  Flight in and out already booked and paid.

Edited January 18, 2022 by disneyochem

[Northern Aurora]

While I love Homer I would also suggest the Wrangell --St. Elias National Park.  It is one of the prettiest areas of Alaska.  Great choice @disneyochem!

 

 

[SightCRR]

disneyochem Looks like a great trip to me. Depending on your dates and since the Denali road is closed at m/p 43 I would skip Denali and fly to Katmai or Wolverine Creek AK if the bears will be there. sightcrr. 

[gilliansp]

6 hours ago, SightCRR said:

disneyochem Looks like a great trip to me. Depending on your dates and since the Denali road is closed at m/p 43 I would skip Denali and fly to Katmai or Wolverine Creek AK if the bears will be there. sightcrr. 

Reading this thread with interest as we are will be in Alaska the first week September, a 9 land tour pre-cruise. So many diverse comments about Denali due to the road closure. As it will probably be our one and only trip to Alaska I decided to go with the traditional and included Denali, overnight stay with reduced Tundra tour. I hope that we will still get to see spectacular scenery and wildlife. Hope I am right! We will be doing very much a first timers route taking in , Anchorage, Matunska Glacier, Denali, Talketeena, Girdwood and Seward. Any suggestions from seasoned Alaska travellers ??

 

[SightCRR]

gilliansp While Denali is spectacular the Alps mountains of southern Europe are really spectacular. The rest of the mountains around Denali are lower and more distant whereas the Alps are all around. If driving to Denali don't forget to stop at both entrances to Denali Alaska State park just down the road  from the national park. Also remember that only 30% of the visitors to Denali see the mountain because of the weather. The timing for the bears eating river fish is not the best but you never know.   If driving to Matanuska (which I highly recommend) don't forget about Palmer musk ox farm, Hatcher pass, and Iditarod dog sled headquarters in Wasilla. 

[gilliansp]

3 hours ago, SightCRR said:

gilliansp While Denali is spectacular the Alps mountains of southern Europe are really spectacular. The rest of the mountains around Denali are lower and more distant whereas the Alps are all around. If driving to Denali don't forget to stop at both entrances to Denali Alaska State park just down the road  from the national park. Also remember that only 30% of the visitors to Denali see the mountain because of the weather. The timing for the bears eating river fish is not the best but you never know.   If driving to Matanuska (which I highly recommend) don't forget about Palmer musk ox farm, Hatcher pass, and Iditarod dog sled headquarters in Wasilla. 

Thanks for this. Was planning on visiting the Musk Ox farm as well. from your reply it sounds as if youn think I am wasting 2 precious days on visiting Denali. Hopefully not!

[donaldsc]

19 hours ago, disneyochem said:

Parking the car at the Chitina Airport and taking a flight with Wrangell Mountain Air.  Flight in and out already booked and paid.

 

We did that except that we flew in and took a van out.  Wrangell Elias is a hidden gem in AK.  We spent 3 days there including a glacier hike.  It was great.  I will add that if you don't feel comfortable flying in on a small plane which did not bother us and you can find a car rental that lets you drive on unpaved roads driving in and out is very doable. 

 

I will add that we stayed at the Chitina House B&B  (https://www.trailsunblazed.com/chitina-house-bb-chitina-alaska/ ) before we flew into Wrangell Elias.  It is a wonderful funky place to stay.

 

DON

[SightCRR]

gilliansp One the hard things about Alaska is the distances. If you overlay an AK map over Europe it covers France, Germany, some of the Baltic counties, Swiss, and down into Greece. It takes a long time to drive from one spot to another. I guess I would leave Denali in and consider a fly over on small plane from Talketeena but since I have not done that I can't say one way or another. For a driving tip if you see a line of cars on the side of the road they are likely viewing wildlife so pull in behind them. You will see the line of cars long before you see the wildlife and the people who zoom past miss it. 

[gilliansp]

11 hours ago, SightCRR said:

gilliansp One the hard things about Alaska is the distances. If you overlay an AK map over Europe it covers France, Germany, some of the Baltic counties, Swiss, and down into Greece. It takes a long time to drive from one spot to another. I guess I would leave Denali in and consider a fly over on small plane from Talketeena but since I have not done that I can't say one way or another. For a driving tip if you see a line of cars on the side of the road they are likely viewing wildlife so pull in behind them. You will see the line of cars long before you see the wildlife and the people who zoom past miss it. 

Thanks for the driving tip. We have paced ourselves with the driving between places to allow for scenic stops etc, hence the reason we are not being to ambitious with trying to see everything. Would have loved to have reached Fairbanks and the Arctic area, but have decided to concentrate on the Kenai Peninsula area, especially as we have to finalise our land tour in Seward to embark on our cruise. We are also considering a float plane trip to see bears as well - still under discussion!

[SightCRR]

When in Seward try to squeeze in Exit Glacier and Seavey's dog sled road cart ride. Not as good as Matanuska but still amazing. Homer is a fun town and we have seen moose from a hardware parking lot and an eagles nest across from the McDonalds (look for golf balls in the trees to spot them). The Norman Lowell art museum (if it is still open) is just out of town with spectacular AK themed art. The timing for the bear trip depends on the salmon timing. July was the peak at Katami in years past. This year many of the salmon came later. You would have not seen any bears or salmon in July but August was something else. The Katmai site says it is good in Sept. That is a hard one to guess. We flew out of Soldotna to wolverine creek for the day but close to 20 years ago. 

[donaldsc]

On 1/15/2022 at 8:45 PM, West Coast Gal said:

We recently booked a Princess Northbound that lands in Whittier on June 11, we are not leaving until June 19th on Holland out of Whittier again.  Looking for Suggestions on things to do for the week.  We have spent several days in Anchorage in the past, but wanted to see what ideas others might have for my DH and me.

 

[donaldsc]

Have you thought about flying to Kodiak Island.  You could easily spend several days there.  It is a neat place.  

 

DON

[West Coast Gal]

On 1/20/2022 at 9:27 AM, donaldsc said:

Have you thought about flying to Kodiak Island.  You could easily spend several days there.  It is a neat place.  

 

DON

That is an idea I had not thought of,  I will look into it.

[West Coast Gal]

On 1/15/2022 at 9:59 PM, AKStafford said:

Are you open to renting a car? So many options...

In addition to your research here, I'd also suggest the Trip Advisor forum for Alaska: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28923-i349-Alaska.html

The Matanuska Glacier is a great experience. You could overnight in the area. Denali National Park's road is only open to mile 43 this year due to road damage. So do some research to see if that's something you'd want to do. The Alaska Railroad's Glacier Discovery train is scenic.

Definitely open to renting a car, good information here

[West Coast Gal]

On 1/17/2022 at 12:23 PM, oaktreerb said:

If I had a week I would drive to Homer, stopping along the way at places that interest me,  A couple of nights in Homer, a couple of nights at Alyeska, a couple of nights in Seward.  There is so much to see and do, Homer has small boating  opportunities to see places nearby (Peterson Cove, etc) and interesting places in town also,  take a side trip to Hope on the way.  Check out the visitor information online.  There is a lot of information for each community.  TravelAlaska.com and each community has a visitor web site, except maybe, Hope, but you can say you’ve been there!   If you check the trip reports at the top of this page you will get lots of recommendations.

You know, my DH brought up Homer so I think he would be excited about this!

 

[West Coast Gal]

On 1/17/2022 at 9:01 PM, Ferry_Watcher said:

You will have a crazy amount of daylight during your Alaska visit.  I would bring clothespins or clips to help fasten your drapes at nighttime, and maybe silk sleep masks.

Have fun!

Definitely Great suggestion!

[West Coast Gal]

On 1/18/2022 at 6:50 AM, snowmc said:

There are some fun ideas in this article. 

https://zest4travel.net/2018/01/28/what-to-do-in-anchorage-alaska/

Thank you for this link!

[West Coast Gal]

On 1/18/2022 at 8:17 AM, disneyochem said:

We have a very similar trip planned this summer as well—NB Princess Majestic, SB Norwegian Jewel—and will have about 12 days to play with.  We saw a lot of Alaska this past summer (3 week DIY land tour) so our trip this year is focusing on those areas we missed.  From our summer travels I highly recommend the Matanuska Glacier Trek, Gold Star level train ride, Homer, and kayaking in Resurrection Bay.

 

This year (we’ve rented a car), after spending the night in Anchorage, we’re staying two nights in Kennicot Glacier Hotel visiting the Wrangell Elias NP, two nights in Valdez, one night at Sheep Mountain Lodge for another glacier trek, two nights at Denali before returning to Anchorage.  We’ll take the train to Seward and spend a day there before boarding the Jewel.

 

You can do quite a bit of traveling without a car but having a rental will certainly give you a lot more options.  Just prioritize what is important (wildlife, water sports, hiking, fishing?) and focus on those activities.  Alaska is huge—you will not be able to see it all but what you will see/experience is spectacular!

 

 

I really enjoyed reading this, and gives me a lot of things to consider.  Thank you so much for sharing!

[boridog]

I hope you are referring to being in Anchorage in June 2022?  We will be starting a cruise there on the 18th, arriving early on the 16th.  Tried to book a hotel for the 2 nights in advance and found out that alot of smaller B&Bs are sold out for the 17th(maybe 18, 19 as well?) because…there is a big marathon that weekend in Anchorage PLUS big celebrations for the Summer Solstice!!!! Maybe this would interest you?