I'm taking my son to Alaska in the summer of 2016 so at the very initial planning stages. Has anyone been there? What parts of Alaska do you recommend? My son wants to see a Moose and whales. I really want to see the northern lights but I read the summer isn't the season for that. Any suggestions on things to do there?
Post by sunshinedaydreams on Mar 28, 2015 8:55:25 GMT -5
How long will you be there? And are you planning a land trip vs. a cruise? (I prefer land-based.)
Does he like to fish? The Kenai peninsula is beautiful and there are a lot of places to fish for salmon and halibut down there. I'd go down to Homer because it's absolutely beautiful. The whole drive down from Anchorage is really stunning. A lot of times you can see beluga whales playing in the water on the way down. You can fish out of Homer, or you can do charters out of Soldotna or Seward.
For whales, you can do a Kenai Fjords trip out of Seward. We saw several whales on that trip - a few humpbacks and some orcas. We also saw otter, foxes, porpoise, and eagles. And the glaciers are beautiful.
For moose, the most moose we saw were on the sides of the roads driving around near Anchorage. We actually saw more there than in Denali.
Another option would be going to Juneau and doing the Glacier Bay tour. We flew from Juneau to Gustavus and stayed at the Glacier Bay Lodge. They do a boat tour daily up to the glaciers, which are fantastic. It's so pretty and mostly untouched there. We were the only boat in the whole place when we went. You see all sort of birds, sea lions, seals, and whales. We saw a few grizzlies up on shore, too. You could do fishing out of Juneau. The Mt. Roberts tramway is there to get up on top of the city, and there's a short hike and a museum up there. You could also do a hike of the Mendenhall Glacier.
There are a lot of amazing things in AK. If you give a better idea of things you guys like to do, I can recommend more specific stuff. Do you want to drive places? Fly into places?
We were there for 3 weeks and did Juneau, Glacier Bay, Skagway, drove through the Yukon Territory down to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, drove up to Anchorage, took a train to Denali, back country camped for a few days, train back to Anchorage, drove down to Seward, took the Kenai Fjords trip, salmon fished in Soldotna, spent a few days in Homer, back to Anchorage for a couple of days and home. I would highly recommend any of those places, depending on what you like to do.
How long will you be there? And are you planning a land trip vs. a cruise? (I prefer land-based.)
Does he like to fish? The Kenai peninsula is beautiful and there are a lot of places to fish for salmon and halibut down there. I'd go down to Homer because it's absolutely beautiful. The whole drive down from Anchorage is really stunning. A lot of times you can see beluga whales playing in the water on the way down. You can fish out of Homer, or you can do charters out of Soldotna or Seward.
For whales, you can do a Kenai Fjords trip out of Seward. We saw several whales on that trip - a few humpbacks and some orcas. We also saw otter, foxes, porpoise, and eagles. And the glaciers are beautiful.
For moose, the most moose we saw were on the sides of the roads driving around near Anchorage. We actually saw more there than in Denali.
Another option would be going to Juneau and doing the Glacier Bay tour. We flew from Juneau to Gustavus and stayed at the Glacier Bay Lodge. They do a boat tour daily up to the glaciers, which are fantastic. It's so pretty and mostly untouched there. We were the only boat in the whole place when we went. You see all sort of birds, sea lions, seals, and whales. We saw a few grizzlies up on shore, too. You could do fishing out of Juneau. The Mt. Roberts tramway is there to get up on top of the city, and there's a short hike and a museum up there. You could also do a hike of the Mendenhall Glacier.
There are a lot of amazing things in AK. If you give a better idea of things you guys like to do, I can recommend more specific stuff. Do you want to drive places? Fly into places?
We were there for 3 weeks and did Juneau, Glacier Bay, Skagway, drove through the Yukon Territory down to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, drove up to Anchorage, took a train to Denali, back country camped for a few days, train back to Anchorage, drove down to Seward, took the Kenai Fjords trip, salmon fished in Soldotna, spent a few days in Homer, back to Anchorage for a couple of days and home. I would highly recommend any of those places, depending on what you like to do.
Thanks for all of the info! We'll be going for 9 days. Land based but I'm open to a day cruise to see whales type of thing. I don't want to fly once there but I'd consider it. I love road trips! And my son loves trains too, not sure if I mentioned that. My son loves to fish! He also loves animals and fish (aquariums).
Post by sunshinedaydreams on Mar 28, 2015 23:47:55 GMT -5
Ok. If he loves trains and loves to fish, I would fly into Anchorage and go down the Kenai Peninsula for sure. You can take a train down the peninsula, I think as far as Seward. The train cars are glass domes, so you can get great views. You could rent a car in Seward to get down to Homer, or anywhere else you want to go.
I would highly recommend the Kenai Fjords catamaran tour out of Seward. You see glaciers and tons of wildlife. There are some really big waves, but it was a really great tour. This is the one where we saw all of the whales.
You could also take the train to Denali. We did that and it was amazing! It was an 8 hour ride, but we got to sit back and relax. There's a dining car on board. They tell a lot of the history of the area as you pass things. We got great views of Denali/Mt. McKinley from the train. If you think he'd sit for a full day, you could do a bus ride into the park. It really is amazing how much the park terrain changes from the front of the park to the back. There are tons of animals, mountains, glaciers, lakes. If you're up for it, you could even camp at one of the campgrounds in the park.
If you want to do a mix of train and road trip, I'd suggest you drive to the Kenai Peninsula and train to Denali. There are apparently a lot of moose on the road to Denali and it can be pretty dangerous. It's also a much longer trip, and we found it really nice to relax on the train. If you drive down the Kenai, there are a few places you can stop along the way to watch the beluga whales play. You could also stop in Girdwood at Aleyeska Ski Resort and take the tram to the top for good views.
In Anchorage, there are some decent restaurants, and there's pretty good, easy hiking around the city. Glen Alps, Thunderbird Park and Eklutna Lake are three that we went to. We were there in late Aug/early Sep and the Alaska State Fair was going on, too. It was SO cool to go see all of the gigantic produce at the fair. We saw a 127lb cabbage! And a really entertaining lumberjack show.
With 9 days, I would probably do 2 days in Anchorage, 3 days in Denali (two of these will be largely eaten up getting to/from the park, but totally worth it, IMO), 4 days on the Kenai Peninsula.
Sorry, this got really long, but I loved, loved, loved AK. I could go on and on! If you have any other specific questions, I'd be happy to help.
Post by FrozenSunshine on Mar 30, 2015 0:34:24 GMT -5
I'm from Alaska. As others have said, I would spend most of your time in Anchorage, the peninsula and Denali. Northern lights will be hard pressed that time of year, but not unheard of.
The Sealife Center is in Seward, closest thing to an aquarium up there. All rescued animals. The whale watching trips out of Seward are great. Good fishing trips out of Seward and Homer. Smaller hotels are available in both places, but I'd recommend some of the cabins you can rent. Lots of other river/creek fishing there and lots of places to rent gear.
Not sure if there is an age requirement but white water rafting in Denali is amazing. Lots of quirky little towns on the way from Anchorage to Denali.
I'd be happy to answer any questions - I still go home 2 or 3 times a year.
Post by caddywompus on Mar 30, 2015 12:02:09 GMT -5
When we went to Alaska, we flew into Anchorage, then rented cars (there were 8 of us!) and stayed at Aleyeska down in Girdwood. We spent our whole time down on the Kenai peninsula, and took driving trips everyday.. We loved Seward (had awesome king crab dinner!), Homer (yummy fresh fish n chips), took the 26 Glaciers Cruise out of Whittier (saw whales, sea lions, otters), went to the Wildlife Preserve (can't remember the name?), saw moose on the side of the road, saw a bear down at the waters edge. Drove to several glaciers, and even did some mining for gold. It was a fantastic trip!! Have a great time!
Yeah we also stayed at the Alyeska Prince Hotel in Girdwood. It was beautiful there.
We had gotten off on a cruise in Seward, rented a mini van and drove to Girdwood --> Anchorage --> Talkeetna --> Denali Park and back down to Anchorage where we flew home. I liked it, it was like a nice road trip with beautiful scenery.