Alaska Non cruise vacation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is NO WAY I'd split a trip between the Kenai and Denali unless I was there about three weeks.
Alaska is darn near as big as the lower 48

We did Denali, Anchorage, Seward in a week (then did a cruise), so I think you could do similar and just spend second week driving around from Seward. Denali to Anchorage is 4.5 hours, and then its only 2 to seward. I think our itinerary was something like

day 1 fly to anchorage
day 2 alaska native life center anchorage
day 3 drive to denali
day 4 denali nps bus tour
day 5 denali visitor center, kennels
day 6 -- drive back to anchorage
day 7 -- drive to seward, stop at wilidlife refuge -- could have done the aquarium in seward on same day, but we had seen it on our last trip
We could have squeezed in more sight seeing in Anchorage in our days there -- we had a fair amount of downtime on those days, but we were traveling with young and old and needed downtime.
Unless you're doing backcountry hiking into Denali, I think it's hard to spend more than a couple days there. It's gorgeous, but it's like like Yosemite or Yellowstone where you can drive to different places and see different things. It's not super accessible.

Also, the drive from Anchorage to Seward is gorgeous and itself a treat. The drive to Denali is a little boring. We didn't go further into the peninsula than seward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is NO WAY I'd split a trip between the Kenai and Denali unless I was there about three weeks.
Alaska is darn near as big as the lower 48

We did Denali, Anchorage, Seward in a week (then did a cruise), so I think you could do similar and just spend second week driving around from Seward. Denali to Anchorage is 4.5 hours, and then its only 2 to seward. I think our itinerary was something like

day 1 fly to anchorage
day 2 alaska native life center anchorage
day 3 drive to denali
day 4 denali nps bus tour
day 5 denali visitor center, kennels
day 6 -- drive back to anchorage
day 7 -- drive to seward, stop at wilidlife refuge -- could have done the aquarium in seward on same day, but we had seen it on our last trip
We could have squeezed in more sight seeing in Anchorage in our days there -- we had a fair amount of downtime on those days, but we were traveling with young and old and needed downtime.
Unless you're doing backcountry hiking into Denali, I think it's hard to spend more than a couple days there. It's gorgeous, but it's like like Yosemite or Yellowstone where you can drive to different places and see different things. It's not super accessible.

Also, the drive from Anchorage to Seward is gorgeous and itself a treat. The drive to Denali is a little boring. We didn't go further into the peninsula than seward.

you're missing the best part. The drive from Seward to Soldotna (or at last to Cooper Landing) is extraordinary.
The drive from Kasilof to Homer is also fantastic.

[Anonymous]

...also, if you're going from Anchorage to Denali, take the train. You'll see part of Alaska you can't see from the road.

[Anonymous]

We flew into Anchorage last year, did 5 days in Anchorage-Denali-Anchorage-Seward. Then a 7 day cruise. Then 5 days in Seattle/PNW.

From an Alaska perspective, we didn't need the cruise. Basically, we felt like Ketchikan, Juneau, Icy Strait Point and Skagway were all just less enjoyable versions of Seward. The cruise stops were crowded, touristy, and rainy/overcast. We still had fun everywhere, but ultimately we would have rather just flown from Anchorage down to Vancouver or Seattle.

For the entire trip, everyone's #1 favorite was a day cruise from Seward to see Kenai Fjords from the water. It was fantastic - humpback whales, orcas, porpoises, seals and all kinds of interesting birds and wildlife around the glaciers.

We also really enjoyed the Exit Glacier hike we did in Kenai Fjords, although it was depressing to see how the glacier has receded.

We ended up ranking Denali fairly low. Maybe we didn't have enough time to do it justice.

In PNW, the hikes we did in North Cascades and Olympic NP were also all great.

[Anonymous]

The train from Anchorage to Denali is great. I would just look into whether there are Ubers once you are there (I assume there are). My train had a local high school kid providing background on Alaska during the train ride.

We also went rafting right outside of Denali NP, which was amazing. We also did a long day hike in the park (one of the few formal hiking trails in the park).

[Anonymous]

I posted my itinerary before but just wanted to flag the ice climbing because it really was so amazing. here is the company we used (you can also use them for glacier treking): https://micaguides.com/matanuska-glacier-hike/

Hiking on the glacier and ice climbing was unreal -- we all preferred it to hiking around Exit Glacier or even dog sledding on a glacier (both of which were also wonderful experiences). We stayed here overnight before and after: https://majesticheliski.com/