p.1 #1 · Your opinions on my full Itenerary and please Advice me
Experts,
After doing a lot of research here is my final itinerary. It is a long post so please be patient with me. I really need you advice, your opinions and advice will seal my plans.
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05/22
- Arrive anchorage, take cab to RV place.
- Rest over night
05/23
- Depart RV place at 9:00AM to purchase groceries and other stuff.
- Drive to Denali from anchorage, Stop by at few places to take photos. Arrive at Denali 3:00 PM
- Purchased RV camp ground for 2 nights 05/23, 05/24
- Purchased 7:00 AM Shuttle to Tolkat on 05/24.
- 6:30 PM whitewater rafting at Denali.
05/24
- Take shuttle to Tolkat, do a hike, take shuttle back to Polychrome, do another hike.
- Make sure I am back to RV by 5:00PM.
- Take Denali Flight seeing tour at 6:00PM from Denali
05/25
- Depart @ 7:00AM to Glennallen via Fairbanks and Richardson Hwy.
- Stop by in Fairbanks to restock supplies.
- Stop by at different places for wildlife and landscape photography.
- Arrive at sourdough campground (not reserved yet) at about 8:00PM or drive further to Glennallen and rest for the night.
05/26
- 6:00 AM Drive to Seward
- Stop by at Beluga point, Potters Marsh?, Windy point, Bird point, Turnagain Pass, Summit lake Lodge, Tern Lake, Alaska Wildlife conservation center
- Arrive at Seward at about 6:00 PM
- Camp at Seward City Campground (not reserved yet).
- Take rest and walk around the place
05/27
- 6:00AM Drive to exit glacier, Hike Harding’s Ice field
- Return to Seward City Campground at about 7:00PM
05/28
- 9:00AM KenaiFjords "Captain Choice" tour
(Hoping to see Northwestern, Aialik glacier, whales, birds and sea life)
- 6:00PM Return back from Cruise
05/29
- 9:00 AM Seward Alaska sea life center
- 11:00 AM Depart to Homer
- Stop by at different places to watch wild life and landscapes
- 5:00PM Arrive homer,
- Next what activity?
05/30
- 8:00 AM Bear watching flight tour.
05/31
- 5:00 AM depart to anchorage. Arrive at RV rental center by 11:00AM
- Check in Luggage at Airport
- Flight back home is at 5:30PM
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REQUEST your expert advice on the following:
05/23
- Whitewater rafting - do they collect and drop off customers from RV camps or from the visitor center?
- Advice with which company and tour should I book the activity with.
05/24
- Advice on hikes and locations with good landscapes and wild life photography opportunities
- Is Flight seeing worth it? Will they pick us and drop off from the RV camp. Which company and tour do you recommend?
05/26
- From Glennallen is it worth driving to a good viewpoint towards Valdez and then back to Seward?
- Advice landscape photography locations
05/27
- I guess we will be really tired, so nothing much to do that day
05/28
- After the cruise, advise on what to do around Seward.
- Advice landscape photography locations
05/29, 05/30
- Advice on what to do around Homer.
- Advice landscape photography locations
05/31
- We have about 5:00 Hrs. Advice an activity or sight seeing in anchorage so that we can return by 4:00 PM to the airport.
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p.1 #2 · Your opinions on my full Itenerary and please Advice me
Who are you renting an RV from? We did RV rental in alaska and it was a wonderful experience. Great Alaskan Holidays. All their RV's are almost new and in great shape. Being that you are going on 5/22 you are almost guaranteed a new RV. The nicest thing is there are no giant stickers or anything saying "look at me, I rented an RV"
My opinion is that you may want to plan some more time getting from the RV place to Denali. It is a long drive and there are some amazing places to stop and see on the way. Dont forget that you are driving an RV and things will take a bit longer than in a car. Also I would not think that you will get out of the RV place by 9, paperwork and all.....
Thoughts on Seward.... DO NOT STAY AT Seward City Campground. This place is very nasty and has many "permanent residents" who are quite scary. We stayed at Stoney Creek RV park after making reservations for the city campground. We left city campground before even checking in. Stoney Creek is an amazing place on a nice trout stream/river. Many bear sightings. Be sure to ask the lady that owns it to take you to the salmon runs. They are very friendly and will drive you to town in their van for free. It sure beats driving the RV. Stoney Creek
If you get a chance to go to Valdez and do a kayak tour to the glacier it is amazing and something you will never quite experience again! It blows the seward cruise away. this is who we used Linkey
Valdez also has some amazing waterfalls and some nice glaciers on the way. The kayak trip to Shoup glacier is still the best.
Never been to Homer so I'm jealous of you for that.
Feel free to ask any questions that you would like... Hopefully I can help
Enjoy your trip to Alaska and I wish I was going with you.
p.1 #3 · Your opinions on my full Itenerary and please Advice me
Hi Brian,
Thank you very much for your suggestions. We are renting our RV from Great Alaskan Holidays. I guess you are correct regarding the departure and arrival at Denali. Perhaps a 5:00 PM arrival would do justice. Valdez sounds really cool. We are still thinking about a trip on the way to wrangell St.Elias NP&P. I might have to skip the hardings Icefield trail, As there is too much snow up there and will not be open. Perhaps I will use that 1 day to go down to valdez/wrangell.
p.1 #4 · Your opinions on my full Itenerary and please Advice me
Hi Ashish,
Wow, sounds like you did some research! You definitely have a lot of driving planned! FWIW, here are some of my thoughts:
5/22 – What time do you arrive in Anchorage? Any way to get the RV that night?
5/23 – Yes, leave more time for your drive up to Denali. At least you'll be going the opposite direction of rush hour traffic on the Glenn hwy. Any way to purchase your RV space ahead of time, I would imagine they fill up fast. Are you sure you want to start out on the Rafting trip that late? I don’t know if the shuttles pick up from the RV parks, but they do leave from the various lodges.
5/24 – Hard to say what the “best” hikes in Denali are, there are so many! Impossible to see all of Denali in one day. Since your time there is limited, I would say a flight seeing trip is DEFINITELY worth the money. I don’t know about shuttle service to the various flight seeing operations, but there is a good one (Denali Air I think) just a few minutes south of the park entrance off of the highway.
5/25 – I can see you are debating on whether to go down to Valdez or not. All I can say is I was just out there a couple of weeks ago and the drive through Thompson Pass was fantastic. There will still be plenty of snow up there when you are here. IMO, short of driving the Dalton hwy through Atigun pass up to Prudhoe, driving to Valdez through Thompson Pass or to Seward from Anchorage are the best drives in the State.
5-26 – As you mentioned, if you take some time to drive to Valdez, you’ll have less time in Seward. But I just went down there Saturday and like you said, the road to exit glacier is still closed – I would imagine it will be open in a couple of weeks but who’s to say for sure. Ditto about the comments on the city RV Park. See if you can find a better place. The Sea Life Center is pretty cool, but it may be packed with people by the time you get there (it wasn’t too bad on Saturday – that was free admission day for AK residents), but people are starting to show up fast.
Actually, I’ve never been to Homer so I can’t comment on that. But if you decide to go to Valdez instead of Homer, I don’t think you will regret it.
You definitely mention all of the good stops on the drive from Anchorage to Seward, but plan on making a few more. There are several turnouts along the way that are my favorite photo spots of Turnagain-Arm and the Mountains.
Also, don’t bother with the “Conservation Center” (used to be called "Big Game Alaska" or something before they got PC), just a tourist trap along the road (more like a funky zoo really). Although, it might be worth stopping if you need to snap a few pictures of wildlife that you didn't catch along the rest of the trip since they are captive and can't get away - you just have to shoot thru the fences. You might want to take a quick trip out to Portage glacier on the other side of the hwy while your there.
5/31 – If you have the time in Anchorage, I would HIGHLY recommend a quick trip up the hillside to the Glen Alps / Flattop trail head. If the weather is clear, you’ll get an absolutely drop-dead beautiful panorama of Anchorage and the Cook Inlet with the Alaska Range and Mts Susitna, Forraker, and McKinley in the background. There is a viewing area with easy access from the parking lot; or you can also hike higher up Flattop mountain if you want to. My house sits on the west slope of Flattop. Be sure to waive if you are up there!
Finally, treat your family to a good dinner at Simon and Seaforts or the Crows Nest. I would make reservations today if I were you! PM me if you need their phone numbers.
A couple of other observations; bring plenty of gas money. Regular is around $3.80 here in Anchorage but over $4.00 in the more remote areas like Valdez and Seward. Bring plenty of bug spray too; I just swatted my first mosquito yesterday while working in the yard!
Let us know what you decide! Have a great trip. Is this your first time up here? It likely won’t be your last!
p.1 #5 · Your opinions on my full Itenerary and please Advice me
EOS, Thank you very much for the info. I have re planned by route based on info you gave, and some more research i did. I will be postining it tonight. Hopefulyl its better than the first route i planned. Just 6 more days to go.
