Alaska - Travel Guide Book Recommendation

[flying_tiger]

I'd like to tour Alaska for the first time and need to get a comprehensive travel guide book. Do you know any good ones?

Also, I read many people tour Alaska on a cruise. Is it a good option in terms of costs and places to visit vesus arranging

the trip by myself?

 

FYI, I have motion sickness problem when going fishing in small boat. Would it be a problem touring Alaska on a cruise?

What's the best season and cruise for touring Alaska?

 

Thanks.

[Jerry_]

Cruise ships generally are large and if the seas are calm, you should not have much motion to deal with. There are over-the-counter medicines for sea-sickness.

 

 

 

You can request a Alaska Travel Guide from the State of Alaska web site. Try a Google search....

 

 

 

 

Alaska is one huge area. Going by ship lets you check out the coastal area. You'd need a couple of weeks and some small airplane travel to see parts of the interior.

 

 

 

Seasons: you don't want a cruise to Alaska between October and (maybe) April. It is one cold place in the winter and that is the best time to see Northern Lights. Summers are short, mid-May to the end of September in the interior.

[SteveH]

A couple of book suggestions: (1) The Milepost - geared for road travel it gives a mile-by-mile account of places to stay,

eat and see along the relatively few roads in BC, the Yukon and Alaska. (2) Lonely Planet Alaska guide. I've been to

Alaska several times, mostly with small group guides, and one time where I drove the Alaska Highway to Fairbanks (and

continued with a group to Deadhorse). Regarding Cruises - your best bet is on small boats. The big cruise ships are too

large to get to many of the interesting places, so if your interest is in the landscape and the critters, you need to go small.

The waters of the inside passage in southeastern Alaska and Prince William Sound are generally calm, so seasickness

isn't a big problem. Check out Discovery Voyages and/or Dolphin Charters. For a fairly comprehensive one-time trip check

out Cheesemans.com or Hugh Rose.

[bob_flood1]

Cruises - Gerald is correct - a cruise will show you the coast (it's a really good coast, but still, it's just the coast). Some excursions are available through the ship that can show you more, but that costs extra, a lot extra in some cases. There are two basic cruise routines available, a one-way cruise and a round-trip cruise.

 

A one way cruises starts near Anchorage and sails to Vancouver or Seattle, or goes the opposite way. A round trip cruise starts and ends in Seattle or Vancouver. The standard trip is seven days. The round trip cruise doesn't go as far north as the one way ships, but they stay in protected waters among the islands - nice if motion sickness is a problem. We took a one way trip and never had any motion problems - modern cruise ships have gotten pretty good at this. The cruises operate from mid-May to mid-September - the sailing weather gets to be too unreliable outside that range.

 

Switching to a smaller cruise (Google this - there are quite a few available) get expensive in a hurry. A typical large cruise ship will get $800-1800US per person depending on your room choice (can be higher, but not many rooms aboard for really expensive cruising). The small, specialized cruises jump up to 3000-6000 per person for a week. They offer things the big ones don't and whether they are worth the cost is up to you. All cruises add fees like port fees and fuel surcharges - be sure to ask for a bottom-line total cost to you.

 

Inland - Going on your own is more complicated - you have to decide where to go, make all kinds of choices and get reservations. A travel agent can help, but not for free. My wife and I are leaving for Alaska in 3 weeks for a 12 day trip, and we spent months researching and making decisions about when to go, where to go, where to stay, etc.

 

Most of the big cruise lines offer cruise-tour packages that can include anywhere from a couple of days to weeks inland in Alaska in conjunction with the cruise, with the inland part eithrer before or after the cruise. Not the cheapest way to see the interior, but the easiest to plan and schedule.

 

Have a great time. And come back here to tell us about it!

[gungajim]

Consider the public ferry along the Inside Passage from Bellingham WA to Juneau. Two nights and days as best as I recall. Waters are calmer than the open sea. You can rent a spartan cabin or sleep on deck in a sleeping bag. Lonely Planet would be my guidebook choice. It will also do a good job of explaining cruising options. Check this site for best time to go: http://www.besttimetogo.com/index.php

[charles_stobbs3]

Have you tried your public library? If you find a good guide you can buy a copy and take it with you.

[loren_cain]

Alaska is enormous, and if you try to see it all, even just the minority with paved roads, you can easily spend most of your time in the car. I've never taken any of the cruises down around the southeast part of the state, so I can't comment on that, but if you are planning to fly to Anchorage or Fairbanks and rent a car, here are a few suggestions:

 

If you only have one week, and you've never been before, I'd spend that week in and around Denali national park. There's quite a bit to do just in that area, and you will certainly see wildlife, mountains, and rivers. You may even see Denali itself if the weather cooperates (it's often hidden by clounds). Of course, it's a popular place, and you won't be alone :)

 

Another place to spend a week would be the Kenai peninsula, south of Anchorage. If you go that route, be sure to take one of the day-long glacier cruises out of Seward. And if you're able, definitely hike up to the Harding Icefield outside of town. Homer, on the other side of the peninsula, is also interesting.

 

If you have the time, you could also drive up the haul road north of Fairbanks, which follows the pipeline. It's gravel, and you'll be sharing it with trucks, but at least you'll know what tundra looks like :) I only went as far as the Arctic Circle, which took about 4 hours from Fairbanks, but I hear the scenery gets even better the farther north you go. Just make sure your rental agreement allows you to travel on that road. I think there are commercial tours you can take if you don't want to make the drive yourself.

 

Another side trip is the town of McCarthy, in Wrangell-St. Elias national park. I don't know how it is now, but when I went back in 1995 you had to drive 60 miles down a dirt road and then pull yourself across a river on a rope to get to the town. It's worth it, though: there's a glacier and the old Kennicott copper mine, and we were even able to get a pizza and beer in the town of McCarthy. This may be another road where rental cars are not allowed. It was kind of bumpy, and when we finally got back on pavement late that night, we discovered that one of our tires was nothing but a banged-up, misshapen wheel with a few strips of smoking rubber hanging off it (who knows how long it had been flat) and also one of the side mirrors had fallen off.

[flying_tiger]

Hi, thanks a lot for sharing your experience. It's very informative and helpful.

[ctbruce]

Consider renting an RV out of Anchorage. I lived in Ketchikan for 5 years and the Inside Passage is beautiful but Alaska is so much more. Driving an RV opens up the so many areas to you. The only problem with renting an RV is they are very seasonal. Another way to travel is on the Alaskan Marine Highway system. The ferries travel to almost every small town in southern Alaska and you can bring your own car with you which is a big plus. You can catch the ferry in Washington or any port in Alaska. Have fun and fill those memory cards up!!!

[steveshinn]

After months of research I set up a cruise/trip for my family and another. I found that the travel agents either did not have the experience I was looking for or were just selling what they thought might be the best. If you want to use a book for starters try Frommers and Fodor's but they were used only as references.

 

Seeing the "inside passage" in a huge, floating city is NO where the same experience one gets on a much smaller craft. The one we were on had 70 passengers, moved at about 8 knots... and got up close to the glaciers and wildlife where the monster barges can only say "there is/was a whale" or what ever. Unless there is a storm or something I doubt that sea sickness will be a problem.

 

Try to get one this size or smaller that might have a couple dozen kayaks, a zodiac or two etc. that are available each day. The boats usually move at night and anchor at new bay or point of interest each day unless it involves a trip up Tracy Arm or something.

 

For the land portion we used B&Bs and Best Westerns from tripadvisor. We had two cars waiting in Anchorage for a trip into Denali. These things need to be reserved well in advance, especially the trips into Denali National Park itself.

 

If you want a copy of our itinerary email me at nationalbird3@gmail.com and I'll send it along with some suggestions that we did not have time for.