My dad wants to go to Alaska, what should we do there?

[guachi]

Take a cruise.

 

[Denly]

Another vote for cruise, I did it twice with older family members. I am an active guy(40s) and I don't find it boring.

I took Holland America both time and the food and service is consistently good. It is a smaller cruise with less kids. I have much better exp with HA compared to RC.

If you board from Vanc, you can rent a car and drive over the Rookies to Calgary then fly home. It is a great drive.

 

[Bubblehappy]

Rent an RV and drive, that will fill your time easy, you get to see a shitload and not have to worry about hotels/camping, cruise is ok but different, you are more limited in some ways with what you see. The coastline from Vancouver to Skagway is amazing though and the food on the ship is usually good, if it was up to me and i wasn't paying i'd rent the RV and go explore Denali and whatever else i can in a week.

This. I did this with 5 buddies years ago and we had an absolute blast.

 

[BurnItDwn]

My grandparents took me to Alaska after graduating high school in 98.

We did a cruise, it was beautiful, not the most exciting as far as party on a boat goes, but fantastic for the scenery and seeing the whales and icebergs and such.

We took a scenic railroad ride from Anchorage to Denali, then spent a day on some tour in Denali on a bus for an entire day .. (I would have preferred more "walk around on our own" type stuff, but grandpa was already pretty old and not very stable or good for long distance)

Denali is absolutely the most amazing, impressive, immense, awesome, giant, behemoth thing I have ever seen. Everything about Denali is epic.

Fairbanks felt like just a town, not too exciting there.

We rode the Al Can highway on a bus and it was mostly amazing and beautiful, though would have been way more awesome if we had rented a land cruiser or a big jeep and and drove ourselves ...

 

[Thebobo]

Drove up the Alaskan Highway from British columbia back with some friends when it was still a dirt road. Spent the summer in Alaska, mostly in Kenai, working at Salmon Canneries in Kenia and backpacking in Danilia.

Alaska is SOOOO big and there is so much to do with a week I would stick to one or two areas. I personally hate the tourist traps, do some research and rent a car and see it on your own. And there is always next year. I went back to see the some of the spots I missed the first couple times albeit I was more of a tourist rental car etc.

 

[Thebobo]

Drove up the Alaskan Highway from British columbia back with some friends when it was still a dirt road. Spent the summer in Alaska, mostly in Kenai, working at Salmon Canneries in Kenia and backpacking in Danilia.

Alaska is SOOOO big and there is so much to do with a week I would stick to one or two areas. I personally hate the tourist traps, do some research and rent a car and see it on your own. And there is always next year. I went back to see the some of the spots I missed the first couple times albeit I was more of a tourist rental car etc.

 

[KMFJD]

Drove up the Alaskan Highway from British columbia back with some friends when it was still a dirt road. Spent the summer in Alaska, mostly in Kenai, working at Salmon Canneries in Kenia and backpacking in Danilia.

Alaska is SOOOO big and there is so much to do with a week I would stick to one or two areas. I personally hate the tourist traps, do some research and rent a car and see it on your own. And there is always next year. I went back to see the some of the spots I missed the first couple times albeit I was more of a tourist rental car etc.

I'm planning on driving up to Inuvik next year, if i have time i might stop head to Denali, google says its a 11-12 hour drive so it's possible.

 

[RossMAN]

Thanks for the link. We're looking for a Mediterranean cruise for my mom. Comparing that site to Costco's cruise site they have some dates cheaper while Costco has other dates cheaper so we may end up booking through there depending on when we go. (Seems to be about a $200 swing depending on dates and Costco cash card value)

You're welcome but we use it for finding the right itinerary and ignore the prices.

We normally comparison shop between CostCotravel.com, AAA.com and CruiseCompete.com

That website is especially helpful if you want to specify ports to visit, avoid or depart from. You can also pick the cruise lines, dates of voyage, among other criteria. We love to cruise the Caribbean and sometimes want to visit St Kitts, Antigua and Barbados departing from San Juan ... in cases like that it's incredibly useful.

 

[skyking]

I've flown around up there a couple of times.
I'd fly into Anchorage in September, rent a nice rig, go see Denali for a few days, go back and get a room in Anchorage, drive down to Seward
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Anchorage,+AK/Seward,+AK/@60.6566824,-150.5587521,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x56c8917604b33f41:0x257dba5aa78468e3!2m2!1d-149.9002778!2d61.2180556!1m5!1m1!1s0x56c79b6ef22affc5:0x5be160c236d211bf!2m2!1d-149.4422222!2d60.1041667!3e0
and take the Kenai Fjords boat tour.
http://www.kenaifjords.com/?gclid=CJCX-rffks4CFRWUfgodc1sOIQ

Those are a couple of suggestions.
Personally, I think September is fine. Have a great time.

 

[piasabird]

Bear Hunting on Kodiak Island. Gold Mining? Hiking on trails, getting eaten by bears, fishing for salmon, going to a land-locked resort lake by bi-plane, Glacier excursions, Fishing for Halibut our on a boat or a sight seeing tour on a boat to see wildlife. Mount Denali as others have said. Visit Glacier Lake. Digging for clams at high tide. Skiing and other winter sports might only be possible at that time in the extreme northern areas. There is also sight seeing and nice scenic rides on Kenai peninsula. Just driving around in much of Alaska in the south might be nice. Sometimes you can ride the train north from Juneau to anchorage if there has not been an avalanche covering the tracks.

 

[piasabird]

Much of the alkan highway is still dirt and rock road. I drove from Anchorage to to St Louis, through Canada in the Mid 80's. It is a difficult road to travel in good weather with a sturdy vehicle. It eats up trailers.

 

[skyking]

Much of the alkan highway is still dirt and rock road. I drove from Anchorage to to St Louis, through Canada in the Mid 80's. It is a difficult road to travel in good weather with a sturdy vehicle. It eats up trailers.

A lot has changed since the mid 80s 🙂
https://www.themilepost.com/features/faq-driving-the-alaska-highway

 

[KMFJD]

A lot has changed since the mid 80s 🙂
https://www.themilepost.com/features/faq-driving-the-alaska-highway

It looks paved according to Google maps and streetview...

 

[Bacstar]

I drove the Alcan back in 2005, and it was all paved. There may be spots where parts of the road may be missing due to road work. Frost heaves are pretty bad, so you have to pay attention or you may find yourself flying in the air or bottoming out your vehicle.

September is late in the season. Most of the touristy stuff starts to shut down, so be sure to look at the schedules for any of the tours. Labor Day seems to be the cutoff date. Also temperatures start turning on to the cooler side, especially nights.

Edit: if the trains are still going, I'd definitely do the train from Denali to Anchorage. When I had my entire family visiting me from California, surprisingly, the teenagers thought it was pretty awesome.

http://www.goalaskatours.com/

http://www.akcruiseshuttle.com/seward/

If you just want to rent a car and drive, I recommend the drive down to Seward which is about a 2-3 hour drive. Homer is about a 5-6 hour drive. If you want to go the other direction, Denali is a 3-5 hour drive, I think. It's been awhile since I went there. This time of year is pretty good for driving because like I said earlier, tourist season is coming to an end, so not as many RV's tying up the roads slowing everyone down. Also, the leaves are starting to change color.

 

[Thebobo]

Much of the alkan highway is still dirt and rock road. I drove from Anchorage to to St Louis, through Canada in the Mid 80's. It is a difficult road to travel in good weather with a sturdy vehicle. It eats up trailers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway The highway was opened to the public in 1948.[1] Legendary over many decades for being a rough, challenging drive, the highway is now paved over its entire length.[2]

Thats me on Left.

 

[Leros]

My dad isn't really too interested in a cruise. I did a small Alaskan cruise about 10 years ago and loved it. Saw a lot of ocean wildlife, glaciers, great scenery, etc.

Here's the rough plan I've come up with. We're gonna flesh out as we go.

Day 1: fly into fairbanks
Day 2-3: Fairbanks (see the area, fishing, flightseeting, etc)
Day 4-5: Drive to Denali and spend a few days there
Day 6-8: Drive to Anchorage (see the coast, afternoon cruise, glacier, flightseeing, etc)

Are the 8 hour bus rides in Denali worth it? It seems like you see some amazing things and the bus ride is the only way to do it?

 

[piasabird]

Around Denali they use to try to limit Car Traffic due to pollution. I dont know what the case is now. I use to work in an army camp near anchorage. I worked on the 3rd floor of an office building on base and you could see Denali on a clear day from there. It was common to see Moose and bald eagles and feel an occasional earth quake. Most of the quakes originate out at sea. The fault lines run right off the coast.

One day we saw some doll sheep down on the Kenai peninsula highway when we went for a ride. They are usually on the mountain cliffs way up near the top of the mountains. Be careful. If you are looking up you cant drive, so just pull over.

 

[Leros]

Around Denali they use to try to limit Car Traffic due to pollution. I dont know what the case is now. I use to work in an army camp near anchorage. I worked on the 3rd floor of an office building on base and you could see Denali on a clear day from there. It was common to see Moose and bald eagles and feel an occasional earth quake. Most of the quakes originate out at sea. The fault lines run right off the coast.

One day we saw some doll sheep down on the Kenai peninsula highway when we went for a ride. They are usually on the mountain cliffs way up near the top of the mountains. Be careful. If you are looking up you cant drive, so just pull over.

It seems that I'll be able to drive to Denali, just not very far into the park. For that, it seems like I'll need to take a bus or shuttle.