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

Leros

Leros

Lifer
I asked my dad to take a trip with me and told him we could go anywhere, he picked Alaska. I think we're going to go beginning of September, which I know isn't the ideal time, but seems like it should still be fine.

He's 66. He's still able to get around, but he gets tired. An hour long hike would exhaust him.

I really haven't done too much research yet. What would make for a good 4-6 day trip?
 
Denali is the flagship national park. You could easily spend 4 days just in Denali. I only had 2 days there and regret that.
 
Have you considered a cruise? My wife and I just did an Alaskan cruise last year and it was awesome. Left from Seattle, to Juneau, went out whale watching and walked around the town - Took an awesome train ride in Skagway with the most unbelievable views I have ever seen, saw glaciers, visited Katchikan, and stopped and walked around Victoria B.C. on the way back. There are many different excursions you can do in each town that are available. A cruise is definitely the way to go if you really want to see lots of Alaska.
 
Denali, Valdez, fishing for Salmon, fishing in the bay, fishing for other species.
 
an old guy I used to work with went on an Alaskan cruise, and he loved it. I'd prefer a more feet on the ground experience, but a cruise would be nice.
 
Vaux said:
Have you considered a cruise? My wife and I just did an Alaskan cruise last year and it was awesome. Left from Seattle, to Juneau, went out whale watching and walked around the town - Took an awesome train ride in Skagway with the most unbelievable views I have ever seen, saw glaciers, visited Katchikan, and stopped and walked around Victoria B.C. on the way back. There are many different excursions you can do in each town that are available. A cruise is definitely the way to go if you really want to see lots of Alaska.
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  • Which month of the year did you go?
  • Do you think that's the best time? if you were to do it again, when would you go?
  • Which cruise line?
  • How many nights?
  • Would you recommend a shorter or longer trip?
  • Any ports you missed that you feel should be included in a trip?
 
GagHalfrunt said:
Being eaten by a grizzly bear would be a lifelong memory.
Click to expand...

K5r5Zy.jpg
 
lxskllr said:
an old guy I used to work with went on an Alaskan cruise, and he loved it. I'd prefer a more feet on the ground experience, but a cruise would be nice.
Click to expand...

With a north or southbound cruise you are in land for 6 out of 7 days. Alaska is port intensive and you are on land for 10-12, sometimes more those days.
 
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.
 
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DesiPower said:
  • Which month of the year did you go?
  • Do you think that's the best time? if you were to do it again, when would you go?
  • Which cruise line?
  • How many nights?
  • Would you recommend a shorter or longer trip?
  • Any ports you missed that you feel should be included in a trip?
Click to expand...

This is the trip we took - 7 day trip on Norwegian Pearl

https://www.ncl.com/cruises/7-day-g...=null&&itineraryCode=PEARL7SEAJNUSGYKTNVICSEA

- We left in mid August, I think it rained a little bit on one day, otherwise it was a great time to go, wasn't real cold at all. I don't know enough about it all to tell you when the best time is, but we were happy with August.

- The 7 days felt like it was long enough. We were able to pretty much see and do everything we wanted to do. I didn't really research any other ports, although I know there is a port in Sitka that our trip did not go to, but we were ok with that because it didn't seem much different than the other ports we went to.

- We did the Whale Watching and Wildlife Quest cruise excursion in Juneau, and the White Pass Scenic Railway in Skagway. Both were really cool.

- If you go to Katchikan, be sure to take a little walk up to Creek Street, to see the shops and all of the salmon in the stream.
 
I just did a week in Glacier Bay on a small boat and it was super awesome. It would probably be too active for what you described for your dad though. I noticed overall Glacier Bay is not very accessible at all unless you're being guided by someone else or are prepared to do some hard core camping. In Juneau we saw a ship branded UnCruise which was like 70 state rooms. Seems like that would be a good way to go to not have to deal with mass crowds, still see a lot, but for people with activity limitations. I think the SE is supposed to be very rainy in September though.
 
We spent a long weekend in Anchorage and drove the Seward Highway for two days. Gorgeous scenery and plenty of places to stop and walk around. I took one of the float planes while we were there. That was a lot of fun. In fact the pilot landed on the lake where the Palin's have their house so we could use the bathrooms and the Best Western.

We drove from Anchorage to the town (whatever it is called) One thing to know is that the roads are really rough. I mean the highways are rough, must be because everyone drives with chains in the winter. The Seward Highway is not rough though.
 
Vaux said:
Have you considered a cruise? My wife and I just did an Alaskan cruise last year and it was awesome. Left from Seattle, to Juneau, went out whale watching and walked around the town - Took an awesome train ride in Skagway with the most unbelievable views I have ever seen, saw glaciers, visited Katchikan, and stopped and walked around Victoria B.C. on the way back. There are many different excursions you can do in each town that are available. A cruise is definitely the way to go if you really want to see lots of Alaska.
Click to expand...

This.....

Check it out here
 
Another vote for an Alaska cruise but the best time of year weather/mosquito wise is May.

To find the right cruise ship and itinerary go here

Here are the choices I would pay attention to:
Choose a region ---> Alaska
From month to month - select the month/year you're interested in
min/max nights - 7 is fairly standard
Choose a cruise line - Holland America, Princess, Celebrity and Norwegian
Choose a port or place to visit - less is more
Choose a departure port - you'll see a lot more if you depart from Alaska or Vancouver, WA. If you do a Seattle, WA roundtrip trip a lot of time is wasted cruising but some people enjoy that, I don't.
 
DesiPower said:
  • Which month of the year did you go?
  • Do you think that's the best time? if you were to do it again, when would you go?
  • Which cruise line?
  • How many nights?
  • Would you recommend a shorter or longer trip?
  • Any ports you missed that you feel should be included in a trip?
Click to expand...

My wife and I went last year on Royal Carribean's Radiance of the seas and had a great time. Length of the cruise was about right although we did have to make some decisions about what to do and what not to do. I would have preferred a cruise up to Seward and then another week on land so we could spend time at places like Denali etc but I only have so much vacation time. A one week cruise + a one week land trip seemed like a pretty popular option from the people we talked to on the ship.

My short trip report if you're interested:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2436673

We aren't tied to cruise line brand but RC does have some quirks on their ships (like certain balconies being 2x the size of others in the same category) so if you go that route feel free to PM me and I'll share what I found.

We went in early June and we could not have hoped for better weather. Alaska weather is fickle though. Apparently for the people on the south bound trip it was nothing but rain and they had some high seas so a day or two can make quite a difference.

SKORPI0 said:
11. Catch A Glimpse Of The Northern Lights
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September will likely be more hit and miss than colder months as the colder months are darker. There are quite a few websites out there that will tell you how likely you are to see the Lights.
 
RossMAN said:
To find the right cruise ship and itinerary go here
Click to expand...

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)
 
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