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| Alaska - An unforgettable experience! |
Type
Adventure | Fortnight Vacation | Photography | Nature
Alaska Maps - Rail/Road Maps Reference
When you start planning your travel, a very important thing that you have to consider is what regions are you willing to visit. The content here is just from South central Alaska. Each of these regions take a week - 10 days to explore at a minimum.
Popular Landmark
You will not need a landmark, when you see Exquisite Glaciers, an Abundance of Wildlife, Mesmerizing Landscapes, Gushing Streams which make you feel alive once again, you know you are in Alaska!
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| Bear Glacier |
Accessibility Comments
A flight into Anchorage is how you reach South Central Alaska. Get ready for an enthralling experience that begins with your flights approach to landing into the valley of Glaciers!
Travelling to places of your choice may have multiple options -
Alaska Railroad - Best way to see the interiors in a relaxed way. Do not miss at least one trip & once you are on one, don't forget the on-board dining!* You will love trip in and out of Seward.
Rental cars - Anchorage airport and Spenard road has rental offices. It is advisable to rent your cars from Anchorage for a visit to this part of Alaska. If you have any doubts about renting a car, bury them right away. We did a road trip to Denali, it was out of the world, You will have viewpoints/parking space on your way to stop and admire nature - Do look for these stops.
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| Anchorage - Seward on Railroad |
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| Shared Rail & Road tunnel en-route Whittier |
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| Glacial Landing! |
Choppers & Float-planes - You will need Choppers to go to places inaccessible by any other way, like Kayaking and it is also a great way to sight-see giving you a view of the most inaccessible places and hence a sneak-peak into the rarest of flora and fauna.
You will need the seaplane if you are planning to visit brooks lodge, Katmai. The place where you see the bears catching flying salmons.
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| Glacier breaking into the Sea - Prince William Sound, Whittier |
Hiking, Climbing, Kayaking, Biking are a few other ways in which we can explore Alaska if you are a little adventurous.
Main Attractions
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| Seals resting on an Iceberg -They are very shy, getting very close can drive them away and worse, younger ones can be lost! |
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| Moose & its Baby @ Denali |
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| Willow Ptarmigan - Alaskan state bird |
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| Arctic ground squirrel |
Alaska leaves us overawed with its lavish nature and an abundance of wonderful things to do.
Cruises, Heli-hiking, Kayaking, Ice Climbing, Glacier landings, Road/Rail trips, Biking, Hiking, Wildlife watching, Fishing and the list is endless. Be assured, however long is your stay in Alaska, you will always have something more left to do!
Ice Climbing
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| Josh - Our Ice Climbing Guide |
We went for the trip with Exit Glacier Guides and must confess our guides Josh & Steve were really good.
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| Kayaking among Icebergs |
Looking at the pictures we imagine silence, to the contrary, we discovered that ice bergs are actually very noisy. Care should be taken to not to get too close to huge ones, they turn and create huge waves and suction. Always paddle straight up facing a wave of you face one. Found Resurrection bay better than Aialik bay. We were again lucky to have a wonderful guide in James and a chopper pilot with great sense of humor!
Katmai National Park
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| Flying Salmon at Katmai |
Valley of thousand smokes has an interesting story.If you decided to visit Alaska when you saw bears plucking Salmon flying in air, then this is your place! This is an unrestricted bear zone and you may find yourself taking bath with a bear himself. :) You must take care not to carry food, an introduction to Brooks lodge includes these directions.
Reaching Brooks lodge/Katmai can be a little expensive, make sure you book flights to King Salmon well in advance.
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| Pacific Sea Lion |
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| Seaward Sea life Center |
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| Puffins @ Sea Life Center |
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| JellyFish @ Sea Life Center |
This is a place in the heart of the city and it is actually a facility for Sea life to recuperate and recover if they are not well. If you are here with kids, they will love this place for sure. You can actually touch some rare underwater plants and algae on display, admire a gorgeous octopus change its shape to baffle you or hear a sea lion growl at you. You may visit this place to cool off after an arduous day.
Seward port to be a pretty nice place to be at sunset, watching the sun slide down the hills can give you a photographic moment or two! Overlooking the main town is Mount Marathon and an early morning climb is quite enjoyable. There is an interesting race that happens on 4th of July when participants actually race up the hill and back.
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| A Baby bear in Katmai |
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| Denali |
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| Dall Sheep @ Denali |
We did a road trip to Denali and it was perhaps one of my best drives ever! The route from Anchorage to Denali is breathtakingly beautiful and on a good day, you even get a glimpse of Mt. Denali to the left. There are many points to stop, our recommendation would be to stop at each of them weather permitting. There are camp grounds and Biking tracks on the way just in case you take that choice!
A safari in Denali on bus will give you a chance to see wildlife close to nature but you should essentially carry a binocular, without which you will not be really able to observe objects at a distance. We should be alert always to tell the guides to stop when we see something. It may help if you are familiar with the clock way of indicating directions. For example, something exactly to your right is at 3 O'clock and a little ahead would be at 2 O'clock.
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| World war II bunker off Seward shore |
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| White Sided Dolphin |
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| Sea Otter @ Seward |
A secret to a wonderfully planned holiday is how you pace the things to do. After another of those taxing rowing or climbing experiences, you should take a evening cruise and relax. This is no less exciting than any other activities that you do. In fact you may actually see Dolphins, Whales, scores of different types of birds, fish and our favorite animal on the trip - the sea otter. It floats about near the shores typically, almost as if it is relaxing on a couch! Do look for these adorable creatures, you would love `em too!
View from a Floatplane near Katmai
Time to Visit
- Alaska opens up to tourists in Summers.
- The best time is June especially if you want to watch bears fishing for Salmon swimming upstream to breed. Its a treat to watch.
- Winters are the best time to see Auroras, chances of seeing one starting looking up starting September.
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| A Seward Sunset |
Places to Stay
Places are super expensive, be it any. A few ways to save if you are thinking of it are -
- Check for locals renting out spaces and camping grounds
- Spenard international hostel, Anchorage was our base. Was pretty cost effective by comparison and is quite an experience as has a motley bunch of people with plenty of stories every time you visit.
- Look for group deals or coupons which give you discounted stay.
- In Seward we stayed at Van Gilder, it is in the heart of the town and Tour Saver coupons apply.
- Denali was perhaps where you will get the best accommodation. We stayed at McKinley Chalet resort which was surrounded by the hills and the river flowing by the side to give you company and with a pretty good restaurant. Our recommendation due to its location, services and the option to club the package with a train ticket too will be the Princess Wilderness lodge! The McKinley lodge and Denali Park Village are other good options.
Food
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| Yukon Bar, Seward |
Village Inn, Spenard Road, Anchorage is supposed to be a breakfast place. We had our every meal there as we loved the place! Map
Apollo is a lovely Seafood/Greek/Italian restaurant near the Sea Life center in Seward. Map
Yukon Bar, Seward is very lively and has quite a history too, do visit!
Food in Denali is generally very good & you would want to have it mostly in your resort. The in-house restaurants have beautiful seating areas and it is a lovely experience to have nature cradle you, while you enjoy your food.
Must Carry
- Dressing up in layers is something that works well for extreme cold conditions - Long underwear, Woolen Caps, Woolen Socks, Warm shoes, Eye protection, Jackets - Down filled ones are lightweight and take up less space.
- A camera and zoom lens preferably!
- A first Aid kit with hydrating options
- Torchlight
- Raincoat/Change of clothes
- A scarf/Sun Cap/Sunscreen/Moisturizer
- Hydration bags if you plan on Hiking/Trekking
- Dry food
TIPs
- Buy a Toursaver coupon book (Mobile app available) to avail best deals, you may try partial coupon sellers online.
- Try the lovely on-board dining in Alaska railroad.
- Please carry water on the Safari.
- Gas up at Anchorage or main towns, prices can be very steep inland and gas stations rare.
Rating
★★★★★★★★★★
A once in a life time experience!
A once in a life time experience!
(Based on Accessibility, Lodging, Food, Key Attractions, Time to visit, Safety)
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| Signing Off with much love from a Humpback whale! |
