4 Adults, 6 Kids, 9 Days

Each year we make an annual ';Camping Cousins'; trip and in June 2007 we will be travelling to Alaska. My sister in law and I do lots of planning ahead of time and have come up with the following tenative itinerary for our group. The kids range in age from 16-11. Does this itinerary seem to make sense? Any recommendations for change?

10 - Fly from Seattle to ANC (arrive 1:30pm) rent RV from Great Alaskan Holidays / Get groceries in Anchorage / Drive to Teklanika Campground in Denali.

11- Take the early morning bus in Denali

12- Day in Denali

13- Visit Dog Demo in Denali and Drive therough Fairbanks and on to North Pole

14 - Drive to Palmer Area (See Alaska Pipeline and Mantanuska Glacier along the way)

15 - Drive to Seward

16 - Day in Seward (Possible Activities: Sea Life Center / Kayaking / Day Cruise) Suggestions?

17 - Drive to Anchorage and return RV in the morning (possible or too far to make it back for morning drop off?)

18 - Day in Anchorage (Rent Bikes?)

19 - Fly Home

Does it seem like too much in the time we have? Should we make changes?

Thank you for your help!! We are SO excited about this trip.... it%26#39;s all we can talk about!!!

4 Adults, 6 Kids, 9 Days

What do you have planned for when you are in Fairbanks/North Pole? You can see the pipeline from a very nice viewing area just a few miles north of town (Fairbanks). Are you not even spending a day here or are you getting here one day and leaving the next? If so, you are doing a lot of driving without seeing any of the things tourists come this far north to see.

4 Adults, 6 Kids, 9 Days

First let me say ';Thank you'; so much for taking the time to help me!! It%26#39;s nice to have experts on your side!!

For Fairbanks we did give some thought to visiting the University of Alaska campus and had talked a bit about the Riverboat cruise. But honestly, we had really put the emphasis on the idea of visiting the North Pole. (It just seemed like a neat thing to do) While there we wanted to visit the Santa Claus House and mail something to be postmarked ';North Pole';. If that%26#39;s not worth a look I%26#39;d definately be okay with spending that time elsewhere :)

We planned to spend the night somewhere around the North Pole and then take the Richardson Highway to the Glenn Highway and stop somewhere overnight along the way (Palmer maybe?) on our way to Seward. We were also wondering if the Richardson Highway was worth the trip down or would it be smarter to back track and head back down the Parks Highway to get to Seward. If we did the Parks highway back we could visit Talkeetna and catch a Flightseeing tour. That may be the better way to go unless we%26#39;re missing out by not including the Richardson and Glenn Highways on our travels.

As you can tell, we could definately use some advice on this trip and are certainly open to rearranging our itinerary. Any suggestions are welcome and I sure appreciate your taking the time out to help.

We did this trip in an RV but had three weeks. We didn%26#39;t even try Fairbanks. We went from Denali to Palmer, but the state fair was on then. Then we decided to go to Valdez. Beautiful drive, but we had planned on taking the ferry over to Whittier the next morning but couldn%26#39;t get reservations, so we just retraced our steps after an overnight there. I wouldn%26#39;t do this again.

It looks as if you are driving somewhere almost every day. In one day in Seward you will not have time for Sea Life AND glacier cruise AND kayaking. Seward has a city-run ';Waterfront Park'; where you literally park on the beach. They also have showers. we too the Kenjai Fjords 7-1/2 tour from here which stopped at Fox Island for a salmon bake lunch before we got to the glaciers.

I am assuming you have a copy of The Milepost, which has excellent maps giving distances by the mileposts which Alaska has been so smart to post on the highways. It also shows all of the attractions along the way.Distances there are deceiving. If you don%26#39;t have it, you can get it online....it is a necessity, believe me

On Day 1, by the time you pick up the RV, get checked out on it and check it out yourself, and buy groceries, you may not want to go all the way to Denali...237 miles. (And what if your plane is late?)

You could break this up by stopping at Talkeetna, 113 miles, (where they do flight seeing). There is RV parking in a city run park under trees by the river. River Park Campground.

Or you could stay overnight in Anchorage at the Anchorage RV Park, which is on the outskirts of town on a very large wooded site, with a nice lodge and showers and laundry facilities. It is across the road from the Alaska Heritage Site, which is worth a visit, with %26#39;living history%26#39; exhibits of the kinds of villages the natives lived in, etc. And then make the run to Denali the next day.

The drive to Fairbanks from there is 121 miles.

If it were my trip, I would skip Fairbanks and the ';North Pole';, which is certain to be touristy....Alaska residents can correct me if I am wrong, and slow down and allow yourself to stop along the way and see sights which are listed in the Milepost as you drive along. We were able to make a little detour to see Exit Glacier, which is really interesting...you walk up to it and ithey have marked where it was in previous years.

Gee, I don%26#39;t want to rain on your parade, but if it were I, I would slow down.

Whatever you do, it sounds like barrel-of-monkeys fun %26lt;grin%26gt;

OH...be sure you have lots and lots of groceries before you get to Denali. We had to survive for two days on stuff from convience stores.....all there is in that area.

A flight seeing tour would be really neat but if you are coming all this way, you should do that on the way up and return a different route in order to see the most. Santa Claus House IS neat though yes, ';tourist trap'; but what else would it be. It%26#39;s fun to mail stuff from there. Besides the Riverboat Discovery you can also check out gold panning at El Dorado Gold Mine, or Gold Dredge #8. Our new multi-million dollar museum at the University is awesome.

1srtimestar.

OK , but with the limited time they have, I wouldn%26#39;t spend it on river trips or fake tourist traps which they can do anywhere......just my opinion.

Much rather see the REAL Alaska.

The Riverboat Discovery explains a lot about the Alaska Native culture and Fairbanks history. They get to see a real, operational sled dog kennel, Susan Butcher%26#39;s actually, a bush plane take off and landing on the river, disembark into an Athebascan village and see several displays there, reindeer, have some smoked salmon, etc. Plus, I consider Fairbanks ';the real Alaska';.

And actually no, you can%26#39;t do North Pole anywhere but here.