Advice for 1st timers to Alaska? Cruise and Land?

My best friend and I are planning to travel in June, 2007, to Alaska. I have been doing reseach to determine if Mosquitos are really an issue to make us think we should go another year in July. What do you think? It seems like ';coalminer'; explained it well - some years are worse than others and just plan on bringing Beetle Juice from REI.

However, we don%26#39;t want it to ruin our trip. Do you think it will?

Secondly, we have been advised to travel by land and then by cruise ship to get the best taste of Alaska since it%26#39;s only a 2 week trip. What ';must sees'; would you recommend by land? Any preference on which cruise line we should choose? Is there a better cruise line that doesn%26#39;t have much smoking? Or is there such a thing as a no smoking cruise?

Sorry to sound so picky - but it%26#39;s a lot of money and my most expensive trip yet. I love to travel, but am used to having my own car! :)

Thanks!

Advice for 1st timers to Alaska? Cruise and Land?

HI there! Gee, I sure wouldn%26#39;t worry about the mosquitos enough to change or cancel a trip - nuisance they can be, but that%26#39;s about it. There are some summers I hardly even put on the bug spray . . . but once we stayed in an area where they were so bad, we got up early and started driving to leave that area - we just couldn%26#39;t sleep as they were so irritating! Boggy areas are the worst, and areas with a slight wind have a definite advantage. So, camping wisely if you are doing that, and pack the bug dope - June is my favorite month, so I would say yes, do come!

I don%26#39;t know about cruise lines - you can search here and see what folks prefer or also go to cruisecritic.com to see what is being said there - I have heard that is very helpful. I don%26#39;t know about non-smoking cruises - sounds like an excellent idea to me, and probably only a matter of time in the industry, as many hotels are going smoke free as well. I have only seen the SE of Alaska from the ferry and where you can drive - Haines and Hyder. I love the SE - lush, green rainforest country with spectacular mountains and amazing marine wildlife, just to name a few things to enjoy there.

As far as land, it%26#39;s more difficult because the terrain varies dramatically - if I were planning a trip, it would include Anchorage, Seward, Homer, Denali Park, Fairbanks and a drive up the Glenn Hiway - including all the stops along the way, but that would be impossible to do in just a week. Much of your choices would depend on the activities you want to do and the types of things you want to see. It might be helpful for you to read some previous trip reports - see what others enjoyed doing with the time that they had. Best of luck with your planning! :)

Advice for 1st timers to Alaska? Cruise and Land?

You say you are used to having your own car, but you know you can rent a car and drive around Alaska for your second week, right?

Lighthousegirl, I agree with Coalminer. I too wouldn%26#39;t cancel visiting Alaska because of mosquitoes. We travel all over Alaska every summer and never ever had such problems with mosquitoes that we regretted being there or wouldn%26#39;t want to return over and over again. Our trips were never ruined by anything or anyone. We always spend majority of our time outside and never had any problems in Alaska.. Although I do not consider mosquitoes to be a problem. They are just there and we need to live with them by being prepared.

One time when we were in Denali mid-June we took a day trip to Kantishna area and were almost attacked by hordes of these pests. I also heard many times from other visitors about mosquitoes in Kantishna and Wonder Lake during June. Yet, I would never cancel a trip to Alaska for this reason. If you ever visited Georgia mountains you know there are mosquitoes and other annoying pests. If you ever travel to Florida you know how annoying mosquitoes can be there. If you ever visited Northeast in May/June you may encounter black flies. Nothing is as bad as chiggers, IMO. Wherever you travel there is always something we can complaint about. We all just have to learn to live with variety of pests. Keep in mind that mosquitoes in Alaska are endless food for birds, birds are food for other wildlife and many of us travel to Denali to see wildlife.

Nonetheless, I always recommend to those traveling in June to Denali NP taking the shuttle only to Fish Creek to avoid the area in the end of the road where majority of Alaskan mosquitoes sometimes congregate in June.

Don%26#39;t wait another year to visit Alaska. As soon as you arrive in Anchorage get all you need to protect yourself from annoying pests.

If you have only one week for visiting Alaska after your cruise you may focus on one place on Kenai Peninsula. I suggest you read posts here on Homer and Seward and chose destination that appeals to you the most. You may spend there 3 nights, then 3 nights in Denali National Park and 1 night in Anchorage. You really won%26#39;t we able to see more if you have only one week. Too bad.

As to cruising I cannot help you with it because we did it only once and decided this in not how we want to revisit Alaska. However, there are many tourists coming to Alaska on cruises and they love it. If you decide to take cruise I suggest booking a cabin with a balcony and taking a cruise that is 100% non-smoking. I understand your smoking dilemma. I had a problem with smokers who smoked outside but ignored a fact that smokes travel a great distance and we could smell it and unfortunately were forced to inhale it too. I hope there are cruises by now that do not allow smoking at all. For us this is another reason to always travel independently and renting a car is the answer. You may also consider renting RV.

Thanks so much to Coalminer and Places for taking the time to write me back. We will continue our plans to come in June!

I%26#39;ve experienced many types of things in my traveling to lighthouses all over the USA and realize you just have to adjust to whatever situation you are faced with. I was just overly concerned that these mosquitos were AWFUL in Alaska compared to other places I%26#39;ve been on the various trips to east and west coasts. I feel MUCH better! Thanks! I am excited about going in June - I think it%26#39;ll be absolutely beautiful!

I will take your advice about the cities mentioned and get busy making a plan. It sounds like we are gonna want to return to Alaska after this first trip and take in more sights!

Too bad there isn%26#39;t a no smoking cruise - how nice that would be for us asthma sufferers. :)

Lighthouse girl

The land travel has been covered so well that I can only encourage you to rent a vehicle for that portion of your trip!

For the sea to see the lighthouses side of the journey, one thing that often gets overlooked is the ferry system, which serves the same area traversed by the cruise ships. You will get to see the same scenery as the cruise crowd only you are deprived of the casino and most of the smoke scene. The last I looked, the smoking on the Alaska Marine Highway is strictly limited to a small bar area which has a good vent system which I understand is sent back with the exhaust for outprocessing!?! You can look up the state ferry system on the internet or they have a toll free number which you can call from anywhere in the US. I do not have it handy but if you cannot find it on here, information has it under 800 directory.

Come see us! DD

I%26#39;ll third Coalminer and Places about the mosquitoes. When I visited Denali in late June the mosquitoes only got to be a problem once (on the trail up Mt. Healy). I just put on a head net thingy and in a few minutes the mosquitoes went away. Just put on some bug juice and you%26#39;ll (most likely) be covered. The critter I%26#39;d be worried about is the black fly, rather worse than the mosquitoes, but I don%26#39;t know how prominent they are in June (I didn%26#39;t meet any).

Since you only have a week to see the mainland, you ought to only visit one or two of the places Coalminer mentioned; even if you just go to one place you%26#39;ll feel like you%26#39;re just skimming the surface. Since you would have already seen the marine environment on your cruise; glaciers, fjords, and such like; you may want to go inland towards Denali or an area like that.

To find a cruise I would buy a guidebook outlining the offerings in Alaska. On my recent trip to the Mediterranean I got 鈥楩rommer鈥檚 European Cruises and Ports of Call鈥? It outlined all the cruiselines in the Med, their specific cruises, and really helped me get an idea of what to do and where to go. I believe Frommers has a similar book for Alaska.

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