Lodging in Seward or Cooper

We%26#39;re traveling to area next July with 6 adult children (not kids) and tried to get in Princess Lodge but couldn%26#39;t for the first night. Would it be worth it?nuts to check in town for one night and then to Princess for 2 nights? We are mostly going to hike. Are the two areas different? Our cruise ends in Seward and we want to spend another 3 ddays together before everyone takes for for different parts of US. Any other suggestions for other areas to hike, and/or raft that is nice (but not as expensive as Alyeska Prince Hotel) ?

Some get seasick easily, is the Fjords cruise rough? I have read that it is.

Lodging in Seward or Cooper

We have stayed at Alaska Mountain View Cabins which is near the Princess Lodge on kenai.....they have half a dozen cabins, in a very private setting.....hosts can provide you with maps for hiking area trails, books for flower and mushroom identification, and can even arrange a fishing or rafting trip if you get tired of hiking......Don%26#39;t know what your budget is, but the cabins are extremely comfortable and quite a luxury to return to after a day of slogging on the trails or rafting !!

Lodging in Seward or Cooper

I would suggest you first choose where you want to spend your time - Seward, Cooper Landing, or both. With 3 full days you can enjoy both. Also, with that many people you can separate and enjoy different activities.

You don%26#39;t need to decide about the Fjords cruise in advance. You can just go to the Harbormaster%26#39;s office in the small boat harbor in Seward in the morning, find out about the weather and expected roughness for the day, and decide whether you want to do the cruise that day.

From Seward you can go to Exit Glacier. There are several short easy trails there and there is an amazing full day strenous trail to the Harding Icefield, so you can separate here and everyone can enjoy the trails they like.

From Cooper Landing we did a nice easy hike to the Russian River Falls. We saw the salmon trying to jump up the falls and a bear came out to the river for a minute. There are many other hiking possibilities in that area.

Here is a nice site with hiking trails reviews: www.akhs.atfreeweb.com/search_hikes.htm

Seward lodging - www.sewardak.org/dir_staydine.asp?ID=56

Cooper Landing lodging - www.cooperlandingchamber.com/lodging.shtml and www.kenaipeninsula.org/Cooper_Landing.asp

(We stayed at the Hutch B%26amp;B, which is an inn with 12 rooms. We had a nice comfortable large room, free continental breakfast, about 3 minutes drive from the Princess Lodge where we had a great dinner.)

This feedback is very helpful. We thought we could stay in Cooper Landing and easily get to Seward. We will have a van. Is that wrong? Have any of you heard of Alaska Heavenly Valley lodge? They have a 4 bedrrom cabin that we could rent out. I want nice, not dirty or dreary. Rustic is ok. We have a decent budget, not as much as the Japanese lodge, but we could do Princess Lodge, but can%26#39;t get a reservation for the first night. Not sure if this cabin could be better, have the whole thing and a kitchen and hassle with moving over, or if the Princess Lodge is much better. Any feedback?

Thanks for info on buying tickets that day so that we can see weather. Do they get sold out?

Have you looked at any of the accomodations in Moose Pass? It%26#39;s between Cooper Landing and Seward. See www.moosepassalaska.com.

There are probably more people in July, but when we went in the middle of August our large boat was about half full. There are different boat companies, shorter vs. longer tours, small vs. large boats. If you figure out in advance what kind of tour and what kind of boat you want you will know which to reserve in the morning, rather than wasting time talking to all of them. Offices for most of them are lined up next to each other in the harbor.