Hi! My husband and I are coming to Alaska next June. We have planned a cruise for the first 7 days and will end up in Whittier. After then we are planning to spend the next 5 days in Alaska on our own. What I have kind of come up with is:
June 9- Transfer from boat to Anchorage to pick up rental car. Drive back down to Girdwood to spend the night at the Alyeska Prince Hotel (Is Seven Glaciers Restaurant worth the money?) and sightsee (Not sure about what all to do here?) or we may stay in Talkeetna at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, however, we would really like to do snowmobiling.
June 10- Glacier City Snowmobiling out of Girdwood. Then, drive towards Denali. Check-In at Denali Lakeview Inn, in Healy, that afternoon and either go back to explore around the entrance of the park and visitor%26#39;s center or stay around Lake Otto and rent some kayaks or something. Spend the night at Denali Lakeview Inn. (Dinner???)
June 11- Take shuttle into Denali Park. We aren%26#39;t sure if we should go to Fishing Creek or all the way into Wonder Lake???? Spend the night at Denali Lakeview Inn again. (Dinner ???)
June 12- Check out of DLI and go rafting- am. We arent%26#39;s sure which rafting trip is the best. We would like some whitewater but we want to enjoy scenery also. In the afternoon, we will drive back to Anchorage where we will have the rest of the afternoon and possibly part of the next day. We aren%26#39;t really sure of what is best to do in Anchorage. ???? We will probably hike around some of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail but don%26#39;t know what else. Spend the night at the Millenium Alaska Hotel.
June 13- Our flight will probably leave sometime on this day, however, we may actually end up leaving late late on the 13th or very very early on the 14th.
Also, during the cruise we will be stopping at Skagway, Juneau, Ketchican and possibly have some time in Seward- I can%26#39;t remember. If anyone has any suggestions about awesome things to do it would be greatly appreciated. We enjoy things that are outdoors and involve wildlife. We aren%26#39;t very big on museums and things like that.
Alaska Trip June 07???? Need SuggestionsI suggest going only to Fish Creek in June. Wonder Lake and Kantishna have tons of mosquitoes at that time.
Try to do search here on this forum and you%26#39;ll find all answers you need. I wouldn%26#39;t recommend staying in Millenium Hotel if you want to do things IN town. Yesterday I brought to the top my post ';Things to do in Anchorage.'; I bet you can find things that suits your interests out of 63 items on my list.
As to rafting in Denali, Colminer, who is a local expert on Denali often recommends going with one company. Check his posts.
If you don%26#39;t have your reservations in Denali Lakeview you may not be able to get your reservation there already. It became a very popular place but there are many other places that are not less appealing. For the first night I would stay in Anchorage and then next morning go from there to Girdwood for your snowmachining tour. There is in snowmobiling in Alaska. It is the same thing but known in Alaska as snowmachining.
If you do snowmachining in Girdwood in the morning, from there then drive to Denali you%26#39;ll be arriving late afternoon. It is going to be at least 6 hours drive if everything goes very smoothly but be prepared for delays caused by road construction, traffic, slow vehicles, scenery, stop for lunch. Do not forget to stop for scenery wherever your eyes and heart tell you to stop. So it is going to be a long day but doable. I wouldn%26#39;t count on exploring at the entrance of the park that evening.
Black Diamond Restaurant in Healy suppose to have a great food and is located on the same road where Lakeview Inn is located.
Too bad you won%26#39;t consider in Anchorage visiting Museum of History and Art and Native Heritage Center. Both are great introduction to culture and history of this amazing state.
Alaska Trip June 07???? Need SuggestionsHi there! For rafting in the Denali area, I would recommend Denali Outdoor center - they have the best reputation on the river as well as they offer a few different raft trips, so you can pick which you would prefer - check out their website ....www.denalioutdoorcenter.com.
For dinner, Black Diamond Grille is located on Otto lake road, right on the way to your lodging - they have great food. The only other place I would recommend in Healy is the Lunch Box . . . hopefully, she%26#39;ll open again this year - only food to go, but incredible rice bowls. :) There are more restaurants to choose from in the Denali Park area - right in glitter gulch area as well as south near Carlo creek. Depends how fancy or simple you want - near Carlo creek, I like McKinley Creekside cafe as well as 229 Parks. In glitter gulch, Bub%26#39;s Subs makes some great food, though this is very casual. I also enjoy the Princess%26#39;s Bistro for a less formal dinner - excellent seafood nachos. Any of the larger hotels have restaurants and have generally good food, though nothing unique. My favorite of the hotels is McKinley Riverview (I think that is the name) - ARA hotel - I think they offer the best for hotel food. I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck! :)
Hi There! Thank you Coalminer and Places for your suggestions so far. As far as staying in Talkeetna or Girdwood, if we decided to stay in Talkeetna would we have time on the 9th after we get off the ship and get the rental car to do the snowmachining and then go ahead and drive to Talkeetna. Or, do you recommend spending a little more time in the Girdwood area? Also, we have already gotten our reservations at Denali Lakeview Inn (which I am very excited about) and I have booked the Millenium Alaska Hotel also. I booked it through Hotwire so I can%26#39;t change it now. We will have a rental car so that we can get around though. I have looked at the things to do in Anchorage on your list and I am going to try to find out more about some of them. Is there anything in particular that is something we should not miss? Also, for the rafting, how cold is the water during June and are we going to freeze if we do the whitewater rafting?
Thanks again for your help! I hope I don%26#39;t end up sounding redundant with some of my questions but it is so hard to plan a vacation in a place that you have never been to before and really don%26#39;t know much about. We are so excited about this trip and want to enjoy what we decide to do because afterall it will probably be a while before we can go back.
Have a great Thanksgiving Holiday!!!
Oh yeah, I wanted to say that we aren%26#39;t against learning about the history and culture of Alaska, we would love to go to some places, however, we don%26#39;t want to spend the entire vacation in different museums. Thanks Places for suggesting doing some of that. I am sure that we will!
Happy Thanksgiving!
That would be a sad story to tell if you had to spend all your time in Alaska visiting museums. Alaska is all about outdoor activities but learning about its fascinating history and culture should be a part of every visitor%26#39;s itinerary.
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