First timers and need advice!

Drive right, drive right. They will call you a Bloody Brit if you don't. Driving an RV is straight forward. They have an automatic trans and all you do is pick the center of the hood and line it up with the right side of the road. Do everything you can as it makes the best memories you'll ever have. You will never see anyplace as beautiful. My wife live in Austria and it still was'nt as pretty, I guess it was just crowded feeling.Ask the locals. They will be excited to talk to a Brit and are very helpful. Remember Alaska is huge, have fun and take plenty of Bug killer.

I would go to Denali, then drop back down to the Denali hwy that goes across to Tangle lakes. Denali hwy is dirt but scenery and wildlife is great.( I spent 3 days crossing it) Tangle lakes to Chitna then on to Valdez. Ferry to whittier. Camp at portage glacier campground.. Down the Kenai hwy to Hope AK. near the Seward turnoff. Look For rafters on Six mile creek. Best white water in AK. Before departing, you have to show you can swim through a 39 degree rapid and save yourself in an eddy wearing a crash helmet and dry suite.. Last leg of trip, after resting and some power food, ( if you are deemed good enough to do the last leg by the guide) is 2 miles of paddle or die with the guide screaming orders and you are mostly under water. The climax is a water fall. Did it twice at 62 yrs old. After that the rest of the trip is your choice.

"Cheaper Day trips"....if it's not too late

- Take a trip to Hatcher Pass (near Anchorage); lots of hiking opportunities and a fair amount of history

- Spend a day or so in Talkeetna; Funkytown Alaska

- The drive to Chitina would be good. I would not recommend taking a rented RV to McCarthy even if your rental contract allows it: as posted above, to avoid tire issues, a slow trip is necessary and that will chew up most of a day coming and going.

- Take a trip to Tok.....different scenery.

- Whittier is neat; hiking and boating activities

- There are lots of options for fishing trips on the road system (Anchorage - Fairbanks) ranging from fully guided (do everything except bite the hook for you) to drop offs (where you are literally dropped off)

- Rent a canoe and paddle the roadside lakes

- On the Glenn Highway (Los Anchorage to Glenallen), lots of hiking trails. Just have to watch for the signs at the roadside.


Kind of hard to do many of the activities cheaply during a quick trip.....reason to come back.

Alternatively (if it's not too late), you might want to consider driving in to Chitna while you're on the way down the Richardson Hwy. headed to Valdez. This would give you the opportunity to spend a day driving in to McCarthy and then visiting the Kennicott Mine at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The old village has been, to some extent, restored by the National Park Service and is well worth the visit. And the scenery is great on the drive in from Chitna. We've done it a couple of times and never had a tire problem, taking 3+ hours each way for the drive in from Chitna. That included ample time for photo stops, etc. It's a beautiful example of Alaska's history.

Gotta agree ... Glenallen isn't the most intriguing spot compared to other Alaska locations.

Valdez is one of my favourite spots when the sun is shining BUT when it is raining it is our favourite place to avoid. If weather isn't with you, it might be worth turning right towards Anchorage rather than continuing to Valdez on the Richardson Highway. Then do your Prince William Sound cruise from Whittier. Whittier is an interesting spot too and the six-minute drive through the tunnel to get there is especially intriguing.

http://suethomas.ca/20100829_KingMtn-Whittier.html

Thanks for your help! Think we are now not staying in Glenallen. - spending extra day in Seward doing a glacier hike onto Exit Glacier. trying to find a place to do glacier kayaking, arctic bus trip etc Activities seem expensive - any ideas on cheaper day trips??! Getting very excited now! Hope I can drive an RV ok!

You said substitutions were welcome....

I'm weird...I love to hang out in the Glenallen- Copper Center-Gulkana area in the winter time; that's real, honest-to-goodness Alaska with temps in the -30's and -40's, air so clear that Sanford and Drumm look like they are 10 feet away, and the snow squeaks underfoot.

...that being said, for a summertime visit, I don't know that Glenallen justifies a day...presuming your itinerary means that. I'd stay longer in Valdez, maybe bomb up to Tok and back, and/or spend a few more hours in Los Anchorage on your way to Girdwood or spend more time in Girdwood/Portage/Indian, etc.

For a tourist, unless you have a specific activity planned, Glenallen isn't worth spending one of your few days upon.

All IMNSHO.

Thanks guys! Overwhelming responses and lots of wonderful ideas for me to go and research!
Not sure we are going to have time to get to everything but very excited!
Dont think we can get to Kenai which is a shame is itinery is looking like this (any others of substitutions etc welcome!)
1 - Anchorage
2 - Talkeetna
3 - Denali
4 and 5 - Fairbanks
6 - Tangle Lake
7 - Valdez
8 - cruise to Prince William Sound and 2nd night in Valdez
9 - Glenallen
10 - Girdwood
11 and 12- Seward
13 - Maybe exit glacier but not sure if we have time or where to park up
14 - anchorage

Thanks for all your help!!!!

Holly :-)

As you already must know, two weeks is a very short time in Alaska! We have spent six summers there and still haven’t seen it all BUT we have done quite a bit. We have had family and friends come visit us for 2 weeks at a time. Both flew in and out of Anchorage so I made plans as follows:

Day 1: Fly to Anchorage
Day 2: Tour Anchorage
Day 3: Drive to Denali (235 miles)
Day 4: Tour Denali National Park in bus to Eilson Center
Day 5: Drive to Fairbanks (122 miles)
Day 6: Discovery River boat tour
Day 7: Fly/Drive Coldfoot Arctic Circle or tour Fairbanks on your own
Day 8: Drive to Wasilla (313 miles)
Day 9: Drive to Seward (168 miles)
Day 10: Boat tour to Kenai Fjords National Park
Day 11: Drive to Homer (170 miles)
Day 12: Tour Homer
Day 13: Drive to Anchorage (226 miles)
Day 14: Fly home

Worked out pretty well and can be adjusted based on your priorities, etc. Strongly consider buying the Alaska TourSavers Book which consists of two-for-one tickets to many attractions. Example: If you go on whale watching/glacier tour to Kenai Fjords NP, tickets cost $100 up/pp. Book costs $99 so one trip pays for the book. Can be ordered on-line ahead of time so you can study and decide which coupons are worth while for your trip.

Denali NP is a must as far as we are concerned (even if you don’t see the mountain); they have an excellent sled dog show where you can meet the dogs and see demo on dirt. Fairbanks also has numerous attractions including the Discovery Boat trip (coupon in the book). Highly recommend this trip for a number of reasons and it does include a brief boat visit to Susan Butcher (famous musher) kennels. The Kenai Peninsula is one of our favorite places in Alaska. A boat tour to the glaciers is a must (coupon in book); this is done out of Seward which has a really great city campground looking out on Resurrection Bay. We also really like Homer; the Spit is a site to behold.

I have probably given you way more information than you wanted but I would like to add one last thing. A flight tour out of Fairbanks to Coldfoot or even Prudhoe Bay are also high on my list of must do’s. They don’t come cheap BUT they give you an entirely different perspective of this huge state.

We too love Valdez but it is a little ‘out of the way’ requiring more driving. When our friends came in 2006 we followed the above and then when they came again in 2012, we skipped Fairbanks drove to Valdez and then took ferry to Kenai. We also did Lake Clark NP (you can do it for the day or overnight) and got to see lots of brown bears grazing on grass!

Hope your trip is wonderful but be forewarned you may fall in love with the place (like us) and return again and again. PM me if you have specific questions. Will be happy to try and help.

Diann

To see some huskys, in Fairbanks ask at the Rivers Edge Campground, several mushers have summer programs, in Seward, the Seavy (sp) family has a summer show/program, give rides, etc. years ago I bought some running dogs from Mitch Seavy. Several more mushers in the Wasilla/Palmer/Talkeetna area. Most of the towns will have a visitors center, so stop in and ask as many dog drivers in northern Canada and Alaska.