Planning Alaska Trip

I would fly up and rent an RV in Anchorage. Check out Great Alaskan Holidays RV Rental company. http://www.greatalaskanholidays.com/
They are an awesome company with great customer service! Not cheap but if time is a problem, that's what I'd do. We rented the RV for 12 days and took in lots of the cities. Remember it takes 3x as long to get from place to place in Alaska due to the mountains and cities being land locked, as well as the road construction in the summer months.

From this part of south Florida, Stuart, it is about 4,500 miles to Fairbanks. So I figure on 10 driving days to get there. South of the Canadian border, I make more miles per day and then slow down a bit once I cross the border.

Not too often do I go straight through but will stop in Whitehorse for a few days etc. So the average trip for us is between 15 and 20 days. Driving solo I have made the trip from Anchorage to Port Lavaca Texas, just out of Houston a ways in 6 days, running about 800 miles a day. Don't recommend it though. I didn't have a choice but to make it there in that time frame.

Once we get to Alaska, we can have a nice tour around the "tourist circle", Tok, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Homer, back to Anchorage, to Valdez and to the border to head south, in a month.

So I roughly figure two weeks of driving each way, then a month in state and can have a good trip. Northern Canada is every bit as spectacular as is Alaska so the entire trip pleasures me greatly. Often we will take one day a week off, to take care of business, do laundry, maintenance on the vehicle, do any shopping, just set around the campfire so to speak.

Now I could compress it to about 6 or 7 weeks and enjoy myself. I have always said I would fly to Alaska just to spend a weekend if I could afford it, which I can't. We are still trying to decide whether to go back this summer or wait till next summer after my wife retires from her job. Then we wouldn't have any time restraints to have to be back home. Some trips she has flown home and I have stayed in the north for another month or so to fish and soak in the northern ambiance, which I do love.

For a month, I would look at a fly and rent program. Fly to Anchorage or Whitehorse, rent a Class C motorhome for a few weeks and then fly home. Many good companies that rent RVs in the north country.

We made several round trips when our daughters were young, both were born in Fairbanks, and they still remember the trips. I am an early riser, 5 AM normally, and like to be on the road by 7 AM if my wife is with me. Solo I will have the wheels rolling by 6 AM. I go to spend my time in the north country, not to sit around campgrounds watching the grass grow. On other trips we will go see the places we spot that we want to spend more time. Often on our trips to Colorado, will find us in North Dakota or Montana or Oregon, etc before we get to Colorado.

I have been running back and forth to Alaska for the last 51 years, and never seem to tire of the trip. My current plan is to make two more trips to/from Alaska to round off my RV totals to 15 round trips. At 13 RV round trips now. Will see how my health holds up.

For general budgeting of time and money, I figure I need at least a month to drive to and from Alaska, then add whatever amount of time I want to spend in Alaska and northern Canada and see if we have that much time available, if not then change the plans. For money I find it costs us a total of about $10,000 per trip for everything. Food expenses we have anyways to the actual trip is about $7,000 above staying home costs.

1oldtruck wrote:
I would like to make a trip to Alaska with the family before the kids are too old to go with us. How much time is reasonable to spend in Alaska? Two weeks?

Keep in mind this would have to be done on vacation time from work. Travel time from Florida would also have to be taken into consideration. I am thinking a minimum of a month for the trip.

Has anyone out there done this?

I have considered flying the family out and driving the truck and camper to push the trip through the U.S. This would save time on the trip out and back. We could travel the lower 48 later on.

Thoughts or suggestions?

I ran this thru my Trailer Life 'mapping' program.
Since I do not know where in FL you are, I used Ocala as a starting point. Driving from Ocala, FL to Fairbanks, AK via the Alcan hwy, driving 12 hours a day at 65 mph, it showed it would take 13 days round trip. 9400 miles. Of course this does not include any stops for sight seeing, etc. etc.

Costs - fuel at $4.50 per gallon and 20 MPG = $2100 for fuel.

So you might have 2 weeks actually there. That is really pushing it.

Joe, who now lives in Florida, will provide wise RV-words here, no doubt. He makes the trip to Alaska every couple of years to re-visit his old stomping grounds around Fairbanks and the Kenai Peninsula.

Joe is an early riser and doesn't mind long days on the road, I guess he's done the trip enough times that sightseeing and tourist attractions aren't the priority! Even so, it takes him 10 or more days to drive from Florida to Alaska, if I recall correctly.

Never driven up. From Florida, it will take a good bite of driving. A month might slip by pretty fast, might be able to do it I would guess. Lot of sights to see in Canada on the way, I'm sure.

In 2010, we got to do a week camping. My wife & I have flown up to be with our son & his family. We have gotten to do some exploring & camping with them while visiting. :C Clicky :C for a few photos & report of these trips.

We haven't gone to Seward yet, but they have cruises out from there, as well as Whittier to see glaciers & wildlife. From Seward, they go to larger ones.

We enjoyed a day cruise on the Prince William Sound (really a Fjord) from the port of Whittier. The food was great. Our son & family have also gone on one from Seward.

Hope something in the above will be so some help in planning.

Send me an email at Trackrig@gmail.com and I'll send you some info.

Bill