Slightly different Alaska trip

If I had your limited time for a trip, I would fly to Seattle, take the ferry to Juneau, take 2 day AMHS trips to Sitka (my favorite Alaska town) and Skagway (my least favorite town in A!aska), then fly to Anchorage. As suggested by others, rent a car/truck there and drive to Denali, Whittier, and Seward. Take the Denali bus tour and the Kenai Fjords NP boat tour. You will have then seen all the places the cruise ships go except Glacier Bay. And it will allow time for the weather in South Central to warm up a bit.

When you have more time, you can go back to see Fairbanks, Valdez, Homer, Haines, the Denali Highway, the Yukon, etc. By then your DH may have realized that Alaska is not really a third-world country, despite its size, and be willing to take the RV!

Again, thanks for the replies. Much to think about. I can see we need to extend our trip by several days. Also we will look at the ferry as opposed to the cruise. The stops seem to be the same but more opportunity to see other than the tourist traps. We are still thinking of the last two weeks of May and the first part of June. But after reading all the comments and suggestions, that may change also.

Please clarity the dates you are thinking of doing this. "Spring" in Alaska covers a wide variety of road conditions!

So just to make sure I understand the limits of your trip:
- You have a week to circulate prior to beginning the "cruise" southward;
- As a given condition, you will not be driving your RV to/from Alaska;

With that in mind, some further thoughts from this near lifetime Alaskan;

- I still suggest getting a Jeep or Pickup for your week of visiting and using motels or B&B's for lodging; a lot less hassle to hop in a truck and drive away than breaking down an RV if you're limited for time and the Jeep WILL give you access to places you can't go with an RV, particularly a rented RV.
- With a Jeep/Pickup, one can travel the Denali Highway. IMNSO, the most scenic drive in AK.
- You might have time in you non-cruise week to squeeze in a flightseeing or riverboat-seeing trip....take this chance if you can. Lots of options in Squarebanks and Los Anchorage both....possibly slightly more in Los Anchorage.
- The train trip from Squarebanks to Los Anchorage is just that, a train trip; you'll see much of the same scenery (at a much more variable pace) to just drive the highway.
- I'm confused if the water-borne part of your return trip is a commercial cruise line or the Alaska Marine Highway System ("AMHS" "Ferry"); While I've never taken a commercial cruise line, I've spent a fair amount of time in SE Alaska and seen them come and go; most cruise ships tend to pull in to town (Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, etc) disgorge passengers to the tourist traps selling made-in-China trinkets and then, 6 hours later, reload and sail away.....with many/most of the sailing legs taking place at night. IF TIME PERMITS, as previously suggested, try to schedule your return on the AMHS from Whittier to Bellingham with a few days at the major stops (Juneau, Ketchikan, etc). Much more relaxing and more opportunity to see the country. FWIW, IMNSHO, if you can't take the time to stop a bit on the way down, a commercial cruise might be better: The AMHS routing from Bellingham to Whittier doesn't allow much time onshore unless you break it into separate legs;
- As pointed out above, a first trip to AK is often an appetizer: the next trip can either be the longer RV trip or (as several of my Texas colleagues have done) a fly-up & back hotel trip interspersed with multiple day trips for various off-the-road-system activities.

I have done 2 trips to Alaska. For the first we flew to Anchorage, rented a car and drove up to Denalli, Fairbanks and around the loop to the east back to Anchorage. We did this in a week staying at 3 different locations. After returning our rental car we took a 7 day cruise down to Vancouver. We did this trip in late May and had a great time. No bugs yet, still some snow on the ground in places and no crowds. The 2nd trip we flew to Anchorage and rented a motorhome for 2 weeks. We drove as far north as Denalli, across the center of the state and then down to Valdez. This trip was again in late May with the same benefits mentioned above. We camped in state parks where we were the only ones there that night. We flew back home from Anchorage. Again, another wonderful trip. If you are renting a motorhome or a car and driving on your own then I personally don't think you need to do the train ride. I love trains and riding on them but you will see a lot as you drive yourself around. The cruise was great too. Yes, it is much more commercialized than driving yourself around but you will see sights from the cruise ship that you can't see from land. All in all, I think it is pretty hard to go wrong on any Alaska vacation!

mockturtle wrote:
... if I were going to spend the money involved in the proposed trip I would plan to spend a little more time or wait until I could.

While I understand what you're saying, and have often thought that myself, it's a big world with a lot to see, and if I waited for "more time" (or more money) to appear, I would have missed a lot. In particular, I wouldn't have come up for a look at the Yukon and Alaska in 1985, and as a result it's highly unlikely that I'd be living here now.

Got two DVD's from my local library (RVAdventure) showing two trips to AK with an RV. First was overland through B.C., second was extensive use of ferries through the inside passage.

They both looked great and would IMHO be a great starting point in planning a trip.

Here's our trip which is more the type of a 9,600 mile adventure. Note the tabs and index on the upper right.

I would like to especially thank all of the posters that live and have lived in Alaska and Canada. Sharing your unique knowledge is much appreciated.

Hey, I didn't mean for a moment that Alaska isn't worth seeing. Holy cow! I love the place and plan to return asap! :) But if I were going to spend the money involved in the proposed trip I would plan to spend a little more time or wait until I could.

Alaska is huge. The shorter the amount of time available, the more planning that person(s) needs to do ahead of time. No amount of time will allow you to see all of Alaska in one lifetime, IMHO. Give a lot of thoughts to what you and your traveling companions want to see and do. It sounds like the OP has come up with a workable plan for them, with the time available. Fairbanks is about as close a town to the "old time Alaska" as you will find. Lots to see and do but you have to provide your own entertainment. Much of the state visited by most tourists is not unlike Disney. Show up, hand them your credit card and they will entertain you for some period of time. LOL A week day tripping out of Fairbanks will give you a feeling for the Interior of the state, then on south as outlined. I really don't care much for the Kenai area with all the changes in crowds of people over the years. We do go down for a few days to visit friends in Homer but then back north. Most of the day long boat tours are outstanding, from personal and other's experiences, out of Valdez, Whittier, Homer, Seward, etc.

The cruise ships only give you a passing view of South East Alaska. It is said that if you drive all the paved roads in Alaska, you will have seen about 5% of the state, throw in all the dirt/gravel roads, and you will have seen about 10% of the state. To see more, a person has to spend time on boats and airplanes.

For many visitors, a short first time visit with just inspire them to return, over and over again, as you can tell from some of the comments, it is addictive to many of us.

While a week or ten days in the state, followed up with the train trip and the cruise ship, will be less than optimum, it will be so far ahead of not going, etc. Some of the first or second time visitors will try to convince others that the way they made their trip is the only way to do it and enjoy. They don't realize that about 99.99% of all the RVers that go to Northern Canada and/or Alaska have just as good a time as they did.

But decide what you want to see and do, then plan your trip accordingly. A lot depends on where a person lives and where they have traveled previously. As a person raised on a ranch in flat land, dry, Oklahoma, anywhere with water and mountains really impresses me greatly. Folks that grew up in Seattle, not so much so it seems. LOL