alaska 2021 ???

[sljohnson1938]

is any one planning on going up in 2021? assuming the borders are open of course. just wondering what it will be like since, i guess, that most of the businesses this year had no business. i wonder if the smaller, mom and pop type, businesses will be there.
at this point in time, as i type this, we do not plan on going up.
but there is always hope.

[Wadcutter]

c.traveler2 wrote:
We plan on going in 2021 if all is well, this would make our third trip up to Alaska. we'll be entering through Nagara Falls this and traveling east towards Alaska. For those who never have been to Alaska allow lot of time to travel it's a long drive.

I'll bet it was a really long drive to Alaska going east from Niagara Falls. You might want to stop and ask directions before you get to Nova Scotia.

[Islandman]

Won't you be heading westward to get to Alaska from Niagara Falls, or am I messed up on my directions?

[c_traveler2]

We plan on going in 2021 if all is well, this would make our third trip up to Alaska. we'll be entering through Nagara Falls this time and traveling west towards Alaska. For those who never have been to Alaska allow lot of time to travel it's a long drive.

Edited for typo

[Crowe]

I've been saying for 3 years "I'm going next year". Now I'm making it 4 years.

This is where Nike's advice comes into play-Just Do It!!!!!

Long story short when my son was very little he wanted to go to Disney. We told him he had to be 5. Figuring he'd forget I didn't worry. On his 5th birthday he said "mommy I'm 5, you promised we'd go to Disney". I mumbled some sorry excuse like I'd do it tomorrow, he got up, picked up the phone and handed it to me and said "do it now or you will never do it". He was correct. So the following October we went. There's no time like the present. The future is too uncertain.

[TxGearhead]

I've been saying for 3 years "I'm going next year". Now I'm making it 4 years.

[PA12DRVR]

The tourism-related businesses have been hit pretty hard up here from all the impacts of the virus, whether border crossing, State mandates, City mandates, Village mandates, lack of revenue etc.

Many places had pre-emptively shut down for the year...including a couple of very well-known flight outfits...but others saw a bit of an uptick for August, although probably not enough and not much of an uptick for businesses dependent on road traffic.

Anecdotally, we've gone to Seward a few times and: a) had no problem getting a hotel room in July and August...usually very difficult; and b) would have had no problem getting a fishing charter except 4 people would have been paying for 6 slots....so we took our own boat instead. Similarly anecdotally, Brand X and Y were shutdown for flightseeing around McKinley and River Charter Co. ABC was shutdown because they couldn't justify paying the seasonal help with the reduced customer demand.

I guesstimate that the critical path to RV travel in Alaska in 2021 will depend on the border status: businesses being open is probably a bit of "who knows" but again my guesstimate would be that some (as opposed to "Most") of the tourism-based venues and activities will be available.

Regarding the AMHS, there is the cross-gulf ferry option that gets one from Southeast into "Southcentral" (Valdez, whittier, etc) but it's a real likelihood that that will be on a very reduced schedule in 2021.

[Z-Peller]

What's the situation with the Alaska Ferry (Marine Highway?). Can one start in Bellingham and have layovers in just Alaska ports and not Prince Rupert before continuing on land from Haines or Skagway? The ferry was a great part of our only trip to Alaska.

From Haines or Skagway you would still have to go by road thru Canada to get to the rest of Alaska unless you ferry to Whittier AK.

[RetiredRealtorR]

Lwiddis wrote:
Mom and Pops may be best suited to surviving. Few if any business expenses for those that own the real property. Why the gloom and doom?

"Few if any business expenses for those that own the real property"

......never owned a small business, have you?

[time2roll]

With any luck it will be 2027 for me.
Hopefully there will still be some forests and wilderness along the drive by the time I go.

[PartyOf_Five]

This isn't the first time an area dependent on tourism has stumbled- Alaska went through the gold rush, the oil boom, and more. Florida, the East coast, the gulf, Galveston, and others go through this regularly and they bounce back. If an individual or their business flounders, then they pivot and do something else to survive. That's why there are so many Lyft drivers here in Chicago.

[EEWally]

What's the situation with the Alaska Ferry (Marine Highway?). Can one start in Bellingham and have layovers in just Alaska ports and not Prince Rupert before continuing on land from Haines or Skagway? The ferry was a great part of our only trip to Alaska.

[valhalla360]

Lwiddis wrote:
Mom and Pops may be best suited to surviving. Few if any business expenses for those that own the real property. Why the gloom and doom?

Unfortunately, from having watched seasonal tourist areas over the years, a bad year usually means lots of mom & pop businesses going under.

Problem is they still need to eat and keep the lights on at home and there usually are few other options for work in the area, so they can't go out and get a second job to make ends meet while the business weathers the dry spell.

We were already scheduled to do Alaska for 2022, so hopefully the worst is over and enough new businesses have back filled in by then but many will have lost their life savings.

[Ol_coot]

Currently planning to go 2021. Had all arrangements made and counting down the days for this year. Just moved reservations to next year. THINKING POSITIVE!!!

[Crowe]

We postponed our trip from August of this year to June of next year. Some business have shut down but many have held on. We were lucky enough that the the lodge in Fairbanks will carry over deposit until next year. Even luckier is the lodge in Lake Clark N.P. had an opening at all for next year that we could slide into. We'd prefer to go later in the summer but are happy to go at all, assuming things ease up.

[naturist]

2020 turned brown and smelly for so many people and businesses. So many small businesses are going permanently out of business, some of which just haven’t announced it yet.