The first thing I recommend to RVers, planning their first trip to Alaska, is to talk to their traveling companions as to "why" they want to go. Sounds simple, I know, but most of the very few people that have made the trip and didn't like it and won't ever do it again, really didn't seem to have any real reason why they wanted to go. Other than someone else had gone and told them it was a great trip.
If your favorite style of camping is at the 5 star resorts like found in some places in Arizona, California, south Texas, etc. then a person may well be disappointed in the campgrounds up north. Due to the short camping seasons, high cost of labor, expensive utilities to put in and maintain, many of the campgrounds of Northern Canada and Alasak are very basic. Plus the owners of these private campgrounds can't charge much since in many cases, their main competition is from tax payer supported government campgrounds. In many cases, the cost of a night at a private campground in the north country may be about half of what we pay here in Florida.
Once you figure out "why" you and your companion (s) want to go, it becomes much simpler to plan the trip. Then you can ask much more specific questions. It also depends on where you have traveled before, lived before, etc. I tend to be interested in the history of the north, the gold rush era, the steamboats on the rivers, the scenery and especially anything related to water. I will drive many miles out of my way to see a nice waterfall, a hot springs I have not seen, a new lake or river, but most of the wildlife, I can take it or leave it. Especially the bears, smelly, foul tempered and they will bite, just not for me to spend much time seeking out. I feel that bears, like other northern wildlife, have their place in life, and I prefer mine next, to the mashed potatoes or Stovetop. LOL While I used to enjoy bear hunting, the years I lived in rural Alaska, they are not something I seek out these days, but most visitors love them and take many photos of them. LOL
I plan my trips based upon many factors, talk to my wife to get "our" priorities in order, look through my old photos to see what I am missing. Even though I have over 30,000 jpegs on my hard drive, there are missing areas that I would like to fill. The old road houses tend to fascinate me and there are some I don't have good photos of, that I can find. Somewhere we lost a large group of photos in one of our moves, we think. Most years I will pick a subject that I want more photos of, such as one year it was out houses, etc.
Then my wife and I talk about, before we go, what do we want to do again. Some things we do every trip and others, one time may do us. We tend to do the Stan Stephens 2 Glacier boat tour in Valdez, every trip. Others, like to do the tour with Capt Fred on the LuLu Belle also operating out of Valdez. He and his crew get great reviews from people that have gone with him. Even though we lived in rural Alaska for 25+ years, there were some tourists attractions we never did, while we lived there, one being the riverboat Discovery in Fairbanks. So a trip or two back we road the boat and it was outstanding. Just a great half day tour, it was. Highly recommended by me.
Some folks do like the pavement camping at Wal Marts, but I don't drive that far to spend the night with the people of Wal Mart, unless it is a last resort. I spent one night at the Fred Meyer store in Anchorage, by not having a reservation anywhere and by the time I started calling around, they were full. It was an evening of good entertainment, I must say. There is a homeless camp somewhere in that area and a dozen or so, were wandering around the parking lot panhandling the tourists. Was enjoyable to watch 4 drunks trying to impress each other with their bike riding skills or lack thereof. Several hours of non stop antics. This was one of the trips, I was traveling by myself, as my wife had to fly home from Anchorage to a family reunion in Colorado. So when the 4 came over to our truck camper to hit me up for some money. I declined but offered to take all of them over to the fast foods place, forget which brand, there on the edge of the parking lot and bought all 4 of them a combo meal of their choice. Good people, that due to circumstances, they had made some poor choices in their past.
Stops we make going one way or the other, or both. Liard River Hot Springs PP, Whitehorse for two to four days, every third trip visit one of these three places, Skagway, Atlin and Dawson Town. The history of Dawson City is like a living history lesson. Fort Steele, over in BC not too far north of Roosville on the border with the US, is worth a half day to us. It is a restored old RCMP fort and town. It will make you feel as though you have been transported back 100 years in time. Then we will stop at Yoho NP almost every trip for a day or two, Radium Hot Springs for a day or so. If on the Cassiar, a side trip into Stewart BC - Hyder Alaska is fun. Stewart is a nice town, nice streets, pride in the care of the homes show, good camping, etc. and Hyder is a dump. But a fun place to spend a few hours.
In Alaska, we normally will spend a week or so in Fairbanks, some people don't care for Fairbanks as it isn't your regular tourist place. You have to find a lot of your own entertainment there, go out to Chena Hot Springs, check out the Alaska Oil Pipeline, the Riverboat Discovey, visit Dredge 12 (is that the correct number?) out in Fox, have lunch or dinner at the Pump House on the Chena River, visit Ester and the Malmute Saloon there, kind of a tourist dive and college hang out but fun. (peanut shells in the floor type place) Some trips we go to the Kenai for a week to visit friends that we have known for years, do a bit of fishing, perhaps ride the ferry from Whittier to Valdez or drive over there.
All in all, with about a month in Alaska, I can get most stuff done, since I have planned ahead, as to what we want to do. We also keep lists of what to do next time, even though I realize, at some point thee won't be a next time. Some trip will be my last. So far 13 round trips by RVs, half a dozen more by car/truck and about the same flying small aircraft up to Alaska, following the Alaska hwy or the Cassiar depending on my starting point. One summer, while living in Alaska, a dealer asked me to ferry used aircraft to Alaska from the lower 48. Fun summer, that I somehow lived through. Fly one north, spend a few days at home and catch a commercial flight back south to the location of the next plane the dealer had purchased and repeated this most of the summer.
Lots of verbiage, but I do buy pixels by the barrel and get a good price on them. LOL
