our 1st alaska trip

The question is why are you even considering a caravan trip? Do you do chaperoned trips in the Lower 48?

We have done the North 3 times on our own. Each time the trip was in excess of 120 days from MD.

Alaska is not the dark side of the moon. The roads are plenty good, provided one pays attention & drives at an appropriate speed. The roads are not covered with wildlife. Spotting chances are better if you are traveling on your own. If you break down chances are the next vehicle coming down the road will stop to check on you. We have had people stop for us when we have stopped for picture taking.

A caravan offers structure & a degree of security but if you have a breakdown the caravan will not wait for you to get it fixed. A caravan uses CGs just like the commercial ones in the lower 48. On your own you can do the state rec area CGs where you never know what might come strolling through at night.

On your own, if you are a people type person, you will meet plenty of people doing just what you are doing with plenty of tales & advice to swap.

There are valid arguments to be made for each style/mode of traveling anywhere.

We made our previous Alaskan trip in a 26' Class C with no toad and we made last year's BC trip in our TC. Our 2016 Alaskan trip will be made in our new 23' FW.

Fishhunter wrote:
Best to travel around Alaska in a smaller TT or TC. There aren't a lot of places you can fit a 40' pusher in, especially in the State Parks.

I'll have to disagree with you on this one. We had absolutely no problems fitting our 40' motorhome into public campgrounds in Canada, the Yukon and Alaska. They are always our first choices - anywhere we travel. Plus we did a lot of boondocking in gorgeous areas.

Best to travel around Alaska in a smaller TT or TC. There aren't a lot of places you can fit a 40' pusher in, especially in the State Parks. Caravaning is going to be restricted to the big campgrounds so you will miss out on all the small out of the way places. If you don't need full hookups and a crowd around you there are lots of nice places to dry camp a few days by a lake or river. Myself I couldn't imagine being stuck in a caravan and being subject to their itinuary and schedule

Agree with getting the above mentioned books, Milepost and Alaskan Camping by the Church's. We went to Alaska this past summer on our own, took our time and seen what we wanted to. Had such a good time DH wants to go back again this summer. We did check into a CG that had several caravan groups while in Canada, we noticed the visiting among them so if you like that go for it. BTW we never once made a reservation for a site the whole time we were out there. Once we got the very last spot at a CG near Denali we figured no big deal if we didn't get a spot just part of the adventure.

In addition to the Milepost which is perfect for maps and what to see along the way, another publication to purchase is Mike and Terri Church's 'Alaskan Camping' book which includes Canada and the Yukon, also. It will be your bible for finding all kinds of campsites - RV parks, public parks and boondocking spots.

Also purchase the TourSaver 2/1 coupon book. One glacier cruise (a must) will pay for the book and you'll surely want to do additional tours.

I first drove the Alaska Highway in late November 1972 on my way to my new duty station, Elmendorf AFB. I was driving a retired CA highway patrol car that turned 100,000 miles about Oregon. I started from Biloxi MS via San Diego (family) To Anchorage.

The road today is vastly, vastly improved over that time and there is no reason to caravan. There are plenty of services of just about everything you need all along the way.

I would just buy the Milepost and use it. It is really all you need and it's a mile-by-mile explanation of everything along every route you can take to Alaska and in Alaska.

Just Go have fun and dont worry.

I will be leaving the Baja in March and heading north to Alaska myself.

We have never used a caravan on our three trips to Alaska, but have observed them in the campgrounds. The main draw it appears, beside having everything planned for you, is the social aspect. Many times we saw groups from the caravans congregated by an RV with afternoon cocktails. As we are not drinkers, this is not attractive to us. We also travel in a Class B and noticed that most of the campers with the caravans are large Class A's. There is nothing wrong with this, but it just seems that this is not our "style".
We have on all of our trips changed our itinerary for one reason or another. On was mechanical trouble that stopped us for 6 days, and the others were our choice either to stay in a location longer or leave earlier. All of these would have not worked with a caravan.
I did take the itinerary of a caravan to help determine some of the most popular places to visit on our first trip and on our next two trips we returned to the places we liked the best and added some places we had not visited before.
My husband and I do a lot of photography and will often just head off to look for things to photograph and we do not work on a time table. Thus a caravan is not for us, but might work very well for you. No one can make that decision for you.

Be advised this is my opinion only and worth exactly what you are paying for it!

Advantages of caravan:
Route planning done for you
Tons of daily social interaction
See the most places in the least amount of time
Security of tail-gunner to call for help if you break down in the middle of no where
You will see all the major shows and other attractions along the road
You will stay in the nicest RV Parks
Disadvantages of caravan:
All the above with the exception of the tail-gunner

We took 4 months to drive the Alakan Highway and around Alaska in 2012 and 2014 solo. I am pretty handy with maintenance tasks and we are both anti-social so the caravan was not an option for us. Plus being able to spend 5 days each in Teklanika, Soldotna, Homer, Ninilchek, Valdez, and along the haul road to Deadhorse was not an option on a caravan.

As previously mentioned, it is pretty hard to make that trip and not be impressed. Just pick one and Do It!

In 2013 the online caravan trip detail information was very limited (all caravans). Perhaps they want you on the caravan rather than using their guide.

We met a couple that let us copy their caravan travel information and it contained pages of detail. Most of it we had already figured out but it proved useful. BTW One of their group spent 10 days in Fairbanks for MH repairs and the group did not wait.

We wanted to be on our own plus we balked at the high caravan cost. But we went to some of the same CG's, tours, restaurants and spent much more than planned.

Two different experiences: Deep Creek Beach 30 miles north of Homer, dry camping. We were amazed at the boat launching, eagles and camping on the beach. We had to burn some coal in the fire and that was an experience with the smoke and it stays hot for a day... Fjord Express out of Skagway/Haines to Juneau was a fantastic trip. Not a canned run as the owner is extremely knowledgeable of the area. He heard of whajavascript:;le feeding and from Juneau ran 8 miles south (Haines is north) and the 3 whales were still feeding. $160 each and we would go again. Can't recommend most of downtown Juneau as it's a Caribbean jewelry shopping mega for the cruise ships. Skagway has some of that as well.

Caravan advantages: No CG check in as everyone has a radio and you follow directions directly to your site. It's a group experience. No driving to a tour or restaurant as their is a bus/van for the group. A morning meeting explaining the days activities, driving, etc.