Alaska Land portion on your own?

Has anyone done the land portion of Alaska without the cruise line. We want to try the NCL Bliss for the cruise portion but while we are there want to arrive early and do the land portion with a tour company. Any suggestions? I understand we will have to fly into Alaska and do the tour and then fly to the port for the cruise portion.

I highly recommend doing the land portion of your trip in Southcentral Alaska on your own with a rental car. You can set your schedule based on your preferences. You'll have more flexibility and options when it comes to lodging and dining.

You can get help here or on the TripAdvisor forum for Alaska travel: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28923-i349-Alaska.html

The standard trip involves flying into Anchorage, Alaska. As I said: in my opinion, a rental car is the best way, but you can also have a good trip using the Alaska Railroad. If your cruise departs from Whittier or Seward, you can drive to those ports from Anchorage. No need to fly.

If that is a Seattle to Seattle ship, you might want to consider a ship that starts or ends in Anchorage (Whittier port) or Seward. You would have to fly to Anchorage, which is costly and then fly to Seattle after you do your land tour. The inside passage ships are smaller and begin or end in Vancouver to the Anchorage or Seward.

Flights from Anchorage to Seattle that I see are only $140.00 one way. We are trying to do the New NCL Bliss since its new, or do you recomened another ship?

If you want to travel by train, look at the Alaska Railroad package tours.

https://www.alaskarailroad.com/travel-planning/packages/summer-packages

Or use the train for transportation only and book the hotels yourself in order to stay as long or as little as you want at each destination. If there's a cruisetour that appeals to you , its quite easy to replicate most itineraries by using the train and the Park Connection Bus.

The State of Alaska Tourism is a good resource and has info on tour companies:

https://www.travelalaska.com/Package%20Tours.aspx

With an package tour, be very mindful of distances you travel each day. Alaska is a big state and on some tours you spend most of your day in transit with little time for activities when you arrive at the destinations. So research the details.

My preference is to rent an RV or a car for land travel in Alaska. It's very easy to get around on your own .... the hwys are only primarily 2 lane hwys and there are few of them so impossible to get lost. The hard part is deciding where to go and what to see with limited time !

Flights from Anchorage to Seattle that I see are only $140.00 one way. We are trying to do the New NCL Bliss since its new, or do you recomened another ship?

You can easily do a cruise tour on your own and stay at the same places you would get on a cruise tour and do the same excursions (and probably save some money too).

The issue is we are going with a small group, and some of us can be away longer than the others. So we are trying to arrange it that we are on the same cruise ship.

I highly recommend spending time on land in Alaska. What you see from land is completely different from you see from a cruise ship. We flew into Fairbanks and spent a week driving to Seward where we boarded the Radiance of the Seas. Here is the link to my review. It has information on all of the places we visited, the places we slept and the places we ate, along with the costs associated with each of those.

if you're travelling with a group and there are different time frames, it would be easier to do a southbound cruise from Whittier or Seward.

Lots of options depending on what you want to see and do, but this is one example of what it could look llike:

-members of the group who have additional time for land travel could fly to Alaska early and visit Talkeetna and Denali. A few days later they return to Anc and meet up with the rest of the group. If the cruise departs from Seward you could all take the train to Seward to spend a day or 2 ... visit Exit Glacier, take a Kenai Fjords day cruise, kayak, fish, hike and just wander around the harbor watching all the activity. Or if the ship departs from Whittier explore around Anc for a day or 2 then take the train to Whttier for the cruise.

- Or the first group could fly into Fairbanks to start their trip, taking the train to Denali, Talkeetna then Anchorage.

Many options and even more if you rent a car and travel independently.

I think you need to do a lot more research into the cruise portion as well as the land. Most people will tell you that the ships are more alike than different; the itinerary is key. Make sure the ship is in port long enough and at the right time of day for planned activities. (ie lots of whining about the 7am - 1pm port time). Is Glacier Bay important for you to see?

Look at past trip reports posted in STICKYs near the top of the page. The first line usually indicates the cruiseline, itinerary and if there was any land travel, DIY or cruisetour. Many of the reports are detailed photo journals with lots of useful info.

There are travel books specific to Alaska cruises that will help with your research. Borrow from your library or buy ..... Ann Viponds 'Alaska by Cruise ship" or Fodors "Alaska Ports of Call".

Have fun with your planning !

Awesome Review Cruise Guy

We did our own land tour without a tour company needed. Took a lot of planning but it was great. Key to the planning was our copy of The Milepost which might also have ads for organized tours. We did NB cruise and rented car in Seward for one day then turned it in at the airport and immediately did a one-week rental there (much less $$$) then drove to B&B Valdez, then to Fairbanks for night, airplane to Barrow for night, back to Fairbanks and drive to B&B in Healy (near Denali) then drove to Anchorage for a night. Saw and did exactly what we wanted on our own schedule.