land tours

[Micahs Grandad]

Last year did our first cruise to Alaska and loved it.

 

Want to go back next year and include land tour as well.

 

Want to do 7 days or so land with couple of days at Denali.

 

any suggestions on which one to pick, kind of overwhelming? Thanks so much.

[1025cruise]

My suggestion. Look at the different tours, and figure out what you want to do. Then book it all yourself and do DIY.

[2nGlenn]

We did a land tour this year going southward from Fairbanks with stops in Denali Lodge and McKinley Lodge via Princess.

 

If I had to do it over again, I would overweight time in Denali Lodge (northern of the two near Healy). I would also do the very long day bus tour in the park as it goes many more miles (yet just a very small fraction of the park). We took the 6 hour tour bus which was god, but left us wanting for more park time. There are even places to stay pretty deep in the park, so you may want to look at those options, but it may interfere with some cruise based land tour package.

 

At the Denali lodge, we got lucky and stayed in the newer building A that had views overlooking the park and the river. Try and get this if you can as the other buildings do not have nearly as nice a view. Denali lodge is a sprawling complex with some elevation and a row of shops across the street. There are bike rentals, groceries, liquor, cheaper eats, various adventure-type excursions (zip lines, rafting, ATV tours, etc) as well in that row of shops. I wish I knew about the bike rental place before taking the bus from the lodge to the Denali park visitors center. If I get back, I know what I am doing for a day! There are some easy paths around the visitors center as well that an additional day or two would have been good to explore further too. We walked back from the park visitor center to the Denali lodge. Nice 1.5 mile walk or so.

 

The best part of the Denali lodge is the deck overlooking the river and bordering the park. I could soak that up for days on end. Spend some time there!

 

McKinley lodge is picturesque but far from town and activities. So if you lie walking right to where you want to go, Denali Lodge offers more things close by. McKinley lodge has some pretty spectacular views as well, but we had some clouds and rain there. It is nice, has a game room, a big deck overlooking the mountains, but many more buildings.

[mapleleaves]

As you look at cruisetours be mindful of travel times. Otherwise you may find yourself in transit most days with little time to enjoy your destination.

ie 'a couple of days at Denali' on a cruisetour brochure can mean that you only get 1 day AT the park, due to the odd arrival and departure times of transit. ie if you arrive to Denali at midday and leave at noon, those 2 days don't provide enough time for an 8hr bus trip into the park.

Do you want to travel by train ? do you want to visit Fairbanks ? Talkeetna?

Maybe you'd like to spend a day or 2 in Seward in which case you'd be limited to cruises that depart from Seward instead of Whittier.

For more flexibility consider a DIY pkg tour instead of a cruisetour. That would allow you to stay at locations of interest to you and stay longer if there are more activities for you.

The Princess Lodge web site has pkg tours.

The Alaska Railroad has pkg tours. https://www.alaskarailroad.com/travel-planning/packages/summer-packages

Or if you want a train/bus combo: https://www.alaskatravel.com/alaska-vacations.html

 

Better yet, rent a car or small RV for total flexibility. Alaska lends itself well to RV travel...I highly recommend it.

[masterdrago]

We decided against spending the $4k on the cruise land tour when we discovered the same $4k would get us much more on a DIY. I posted somewhere else but..... Rent car in Anchorage, 2 nights at Talkeetna (Talkeetna Air Taxi - Grand Denali w/glacier landing), 2 nights at Denali (Jeep Excursion 100+ mile), maybe do the cheap non narrated bus up to mile 55 (non narrated), 2 nights Alyeska/Girdwood 5 hr Prince William Sound Glacier Cruise, drop rent car at Anchorage, bus trip to Seward - Seward Windsong then board on 24th. Having the rent car is much more freedom to explore our thoughts than the RCI land tours.That gives us 1 day between each excursion to do our own driving tours and sight-seeing. Cost the same as the ship land tour with deluxe accommodations.

[Budget Queen]

We decided against spending the $4k on the cruise land tour when we discovered the same $4k would get us much more on a DIY. I posted somewhere else but..... Rent car in Anchorage, 2 nights at Talkeetna (Talkeetna Air Taxi - Grand Denali w/glacier landing), 2 nights at Denali (Jeep Excursion 100+ mile), maybe do the cheap non narrated bus up to mile 55 (non narrated), 2 nights Alyeska/Girdwood 5 hr Prince William Sound Glacier Cruise, drop rent car at Anchorage, bus trip to Seward - Seward Windsong then board on 24th. Having the rent car is much more freedom to explore our thoughts than the RCI land tours.That gives us 1 day between each excursion to do our own driving tours and sight-seeing. Cost the same as the ship land tour with deluxe accommodations.

 

Have you already done this? Note the Denali Jeep tour is NOT at the National Park. But the State Park and a distance away.

[masterdrago]

Have you already done this? Note the Denali Jeep tour is NOT at the National Park. But the State Park and a distance away.

We have the jeep tour scheduled for May 20th. And yes, it is described on their web page where it is - not inside the park. -- https://www.denalijeep.com/tour/ The Denali Highway runs east/west on the east side of the park and ties into I-4 at Cantwell. There is good info on the highway at http://www.alaska.org/guide/denali-highway and at Wiki here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denali_Highway. We will most likely also take the bus (non-narrated up to mile 53 (Toklat River). That is as far as we will be able to go in May. If we were going to go after June 4th next year, we would book a few day stay at Denali Backcounty Lodge https://www.alaskacollection.com/lodging/denali-backcountry-lodge/ which comes highly recommended.

[Baskets2479]

So if you plan your own land portion and not go with a land tour with the cruise ship, you rent a car and drive to Denali, and then would have to take one of the park shuttle buses? But you can get off and on at various places in the park? You can only drive into the park for the first 15 miles? Just in the beginning planning stages of a cruise for next summer. Thanks for the help.

[mapleleaves]

So if you plan your own land portion and not go with a land tour with the cruise ship, you rent a car and drive to Denali, and then would have to take one of the park shuttle buses? But you can get off and on at various places in the park? You can only drive into the park for the first 15 miles? Just in the beginning planning stages of a cruise for next summer. Thanks for the help.

 

Correct ... you can drive the first 15 miles and yes you can hop on and off the shuttle buses. Shuttle buses are the most economical but you CAN take a tour bus if you prefer. With the shuttle you need to bring your own lunch and drink. Eielson Visitor Center is a great destination point for the shuttle!

 

More info is on the parks reservation site: https://www.reservedenali.com/

 

And if you don't want to rent a car, you could take the train and/or bus to Denali. The train is limiting in that it has only 1 departure per day and it's 8 hrs to Anchorage. Plus you would need to stay somewhere that offers a shuttle to your hotel from the depot. Or buy a pkg tour from the Railroad.

https://www.alaskarailroad.com/

 

The Park Connection Bus is quicker, 5 or 6 hrs, and has 2 departures per day but again you would need a shuttle to your hotel. The company that owns the bus company also provides pkg tours by train or bus. https://www.alaskacoach.com/

[masterdrago]

Here is the 2018 transit bus schedule. It looks like in 2019 they will begin on May 19th. https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/upload/2018-transit-schedule.pdf Tons more info at https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm#__topdoc__