Hotel suggestions?

[JjC81]

We are headed out for 3-5 days before our land tour begins (anchorage) 2 adults. 2 kids. 

 

We want to explore seward (kenai fjords, conservation center, seaveys dog sleds) & explore the turnagain arm, and hopefully go up tram to aleyska. Plus just general sight seeing. 

 

We fly into anchorage and will have rental car. Where should we look for hotels? I see cabins on both dog sled places in Seward- are these better than hotels or are they farther away? 

 

We are not fancy people. Need mini fridge and beds and parking and we are good so long as place is clean 🙂 ouour Days arent totally locked yet so bonus if we can cancel 🙂

Edited October 27, 2019 by JjC81

[SuperCrewBear]

I've been suggesting the Harborview Inn at Seward. The rooms aren't huge but well equipped (small fridge, microwave, coffee maker, etc) and very clean.  There's plenty of free parking.  Their location is about half-way between downtown Seward and the harbor area and on the main street that comes into town from Anchorage.  Nothing is cheap in the area but it was less expensive than most of their competition when we stayed there.  I would stay there again.  Good luck!

[Mountaineer0313]

On 10/27/2019 at 10:37 AM, SuperCrewBear said:

I've been suggesting the Harborview Inn at Seward. The rooms aren't huge but well equipped (small fridge, microwave, coffee maker, etc) and very clean.  There's plenty of free parking.  Their location is about half-way between downtown Seward and the harbor area and on the main street that comes into town from Anchorage.  Nothing is cheap in the area but it was less expensive than most of their competition when we stayed there.  I would stay there again.  Good luck!

 

Not my post, but I'm glad to hear this. I booked 2 nights there for next August.

[kennicott]

For Anchorage----

 

[mapleleaves]

Be prepared for sticker shock.  Do you need a bed for each kid or can they share? 

 

If your flight arrives at night, I'd suggest staying in Anchorage that first night. 

Instead of doing a drive by of the Turnagain Arm on your way to Seward, I'd suggest an overnight in Girdwood.  The Alyeska Lodge is pretty pricey. There are some B&B's in Girdwood that have private entrances that would work for your family.  Look at the Girdwood AK Chamber of Commerce for suggestions.   Or about 30 minutes beyond Girdwood (and halfway to Seward) is the Summit Lake Lodge.  Haven't stayed there but stopped in a couple of times for ice cream. Gorgeous setting!

 

Seward has a number of B&B;s that are more economical than hotels/lodges. Many have their own entrances and kitchenettes.  Friends stayed at the Bears Den B&B several yrs back and enjoyed it ... close to the harbor. Again, check out the town web site for ideas.  http://cmdev.seward.com/list/QL/lodging-28.htm

[JjC81]

On 11/2/2019 at 6:42 PM, mapleleaves said:

Be prepared for sticker shock.  Do you need a bed for each kid or can they share? 

 

If your flight arrives at night, I'd suggest staying in Anchorage that first night. 

Instead of doing a drive by of the Turnagain Arm on your way to Seward, I'd suggest an overnight in Girdwood.  The Alyeska Lodge is pretty pricey. There are some B&B's in Girdwood that have private entrances that would work for your family.  Look at the Girdwood AK Chamber of Commerce for suggestions.   Or about 30 minutes beyond Girdwood (and halfway to Seward) is the Summit Lake Lodge.  Haven't stayed there but stopped in a couple of times for ice cream. Gorgeous setting!

 

Seward has a number of B&B;s that are more economical than hotels/lodges. Many have their own entrances and kitchenettes.  Friends stayed at the Bears Den B&B several yrs back and enjoyed it ... close to the harbor. Again, check out the town web site for ideas.  http://cmdev.seward.com/list/QL/lodging-28.htm

Thanks. Kids are low maintenance. They just need blankets and will sleep on floor lol.

 

We are thinking of flying in night of 9th and staying at la quintanilla. Then driving to seward or girdwood. We have timeshare for aleyska but its frozen inventory right now 😞

 

would you suggest girdwood first? We would like to have a couple chances for aleyska (weather) and maybe couple chances for turnagain arm. 

 

we have a night in Anchorage for 14th then cruise starts

[mapleleaves]

Yes, I agree ....staying in the Girdwood/Portage area on the 10th would give you 2 opportunities for the Alyeska tram.    If the weather is great on the 10th you can do the tram.  But if the weather is rainy and/or cloudy on the 10th you could do other activities that are still available in inclement weather,  like the Wildlife Conservation Center,  Portage Lake to see if there are any icebergs, hike Byron Glacier.   On the 13th,  you'll have a 3 hr drive back to Anchorage, so if the weather is clear there's plenty of time to do the tram and anything else you missed on the drive down. 

[JjC81]

2 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

Yes, I agree ....staying in the Girdwood/Portage area on the 10th would give you 2 opportunities for the Alyeska tram.    If the weather is great on the 10th you can do the tram.  But if the weather is rainy and/or cloudy on the 10th you could do other activities that are still available in inclement weather,  like the Wildlife Conservation Center,  Portage Lake to see if there are any icebergs, hike Byron Glacier.   On the 13th,  you'll have a 3 hr drive back to Anchorage, so if the weather is clear there's plenty of time to do the tram and anything else you missed on the drive down. 

 

How is the drive to girdwood from airport? Right now we are booked (aleyska resort) the 9th, but we arrive at 750pm (1150pm our time) . Not sure if we should do drive that night or wait until next day. 

 

It looks like it is on the way to seward and seems close to turnagain arm to do on the 10th w/ tram? 

 

Or is it better to just stay somewhere near airport the 9th, girdwood the 10th then onto seward for 11th and 12th and stay girdwood again the 13th? 

 

Thank you for insight 

[mapleleaves]

As I recall it's about a 40 minute drive to Girdwood from the airport.  

On the plus side, it's usually a pretty quick process to collect your luggage and get a car, but, the negative will be your time difference.   Will you be energized and in vacation mode on arrival? or tired from the flight and dealing with the kids ?   And how will your kids feel ?

 

 

[kennicott]

16 hours ago, JjC81 said:

 

Not sure if we should do drive that night or wait until next day. 

Or is it better to just stay somewhere near airport the 9th, girdwood the 10th then onto seward for 11th and 12th and stay girdwood again the 13th? 

 

Thank you for insight 

Don't try and do the drive after a day of air travel and being acclimated to the east coast time zone, if like me, you will not only be dragging during the drive along the Arm but maybe even be all owl eyed the next morn at Alyeska. Rather, get into a decent hotel near the airport or in midtown, have a good nights rest, nice breakfast in the morn, maybe drive around Anchorage a bit, take in the largest seaplane base in the world at Hood/Spenard Lakes by the airport, maybe the air museum at Lake Hood, then perhaps the downtown museum on 7th, have lunch somewhere, then head south.  

[Straitlover]

On our trip, we got in late and stayed at the Comfort Suites right at the airport. There is an Enterprise Car rental around the corner, so we took the hotel shuttle and picked up the car then next morning to save a little money. There's also a Fairfield Inn & Suites Midtown a little further down the road that we stayed at, too that was nice. There's also an Enterprise near it, too.

 

[Anita Latte]

Keep in the mind how late the sunset is in Anchorage and the sunrise. It's a point well taken that you could be too tired to drive anywhere besides nearby to the airport upon arrival...but at the same time...the sun will still be totally UP. IDK if you would hit the outside fresh air after all that stale indoor air...and hit the sunlight...and be refreshed and excited enough to want to go see and do something with your evening after having traveled all day. You aren't mentioning which month you are traveling...but the sun sets at 11:33 PM on June 9 and then rises at 4:24 AM on June 10.

 

The drive to Girdwood is pretty easy. Highway driving...and the highway along the coast there is multi-lane. Mountains on one side...Turnagain Arm on the other. It could be just the thing to drive the less than 1 hour to GIrdwood and be there for when the sunsets. I get buzzy after travel and even though I may be tired...I would hit that hotel bed and not be sleepy. I need time to wind down, so personally I would be listening to music my family likes...getting some fun road trip time in...looking at beautiful Alaska...being charmed by the small town of GIrdwood and then marveling at the sunset. I think that would help me adjust to the local time more than anything and be prepared to actually sleep when I hit the hotel bed.

 

I get that you'll be traveling from the east coast...and it'll feel like midnight when you head out...just wanted to bring another variable into your thoughts for consideration. 

[creel5857]

We have driven to Girdwood first day of arrival.  Since it gets dark later we still had a lot of good viewing before dark. We even had some of our luggage lost by airline and they secured luggage and brought it to our hotel that next morning very early.   We had already been to anchorage a few times and wanted to get our road trip started early and glad we did