Transportation concerns

[vfb2girls]

We are planning on renting a car for our June 2007 land portion of our Alaskan trip and will be dropping off the car at Whittier for our sailing. I was going to go through Harley but just recieved an e-mail from them and they will no longer be in business in 2007 so that just leaves Avis. I contacted Avis and for what we need it will cost us almost 1100.00 for our car rental which includes the drop off at Whittier. After checking prices of other car companys it would run about 400.00 cheaper but we would have to drop off the car in Anchorage. As things stand we were planning on spending two nights in Seward before heading off to Whitter for our cruise. In the opinion of others would you just pay the higher pricer for the convenience of dropping the car off or would you recomend that we drive back to Anchorage on the day of our cruise, drop off the car and then take some sort of shuttle of tour back to Whitter? The ship does not leave until 9:00pm so we would have the time, I am not sure if it is cost effective. Anmy suggestions on what type of tour we could take out of Anchorage that would take us to Whitter? What about the train? Thanks for the suggestions

[NancyIL]

I personally wouldn't pay that much more for Avis drop-off in Whittier! We are arriving in Whittier next June after our northbound cruise, and we will probably take the Alaskan Leopard 4-hour shuttle bus tour to Anchorage: http://www.alaskanleopard.com/Tours/index.htm I have a reservation to pick-up our rental car at the downtown Hertz location with an airport drop-off, and the total cost for a fullsize car for one week with AAA discount is $248! You could do the reverse - with airport pick-up (which costs more in taxes than a downtown pick-up) and downtown drop-off. Btw - we will have one week post-cruise for our land trip, but we probably won't be going to Seward.

 

Perhaps you could rearrange your itinerary so that you go to Seward early in your land trip and end up in Anchorage. Then you could take the Alaska Railroad ($55/per person in 2006) or the Alaskan Leopard or some other shuttle to Whittier.

[vfb2girls]

The way our land tour is that we arrive in Anchorage and head to Talkeetna for two nights, a night in Healy, a night in Anchorage, 5 nights in Homer, two nights in Seward and then we were going to go to Whitter for our cruise. We need to plan our land tour this way because we are meeting up with friends in Homer to do some major Halibut fishing so we have to have certain dates that we have to be in Homer. So with that in mind this touring plan works best with our schedule. We might just have to drive back to Anchorage on the morning of our cruise and catch the train back to Whitter. I just don't know if that added burden of driving back to the Anchorage ariport to drop off the car and then find another mode of transportaion to get to the train station while hauling all our luggage with us really justifies the savings cost. Although it is a lot more money to give Avis for the convenience of the one way drop of rate, thanks for the suggestions, I will look into the train and other tours.

[Budget Queen]

Also, look at 2 rental cars perhaps. Get a round trip Anchorage initially and on your way back- get a one way for your Kenai portion.

 

My opinion only- Alaska is the priority for me, I would not be wasting ANY time, especially half a day, doing a car backtracking and shuttle back where I came from. The costs would be budgeted into my planning.

 

Only you can decide- how many times are you coming back to Alaska??? You are planning this for over a year?? Perhaps, make an Alaska "list" and see what you come up with?

[NancyIL]

The way our land tour is that we arrive in Anchorage and head to Talkeetna for two nights, a night in Healy, a night in Anchorage, 5 nights in Homer, two nights in Seward and then we were going to go to Whitter for our cruise. We need to plan our land tour this way because we are meeting up with friends in Homer to do some major Halibut fishing so we have to have certain dates that we have to be in Homer. So with that in mind this touring plan works best with our schedule. We might just have to drive back to Anchorage on the morning of our cruise and catch the train back to Whitter. I just don't know if that added burden of driving back to the Anchorage ariport to drop off the car and then find another mode of transportaion to get to the train station while hauling all our luggage with us really justifies the savings cost. Although it is a lot more money to give Avis for the convenience of the one way drop of rate, thanks for the suggestions, I will look into the train and other tours.

 

The morning train leaves Anchorage at 10:00 a.m., so you'd have to leave Seward mighty early to drive to Anchorage, drop-off rental car, and catch the train to Whittier. The Alaskan Leopard shuttle (with tour) leaves Anchorage at 1:30 p.m. and arrives in Whittier at 4:45 p.m. in 2007. However, the savings by dropping off the car in Anchorage might not amount to much after adding the cost of a shuttle or train - depending on the number of people traveling.

 

One more thing - you can drop-off the car at the downtown Avis (or Hertz) location rather than the airport. The train station isn't far. If you went with the Alaskan Leopard shuttle, they would pick you up at the car rental location.

[fti]

I am not sure how many 'we' is, but another option to avoid having everyone backtrack is to drive from Seward to Whittier, have all but one board the ship. The car driver can even drop his/her luggage off at Princess. Then only the driver drives back to Anchorage (+-1 hour), return the car downtown and take some sort of shuttle from Anchorage back to Whittier. Seems like it might be some sort of compromise, though you would have to be in Whittier by mid afternoon in order to have enough time to drive to Anchorage then get transportation back to Whittier.

 

Just a thought. You have a year to work on a solution.

[Alaska05]

I personally wouldn't pay that much more for Avis drop-off in Whittier! We are arriving in Whittier next June after our northbound cruise, and we will probably take the Alaskan Leopard 4-hour shuttle bus tour to Anchorage: http://www.alaskanleopard.com/Tours/index.htm

 

Nancy,

 

Do you know if Alaskan Leopard drops off at the Anchorage airport? We're also doing Northbound arriving in Whittier next July. There are several flights between 2:00 and 5:00 that I would like to book, but need to fill some time prior to getting to the airport.

 

Thanks.

[NancyIL]

Nancy,

 

Do you know if Alaskan Leopard drops off at the Anchorage airport? We're also doing Northbound arriving in Whittier next July. There are several flights between 2:00 and 5:00 that I would like to book, but need to fill some time prior to getting to the airport.

 

Thanks.

 

The web site says they will drop you off where you choose, so I would assume they'll make an airport stop.