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ALASKA TRIP PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS
Presented By
Lawton Roberts
Country Place Travel
dba “AlaskaTravelExperts.com”
The following Alaska trip planning considerations are based on numerous
trips to Alaska over 3 decades by the Alaska Travel Experts at Country Place
Travel. While there are almost innumerable ways in which to experience Alaska
in terms of length of trip, specific areas to visit, specific land excursions
to include, etc., satisfying all members of a ‘group’ or even family can be
somewhat challenging since every member of a given group probably does not have
the same priorities in terms of what they individually want to see and
experience while in Alaska. So the following Alaska Trip Planning
Considerations are based on certain ‘assumptions’ plus other ‘facts’ based on 3
decades of experience in traveling to Alaska that should be given serious
consideration in arriving at a more realistic Alaska trip plan that will meet
the needs of the majority if not all members of the group or family unit.
- LENGTH OF TRIP: If at all possible, plan a minimum 7-day land
experience, longer if no cruise is to be included with the overall trip
plan. The traditional Alaska cruise is a 7-day cruise, whether
southbound, northbound or round trip from Seattle or Vancouver. Therefore,
the optimum trip for a first time traveler to Alaska might be 7 days by
land + 7 days by sea.
- THE LAND PORTION: It is recommended that the primary focus be on selecting
and designing the appropriate land itinerary and trip components. As yet
another group shared recently following their multi-generation family trip
to Alaska, after experiencing a “Custom Land Itinerary” for the land
portion of their Alaska trip, the cruise portion was ‘anti-climactic at
best’, as their ‘real Alaska experience’ was achieved before they ever
boarded their southbound cruise.
- THE CRUISE PORTION: Regardless of which cruise line is selected,
much of the cruise portion of any Alaska trip is about the cruise
experience, and not necessarily about Alaska. The cruise portion should
be a 7-night southbound cruise or northbound cruise that begins or ends in
Vancouver, British Columbia on the southern end, and that either begins or
ends in one of the two deep water ports that serve the Anchorage area,
either Seward (130 miles southeast of Anchorage) or Whittier (75 miles
southeast of Anchorage). Because of the vast superiority of the Seward
area over the Whittier area in terms of lodging, restaurants, excursions,
and sightseeing, only cruises that begin or end in the Seward area should
be considered, especially when attempting to combine a “Custom Land
Itinerary” with a northbound or southbound 7-night cruise. The three cruise
lines that use the port of Seward are Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Holland Ame rica. The cruise line that sails out of the port of Whittier and that does NOT use the port of Seward is Princess. All four of these cruise lines
are considered ‘mass-market’ cruise lines, and not true luxury cruise
lines like Regent Seven Seas or Crystal Cruises which are considered true luxury
cruise lines, but which also command a much higher price than any of the
‘mass-market’ lines. Therefore, the vast majority of people who take an
Alaskan cruise select one of the more familiar and more affordable ‘mass-market’
lines.
- SELECTING THE LAND PORTION (THE MOST IMPORTANT
CONSIDERATION): There are
two ways to ‘experience’ a land trip in Alaska:
- CRUISE-TOURS: First, you can book into a ‘cruise-tour’
package that is offered by any of the mass market cruise lines. These
‘factory-assembly-line’ tours are designed with the cruise line in mind
(keep the assembly line moving to make way for the next bus load or train
load that’s arriving soon at each point along the way). The primary
advantage of a cruise-line provided ‘cruise-tour’ is price. On average,
based on our experience of comparing a cruise-tour with a customized land
itinerary, the ‘cruise-tour’ package will usually price out at
approximately 10-15% less per person than a custom designed land itinerary
of the same length in terms of days.
The difference in prices between
‘cruise-tours’ and ‘custom land itineraries’ could even be greater depending on
the number and type of unique personalized excursions included in the custom
land package. For example, a private excursion such as a float plane trip to
see bears in an authentic wilderness environment can add hundreds of dollars to
the cost of any package. So if it’s primarily about price, selecting one of
the many dozens of ‘cruise-tours’ is probably the way to go. But in selecting
a ‘cruise-tour’ package, just realize that your Alaska land experience will be
more of a mass-market touristy experience, and with less if any free time to
experience an authentic wilderness excursion in a small group setting. One of
the challenges in selecting a ‘cruise-tour’ that offers the bare minimum of
what one would like to experience is in finding one that includes two nights rather
than just one night at Denali National Park. The reason that a two-night stay
in the lodging located just outside the entrance to Denali National Park is needed is so that visitors can realize the truly expected Denali experience.
And this is realized only through taking one of the Denali Excursions that
takes you far enough into the park to see wildlife, such as bears, Dall Sheep,
Caribou, wolves, etc. These excursions are typically 8 hours or more in
length, and thus require a full day in between travel days on either end of the
excursion day. The problem is that the cruise lines want to keep the flow of
tours moving, like an assembly line. Therefore, letting some travelers stay
two nights in the same place, especially Denali, hinders that objective. So
the vast majority of ‘cruise-tours’ only offer 1 night at Denali National Park,
which should automatically disqualify that particular cruise-tour from further
consideration. It would be a waste of one’s time and money to have come all
the way to Alaska, be located just outside the entrance to Denali National Park where most of the lodging is located, and not have an opportunity to see
some of the abundant wildlife that is only found deep inside the interior of Denali National Park.
- CUSTOM LAND ITINERARIES: The second way to experience the land portion
of Alaska is by means of a “Custom Land Itinerary”, designed to satisfy
more of what you want to experience. The big difference between an
assembly line ‘cruise-tour’ and a ‘custom land itinerary’ (and the reason
for the higher price of a custom designed itinerary) is in the trip
components included with the customized itinerary vs. the pre-packaged
cruise-tour itinerary. While some trip components of a Custom Land
Itinerary may be the same as some portions of a ‘cruise-tour’, (except
that our ‘Custom Land Itineraries’ will ensure you receive the maximum
Denali experience with two nights included at the park together with a
Denali Excursion deep into the park), the real difference is found outside
of the Fairbanks-Denali-Anchorage corridor. The “Denali Experience”
usually requires a minimum of 4 days primarily because of logistics. Days
5, 6, 7, 8, etc. … can be added to include such trip components as a dome
car train trip over the most scenic portion of the entire Alaska rail
system, (and it’s not the Fairbanks-Anchorage corridor), a tour of the
Kenai Fjords National Park in which more sea life such as whales and sea
lions will be seen than during an entire typical 7-day cruise, a float
plane trip to a remote wilderness location where bears will be seen in
their natural habitat from an amazingly close but still safe distance
(each group of 4 is accompanied by a guide), and other authentic Alaskan
experiences such as river fishing, deep sea fishing, river float trips,
horseback trips, sled dog rides, or just plain sightseeing on your own by
rental car, which none of the ‘cruise-tours’ allow you to do . Realizing
that not everyone wants to experience the same things in Alaska, the
primary advantage of being able to create a custom trip design is the
ability to provide exactly what YOU want in the way of land excursions
and experiences, and not what a cruise line requires you to have in order
to experience the one or two excursions that you really want.
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