Alaska Travel Answers

I too am not a bus tour person however, Denali National Park has a variety of bus types to suit different needs and tastes. I would guess that you would prefer the shuttle bus option over the tour bus option. Shuttle buses make stops to view wildlife but are not guided - there is no narrator etc. It is also possible for shuttle bus passengers to get off and on different buses, so you can stop, get off, explore and then get on a different bus to go further into the park or return to the entrance area. In case you have not seen it, here is a link to the park's webpage about the bus options: nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/s... The shuttle buses are pretty low key. I haven't done that in a long time but I have relatives visiting in June so we'll be making that trip. Another option may be bicycling the road or doing a combination of shuttle bus and bike (shuttle buses may take on bikes). See the park website for more information. As for the ferry - this is perhaps more difficult than you may imagine. There are different ferry routes. Ketchikan is on the SE Alaska route and place like Homer and Whittier are on Prince WIlliam Sound route. There are only two or so crossings a week on the Cross-Gulf route that connect passengers between those two areas of service so you would have to time your trip accordingly. This service connects places like Whittier, Homer and Yakutat (in southcentral) to Juneau, Prince Rupert and Ketchikan (all in SE Alaska). Here is a good overview of the routes on the official AK Marine Highway website: dot.state.ak.us/amhs/routes.... If you want to do something like that with the ferries, your best bet may be to rent and return a car in Anchorage, then take the train to Whittier to board the ferry if you can arrange for the Cross Gulf trip times. I am not sure if it's possible to rent a car in Anchorage and drop it off in Homer or Whittier. Even if you could, it may cost quite a bit for a one way rental.

Alapah provided some great info. Note that Alaska is one big friggin place, and once you get out of the cruise ship destination ports it becomes pretty un-touristic, even Denali. It has been over 10 years since I went to Denali and we drove up from Anchorage. If you can rent a car I would strongly recommend the drive. Blackbear scampering across the road, moose sitting in ponds, eagles flying around, it was pretty awesome. We stopped in Talkeetna which was fun. In Denali we stayed at one of the small (they are all small) motels outside and took in a day trip through Denali on a medium size. That trip was a top ten life moments when a mom grizzley bear walked by our bus, and one of her cups stopped, stood up, all 3 feet of him, and checked us out. Homer has always been on on to do list and still is.. ;-( However, you may find that you run out of things to do in most of these small Alaska towns. We enjoyed Seward (fortunately when there was not a cruise ship in town)... Karl

I've been answering questions on the Alaska Forum for years and this is the best itinerary I've seen yet. Can tell you've been researching and thinking about this. I think Girdwood is an excellent base for the peace and quiet summer are like there, but it is a bit of a drive from there to Anchorage or down to the Kenai Peninsula. Fairly close to Portage and the Whittier tunnel. We have stayed in various B&Bs over the years in Girdwood just for some quiet rest. Also the Prince Hotel is very nice. Might shorten up the Girdwood stay and spend a few nights in Homer or Seward. Seldovia, a boat ride away from Homer is a great quiet spot.

Hello. thanks for you advice. We just made the final bookings for our june 2013 trip. We will land in Anchorage and take a rental car. Drive up to Palmer and stay in a B&B for one week. From here we want to visit Mat-Su and on a clear day if any Denali. Then we drive to Seward and stay another week. We booked an B&B outside Seward. We will use a cruiseship as a ferry to get to Vancouver to meet our friends on Vancouver Island. Travelling with the cruis ship is easier and cheaper then using the ferry. Bonus is that we have the chance to see Hubbard Glacier and Icy strait point. Even though we didn't plan to make a crusie at all for us this was the most convenient manner. We are looking forward to our trip in June! Linda & Ad

Interesting choice Palmer..They have a great State Fair, but you may be there too early. It is not that far away from Anchorage if you need a little more excitement in the evening... Karl

State Fair is end of August.

We choose for Palmer because it's a convenient place for making trips Into the Mat-su Valley. We found the kind of B&B we were looking for here so the choice was easy for us.

HI Linda and Ad, We have just come from Alaska. Spent 9 days there. had a wonderful time saw lots of palces. I have just put it up on my blog. There are links for different websites that we referred to in the "Resources " page. it is my personal blog! Hope it helps. Do take a look all the details here savsmich.com/2012/09/alaska.... It may not have all the palces you want to go to but prince william sound, denali, seward, denali is a must... eagle river centre, downtown anchorage, palmer- reindeer farm, matanuska glacier are some that I can recommend. Hope this helps. I also have some more snaps on my facebook page facebook.com\savsmich that you can take a look at. Hope this helps. Michelle www.savsmich.com