Alaska Travel Forum

Hi,

Never in my life have I been so confused with my itinerary/travel this much....only in Alaska whew! There's soooooo much to do and so many great places to see with limited access and yet soooo expensive!

My friends and I have 3 days to spend in Alaska before our cruise starts from Seward. We really wanna kayak in Bear Glacier bec. we were stunned with the photos we've seen and the view is amazing. We are from a tropical climate country in Asia so we don't have snow in our native land. We wana wow our friends with our fabulous photos kayaking next to glowing blue icebergs and seals.

The problem is, we will be in Seward on May 21-24, which are not good dates to go to Bear Glacier because of the tides. According to the tour operator (Seward Water Taxi) we can only do either:

1. A very short trip (4 hours at $150 per person, but NO KAYAKING! Oh no!), or

2. Stay there overnight at a camp, in which case we can kayak all afternoon and all night. However, it can get cold (down to about 32 to 34 degrees F) at night in that area during May. Also, the overnight trip is expensive ($585 per person, more than the cost of our 7 day cruise!). Of course, it includes meals and camping gear and we don't have to pay for lodging in Seward that night, but it still seems kinda expensive.

Enough of the background, my question is, is this kayaking adventure worth the trip? I fell in love with Bear Glacier but I'm having second thoughts. What if after 8 hours of kayaking we wanna go somewhere else, but we're already stuck there bec. the water taxi has left, and can only pick us up the next day during high tide? Can we do something else there aside from kayaking? I've never been camping nor slept in a tent with temperature that low! Can we survive the coldness of the night? Are there any other kayaking alternatives near seward that offers almost the same experience, view of the glaciers, and nice photo opportunities, but without being so complicated to plan?

Or should we go to Prince William Sound? It seems so far from Anchorage (where our flight arrives on the 21st) and Seward (where our cruise starts on the 24th). Do we have enough time?

Help!

$585 is a lot of change to drop for an overnight trip! Kayaking is great but because it is so gear intense the tour operators can really bulk up your bill on 'the extras'. Try calling Lazy Otter in Whittier (http://www.lazyotter.com) and ask him about getting a drop out near Blackstone. You should check into either bringing your own camping gear and buying groceries. Are you taking a guide or are you experienced kayakers because that obviously has a high cost attached as well?

Good luck –

I did a kayak/camping trip in Bear Glacier last year with an operator called Adventure 60 North (www.adventure60.com), whom I HIGHLY recommend. The owner is a guy named Rick, who was extremely helpful in the planning process. They did a great job for us, including making some on-the-fly changes necessitated by bad weather conditions during our trip. At the same time I would also advise you to stay away from Seward Water Taxi--while we were in Seward, we heard quite a bit of negative information about these guys with respect to the way they treat their customers, cost, etc.

Although I had a great time there, Bear Glacier is a fairly challenging destination because the water is extremely cold. You really have to be very prepared for it with proper clothing, and you have to be pretty secure in your kayaking ability. Falling into this water (which is very close to 0 degrees C) can literally kill you if you don't get out of it within a minute or two. It's a fabulous place to go, but be aware of this. Also be aware that the weather is much more likely to be cloudy/rainy than the beautiful sunshine that you see in all those gorgeous pictures on everyone's website! We were there for two days and it was socked in with clouds and fog much of the time.

Our trip also included two days kayaking around Fox Island, which is much closer to Seward and might be a viable destination for you. The draw here is not the glacier/icebergs, but the wildlife and birds you'll see while paddling. The actual kayaking is somewhat more strenuous than at Bear Glacier because the water is more choppy, but if you are reasonably fit you will be fine.

If you are not used to cold temperatures, I would strongly, strongly recommend you spend a day in Anchorage before you leave for the rest of your trip so you can stock up on appropriate clothing at REI or one of the other outfitter stores. The most important thing you need to be prepared with is waterproof gear. In Alaska it rains A LOT. There's nothing worse than being wet and cold, particularly when you're stuck out on a glacier lagoon and the water taxi isn't coming back until the next day!

Finally, if you have never been camping before, this trip is not the place to start doing it unless you are accompanied by a guide. Alaska is quite a different place than most other destinations--very remote (i.e. if you run into trouble, chances are that you won't be able to find someone nearby to help you out) and also full of bears. They are not kidding about this, and it is really something you have to be very careful about. For instance, when we were at Bear Glacier, absolutely all of our food and anything that even smelled like food (e.g. toothpaste) had to be stored in specialized bear-proof containers and hung from trees. There are a lot of things like this that the guide will know about, but you won't. Please, don't camp by yourself!

Hi, thanks to those who replied to my email. You've been very helpful. Just to clarify, the $585 per person is already inclusive of all the kayak and camping gears such as dry suit, camping tent, food, water taxi fare and one experienced kayak/camping guide to accompany us overnight that will also carry all our stuff as they claimed. For us it's not worth it to buy camping gears and other stuff since we don't normally do camping in our country. Although we already bought back home water proof jackets, gloves, hiking shoes and water repellant hiking bag.

We tried contacting kayak.com but they said that they don't do bear glacier tour anymore. We also contacted Back Safaris and Water Seward taxi and we found out that Water Seward Taxi only deals with Back Safaris tour operator. I don't think we've contacted Adventure 60 but I'll try to email them. By the way, if you hired the services of Adventure 60 before, who was the water taxi they partnered with or you use when you went to Bear Glacier?

> By the way, if you hired the services of Adventure 60 before, who was the water taxi they partnered with or you use when you went to Bear Glacier?

No idea, but if you contact Rick at Adventure 60 he will let you know.

Glad to hear that you have a guide to go with you! I would still advise you to buy as much waterproof clothing as possible (not just jacket, but pants also, and a hat, and maybe socks--really).

One more note--apparently I got the water taxi co's confused. It was not Seward Water Taxi that I was warned about, but another one (don't want to mention a name now in case I get it wrong again!) Actually, SWT was the one that Adventure 60 used, and we had no problems with them.

Hope your planning is going well.