Vancouver Travel Forum

Heading to Alaska for 10 days, for the first time, next Aug, and probably the last; first we will have the coral princess cruise and, after that a land tour to Denali for 3 days.
We will have all kinds of the usual activities:
Hiking, water rafting, flightseeing and glacier landing … etc
We are a family of 4 including 2 teens; looking for a full rain gear including proper footwear; for all of us, putting in consideration that we WILL USE IT JUST for 10 days and never again; probably we will take rid of it before our flight back home.
So, we will really appreciate all suggestions for the following:
# 1 What kind of cloths should we have; we will intend to wear in layers, so, should we have water proof coat only!
# 2 We don’t know what is the “proper” footwear for Alaska ?
# 3 Where we could have all these items together; we will stay at The Pan Pacific hotel.
We are new in this issue; sound a little bit strange, but we came from a completely different climate, almost no rain and never saw a snow before!
Need Help and Advice.

First I would find out what is the weather supposed to be like and leave a little room for contingency.

I live in Florida and went to a cold place this year (Ushuaia, Argentina) - so I was advised to dress in layers and it worked great. I had an insulating layer (preferable a coolmax type t-shirt if you'll be doing lots of walking to absorb moisture). Then whatever shirt you weat, then I bought a NorthFace Polatec 300 jacket, then I bought a wind/rain/waterproof jacket. It is possible that for the rafting you could be provided with some gear (don't know).

Where to buy it - difficult to tell because you don't indicate where you're coming from, but I would not want to spend my precious vacation time trying to purchase geat, so I would advise that you do it before the trip.

There are several sites - REI is good, and great about returns.

This is also a good site: http://www.travelcountry.com/
They're located here in Orlando so I did go to the store, but you can obtains the items on the web. If you have questions, you can probably give them a call and they might have good suggestions.

I found both the REI people (I go to their store in Saratoga by San Jose often) and the travelcountry people very helpful.

So: find out -
What will the weather be like
From the people with the activities: do they provide any gear

Hope this helps!

Hi nomad7890
Many thanks for your reply, we don't have such items at home, we are from Alexandria, Egypt, we will strat our cruise from Vancouver, unfortunately, there is no branches for REI or TravelCountry their.

we don't have rei, so that doesn't do you much good, but we do have a very good store called mec

I would think a sturdy Runner/Trainer/Sneaker would work work for all. You can probably buy them in Egypt cheaper.
If you want a decent rain coat with hood, I would recommend Army & Navy. It is about 6 blocks East of your hotel through Gastown. Great selection and pricing (on light hiking shoe/boots too)
www.armyandnavy.ca
Closet space is pretty limited on the ships so blue jeans/denims would work and can be washed or dried on board without needing full weather clothes.

The main idea is to get layers, so the store does not matter - like YVRDave mentioned, a nice rain jacket (sometimes they have disposable ones!) would do well for an outer layer. Then find a coolmax shirt that you could re-use during the trip. These are nice because they dry overnight.

I would try find out exactly what the weather will be like, although the weather up there could be unpredictable (I've been as far as Yellowstone on different occassions, which is much further south, and the weather was totally different the same time of year). So maybe if you get a nice Polartec jacket, with the coolmax, the shirt you wear, then the rain coat, you should be OK. Polartecs tend to pack very well and compact in a suitcase.

Only thing on previous post - I avoid carrying jeans because unless you have a secret to get them dry, I find they weigh more and take for ever to dry.

So, a coolmax liner/shirt, and a Polartec should be available some place in Egypt.

Now, the one thing that will make or break your vacation will be the right pair of shoes - I would shop for these right away. I always go for the lighter shoe - but try to get a waterproof she with good ankle support, but it *must* be comfortable.

Another option for light weather protection (wind especially) is at a golf store. They have light weight weather clothes. There is a store 2 blocks east from your hotel called Perfect Lies, under the revolving tower. http://www.perfectlies.ca/Golf_Store_Locations.php?loc=vancouver

You might also look at Mountain Co-op on Broadway, you must join, I believe it is $5.00, but they have everything you would need. Quality items at reasonable prices. From the Pan Pacific you can walk to Pender Street farside of Seymour and take the #15 Cambie bus to Broadway, you can walk the two or three blocks east from there. Or as Dave mentioned the Army and Navy.

Oh, one warning. Whatever you end up wearing, make sure you do a "dress rehearsal". I was at the REI store and happened to try layers similar to the ones I was planning to wear and I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy - so I had to rework things a bit.


;=)