How to plan a 9-day-8-night Alaska vacation in late August?

Question

1.The best route?
2.The must-see places?
3.The best food/restaurant?
4.The speal events?

All suggestions are welcome.

Answer 1

Decide on what cities or towns you want to go to. I assume you are flying to Anchorage which has the most direct flights, Fairbanks would be next. Otherwise, you'll have to drive up the Al-Can highway which would take most of you days if you do round trip.

Once in Anchorage/Fairbanks, you can rent a car and drive to the glaciers, take ferry boats across the inlets to other small towns, take a train to Denali National Park, etc. You can go to the bigger cities and take tours from there if you don't want to drive.

The weather in late August in Anchorage is 65-70 degrees in the daytime and 20-30 degrees cooler at night. If you want to do some camping out, it can get down to 40 degress in Denali Park, but they have lodges you can stay at. If you don't have prior reservations, its best to go during middle of the week which is not as busy; then you might get a room without much problems. I

It snowed Labor Day weekend when I was there. Woke up with frost on the pillow camping out one fourth of July; and went fishing one August and when we got in at 10 pm, it was quite cold and the fire at the lodge was great; so it can be cold. When you go around the glaciers it is also very cold.

They have all kinds of restaurants in the bigger cities and the smaller ones have some good ones with home cooking type food. Depending on where you are and what you want to eat as to whats good.

If you can't check out the sites on line, you can easily pick up brochures while there to see what is in that particular area.

Answer 2

If you're going in late August, you may want to check out the Alaska State Fair, about an hour north of Anchorage. Nothing too spectacular, other than the gigantic vegetables.

Nothing much to see in Anchorage, except the McKinley Park right next to the airport. Plenty of moose roaming around at dusk, so you don't have to drive far to see them.

If you want to camp, definitely check out Denali, or maybe even try climbing McKinley.

Driveable towns from Anchorage:
1. Whittier is about a 2 hour drive from Anchorage, and they have Galcier cruises departing from there.
2. Seward is a laid back town, where cruise ships usually dock. Very fresh and cheap fish here. Plus Mile 0 of the original Iditarod is in Seward.
3. A lot of empty land to roam in the Kenai peninsular ... and a lot of wildlife if you can find them, as they usually only come out in the evenings.

If your budget permits, check our Kodiak island. This is probably where they film the National Geographic bits showing the brown bears on rocks at the waterfall catching salmon spawning upstream. I think a day trip is around $700 per person.

Answer 3

I would do most of it on the Kenai Peninsula. They have a wide variety of things to do out there. You can go flightseeing and watch bears, or you can go dogsledding on a glacier. They have several cruises to see glaciers that run out of Whittier. They also have good fishing and hiking all over the area. You can take the train back and forth from Anchorage too if you want. It's a diverse area and it has a lot of things to do. It's good because you don't have to spend a lot of extra time traveling from area to area.

Answer 4

try www.vrbo.com and rent owner direct... speak to the owner find out the highlights. they own property there. they have the insite..

Answer 5

not much too do in august