Visiting Alaska has been at the top of my wanderlist since I was a little girl. From the scenery, the wildlife, and the Northern Lights, I’d love be able to experience it all someday. Any tips regarding where and when to go?
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Daily Escape – Alaska
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I’m a Midwestern wife and Mama, and after being diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2013 I began sharing delicious and approachable gluten-free recipes made with everyday, in-season ingredients. Welcome!
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I lived in Anchorage a few years ago….loved it! I’d suggest visiting in the summer months, unless you love the cold! It was -24 the day I moved back to Texas!!! But the winter months have awesome things to offer: ice sculptures, huge snowmen, and beautiful perfect snowflakes.
Moose’s Tooth has the best pizza, try the halibut pizza while you’re at it!
Take a day trip to Seward and go on a boat tour of Resurrection Bay, you’ll never see anything like it!
Girdwood has some cute little cabins you can rent if you’re wanting to get out of Anchorage.
I will get to Alaska one day – I will!
Kenai Fjords, Alaska is a must! I went in July when the sunlight lasts for 22 hours a day. Beautiful, breathtaking, and lots of great sightseeing and hiking options. I recommend taking a whale-watching tour, hike the glaciers and wildflower fields, etc. One of my favorite places I’ve ever visited.
If you go to Anchorage you must eat at Snow City Cafe – it has the best breakfast in town! Also, I agree about the flight seeing tour in Talkeetna – definitely the best part of my trip and you can see a ton of wildlife on a bus tour at Denali National Park.
My husband won a fishing trip to Alaska and it was one of the most wonderful experiences we’ve ever had!! We stayed at Whales Resort on Prince of Whales Island and traveled the first week of August. We were told it was the rainy season, but it only sprinkled on us one day. We went halibut and salmon fishing and it was the most exhilerating experience!!! The staff and ship’s captains were all wonderful. :)
I live in Anchorage, AK! It is definitely a great place to visit! There are a few restaurants in Anchorage to hit up (Yak & Yeti, Spenard Roadhouse, Bear Tooth, and Middleway Cafe are some of my favorites!) but I would recommend spending more time outside of Anchorage. Southeast Alaska by boat is beautiful, and I’d definitely recommend the drive (or train ride) from Anchorage to Denali Park. One of my FAVORITE places in Alaska though is Hatcher Pass in Palmer, AK. The drive from Palmer to Matanuska Glacier is also amazing. Hope you get to visit!
Once you’re in Alaska, take a “local” tour (I think Alaska Tours was the one we used…but it’s been almost 20 years so my memory may be a little fuzzy) to fly to Kotzebu and Nome, above the Arctic Circle. Our kids loved learning about the Iditerod race, the tundra, the native culture, and what it’s like to live in a really remote community – for kids growing up in a major urban area, that was a real eye-opener! It was probably my favorite part of our trip – we had driven the Al-Can
Highway to Alaska and then visited Chicken, Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage (and everything in between) before taking the ferry on the inland passage on our way back south.
Have fun!
Alaska is also on our wish list, I love all the suggestions here!! Maybe we can make a trip at this time next year :)
I love summer for being up all night and the never-ending day… 4th of July in Juneau rocks (the fireworks happen just after midnight on the 3rd, so you START the day with them ;^)*
I love winter in Fairbanks for the Northern Lights — and you really do have to visit the hot springs up there… long, long nights, hot water and Northern Lights… well, it’s super romantic.
If you can do it, get Way North — and experience walking on the frozen Chuckchee sea outside of Barrow. Amazing — but tough place to be… do this in the spring or early summer.
Juneau also has both a Folk Festival and a Jazz and Classics festival, and there is a Bluegrass festival near Talkeetna…
Don’t limit yourself to one season, or to the standard tours and tourboats… take the time to meet real Alaskans and leave room to do the unexpected!
Oh — and another thing — Fairbanks in the winter has an AMAZING world-class ice sculpting park with competitions going on… see some of my MIL’s photo’s here:http://akelaine.blogspot.com/search/label/Ice%20Park
We lived in Anchorage in the late seventies and did a lot of exploring. Loved the Matanuska Valley (sp……been a long time!). Summer time their veggies were humongous! We visited Portage Glacier. We loved camping in the spring/summer, but always had to be prepared for cold snaps, unexpected snow, etc!
Favorite by far was Camp Denali. We spent a few nights there in a cabin with a tarp roof and actually were blessed to see the top of Mt McKinley! The clouds parted and there it stood in all it’s glory! Amazing sight!
The Northern lights are beautiful and we actually saw them from our balcony one night! Alaska is truly God’s country and I hope you get a chance to visit! Being a native Floridian, it was too cold for me, but it was an adventure I will never forget or regret! The kids loved the outdoor sports and at school during recess in the winter they got to ski or ice skate! Of course, this was before Computer games. The only game was Nintendo and it couldn’t compete with Cross Country Skiing or down hill sledding!
Great state, great memories!
Definitely Summer! I’d check Running off the Reese’s blog for suggestions bc she went last year and she was uber organized and it looked totally awesome: http://www.runningoffthereeses.com/
My favorite Daily Escape so far! I grew up in Alaska and can’t stress enough just how amazing it is! Definitely recommend flying or driving up there (The trip through British Columbia is worth it too!). We live in Canada now but when we go back to visit we rent Nordic Tugs and go out of Juneau and go fishing and visit our cabin just outside of Petersburg!
I agree with everyone else- go in the summer and definitely go to Denali! If you are in Anchorage, go to Glacier Brewhouse- the food and the beer will not disappoint (especially the Halibut entree)! Do the flight tour from Talkeetna as Laura M mentioned, but only if you are a good flyer… the planes are super tiny and move around easily. You can rent bikes in Anchorage and ride around the city. We also drove down Hwy 1 to Seward which is a cute seaside town and day cruises leave from there. Check out the Kenai Fjords tour, we saw tons of wildlife, and whales! There is also an arctic aquarium in town as well.
We were there exactly this time three years ago! We went the first week of August for our honeymoon. The weather was beautiful… jeans and a tshirt every day with a light sweater at night.
We did a little land tour and visited Anchorage, Seward, and Talkeetna.
You would love Talkeetna. It is a little tiny hippie town just south of Denali National park, but there is some awesome food there! Made with local ingredients with some exotic things on the menu. We had reindeer tacos and burgers. We also did a flight seeing tour from there over Denali park which was the highlight of our trip!
Im always happy to advise if you all ever decide to actually go! We found some great money saving stuff!
We went on a cruise to Alaska a few years back in August. The temperature was perfect (perfect for Alaska anyways) – jeans and light jacket or sweatshirt weather. We didn’t go too far north – I don’t remember all the names of the towns but we went along the Gulf of Alaska stopping in Seward and Ketchikan. Highly recommended.
I loved visiting Alaska in June a few years ago. We went to Anchorage and then drove up highway 3 to Denali. We hiked a glacier (with a guide) and learned a lot! Very cool. I recommend going in the summer months because it’s warmer (still around 60s though – so not that warm really), and it’s light most of the day (it actually stays light until 11-midnight or so in the summer). If you go in the winter, it will be dark during more of the day.