D&SIL went one summer by air to Anchorage then rented a car for a few days and drove to Homer and Seward. She really liked it. Any ideas in Homer or Seward or other places for a small driving trip in the summer from Anchorage?
Just not interested in a cruise.
I used to live in Fairbanks. How long of a trip are you talking about? As a day trip from Anchorage, you can go south to Girdwood or north to Big Lake. For longer trips, people often head up to Talkeetna and Denali National Park, and then possibly up to Fairbanks. From Fairbanks, people do a long day-trip up to the Yukon River. There’s aren’t a lot of roads in Alaska, so you’re somewhat limited in where you can drive.
There aren’t many small driving trips in Alaska. It’s a very big state.
We’ve been twice. Both trips included a drive up to Denali National Park, with a stop in the great town of Talkeetna (and airplane tours from the airport). Both also included trips to Whittier and Seward, but we never made it over to Homer.
One trip included Fairbanks and Valdez. The other traded those off for a longer stay in Seward. Both involved a lot of driving - something like 1,000 miles.
If headed to Seward/Homer as a start, certainly include Whittier. There are a few places to stop on the way - chairlift up the mountain at the Alyeska ski area, a wildlife park, Iditarod competitors with tours/rides during the Summer, a glacier hike, etc.
Assuming you mean a multi-day, multi-port cruise is what you want to avoid, a 4-5 hour Prince William Sound cruise from Whittier is highly recommended. And if you’re up for it, sea kayaking out of Seward.
Talkeetna and a flight over Denali would be the next significant drive I would recommend. Other destinations become much more committed drives.
This was a long time ago, but we drove from Anchorage to Denali for a few days. Then down to Seward, visiting several glaciers along the way. And yes, we did a short cruise (one afternoon) from Seward to the glaciers and it was absolutely marvelous. We got to see the glacier calving and it actually shook our boat - pretty exciting and cool.
One tip - make sure your gas tank is full - or fill up when you are close to a gas station. On the drive down to Seward, we were running low on gas. Had seen a gas station on our way down to Exit Glacier. Instead of going back to that gas station, H decided we’d find the next one on our way down. Some very tense moments as the next gas station was nowhere close by and we came very very close to running out of gas on the way down.
H really wants to fly to Alaska and do a driving trip in the next couple of years. You made me laugh when you said a lot of driving 1,000 miles. H and I normally drive 3K miles in the winter on our ski road trips so 1,000 is no problem for us!
We just went last summer and also were not interested in a cruise. We rented a Suburban and did a road trip - it was the best trip of my life! We flew to Anchorage, drove north to Palmer for 2 nights to do the Matanuska Glacier then drove south to send time on the Kenai Peninsula. We spent two nights in Cooper Landing for fishing then headed to Seward. We then did a night in Seward before getting on a charter boat for two nights to tour all around the glaciers and do some private wildlife watching/fishing/kayaking. I can’t explain how amazing it was out on the water!
We finished up with two more nights in Seward and there were a bunch of small stops and activities throughout the trip - I’d be happy to give more information once you pick the area you want to visit.
One hard decision was that we decided to skip Denali. I have always wanted to go but because of the landslide that closed the road at mile 43 I decided to wait and go there on my next trip. And as I keep telling my family there will definitely be a next trip - I cannot stop thinking about it!
The website that helped me the most was Alaska .org (remove the space after Alaska) - it is a ton of information but really helped me narrow down my choices.
We did the great circle route of Alaska about 10 years ago and I’d love to go back. Flew to Anchorage, then down the Kenai to Seward where we saw the Exit glacier and took a boat trip on the bay and saw their wonderful aquarium. Then up to Denali, over to Fairbanks, down to Valdez and back to Anchorage.
The boat trip on Prince William Sound out of Valdez was a highlight.
There’s a book that gets published every year called the Alaska Milepost. It’s really worth it if you want to plan out road trips in Alaska. When I lived in Alaska, just about everybody had one, including me. There’s also a Milepost website, but I don’t think it’s as good as the book.