What should I leave out of my Alaska itinerary?

Jennie talks about what to consider when deciding how to prioritize where to go and what to leave out.

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Music credits:  Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.

Transcript

Jennie Flaming: 0:07

Are you struggling to figure out what to leave out of your Alaska itinerary? You Welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing, Flaming, I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska, travel and life in Alaska. Today's episode is the third of a five part bonus episode series every Monday in January 2024 to help you get your 2024 trip planned and finalized. Today we're talking about what to leave out of your Alaska itinerary. And I know this might not seem super exciting or interesting or kind of depressing, but I am telling you, this is the key to making sure you have an amazing experience in Alaska. Is not doing too much, and in order to not do too much, you're going to need to decide to leave something out. And the answer for each person is going to be different. So I don't really have a straight answer for you about leave out this place or leave out that place. More about encouraging you to prioritize and also letting you know some tools you can use to figure it out for yourself. So first of all, how many places can you go? This is my opinion. I've talked about this in a couple other podcast episodes. I recommend going to two, no more than two places per week to sleep on your Alaska trip. Now I am not counting an airport hotel the night you arrive or the night before you leave. I would say that would be in addition to that. So if you're going to Alaska for a week and you're going to stay near the Anchorage or Fairbanks airport the night you arrive or the night before you leave. I wouldn't count that in the two places you can, but you don't have to, because you probably want to go to places away from the airport, but that is my guideline. So if you have a week long trip, you don't want to sleep in more than two places. If you have a 10 day trip, you don't want to sleep in more than three places. And if you have a two week trip, you don't want to sleep in more than four places, etc, etc, depending on how long your your trip is. Now, exceptions to this are, if you are on a guided tour, either land based or a cruise, you're going to go to more places than that. And if that's what you want, I would encourage you to do it, book it through a tour, because other The reason is, it's just really complicated, and you're going to spend a lot of time traveling and not seeing things. So at least, if you are going to do that, minimize that hassle by going on a group trip and letting them figure out the logistics. But for this episode, I'm going to assume that you are game to take my advice and narrow it down to no more than two destinations for sleeping per week. It's tough. I know one thing that I want to encourage you to really think about if you've got, let's say you're doing a week long trip and you want to go to four places, you need to narrow it down to two. I would recommend looking closely at a map and see where those places are. So this is my first tip for prioritizing. Is to really look hard at a map and do a little research to figure out what type of roads you're talking about. So for example, people are often surprised to find that driving from Anchorage to Homer usually takes about six hours. Google Maps will tell you it's a little shorter, but between it being a two lane road with lots of RV traffic, or the potential for construction, which is almost always there, or other types of delays. If it's winter, there's even more delays. So if you're looking at something like that, it's just good to know, okay, that's going to be a full day of driving. Same if you're going from Anchorage to Fairbanks is about the same distance you would want to spend an entire day making that drive, because there are so many cool things to see. And if you're taking the train, it will take 12 hours, right? So that is an awesome day, and you see a ton of cool things, but you. So it is going to be a whole day of traveling. So just keep that in mind. So my first tip for prioritizing is look hard at the map. Add up all the total number of days that you'll be driving, taking a plane, riding a ferry, what you know, something like that, riding on the Alaska railroad, and figure out how you feel about the number of travel days versus the number of days that you're actually somewhere to explore. So that's the first one. The second thing that I think is really good to consider when it comes to prioritizing is thinking about things that don't fit right? So for example, if you really love looking at cool views, right? You probably want to do a train trip or a road trip that's going to show you some cool views, and you might be down to have more time on the road or on the train, if that's your top priority is looking at scenery. On the other hand, if your top priority is seen wildlife, you might want to look at things that, wow, this isn't as strong of a destination for scene wildlife. Or do I really want to spend this much time driving around? When instead I would have more time to do a whale watching tour or a glacier cruise or something like that. Often on glacier cruises, you also see wildlife. So another thing that might be an example of fit is if you are a hiker or a kayaker or a cyclist and you want to do that activity while you're in Alaska, you want to give yourself enough time in the different locations you're going to to be able to do those things. So look for things that don't fit with your biggest goal. And say, hey, everyone says this destination is a big deal, but that doesn't really fit with my goals. My goal is to get off the beaten track and see some things that a lot of other visitors don't get to see. So maybe staying at a Denali hotel is not going to be the right fit for me, or maybe it is, and I'm going to get deep into the park and go for a hike and get away from crowds. But what is important with prioritizing is those two things, number one, just looking really hard at a map, looking for something that is the furthest away, and saying, maybe we can simplify by taking that out. Another thing is, the second thing is just really thinking about your priorities and looking for the thing you're considering that doesn't fit with that. And I've talked about this before, I'm going to mention it again. When you are prioritizing. The truth is that for people who have lived in Alaska their entire lives, there are vast parts of the state that they've never been to, and so you're not going to see everything on your first trip, maybe not even on your fifth trip, right? But you want to give yourself the chance to really experience and dive into a couple of different places, and if you really fall in love, you can come back. So that is why those two things and prioritizing is so important. You want to have a good time and be able to see and experience things and not spend your entire time traveling between places. One more thing I wanted to mention before we wrap up this shorty episode is different airports and places to fly into. It out of so most people who are traveling to Alaska independently, so not they're not on a cruise ship, they're not traveling with the tour group. Most people in that situation will fly into either Anchorage or Fairbanks and perhaps Juneau. I'm going to just tell you that I love a week long trip to Juneau and Glacier Bay National Park for people traveling on their own, that is a fantastic one week trip in Alaska. So if you're up for that, yeah, that is a great one. It takes you to two places. It gives you an amazing experience. You'd want to fly into Juno for that. But mostly I'm going to talk here about Anchorage and Fairbanks. So people will sometimes ask me, which is better, or if you can fly into Anchorage and out of Fairbanks, or into Fairbanks and out of Anchorage. So I wanted to just briefly say a few things about that before we wrap up this episode. So you can fly into Anchorage and out of Fairbanks, or into Fairbanks and out of Anchorage. However, you can't do that and rent a car because a one way car rental is hard to find and it's very expensive. There's a big, hefty charge to do a one way car rental that is typically not worth it. So if you're renting a car, you want to fly in and out of the same airport, either Anchorage or Fairbanks. It doesn't really matter. It depends a little bit on where you want to go. But to do a one way trip, you would want to do a train and a train trip, because that way. You can go from one to the other without having to deal with the rental car. And by the way, that is one thing in the prioritizing thing if you're looking for something simple without renting a car. I would really encourage you to look at the packages offered by the Alaska railroad. Is you can book your hotel and your train trip together and do something like Fairbanks, Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, and because they have everything figured out for you, for it to work smoothly, you can kind of stay in more places, because they're moving your luggage for you and making sure you're in convenient locations and taking care of all the transportation. And you can do a five to seven to 10 day trip anywhere in there, along the rail belt one way, which is super cool. So look into the Alaska railroad for that. Yeah. Okay, so choosing anchorage versus Fairbanks, if you're going to go in and out of the same one, if you are going to Denali. You want to go to Fairbanks because it's much closer to Denali. It's only a two hour drive, instead of a 456, hour drive, depending on construction and traffic from Anchorage. However, if you're going to other places besides Denali that are further south, it might still make sense to fly into Anchorage. But I always like to tell people, if you're doing a shorter trip and you're really focusing on Denali, then flying into Fairbanks is a fantastic way to go. Similarly, if you want to do a road trip off the beaten track, say down the Richardson Highway to Valdez, Fairbanks has a great option for that. Yeah, and then for Anchorage, that's the place most people fly into. There are the most flights, and it's a good, somewhat central location. It's further from Denali than Fairbanks is, but it's closer to the Kenai Peninsula. So if you want to explore the Kenai Peninsula, then Anchorage is definitely the place to fly to. One other thing is, if you want to see Denali, but you're not so concerned with going into the park. Talquitna is much closer to Anchorage, and actually has better views of the mountain than the park entrance area. Of course, it has to be clear, you know, sometimes you can't see it at all, but those are my thoughts about picking different airports. So thank you for joining me for this short, little bonus planning episode, and we'll be back on Wednesday with another new episode. Thank you for joining us and grab the planner if you want help figuring this out. I've talked about it before, but the link to getting my planner is in the show notes. So goodbye to there. All Right, bye For now you