How to plan a trip on your own to Alaska in 2026

Jennie talks about the most important things to consider for your 2026 Alaska trip that you're planning on your own.

This episode is sponsored by the Alaska TourSaver! One lucky listener who leaves a review for the podcast on any platform by midnight Pacific time on December 31st will be entered to win a 2026 TourSaver! EMAIL A SCREENSHOT OF YOUR REVIEW to jen@ordinary-adventures.com

Save 20% on my Alaska Adventure Planner until Monday night December 29th at 11:59pm with code PLANNER20

Save 20% on my Book your own cruise without a travel advisor workshop until Saturday night December 27th at 11:59pm with code: SELF20

Transcript

 Welcome to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co-host and full-time husband, Jay, and I bring you accurate, helpful, and entertaining information about Alaska Travel and life in Alaska.







Hi everyone. Jennie here. So today is the second day of six daily episodes that I am sharing with you this very last week of the year. So once again, happy holidays and today's episode is once again sponsored by the Alaska Tour Saver. And as a reminder, the Alaska Tour Saver is a wonderful coupon. Book or app with many two for one deals.

And on Alaska tours there is also, um, coupons for transportation like Alaska Airlines and the Alaska Railroad. So this is a fantastic way to save money on your trip. Um, you can check the link in the show notes and to get your 2026 book or app and also to see if the deals make sense to you for your.

Trip that you've planned. Okay. Um, also, tour Saver is partnering with us this week to give a lucky listener who leaves us a review, a free 2026 Alaska Tour Saver. Super cool. However. There are a couple steps to enter, right? So it'll take a minute. It's worth it. Let me just explain to you what to do. First of all, leave your review on any podcast app.

Second of all, take a screenshot of that review and email it to me. jen@ordinaryadventures.com, you have to attach the screenshot. You have to get it in by midnight Pacific Time on December 31st, and then on January 8th, I will draw a winner from everyone who submits. So good luck everyone. Thank you to the Alaska Tour Saver for sponsoring and for offering this super cool giveaway.

Alright, so today's episode is for those of you who are planning to do a trip on your own and are not taking a cruise. Now, if you're taking a cruise and planning a trip on your own before or after. That part is what this episode is about. Yesterday's episode was about how to make that decision. So if you're still at the decision point or you're planning to take a cruise, um, this episode you're of course welcome to listen, but it is.

Probably not the right one. Go back one step, um, and then decide if you wanna listen to this one. I'm gonna keep it really simple because you're probably into at least a little bit of planning or thinking about what you want already. You already know that the entire catalog, all 156 episodes of the podcast and all the additional episodes, like around 50 or 60, that will be live in 2026 are.

Already dedicated to helping you make the most of your trip and get to know Alaska before you go. Um, on the last episode this week, I'll talk about more ways that I can help you, but for today, I just want to keep it really simple because people get very overwhelmed and maybe you're feeling overwhelmed too.

So. I want to help you break through that and get started planning your trip because you do not want to wait. You especially do not wanna wait to get where you are sleeping, figured out whether that's a cruise, which is not what we're talking about today, but whether it's a cruise, staying in hotels, vacation rentals, renting an rv, you need to get those, uh, accommodations.

Reserved and booked immediately. Um, this week is when everyone starts to really get serious about booking, so it's really important. It's extra important if you are going to Denali or Seward. So, um, get, that's why we're talking about the basics today, so that you can do that. Okay. Um. I also wanted to tell you that similarly to the discount for, um, folks who are planning their own crews, that's still good through tonight, by the way.

Um, we talked about that in yesterday's episode. For those of you planning a trip on your own, I really wanted to offer something for you as well. So until Monday night. So again, if you're listening to this in real time, on December 27th until Monday night, the 29th at midnight Pacific Time. I am offering a 20% discount on my Alaska Travel and Adventure Planner, which is all for getting this stuff organized.

So the code for that is Planner 20, and that's what you put. You go to my shop, which is shop dot ordinary adventures.com. I'll put the link in the show notes as well. But the product that you are looking for is called the Alaska Adventure Planner and Workbook. It's $24, so it's a pretty good value normally, and you'll get 20% off if you pick it up in the next couple days.

All right, so. This is what I'm talking about in this episode is one of the things that the planner, um, addresses and kind of helps you with. So. If you are traveling on your own, for the purpose of today's episode, I'm going to make the assumption that you're planning a two week trip. Now, some of you I know are planning to spend the whole summer in Alaska.

You're driving there. Some of you are gonna be there for only a week or maybe even a little less. That's totally okay. What I have learned is that most people, kind of the most common length of time is a couple weeks or. 10 or 12 days, if it's two weeks, including the travel time. Um, so I'm gonna focus on that for today's episode.

So the first thing is you need to decide where you're going to go. In Alaska, you are not gonna see everything. People frequently ask me, um, how do I see everything? And I tell them that I have a. Very long, multi-page list of things that I would still like to do in Alaska. I lived in Alaska for five years plus several summers.

I spend between 10 and 12 weeks there every year, and I have been going there since 1998. So. The point if people who've lived in Alaska their entire life haven't been to many parts of the state, so you are not gonna see everything. Um, if you want to see as many different places as possible, go back and listen to yesterday's episode because a cruise or a cruise tour is really a better way to do that unless you have a lot of time.

Um, but we're talking about if you have two weeks for this episode. So, uh. You wanna decide where to go? I would recommend making a decision between Southeast Alaska and South Central. And the interior part of Alaska, the reason is to go, uh, between Southeast Alaska and uh, other parts of Alaska, south Central, the interior.

Uh, in order to do that, you're gonna be flying between them, and that's gonna take basically a day. So I'd recommend picking one of those two, unless you're taking a cross Gulf Cruise. It's a one-way cruise tour from Vancouver that will make the trip between those. Two regions of Alaska. There are more than two regions in Alaska, but these are the ones that most visitors go to, um, that'll make that seamless.

And you'll be sleeping during the time that you're, you're traveling between them. So, uh, but. Again, if you're planning a trip on your own, I'd recommend picking one or the other. If you want to go to southeast Alaska, that's also sometimes referred to you as the inside passage. That is places where all Alaska cruises go.

Um, so common ports there include places like Juno and Kechika and Skagway, glacier Bay National Park, Hayes, Sitka, and some others. So if you want to visit that part of Alaska without a cruise, then I would recommend that you go to only two places. So a cruise will take you lots of different places. If you're going on your own, you'll either be flying or taking a ferry in between them, and that's time consuming, and you want time to see things and not just be traveling.

So, for example, one of my favorite itineraries to do on your own in Alaska is Juno and Glacier Bay National Park. If you have a full two weeks, you could, you could also consider going to Hayes or Ska. In addition to that, um, that is a phenomenal way to see Alaska on your own. As long as you're okay with limiting the number of places you go to, which believe me is not limiting.

I would be happy to spend the entire summer in. Just Juno, um, or, or Sitka or any other place in Southeast. So, uh, yeah, so that's, uh, that's my thoughts on Southeast Alaska for South Central. Alaska. So South Central Alaska includes the Anchorage area, Theoka, Sina Valley, so that is Wasilla and Palmer. It also includes places like Girdwood, Seward, the Kenai, peninsulas.

Often the Kenai Peninsula is considered separately. I would say that's still part of Southeast Alaska. And then you've got the interior Alaska. Of Alaska, which is Denali National Park, sometimes tna, I feel like TNA can go either way. It can either be part of the interior or part of South Central. I think of it as the interior, but many people would disagree with that.

And then Fairbanks, Delta Junction, um, those are places in the interior. So those are distinct parts of Alaska. A lot of visitors go to both of them. Um, so I'm talking about them a little bit together. There's also a term you might hear called the rail belt, which refers to everything along the Alaska Railroad line.

So that would include Seward, wittier, gerd, wood, Anchorage, tna, Denali, and Fairbanks. So there are many other regions of Alaska. There's the Arctic, there's Western Alaska, there's Southwest Alaska in the Aleutians. Those are places visitors go to much less frequently, so I am not going to touch on those in this episode.

We've talked about them in many other episodes, and will again in the coming year. Uh, but we'll keep it to these others for today. So if you are choosing instead to fly to Anchorage or Fairbanks to start your on your own trip, then what I would recommend is that you not sleep in more than two places per week.

And the reason for that is. Again, time traveling. So for example, to travel between Anchorage and Denali National Park takes at least five hours, and often it takes longer than that. And that's basically a day, right? You're gonna be making picture stops and, and. Doing all kinds of things along the way. So that's gonna be a whole day.

So if you're moving more often, you're gonna spend all your time in the car or on the train. And even though Alaska is a wonderful place to road trip and the Alaska Railroad is wonderful, you. Really going to be traveling all the time, and it's exhausting and, and everyone wishes they had more time in specific places.

So this is my number one tip for planning a trip on your own. And not everyone agrees with this. There are other people who will tell you something different, but I've done this a long time and I'm telling you that people who have more time in less places see more and have more amazing experiences because they have time to be there and have those experiences rather than spending the whole time driving or on a train.

Alright, so. What are good places that go together? By the way, when I say two, um, two places per week, I'm not counting an airport hotel. So for example, if you're flying into and out of Anchorage or Fairbanks and you're going to stay your first night, uh, near the airport, which I would highly recommend by the way, or your last night before you leave near the airport, which I would also highly recommend, um.

Then that I'm not counting in that. So for example, if it's a two week trip and you are going to stay your first night in Fairbanks and your last night in Fairbanks, or your first night in Anchorage and your last night in. Anchorage, you could still go to a total of four other places to sleep. Um, I think it's great to spend some time in Anchorage or Fair and or Fairbanks or both.

Um, not everyone agrees with that. Not everyone wants that, but I think those are very underrated destinations in Alaska in general. Lots of really cool things to do in both cities that we've talked about in other episodes. Uh, the kind of one place that I think is an exception to that is Chetna. I think it's totally cool to spend one night in Chetna.

Um, it breaks up the trip between Anchorage and Denali. Chetna is really fun. It's kind of along the way, uh, to, uh, the highway to. Many different things. So I think that's a totally a great place for a one night stay. Otherwise, I'm not a fan of one night stays in Alaska, except for before and after the airport.

Even then, if you stay in Anchorage a couple nights or Fairbanks a couple nights, I think that's better. But if you have a short time and that's not where you wanna spend it, then that totally makes sense. Just one night is fine. Okay, so a couple places. Oh, if you don't like that idea, then rent an rv because at least that way you don't have to spend two or three hours every single day packing and moving your stuff.

And you can bring some food with you. So if you're in an rv, you can it. I still think it's better to go so because you can just pull over and sleep. Um. Or you can decide to stay longer somewhere. I mean, you do need reservations for formal camp grounds that are close to Anchorage and, uh, you know, within say, three or four hours of Anchorage and also, uh, in Denali, but.

You know, there is a little more flexibility and a little more ease of going to more out of the way places with an rv. So that does change things slightly. Okay. So what's a good, you know, I talked about for Southeast Alaska, that Juno and Glacier Bay together makes a fantastic trip. Um, if you've got a couple weeks to spend in Alaska and you're going to fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks.

By the way, I, I would not recommend flying into one city and out of the other unless you are taking the Alaska railroad between them, because a one-way rental car is super expensive. Um, so I would, I would definitely keep that in mind. I would pick one of the two. All right, so what are some things that go really well together?

So, first of all, one thing is a week on the Kenai Peninsula that that's where Alaskans go on vacation. So, uh, in the summer anyway, so that's a pretty good clue. That's gonna be pretty awesome. So you could go to Seward and Homer. In, uh, with a week you could go to Seward and Kenai with a week. You could go, if you don't care for crowds, you could skip Seward and you could go to, um, further south on the Kenai Peninsula like Homer and, and Soldotna or Kenai.

So that would be a really awesome trip. Um. You could spend the other week, say in the Anchorage area, doing really cool day trips from there, another option would be to spend one week going over to Valdez. So this is, uh, not on the typical visitor circuit. So if you like Solitude, Valdez is a great place to go.

Valdez is very busy with Alaskans, especially those who live in the interior, like in Fairbanks coming down for fishing. Um, but it is, and there are some RVs who make their way there. There are a few cruise ships that visit Valdez. There are a couple of bus tours, but not many. So Valdez is awesome. Um, give yourself some time there.

That goes really well with visiting Wrangle Saint Elias National Park. So you could do Wrangle Saint Elias and Valdez. In Anchorage. That would be a wonderful two week trip. Um, another thing if you're going to Denali, Denali is awesome. Give yourself at least two nights wherever you're staying in Denali.

Three is better. Um, no one has ever said to me ever that they wish they had less time in Denali. Um, the more you like solitude, the more important it is to stay longer. 'cause that gives you time to do things on your own. Um, so Denali pairs really well with Fairbanks. Um. Because it's much closer to Fairbanks than Anchorage.

So if Denali is your priority, fly to Fairbanks and make it a two hour drive instead of a 5, 6, 7 hour drive. Um, maybe three if there's lots of RVs or wildfires or construction or something like that. Um, so you can also. You know, in, uh, the TNA area, there's lots of great things to do on your own. The Glen Highway is, um, that's part of the trip to Valdez, but you can do what I, if you had a couple weeks, you could do what I call the triangle, which is where you go across the Glen Highway, down to Valdez, up to Fairbanks, uh, and then down the Parks Highway through Denali to Anchorage.

You could also do that same trip from Fairbanks. Um, so those are a few of my favorite on your own trips. I think one more thing I want to touch on about traveling on your own, um, today in Alaska is that if you are going. To places that are really busy with visitors who are doing bus tours or cruise tours.

So Denali is a big one that comes to mind. Um, you will not be getting away from that if you're staying at a hotel in Denali. Um, so you can get away from that. In Denali, which we've talked about in other episodes, the biggest way is to go for a hike or go for a flight scene trip. Um, but just keep that in mind.

If you are staying in a hotel at the Denali entrance area, it will be 90 plus percent people who are there with groups. Um. So if you don't like that, you could either go to a different place or stay in a vacation rental that'll be further away. There are not vacation rentals at the park entrance area, but there are, you know, half an hour or 40 minutes away.

Um, you could consider going in an RV or camping in Denali. There's a very big campground, but there are a couple that are smaller where there's more solitude. So hopefully that all helps you get going. And make sure to pick up the planner, the Alaska Venture Planner. Um, if you get it by Monday night, December 29th, and use the code Planner 20.

You can even save 20%. Don't forget to get your review. Um, and remember, screenshot it and email it to me. I've got that info in the show notes, and you will be entered to WIN and Alaska Tour Saver, uh, app for 2026. Thank you so much to the Alaska Tour Saver for sponsoring today's episode and yesterday's episode.

You guys are wonderful and one of the very first people, um, Scott and Gary to get behind this podcast. Believe in this idea and support me in doing this. So thank you so much and I will talk to you all tomorrow. I.

I'll talk to you tomorrow.  📍 Bye for now.



 ​





 





if you are enjoying the podcast, please leave us a rating and or a review. It really helps other people find us. And if you want to join the Alaska Planning Club, it's super fun. It's a private podcast feed where I answer all your questions. You can find that over on patreon.com/alaska uncovered.