BINDY31

The time to travel is something only the individual traveller can decide. decide on what’s important to you to see and take it from there. August is good but Northern lights can be a bit hit and miss….. the later you get the better the chances for the lights,. However other things start to shut down. once the snow starts to melt on the glaciers, helicopter landings and dog sledding stops. good luck with the planning. It can be frustrating at times, but once you start locking things in the anticipation takes over.

We are from Australia too, and are embarking on our bucket list trip in June 2024. like you, we love scenery, wildlife, history and food. we opted for a Cruisetour with Holland America. this will be a one and done trip to this part of the world. Unless we win lotto we won’t be back again so have splurged a bit. we chose 18 day Yukon/Alaska trip with Holland land first. why land first?? We will be touring the Rockies and doing the Rocky Mountaineer after this tour so it gives us land, cruise then land. Seemed to make sense at the time….lol also gives us a Southbound cruise.more on that later. we start off in Vancouver, fly to Whitehorse in the Yukon and overnight there. next morning we have a tour to Caribou Crossing where they have a great museum with lots of displays. We get to see plenty of scenery as well along the way. then fly to Dawson City for 2 nights. Lots of gold rush history here. then fly to Fairbanks, 2 nights. We will go on a riverboat tour, see sled dogs, learn about how the First Nations people lived and survived here. then off to Denali National park. This time a Road trip. 3 nights. hopefully on our tour of Denali the weather will be kind and we get to see the lovely mountain. on a free day here we are taking a flight into the Arctic Circle where we will meet some of the residents we stay all year round, even when it gets to 80 below!!! then board a lovely domed roof train for the scenic trip to Anchorage 2 nights. our first whole free day here will see us helicopter up a glacier and go dog sledding. This can also be done while on the cruise. We chose to do it out of Fairbanks as Fairbanks receives less rain, therefore less cancellations due to the weather. then another canonic train trip to Whittier where we board our ship for 7 nights back to Vancouver. we have scenic cruising of Hubbard Glacier, we booked the catamaran excursion here to get a close up view of the glacier. scenic cruising in Glacier bay. followed by a day each in Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. last day on cruise scenic cruising through the inside passage. back in Vancouver we have 1 night then hit the road again, visiting Vancouver Island 2 nights, Whistler 2 nights, Sun Peaks, Jasper 2 nights Banff 2 nights the board the Rocky Mountaineer back to Vancouver. this an escorted tour with Globus for us as hubby didn’t want to drive over there but just as easy to do it yourself. we then have 4 nights in Vancouver before heading home. A busy, busy time for us but ticking off those bucket list items. hoping to see lots of wildlife during our travels, top of the list for hubby is bears, although we might be a little early but fingers crossed. For me, it’s Moose and Caribou. i hope you find something suitable for yourselves. any questions, ask away…. cheers Belinda

There is a walk from Manly Beach to Shelly Beach. It’s called Fairy Bower walk. you can snorkel from near to Shelley beach in calm waters… not the surf like Manly. it seems to be very popular with local snorkelers.

I have no personally stayed here…. But friends of mine have. They would willingly stay again. They thought it was excellent for the price they paid. Hotels in Sydney can be quite pricey. it is walkable to Circular Quay for boarding the ship, it would probably take 10 minutes or so.

Once you get to Katoomba you will find the Blue Mountains Explorer bus…. Our very own Hop on, Hop off bus…. I live in the Blue Mountains. Explorerbus.com.au has all the info regarding costs, timetable, and a useful map of the route. scenicworld is worth exploring…. If you get the train down into the valley there is a great boardwalk around a loop down there…we even saw a lyrebird once!! you then can either go back up on the train or use the gondola to go back up the top. there is also a cable car…called the Skyway over the valley the train trip from Sydney will take you through busy inner city suburbs… to suburban suburbs… over the Nepean River that separates the plains from the mountains… through the beautiful bushland areas up the mountain to Katoomba. Well worth the 2 hours it takes. there is also a hop on hop off bus that takes in the sights of Sydney. enjoy!!! cheers Belinda

The port at Lyttleton is a working port so you cannot walk out. The ship ru s shuttle into town all throughout the day, only takes about 5 minutes. they drop you at the information centre and you use the same stop to go back to the ship. it is a cute little town and not difficult to get around, weare considering doing something similar, as we have been to Christchurch a couple of times. cheers Belinda

Thank you so much for a great compilation of this tour. we have this one booked for June 2024, travelling from Australia. we mow feel that we know so much more than we did before. hoping that we are as lucky with the weather as you were.

We have an aft for our cruise June 9 2024. Land tour prior to cruise. we have had aft cabins twice before, once on Hawaii, once in Australia and have one more booked for New Zealand before our trip ro Alaska. we love them. No wind, large balcony and when you are in scenic areas the captain will turn the ship around so everyone gets to enjoy the view.