Talkeetna or Denali?

I am looking at cruise tours to Alaska this summer. Although I would personally prefer to do the inland part of the state on my own, my travel companions want to do a full cruise tour.

One tour has 3 nights right outside of Denali NP entrance so you'd have 2 full days to go into Denali. Another tour has 2 nights outside of the NP entrance (so 1 day there) and another night/day in Talkeetna. The last tour has 2 nights in Talkeetna (1 day there) and then 1 night/day in Denali.

Pros and cons of these?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

I would choose three nights at Denali. There is plenty to do there....the park road, the nps visitor center, the kennels, hiking, rafting, flightseeing.

Denali. No question about it.

I have never been able to figure out why anyone at all goes to Talkeetna unless they are planning to do a Denali flight seeing tour or they have been tricked into going there on a cruise company cruisetour. We spent maybe 2 hours in Talkeetna on one of our AK trips which was about 1 h 45 m too long. Nothing to do except for a mediocre Denali climbing museum. Tacky shops. Tacky tourist joints, Tacky souvenir shops. Tacky fast food shops. Tacky tacky tacky. Hated the place.

DON

We were there in September and enjoyed our time in Talkeetna. We had the best ever fish and chips at the Wildflower Cafe. The view of Mt. Denali from there was awesome. When in DNP you are looking at the opposite of Mt Denali, not as dynamic.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

I would take the two nights at Denali and one in Talkeetna. We spent one night in Talkeetna and took a flightseeing tour of Denali that left from there. It was the highlight of our two weeks in Alaska. Talkeetna is a small, quaint town. The weather was gorgeous when we were there and we spent time just walking around. We ate meals at three different restaurants and had great food at all three. I don't think I could find enough to do spending 2 or 3 nights there but I'm glad we spent one night there. It looked, to us at least, to be the quintessential Alaskan town.

Denali. No question about it.

 

I have never been able to figure out why anyone at all goes to Talkeetna unless they are planning to do a Denali flight seeing tour or they have been tricked into going there on a cruise company cruisetour. We spent maybe 2 hours in Talkeetna on one of our AK trips which was about 1 h 45 m too long. Nothing to do except for a mediocre Denali climbing museum. Tacky shops. Tacky tourist joints, Tacky souvenir shops. Tacky fast food shops. Tacky tacky tacky. Hated the place.

 

DON

I guess Talkeetna is an acquired taste that I never acquired ! I agree with Don. Spend only one night or zero nights there. Our lodge near Talkeetna was nice, however, and did have excellent views of the mountain range.

Thanks!