Which Did You Like More - Land or Sea Portion

[Cravester78]

Which did you prefer? The land portion or the cruise portion of your trip to Alaska and why? We can only do one of the two this time and trying to decide which. Looking for opinions from those who have been!

[rslinky]

Definitely the land. Denali was incredible. Wished we had more time there. Were there three nights. Glacier Bay was equally impressive, but ports while nice, were less so. If I go back to Alaska, I plan to rent a car and just do the interior and the Kenai Peninsula and skip the cruise portion. But I travel for the experience and seeing new places and some cruise to cruise.

[mek]

I agree with land. It is possible to see glaciers without going on a cruise and the interior is wonderful. We did a car trip 6 years ago and we just returned form a cruise tour last week. I loved the train ride, but it was too short - Anchorage to Talkeetna. If I do another land trip, I will fly to Anchorage, take the train all the way to Fairbanks - spend a couple of days there and then rent a car to drive back down to Anchorage with stops in Denali and Talkeetna.

Edited July 7, 2015 by mek

[xlxo]

Another vote for land.... the excursions get me more excited than the ship activities...

[Miss Dot]

Definitely the land. Denali was incredible. Wished we had more time there. Were there three nights. Glacier Bay was equally impressive, but ports while nice, were less so. If I go back to Alaska, I plan to rent a car and just do the interior and the Kenai Peninsula and skip the cruise portion. But I travel for the experience and seeing new places and some cruise to cruise.

 

I agree!!!

[4774Papa]

Land, the ship is a floating hotel with restaurants and entertainment.

[ravenjls]

Wow looks like I am in the minority but the land was so underwhelming for all of us after doing the cruise portion. We just got back this week.

 

The most spectacular views came from sailing the inside of the inside paasage instead of the usual Hecate Strait - which we were told doesnt happen often, and into and out of ports. Whales were everywhere - breeching, bubble feeding, listening to them "talk", seals, sea lions, sea otters and bald eagles!!!!! Glaciers calving! Waterfalls. Salmon fishing! I also am including the the boat tour from Seward after we disembarked as you can do it as part of your cruise.

 

The land portion we visited:

Girdwood - we went up the ski lift (but we also did a ski lift in vancouver before cruise), husband did helicopter to glacier (loved it) but this also can be done at a port.

 

Then onto Denali by bus - 8 hrs. Views were beautiful (but the blues/sunsets from the ship were spetacular). After looking at trees for a couple of hrs we just all fell asleep. It was much nicer OUTSIDE on our balcony with a glass of wine/snacks than sitting on a bus with some granola bars.

 

We arrived Denali around 8:30, grabbed dinner and off to bed. Woke up early for park. Day was rainy/foggy. Saw Carrabou thru binoculars (dots to naked eye) and a moose (far away). Spent 12 hrs on school bus to see 2 highlights.

The lake was very pretty and the views from the cliff portion was beautiful. But most was mile after mile of woods or land looking to see if anything moved. There are no guardrails and when we had to back up for another bus going the opposite way around one of the hairpin turns it was the heartpounding excitement of the day.

 

We had tix to go into Denali the next day but decided against it as it was again rainy. We did a dog sled tour, hiked, played cards (couldnt find anything else to do) and went to a dinner theater.

 

Left Denali by rail (which was so much better than bus if you on the second level as you can see over trees). Saw a moose and swans on the way back to Anchorage. Arrived around 8. Left for home early the next morning.

 

So as you can see weather and other factors can play a major factor on which portion is better. From my experience, I cant see how anyone would like the land portion better but each vacation can be so differrent from someone elses.

[agabbymama]

We did a 7 night Southbound cruise our first trip to Alaska on HAL (old) Noordam (small ship). We left from Seward, Sitka, Glacier Bay, Juneau, Ketchikan, ending in Vancouver. We absolutely loved the cruise. We did not book one excursion, just did our own thing in each port. Very budget minded trip.

 

10 years fast forward, started planning a 2nd trip to Alaska. Looked at independent land + cruise. Ended up doing a HAL cruisetour. 3 days sea + 8 days land. I loved the land portion (husband not so much). He didn't care for the structured timeline of the land portion on the coach all day long, said he would have preferred the cruise and doing our own thing in the ports.

 

Everyone travels differently, only you can answer which you will like better.

[Budget Queen]

Each of options, can offer spectacular Alaska touring. It, can greatly depend on the weather as noted above. And what you see and do.

 

I don't have favorites and greatly enjoy both touring areas. I always occupy my time, I don't waste it doing nothing, so my style is going to be different than others. I spend a lot of money on touring, and never skimp or compromise due to funds. My travel style is my own. I find sometimes, that is forgotten and some people are easily swayed into wrong choices, because of "popularity". I try to discourage this. There is no, single "best" answer. :)

[AKStafford]

I think the quality of the land portion depends on how you do it. Buying a pre-packaged tour where you spend most of your time on a bus or waiting for a bus makes for a poor trip. Renting a car or RV and putting together your own trip has the potential to be amazing.

[Budget Queen]

I think the quality of the land portion depends on how you do it. Buying a pre-packaged tour where you spend most of your time on a bus or waiting for a bus makes for a poor trip. Renting a car or RV and putting together your own trip has the potential to be amazing.

 

And including some of the alternative touring options. None of the cruise tours, include a Matanuska hike, Hatcher Pass, Wassilla, as an example. There is so much more, that is just passed by with group- point to point touring.

 

I would suggest looking at actual schedules carefully, and know every detail of what you are looking at.

[knbcruisers]

I agree completely with AKStafford. We did 3 days in Denali post cruise and it was amazing. We were blessed with 3 days of hot sunny weather with the mountain in view the whole time. Didn't see as much wildlife as we would have liked but the wildlife center on last day made up for it. Having our own car was key. We stopped whenever we wanted. Flight seeing from Talkeetna was amazing. To us the cruise went with the land tour, each would have been great separately but together was the way to go. 12 days of saying "OMG, look at that, just amazing, can you believe this?"

[oaktreerb]

I assume you only have a week for vacation. The cruise fills the week.

 

If you want to do a land tour I would recommend flying into Anchorage and driving down to Seward with stops at Alyeska in Girdwood and at the Wildlife Rehab Center. In Seward you can see Exit Glacier and take the Kenai Fjords 6 hour cruise. If you drive to Denali make sure you have two to three nights so that you have time to get into the park.

 

There are lots of suggestions on this website for both the cruise and the land options. There are also options for land tours by bus and train for travelers who do not want to drive. See alaskatravel.com and graylinealaska.com.

 

If you want to relax do the cruise. If you like a lot of activity do a land tour. You will probably go home with a list of what you want to see the next time you go to Alaska.

[zqvol]

Which did you prefer? The land portion or the cruise portion of your trip to Alaska and why? We can only do one of the two this time and trying to decide which. Looking for opinions from those who have been!

 

 

Land - we find that there is so much more to do on land. The cruises all pretty much go to the same ports, and other than a couple of glaciers there is nothing that you can see or do on the cruise that you can't do on land. There are things that you can do on land however, that you can't do on the cruise portion.

[LoveCruisin72]

Which did you prefer? The land portion or the cruise portion of your trip to Alaska and why? We can only do one of the two this time and trying to decide which. Looking for opinions from those who have been!

We loved every minute of both the land and sea. The good part about the sea is that once on the ship, you can unpack and just enjoy. With the land portion, you have to pack up every day or two to go to the next location. One day we want to go up there and rent a motorhome so we can enjoy more of the land. Both parts though are spectacular and you'll enjoy it all.

[bearbait]

Independent land tour where you rent a car or an RV and do it yourself. So much better then being put on a bus and hearded like cattle.

[GrizBear]

Loved, loved, loved the land even though we were on a cruise tour. Did 8 days. Two nights in Fairbanks, Denali, Copper River, and Kenai. Plus 4 extra nights at the beginning in Fairbanks. We planned many active excursions. The cruise was almost a let down after all the activity on land. While it was nice to unpack and sleep in the same place I sometimes felt trapped on sea days and I love to cruise, but Alaska to me is doing, very different from a cruise vacation. I am very glad we did the cruise, but next time, now that we have the lay of the land, it will be on our own on land.

[portiemom]

Another vote for the land. We took a cruisetour the first time and next month we're doing a DIY land trip that is even longer. For me, the cruise was fun, but there is so much more to see on the land.

[Vacation Nut]

We did 4 days organized land tour with RCI and I loved it, especially as it included the train ride from Anchorage to Denali. I could have managed one more day, but no longer than that for an "organized" tour although if we self-drove I would have been fine with much longer. I also adored the cruise. We had 2 cruising only days and one of those was Hubbard Glacier and we spent ages on deck that day as the weather was perfect. We were to 4 ports and did some GREAT excursions - helicopter, float plane, real hiking, bear watch and what watch.

Then we spent 2 days in Vancouver and that was fabulous too. All in all, the whole trip just made for a fabulous vacation, I loved the diversity.