swsandy Posted January 21, 2016 #1 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Not sure if this is the right thread, but here goes. Has anyone taken the Gold Rush Tour? Is a tour to a mushing kennel doable in Fairbanks? Is it worth renting a car for the day? Is the River boat tour in the morning? I'm very confused. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
az_tchr Posted January 21, 2016 #2 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Not the correct place and that is probably ports. The gold rush tour is more easily done for what you would like to do on your own. It is a full day driving from Fairbanks to Seward and you really need to drop a car in ANC and take a shuttle bus ANC to Seward via the wildlife sanctuary. For lots less money and little hassle fly into ANC and rent a car. ANC worth a day at museum and a look about. Spend night in Talkeetna (Denali view or other). Drive to Denali - make reservation for bus into park. Suggest staying in Healy - Denali dome B&B or other. Then a couple nights in Fairbanks - lots of places. For activities there suggest Trip Advisor. Then head back to ANC. There is a shuttle that can take you either to or from Seward. The biggie in Seward is Kenai fjords tour. All day. Lots of places to stay in Seward. Would not do any of the cruise line tours. Not enough time. Always hurried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Aurora Posted January 21, 2016 #3 Share Posted January 21, 2016 swsandy: Is the "Gold Rush Tour" the name of a cruise-tour? Or are you asking about visiting a gold mine? In Fairbanks Mary Shields opens her dog mushing kennel to very limited tours. While Fairbanks has a bus system Fairbanks is also rather spread out. So If you are asking about renting a car in Fairbanks it is a good idea. If your reference to the river boat tour means the Riverboat Discovery, this tour generally is offered two times a day during the height of the tourist season. Under "Ports of Call" you will find a Cruise Critic forum devoted to Alaska which you may find helpful. The Alaska forum also has a compilation of trip reports, and reading those trip reports can be very helpful when starting to plan a visit to our state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swsandy Posted January 22, 2016 Author #4 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Thanks for the input. The pre cruise tour we are booked on is Goldrush 10b. I have rented a car for the arrival day in Fairbanks and to turn in the next evening. IN looking at the Alaska ports section, it was confusing. I will try to look further into that section. I realize now that we maybe should have done some things on r own. First time cruising in Alaska and wanted to be sure we saw the highlights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
az_tchr Posted January 22, 2016 #5 Share Posted January 22, 2016 The tour gets you to see the highlights but not experience them. Does that make sense? Suggest you look around a bit more and possibly look at doing it on your own. Personally if I had only one day would start at the Museum on the Alaska Fairbanks campus overlooking the city first. I can give you a good picture of the Gold rush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjrpar Posted January 22, 2016 #6 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Best way to get a good feel for the 1898 gold rush is to take the HAL cruise tour that actually spends a few days in Dawson City, where the gold rush actually took place. Just returned in September and it was fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Aurora Posted January 23, 2016 #7 Share Posted January 23, 2016 ....Personally if I had only one day would start at the Museum on the Alaska Fairbanks campus overlooking the city first. I can give you a good picture of the Gold rush. Best way to get a good feel for the 1898 gold rush is to take the HAL cruise tour that actually spends a few days in Dawson City, where the gold rush actually took place. Just returned in September and it was fantastic. First a couple comments regarding gold rushes in Alaska -- there were a surprising number of gold rushes in both Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Folks in Alaska's state Office of History and Archeology had the bright idea in the early 1990s to designate a centennial year celebrating our gold rush history, which became somewhat of a problem as a number of the individual gold rush centennial dates had already past. The idea was shelved. Fairbanks itself is a gold camp which survived. There was a major stampede for gold into what was then called "the Tanana." Many of the miners involved in that gold rush were already in the north, with many in the Nome and Dawson areas who had arrived too late to stake the really good claims. A number of the first businesses in Fairbanks were businesses which moved from Dawson, with some actually taking their original business signs from their Dawson business to use in Fairbanks. While the Museum of the North (in Fairbanks) focuses on natural history of the entire state there is a section on the Fairbanks gold rush, which references Dawson. But for swsandy: You may find the Fairbanks Convention and Visitor's Bureau website handy for planning your activities in our town(http://www.explorefairbanks.com). Also the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, our local newspaper, publishes a helpful visitors guide. While their 2016 edition won't be published until late April/early May they have the 2015 edition on their website (http://www.newsminer.com). Look on the lower right for their special sections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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