Considering Planning Land Tour Before Cruise - Advice Sought

[bvocruise]

My wife and I currently have cruise tour D5L booked on HAL departing on 6/10/20 from Fairbanks.  We arrive in Fairbanks on the morning of 6/8/20.

 

We are open to just about anything as long as we can make the ship in time from Seward on 6/14/2020.

 

We have a hotel and rental car the first two days in Fairbanks and nothing else besides the cruise tour.

 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.  We can always keep what we have it necessary.

[mapleleaves]

So are you expecting us to develop an itinerary for you ?  Sorry if this sounds harsh but you need to figure out what YOU want to see and do.  We don't know your interests, your physical ability, budget.  

 

And you don't have a lot of time. It's about 500 miles from Fairbanks to Seward. If you plan on taking a bus trip thru Denali, you need 2 nights there in order to have enough time to take the bus. Otherwise your cruisetour probably only includes the Natural History Tour which only goes to mile 30 of the 100 miles of park road available. (and stay tune to the Denali web site to see when and if the road will open this yr .... there's a problem with the road giving way)

 

Mileage/travel distance chart:

https://www.alaska.org/advice/mileage-chart

 

You may want to begin  your research by reading past trip reports (posted near the top of this forum), with special attention to reports that include pre/post land travel.  See what other travellers did, what worked for them or didn't.  

A one-way car rental will be quite spendy, so do you want to travel by train ? by bus? or a combo of both?  OR does your flight land in Anchorage before going to Fairbanks , so a RT rental car is a possibility.  Everyone raves about the train from Anc to Seward so if you want to travel by train, that's definitely the segment to take. 

 

If you want to do the entire trip by train, it is rather limiting in that there's only 1 departure per day. Link attached.  And there's info on their web site about pkg tours: 

https://www.alaskarailroad.com/

 

The Park Connection Bus runs between Denali and Seward and generally has 2 departures per day:

https://www.alaskacoach.com/

 

The bus company also provides pkg tours, with travel by train, or bus, or both:

https://www.alaskacoach.com/about/alaska-tour-travel.html

 

Have fun with your research and planning !

Edited February 2, 2020 by mapleleaves
chart

[bvocruise]

1 hour ago, mapleleaves said:

So are you expecting us to develop an itinerary for you ?  Sorry if this sounds harsh but you need to figure out what YOU want to see and do.  We don't know your interests, your physical ability, budget.  

 

And you don't have a lot of time. It's about 500 miles from Fairbanks to Seward. If you plan on taking a bus trip thru Denali, you need 2 nights there in order to have enough time to take the bus. Otherwise your cruisetour probably only includes the Natural History Tour which only goes to mile 30 of the 100 miles of park road available. (and stay tune to the Denali web site to see when and if the road will open this yr .... there's a problem with the road giving way)

 

Mileage/travel distance chart:

https://www.alaska.org/advice/mileage-chart

 

You may want to begin  your research by reading past trip reports (posted near the top of this forum), with special attention to reports that include pre/post land travel.  See what other travellers did, what worked for them or didn't.  

A one-way car rental will be quite spendy, so do you want to travel by train ? by bus? or a combo of both?  OR does your flight land in Anchorage before going to Fairbanks , so a RT rental car is a possibility.  Everyone raves about the train from Anc to Seward so if you want to travel by train, that's definitely the segment to take. 

 

If you want to do the entire trip by train, it is rather limiting in that there's only 1 departure per day. Link attached.  And there's info on their web site about pkg tours: 

https://www.alaskarailroad.com/

 

The Park Connection Bus runs between Denali and Seward and generally has 2 departures per day:

https://www.alaskacoach.com/

 

The bus company also provides pkg tours, with travel by train, or bus, or both:

https://www.alaskacoach.com/about/alaska-tour-travel.html

 

Have fun with your research and planning !

 

Thanks for the info.  We are considering mostly driving but may take the train from Anchorage to Seward. We have the millage chart and and train schedules.  Just looking to see if someone has any pointers or suggestions.  We don't want to do anything to crazy are basically going for the scenery.

 

I have not heard about the park connection bus and it sounds like a great option.  You are right about rental cars.  We are paying $170 just for Skagway alone.  We might skip Denali as we did hear the road most likely won't be open this year. Our cruise tour has the middle length ride.

Edited February 2, 2020 by bvocruise

[HAL Sailer]

Also posted on HAL Board: 

Unclear how many days you have near Seward before sailing, but I highly recommend renting a car to spend time on the Kenai Peninsula (between Anchorage & Seward). Ideas: at Alyeska ride chairlift to dine at seven glaciers, at Soldatna hire natron air for flight-seeing, at Homer Spit overnight in efficiency above sea lion gallery, and if returning rental car to Anchorage then take the train to Seward as you'll see different vistas than on your drive down Turnagain Arm. Oh, and don't forget to check the tide table for possible bore tides along the Turnagain Arm on the Cook Inlet. If the bore tide is large enough, you will see surfers.

[Jnsplace1]

What I heard is that there is a certain section of the road into Denali that will be under repair.  The extent of it will be determine when it's uncovered by snow.  If you are going in May, then yes it may be challenged to see all of the road.  If you are going later in the season, then it's likely it'll be available.  "it depends".

 

i'd follow this thread for information on Denali Park road.

 

 

Like others have suggested, it takes a lot of time to go to each of the sections of interior.  Alaska is a big state.  For my cruise-tour, depending on what part, the "shuttling" from one area to the next can be 2 - 4 hours each.   one of the reasons I upgraded my tour an extra day to give myself more time at Denali.