Considering DYI Alaska Tour Before Cruise - Advice Sought

[bvocruise]

I posted this on the Alaska board but also wanted to get input from the HAL experts.

 

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.

 

[Tom O.]

Does your cruise tour include a day on the train? If not, I would add that, it is a wonderful experience.

Our cruise tour included the train from Anchorage to Denali. It was terrific.

[HAL Sailer]

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 Alyeskja 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.

[dfilpus]

Your booked cruisetour D5L has transportation from Fairbanks to Seward built in and paid for. 

 

The tour includes:

One hotel night in Fairbanks.

Riverboat tour in Fairbanks. Bus transfer to Denali park.

Two hotel nights in Denali Park. The Tundra Wilderness Tour into Denali National Park.

Train to Anchorage.

One hotel night in Anchorage.

Train to Seward to board ship.

 

There's not a lot of trip planning to do. You can look at excursions in Denali and Anchorage. You'll get into Denali Park late in the afternoon. The Tundra Wilderness Tour takes most of the next day. You won't know the tour schedule ahead of time. You'll get into Anchorage late in the day.

 

When we did this tour in reverse, we substituted a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park for the train from Seward to Anchorage.  The tour picked us up at the ship and dropped us at the hotel in Anchorage. It was a great excursion. You could look into that.

 

[Taters]

8 hours ago, bvocruise said:

I posted this on the Alaska board but also wanted to get input from the HAL experts.

 

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.

 

If you are looking for things to do in Fairbanks while you have your rental car, I have several suggestions.  

 

First off, you will be here while the sun shines 24/7. Summer in Fairbanks is amazing!

 

For a beautiful drive and a good place for lunch or dinner and an authentic Alaska experience, drive out to Chatanika Lodge.  This has to be the most beautiful lodge I've been in and while it's only 23 miles from town, you'll drive to Fox, then up and over Cleary Summit, then continue on to Chatanika.  As an FYI, the lodge is closed on Tuesdays. http://www.chatanikalodge.com/

 

The Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is off College Road in Fairbanks.  This s beautiful collection of cars and our small city is very lucky to have something like this: https://www.fountainheadmuseum.com/

 

The Museum of the North on the UAF campus is a great way to spend a few hours: https://www.uaf.edu/museum/

 

The best restaurant in town is located on 1st Avenue inside the Marriott Springhill Suites Hotel.  It's called Lavelle's and reservations are recommended.  It is a very popular dining venue.  DH and I are planning to go there for our 25th anniversary at the end of the month. 😊 http://www.lavellesbistro.com/ 

 

I hope you enjoy your time in Fairbanks.  It is a great place to live in and we love having visitors!

 

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Taters

[kcscrapper]

We took a day trip up the "haul road" to Coldfoot (or something like that) - then flew back to Fairbanks.  It was interesting - but I wanted to drive the haul road and was strongly discouraged from doing that.

[bvocruise]

I appreciate all of the ideas. The lodge sounds nice but we would have to go on our first day there. I'll keep it in mind as we want to go to a gold dredge and Santa Clause House.

[Taters]

1 hour ago, bvocruise said:

I appreciate all of the ideas. The lodge sounds nice but we would have to go on our first day there. I'll keep it in mind as we want to go to a gold dredge and Santa Clause House.

You can easily go to Gold Dredge 8/El Dorado for the mine tour in Fox, then head out to Chatanika from there.  

 

Santa Clause House is pretty cool, too, but keep in mind that it is a big gift shop, and that is pretty much it.