Self-guided post cruise tour to Fairbanks from Seward

[Schlepporello]

My DW and I have booked a northbound cruise from Vancouver to Seward. We have done this itinerary as a southbound three times already. On our 2nd time, we also booked a pre-cruise tour by rail which took us from Fairbanks to Denali to Talkeetna to Anchorage and finally to Seward via bus. On our 1st and 3rd southbound cruises, we flew into Anchorage 3 days early and did our own tour of the peninsula prior to our cruise. There are certain activities which we do not want to do on this upcoming cruise, so we have decided to make the trip to Fairbanks via rental car. I have already found an agency in Anchorage that advertises that they will rent us a car for this type of travel. My question is this. Have any of you done this? We would like to do our transfer to Anchorage via train as we love the ride and the scenery. Is this possible?

Thanks!

[Roger88]

10 minutes ago, Schlepporello said:

My DW and I have booked a northbound cruise from Vancouver to Seward. We have done this itinerary as a southbound three times already. On our 2nd time, we also booked a pre-cruise tour by rail which took us from Fairbanks to Denali to Talkeetna to Anchorage and finally to Seward via bus. On our 1st and 3rd southbound cruises, we flew into Anchorage 3 days early and did our own tour of the peninsula prior to our cruise. There are certain activities which we do not want to do on this upcoming cruise, so we have decided to make the trip to Fairbanks via rental car. I have already found an agency in Anchorage that advertises that they will rent us a car for this type of travel. My question is this. Have any of you done this? We would like to do our transfer to Anchorage via train as we love the ride and the scenery. Is this possible?

Thanks!

From  what I read in your post you made a nice little trip of your own. Its always nice to be able  to put up your plans along with the cruise and not ruin one or both. Usually I am little afraid of going on my own when cruising but sometimes I actually do get away just to visit places that were not originally planned  

[Schlepporello]

3 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

From  what I read in your post you made a nice little trip of your own. Its always nice to be able  to put up your plans along with the cruise and not ruin one or both. Usually I am little afraid of going on my own when cruising but sometimes I actually do get away just to visit places that were not originally planned  

I hear you.

Being a truck driver by trade, I'm not afraid of a little driving. I think it would be nice to stop where I want along the way should I see something cool that needs to be looked at. And the activities we did when we did this route as a pre-cruise tour we don't really need to do again. And I do understand that the inland tour rates have dropped. Even so, I'd like to wing it one time on my own.

[Cruise Suzy]

We have flown into Anchorage and rented a car at the airport. We then drove to Fairbanks and back, stopping as often and for as long as we wanted. Did have lodging and Denali tour pre-reserved.

[Budget Queen]

How much time are you allowing and why- Fairbanks?     Of course you see a lot more with a car.   For me Fairbanks is for getting north. 🤩.    Are you planning on Denali?    How long were you there last time and how far did you get in?   Every trip IS different. 
 

Do not rely on google map times-  estimate at leas 50% more.     I’m here now and ran into about 1.5 hours total delays yesterday.    Previous I’ve just missed a pilot car and had an hour wait 🤩.    
 

You are best to figure out what you want to see and do. First.    Then fit in your lodging and schedule.   

[SuperCrewBear]

How many days are you planning to allow for your trip from Seward/Anchorage to Fairbanks?  As you may know, the more the better.  What are you wanting to include (Denali [again?]) in particular or are you totally flexible?  A direction you might consider is going from Anchorage to Glennallen then north to Delta Junction then northwest to Fairbanks. There's a lot of scenery in that direction that many people miss.  A great place to eat at Glennallen is a small take-away joint called Tok Thai - excellent, LARGE portions and not very expensive by Alaska standards. Tok Thai is sort of the edge of the parking lot for the Tesoro / Hub station/store.  If you have the time you could deviate south from Glennallen to Valdez.  You'll get to see large portions of the Alaska Pipeline on this route too.  Good luck!

[Schlepporello]

6 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

How much time are you allowing and why- Fairbanks?     Of course you see a lot more with a car.   For me Fairbanks is for getting north. 🤩.    Are you planning on Denali?    How long were you there last time and how far did you get in?   Every trip IS different. 
 

Do not rely on google map times-  estimate at leas 50% more.     I’m here now and ran into about 1.5 hours total delays yesterday.    Previous I’ve just missed a pilot car and had an hour wait 🤩.    
 

You are best to figure out what you want to see and do. First.    Then fit in your lodging and schedule.   

 

We're looking at taking 6 days to get there,  I'm not sure if we'll overnight in Talkeetna as of yet. I'm thinking we'll stay overnight in Anchorage for a day of laundry, so we may just have to stay a night in Talkeetna. I'm looking at 2 nights in Denali so we'll have a full day in Denali. We'll go in as far as we can go this time. That's how long we stayed last time, but on that trip, our tour only took us to the stop where you finally get to see Denali, then we turned around. Then I hope to spend at least 2 nights in Fairbanks. I have a 2nd cousin who lives there and I'd really like to spend time for a meal with him. Maybe take a flight to the Arctic Circle and hopefully drive to the town of North Pole. If we do this, we may have to plan on staying another night or two.

 

These plans right now are contingent on car rental fees, and those currently are too blasted high! at $500 per day for car rental, the land tour option sounds REALLY GOOD right now. Hertz will rent the car 1-way, but this rate really is a but much.

[Schlepporello]

7 hours ago, SuperCrewBear said:

How many days are you planning to allow for your trip from Seward/Anchorage to Fairbanks?  As you may know, the more the better.  What are you wanting to include (Denali [again?]) in particular or are you totally flexible?  A direction you might consider is going from Anchorage to Glennallen then north to Delta Junction then northwest to Fairbanks. There's a lot of scenery in that direction that many people miss.  A great place to eat at Glennallen is a small take-away joint called Tok Thai - excellent, LARGE portions and not very expensive by Alaska standards. Tok Thai is sort of the edge of the parking lot for the Tesoro / Hub station/store.  If you have the time you could deviate south from Glennallen to Valdez.  You'll get to see large portions of the Alaska Pipeline on this route too.  Good luck!

That sounds like a great route for another trip. You can never have too many trips to Alaska.

[rkacruiser]

15 hours ago, Schlepporello said:

These plans right now are contingent on car rental fees, and those currently are too blasted high! at $500 per day for car rental, the land tour option sounds REALLY GOOD right now. Hertz will rent the car 1-way, but this rate really is a but much.

 

Last year when I needed to rent a car, I did a lot of on-line shopping.  Hertz was the most expensive of all of the companies.  I found the best rate for the type of car I wanted at Avis. 

[Schlepporello]

29 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Last year when I needed to rent a car, I did a lot of on-line shopping.  Hertz was the most expensive of all of the companies.  I found the best rate for the type of car I wanted at Avis. 

That's what I'm finding out "after" I looked at Avis. Their prices are far more reasonable, so the self-driving tour is back on track for now.

[rkacruiser]

3 minutes ago, Schlepporello said:

That's what I'm finding out "after" I looked at Avis. Their prices are far more reasonable, so the self-driving tour is back on track for now.

 

I picked up my car, which was a Ford Escape, at ANC.  Had the "mis-fortune" of arriving for the pick-up near the time that some flights had arrived; had a good wait at the check-in counter because of that.  Once the check-in was complete, accessing the garage was easy and the car was easy to find.  Returning the car proved to be more simple and quick than I expected.  Avis personnel were pleasant and helpful.  

[Schlepporello]

2 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I picked up my car, which was a Ford Escape, at ANC.  Had the "mis-fortune" of arriving for the pick-up near the time that some flights had arrived; had a good wait at the check-in counter because of that.  Once the check-in was complete, accessing the garage was easy and the car was easy to find.  Returning the car proved to be more simple and quick than I expected.  Avis personnel were pleasant and helpful.  

They always are. I used to be a fan of Enterprise until a fiasco in Dallas. We had to switch to Avis, we haven't looked back. The last two times we rented in Anchorage, it was from Avis at the Airport. The 2nd time we rented, I was able to return it to the facility in downtown Anchorage. Did you return yours in Anchorage or Fairbanks?

[rkacruiser]

1 minute ago, Schlepporello said:

Did you return yours in Anchorage or Fairbanks?

 

Anchorage.  

 

I don't rent cars very often, but when I have done so, I was an Enterprise customer.  Checking Enterprise's rates was the first company that I did and was really surprised.  That led me to the shopping that I did and rented from Avis.  My car was a new car with only 2000 miles on it.  

[Budget Queen]

I’m in Alaska now and some rental vendors have very restrictive-  mandated CDC requirements.   I was behind someone who got stuck with $30 additional per day-  or NO car.   So verify directly.    
 

For the op-   I’d suggest more time if at all possible.   6 days is a short trip.  I’m here for 10 this time which is way short for me. I’ve spent hours in construction delays-  one day was 1.5 hours.    
 

Especially excellent for Fairbanks is getting north.  Fairbanks itself doesn’t have a lot going for it-  in my opinion.  🤩

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, Budget Queen said:

I’m in Alaska now and some rental vendors have very restrictive-  mandated CDC requirements.   I was behind someone who got stuck with $30 additional per day-  or NO car.   So verify directly.    

 

Are you able to be more specific as to what was the issue?  

[Budget Queen]

5 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Are you able to be more specific as to what was the issue?  

Thrifty.  You had to have Collision- personal- on your auto insurance Or Thrify add on CDW-  nothing else accepted.   Avis required CDW -  with document proof and at least $35,000 coverage.     
 

Again verify terms directly.   Alaska does have additional mandates at this time.   

[rkacruiser]

18 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

Thrifty.  You had to have Collision- personal- on your auto insurance Or Thrify add on CDW-  nothing else accepted.   Avis required CDW -  with document proof and at least $35,000 coverage.     
 

Again verify terms directly.   Alaska does have additional mandates at this time.   

 

Thanks for answering my question.

 

While I have very good auto insurance, I have purchased the rental company's coverage to help prevent making a possible claim on my policy as well as for more convenient coverage if something does happen.  In Alaska, as I discovered, loose stones/gravel often can be flung by a vehicle in front of you onto your windshield.  The windshield was damaged and would have had to be replaced when I returned the car.  Having the rental car company's insurance, this potential "hassle" when I returned the car turned into a "non-event".  I remember the in-take agent saying something like:  "no big deal; it happens all the time.  We'll take care of it.  Have a nice flight home."

 

I know that I could have filed a claim with my credit card company's insurance benefit.  But, that would entail "paperwork" and "time spent" that I choose not to do.  

 

The way I choose to work costs a bit more, but following the KISS philosophy becomes more important to me the more senior I become.