Tour of the Artic Circle

[wegolady]

I'm going on my first cruise in 15 years. My mom & I are taking the Land/Cruise on the Diamond Princess. We leave the day after Labor Day. We are flying to Fairbanks for a couple of days & they have planned a river boat cruise :( (I live 1/2 mile from the Mississippi River) & some other dinky tour :confused: of which I do not want to do either. I would LOVE to take the tour to the Artic Circle but I can only afford the bus tour (19 hours). Do I have to follow Princess' schedule of tours or can I go to the Artic Circle. This will be my 50th birthday present to me & I want to go SO BAD.:) Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Thanks

[fti]

I'm going on my first cruise in 15 years. My mom & I are taking the Land/Cruise on the Diamond Princess. We leave the day after Labor Day. We are flying to Fairbanks for a couple of days & they have planned a river boat cruise :( (I live 1/2 mile from the Mississippi River) & some other dinky tour :confused: of which I do not want to do either. I would LOVE to take the tour to the Artic Circle but I can only afford the bus tour (19 hours). Do I have to follow Princess' schedule of tours or can I go to the Artic Circle. This will be my 50th birthday present to me & I want to go SO BAD.:) Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

Welcome to CC. If you get back in time for when your train or bus is ready to depart for the next location, no problem doing your own thing. If you do a search by subject for Arctic you will find several threads about going to the Arctic Circle. Some fly, some take the bus, some rent a car (car rental can be challenging to say the least). I would like to get to Barrow sometime but it might not be for 2-3 years!

[wegolady]

Thanks for the welcome. I would love to go to Barrow (I LOVE ANYWHERE COLD) also but not enough time/money.:( I'm pretty sure I'll have enough time to go to the Artic. My mom signed up with a Louisiana Council on Aging & they haven't sent us any info yet except the boat name & where we're going. I would like to make reservations for the excursion ASAP guess I'll have to call them myself.

[fti]

Thanks for the welcome. I would love to go to Barrow (I LOVE ANYWHERE COLD) also but not enough time/money.:(

 

People think I am crazy when I tell them that winter is my favorite season of the year - - and I say that in winter too!

 

I trust you can get your arctic circle excursion booked. Keep us posted.

[cjnky]

Have you checked out http://www.northernalaska.com? They have lots of options, and I'm still hoping to find time in our schedule for one of them.

[wegolady]

Thanks so much cjnky for that great website. I'm going to get my mom on the ball & find out exactly when we're going to be in Fairbanks & make my reservations. I saw that winter tour to Barrow & also to the Northern Lights. I'd love to see the Northern Lights. Now I have to go turn my air conditioner DOWN & dream of Alaska.:D

[Budget Queen]

In my opinion, the round trip shuttle trips are just too much time on the road, with so so scenery miles and miles. I much more recommend the fly/shuttle combos. So much better to see from 2 perspectives. Once on the Haul Road is definately enough.

 

I highly suggest, you cut back elsewhere to make up the $140 difference if you can.

[New_Cruiser_07]

I am interested in going to the Artic Circle via the Northern Alaska Tour, and am thinking between the fly/drive or fly tours. Any suggestions as to whether it is worth the time to spend on the road to do the fly/drive tour, or should I just simply do the fly tour and save the half day for somewhere else in Fairbanks?

Thank you,

[Helabama]

Hi N C 07,

 

We did the Arctic Circle fly/drive last August. We left Fairbanks about 1:00 p.m. and flew to Coldfoot. The flight was nice--great views of the terrain. (The weather was sunny and about 70 degrees). We had pre-ordered lunch in Coldfoot which we ate there--outdoors in the beautiful weather. A scruffy-looking big white dog will lay on the floor by your table while you eat. His name is Walter and he's a sweetie. He becomes the new best friend of whoever has just opened their box lunch. And, he has no larnyx so he doesn't bark.

 

Then we boarded the van for the trip back to Fairbanks. We had many rest stops and stops to look at scenery, etc. We stopped and got up close and personal with the pipeline--what a fascinating thing it is! And of course we stopped at the Arctic Circle for photos.

 

As BQ said, one trip on the Haul Road is enough. Most of it isn't paved and most of the paved part is torn up from truck traffic so it is a very bumpy ride. Our driver was nice and very informative but I think he was getting paid by the hour because he seemed to be in no hurry to get back to Fairbanks. Most of the rest stops were much longer than they needed to be. Several times we were all back in the van waiting for him.

 

We had dinner at a restaurant by the Yukon River--excellent food. This was also pre-ordered before we left Fairbanks and the driver radioed ahead to let them know when we would be arriving. A few miles down the road after the dinner stop we had a 45-minute delay due to construction. Then we stopped for about an hour at a trading post. It was very interesting talking with the folks there. They have no electricity, just generators and they have home-schooled their children. Very nice people.

 

We arrived back in Fairbanks about 1:00 a.m. It was a very long day but it was fun and interesting. I hope you get to do this.

[Nancyquilts]

Eons ago we lived in Fairbanks. The last time we were there, we took the riverboat cruise, thinking it was just a tourist trap. Maybe it is, but we really enjoyed it and would do it again. Nancy

[boten]

...I would like to get to Barrow sometime but it might not be for 2-3 years!

 

 

We did Barrow overnight in 2004. I HATE cold but it was fascinating being there, around freezing point during "daytime". The quotes are because it was daytime 24 hours.

 

While everybody went to the "default" Mexican restaurant, we walked a little and found a decent Japanese restaurant behind the hotel.

 

Had a nice talk with a local lady who came to a convention organized by the local government. Seems like many have salaries from the government who have so much of it from the oil business. She was excited to hear we came from Jerusalem and told us her mother visited and was very excited - talking about a small world.

 

It is hard to imagine kids growing up without seeing any tree "in person". Watch when you walk the streets as the only distinction between the road and the sidewalk is how much the dirt is packed.