opinions please!

[sunnydaze]

We are flying into Anchorage at night, and not leaving on our cruise from Whittier til the following night.

 

Can anyone suggest a good hotel to stay at in Anchorage? Yes - I have checked trip advisor, but I value your opinions too.

 

Also - what is the best way to get from Anchorage to Whittier. We have the whole day, so part of me thinks we should rent a car, and sight see a bit. Can we rent a car in Anchorage, and drop it off in Whittier somewhere close to the cruiship?

I get bus sick, so I'm hesitating about looking into that option.

 

Is there a train?

 

Have any of you got any good suggestions??

Thank you!

[Budget Queen]

There is only Avis available for a one way Anchorage/Whittier. There is also one train leaving 10am.

 

You will have to decide WHERE you want to spend your short time. There certainly is plenty you can pack your day with if you get the costly rental car, which would be my first recommendation. If you take the train, I highly recommend you consider a Prince William Sound boat tour. Don't be in any rush to get on your ship. :)

 

There is a wide range of accomdations. What are you looking for? Decide first if you are getting the rental car perhaps?? Then you have plenty of options to drive to.

[LadieSadie]

This is our first trip to Alaska as well. We are flying into Anchorage Friday night (May 23) and will be staying at the Courtyard. We are also trying to figure out how to get to Whittier on Saturday. We're sailing on the Princess Sapphire. There are 5 adults in our traveling party, so we'll obviously have a bit of luggage to cart around.

 

Someone on the Sapphire Roll Call board mentioned they were checking into the "Whittier Shuttle". I don't know anything more about that. We hadn't thought about renting a vehicle because of number of people and amount of luggage. Guess we could take a bus, but that doesn't really appeal to me.

 

I know there is nothing to do in Whittier and the ship doesn't sail until 9:30 pm. Not sure others in our party would want to do PWS.

 

Any other thoughts on transportation to Whittier from Anchorage?

 

Thanks--

[NancyIL]

You could take the Alaskan Leopard shuttle to Whiittier: http://www.alaskanleopard.com/Tours/index.htm

 

By the way - the OP double posted, so here's the link to the other one - which I responded to yesterday: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=721843

[sunnydaze]

Thanks for your replies!

 

We have decided to take the train from Anchorage to Whittier.

Now we need to figure out a comfy hotel reasonably close to the train station. I'm not a morning person so don't want to waste too much time in the morning traveling there.

Is the Dimond Center hotel far from the train station??

 

The reviews say they have heavenly beds there, which sounds good to me.

Thanks for your help.

[ARRTrain]

The Dimond Center Center hotel is about 20 minutes away from the Depot. The Comfort Inn is across the street from the Depot.