Alaska by sea, rail or road?

[Flashback]

I ended up getting slightly side tracked on this, but have now booked and paid for everything.

Car rental is with Hertz, as we're spending the last 2 nights in Anchorage to chill out we're dropping the car back early as it saves $45 worth of parking at the hotel and drops $350 off the overall rental cost.

Itinerary is:

1. Arrive just after midnight, so pickup the rental car and off for a short stay in Anchorage
2. Few hours rest to get over the flight and then drive up to Denali NP
3. 2 nights at Denali NP, but 2 full days doing some hiking etc.
4. At the end of the 2nd day we drive just past Fairbanks and stay at the North Pole
5. Planning to do the Riverboat Discovery Sternwheeler Cruise and then a few hours drive to Delta Junction as leaving that late is too much to get down to Valdez in one hit
6. A nice at Delta Junction and then continue on down to Valdez, where we spend 2 nights and will do the Colombia Glacier Cruise
7. From there it's off to Knik River with a scenic cabin booked and hiking from the doorstep in peaceful and secluded surroundings
8. We then head down towards Seward and spend 2 nights near Exit Glacier, with some hikes planned while there
9. It's then back up to Anchorage, drop the car off and some chill time for 2 nights before we fly back to London

Thanks to all that provided suggestions, in the end I had to go a slightly less complex itinerary and keep things fairly vanilla on a reasonably standard route as work being so busy left me with little capacity to go into more detailed planning

 

[Mwenenzi]

Sounds good. And very busy. Hope you are fit for all those walks!
Best to book the Denali NP buses now. They sell out. If you book an unguidied bus to the end (~Wonder Lake) , FT trip reporter guru Seat 2A may be your driver

 

[Flashback]

Sounds good. And very busy. Hope you are fit for all those walks!
Best to book the Denali NP buses now. They sell out. If you book an unguidied bus to the end (~Wonder Lake) , FT trip reporter guru Seat 2A may be your driver

We do lots of walking/hiking when we travel and go go go is our usual approach so should work out well hopefully. Agree on the bus and when we looked last night availability seemed ok, likely to go on the unguided bus too as the trails look pretty good.

 

[Inlander]

If you have the time, Alaskan airlines have a "Milk Run" flight between Anchorage and Seattle in addition to their normal point to point. It calls at all of the little airports ; Juneau, Petersburgh, Wrangell, Ketchikan , Sitka then you change to onforward to Seattle. The fare in First class is still around USD 350-400(Which is around what i paid in October 2019) plus whatever you want to pay for the final leg to Seattle (Stay the night if you want in Sitka) and is very much a scenic air cruise of Alaska and its charming towns and spectacular scenery. Its usually assigned a 737-700 and is Government supported .

 

[Flashback]

If you have the time, Alaskan airlines have a "Milk Run" flight between Anchorage and Seattle in addition to their normal point to point. It calls at all of the little airports ; Juneau, Petersburgh, Wrangell, Ketchikan , Sitka then you change to onforward to Seattle. The fare in First class is still around USD 350-400(Which is around what i paid in October 2019) plus whatever you want to pay for the final leg to Seattle (Stay the night if you want in Sitka) and is very much a scenic air cruise of Alaska and its charming towns and spectacular scenery. Its usually assigned a 737-700 and is Government supported .

Is that fare return? Sounds one way. I'd need to do it to and from ANC ideally in a day...

 

[drron]

Quite a few years ago flew that service from Seatle to Juneau and a few days later Juneau to Petersburgh for our cruise and post cruise Pertersburgh to Anchorage. The back half of the plane was cargo. But it was cheaper than any alternative.

 

[Inlander]

Is that fare return? Sounds one way. I'd need to do it to and from ANC ideally in a day...

Thats one way. If you google earth the airports you will get an insight into the scenery. The Ketchikan airport is a classic , you have to get a ferry into the town, the airports on its own isolated island