Here's the Alaska Travel Plan

We'll be filling in with lots of pictures and stories later, but for now we thought we would publish our plan for visiting Alaska for three weeks. It's going to be an interesting combination of transportation options as we patched together what was available when we were planning a couple months ago. It seems that everyone is planning to go to Alaska this summer. With international travel off the fly-list, and Canadian borders closed for drive-throughs, a flight to Alaska is one of the best vacation option this summer. Camper rentals are at a premium in Alaska! By the first of May, our rental company was completely out of units for the entire summer--something that hasn't happened in a while. 

Many rental car companies sold much of their inventory last year, and didn't re-purchase new units after a dismal travel season in 2020. We've read that IF you could find a rental car available in Alaska, you should expect to pay around $2,500 per week for it.

We are visiting in the shoulder season when things are usually a little cheaper and crowds are smaller, but we are still expecting to see plenty of people in the campgrounds. We feel lucky that we managed to reserve vehicles and accommodations for our three weeks. 

We'll start in a camper van for the first eight days. It'll be just the two of us, roughing it with a queen size bed in the back of a cargo van. We are booked with "Amazing Accommodations" and they outfit it with a cook stove, folding chairs and table, cookware, towels, and linens for an extra $150. It will allow us to travel some back roads and camp anywhere we want, but we'll certainly miss our comfortable motor home with its electricity and large holding tanks.

After eight days we'll be joined by our good friends, Connie and Steven. We couldn't get an RV rental for the next couple days, so we'll be staying in a motel in Anchorage. That will be a good opportunity for us to wash clothes and enjoy electricity again. We're also planning an Alaska Railroad trip (with a return ride on a bus) during that time, so we'll add more forms of transportation to this Alaska travel plan. 

Connie and Steven have to be good friends if we think we can share a 24-foot Class C motor home with them for the next seven days. We've tried to plan a trip that will allow them to see the highlights of Alaska, without repeating too many of the places that we experienced during our first 8 days.

The RV was only available for seven days, so we will finish up our vacation with a car rental and staying in cabins. We'll be in the most southern part of our journey, in the Kenai Peninsula for our last four days.

While we're on the peninsula, we are planning to take a boat cruise in the Kenai Fjords National Park and perhaps do some kayaking. That will add more form of transportation to our varied list for this trip--airplane, camper van, train, bus, RV, boat, kayak, and car.

We have some rough plans of possible stops, and a few reservations that we had to book in advance. But we're hoping to travel at our own pace, using road side pull-outs and first-come-first-serve campgrounds that we have read about. Alaska had a larger-than-usual amount of snow this winter, but we've learned that the highways are clear and most of the dirt roads are now open. 

We conclude this travel plan with all four of us flying out of the Anchorage airport on the same night. We have the Alaska travel plan made. Now let the adventure begin! This will be the last blog until we return with way too many pictures and too many stories. Stay tuned!