I was recently in Alaska for 12 days. That’s a lot of vacation time that not everyone has. If you’re crunched for time, here’s what you might want to do and what to forego.
First, the itinerary:
Day 1: Travel day to Anchorage
Day 2: Anchorage
Walking tour in Chugach State Park
Sightseeing Anchorage
Overnight Anchorage
Day 3: Alaska Railroad Anchorage to Seward
Day 4: Seward
Exit Glacier Hike/Dog Sled Tour
Overnight Seward
Day 5: Seward
Kenai Fjords Cruise/Tour (6 hours)
Overnight Seward
Day 6: Seward
Kayaking in Resurrection Bay
Alaska Railroad Seward to Anchorage
Overnight Anchorage
Day 7: Alaska Railroad Anchorage to Talkeetna
Denali Flightseeing Tour (canceled due to low visibility)
Overnight Talkeetna
Day 8: Alaska Railroad Talkeetna to Denali
Denali Walking Tour
Overnight Denali
Day 9: Denali Park Bus Tour (5 ½ hours)
Overnight Denali
Day 10: Denali
Rafting
Ziplining
Overnight Denali
Day 10: Flight Tour Around Denali with Glacier Landing (2 hours)
Alaska Railroad Denali to Fairbanks
Overnight Fairbanks
Day 11: Arctic Circle Tour (flight and ground tour, 5 hours)
Overnight Fairbanks
Day 12: Riverboat Cruise Fairbanks (3 hours)
Sightseeing Fairbanks
Leave for home
I’ve listed the activities that we reserved. Keep in mind, I was with a group of friends. Not everyone did the same thing every day. For example, my husband and I didn’t zipline or do the dogsled tour, but my friends did. “Sightseeing” were the things that didn’t require a reservation - visiting a museum, walking in parks, shopping, or in my case - a trip to urgent care….
Recommendations if you’re short on time
Train
Don’t skip it, but don’t do your entire trip by train. Instead of a cruise, we took the train. The scenery from the train was stunning, but the train, as a mode of transportation was not the most time, or cost, efficient. I recommend riding the train for a portion of your trip, like between Anchorage and Seward, or Anchorage and Denali. You get the same experience. Take the bus for the rest of your trip if you don’t have a car.
Anchorage
Limit your time. Anchorage is okay, and we found stuff to do, but I wouldn’t call it a destination. Everyone in our group arrived into Anchorage at different times on different flights, so we left a one-day buffer in case of flight delays or cancellations. While I would recommend leaving a buffer, Anchorage wasn’t where I’d recommend spending valuable vacation days.
Seward
Spend your time here. We did a 6-hour Kenai Fjord tour in Seward. We saw lots of cool stuff -whales, puffins, seals glaciers, icebergs - but a 4-hour tour would have been enough – especially if you get seasick. We spent two full days in Seward. I think that’s the right amount of time, but if you’re really pressed for time, you could see fun stuff in one full day.
Kayaking was also a lot of fun. We saw an otter fishing for crab. Watching it try to eat the crab was hilarious, but if you’re short on time, or not interested, skip kayaking.
Talkeetna
Skip. Flightsee in Denali: We overnighted in Talkeetna specifically for the Denali flightseeing, but there wasn’t much else to do, in my opinion. Unfortunately, low visibility forced the cancellation of our flight. Fortunately, we were able to make similar flightseeing reservations in Denali for a few days later. Staying in Talkeetna for the sole purpose of taking a flight that didn’t happen, cost us time.
Denali
Spend your time here. There are a lot of things to do - rafting, flightseeing, ziplining, etc. Surprisingly, there aren’t many marked hiking trails in Denali. So, if you’re thinking about only hiking, Denali isn’t the place. Do the other fun stuff.
Fairbanks
Limit your time. My husband and I didn’t do the riverboat tour because… we were sick. My friends did it. They thought it was interesting, but not critical. We did a tour of the Arctic Circle out of Fairbanks. I’m happy we did it, but it was time consuming. If you’re short of time, skip Fairbanks, unless you’re flying out of there.
Activities that were totally worth doing even though they were time consuming
Do the Kenai Fjords cruise. It was impressive, but consider a shorter cruise, if you’re crunched for time.
If you can swing it from a time (and money) perspective, the flightseeing over Denali with a glacier landing was well worth it...
Final Thoughts
Alaska is a bucket list item for many people. I’m not saying don’t visit all of the places and do all the things you want to do when you get there. I’m glad we did and saw everything, but if you’re short on time, prioritizing will help maximize your time in Alaska! What would have been the right amount of time given what we know now? My hubby and I thought 8 days would have probably covered the highlights, but that’s us. As for you - good luck planning your Alaska adventure!
P.S. Thanks to my friends for some of the photos!
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