The Ultimate Alaska Adventure: Top 10 Things To Do and Places to Explore
We recently vacationed in Alaska and spent three weeks visiting the interior region (Denali National Park and area), the southcentral region (Kenai Peninsula—Homer, Seward, Seldovia, Halibut Cove), and the southwest region (Katmai Peninsula—King Salmon and Brooks Lodge).
We used Anchorage as our starting/ending point because it is centralized near what we wanted to see and do.
Here are a few places to consider visiting, particularly if this is your first trip to The 49th State:
Anchorage
Earthquake Park, Ships Creek, Lake Hood Seaplane Base, and the Tony Knowles Bike Path are some of the stops on an Anchorage Trolley Tour. (Photo: Edie L Kramer)
I’m including Anchorage simply because this is where your trip will likely start and/or end, and it’s important to know a bit about it before you go.
Anchorage is an excellent transport station but offers little besides a good museum, a city bus tour, and a bike path. It's great for a night’s stay after arrival or before departure, but it’s not a destination. Brochures and websites may protest, but I stand behind this comment.
Why the brush-off? Turnagain Arm, Kenai Peninsula, Chugach State Forest, Katchemak Bay State Park, and national parks and forests are within driving distance. Even though Anchorage has lots of green space (public parks, bike paths) and excellent restaurants, endless natural beauty is only ten minutes out of town. Anchorage can’t compete.
Tip: Top restaurants are booked weeks in advance because of cruise ships that enter/leave Seward or Whittier (not more than a 3-hour drive or train ride to Anchorage). Passengers starting or ending their cruise will spend a night in Anchorage due to its international airport. Some will extend their trip with a visit to Talkeetna, Denali, and Fairbanks via the train (Denali Star route), which runs daily from Anchorage. That can mean a lot of people descending on a small city for dinner and a bed. Make reservations early.
Denali Star Train
Denali Star Train is Alaska Railroad's flagship train. (Photo: Erik J Kramer)
The Denali Star Train offers a six-hour ride from Anchorage to Denali National Park. It then continues to Fairbanks. The premium class of service is the GoldStar Service, which provides glass-dome ceilings to panoramic views, an outdoor viewing platform with fresh air and an excellent photo vantage point, and two meals in the full-service dining car (white tablecloth service).
It’s a leisurely ride through the interior of Alaska, where every image you see is picture-worthy. There’s a good chance you’ll see a moose by a stream or marsh if you keep your eyes open.
Tip: Splurge on the GoldStar Service. The glass-domed ceiling provides better viewing than a traditional train window, and the dining car with white tablecloth service adds to the experience.
Denali National Park
The 2024 Riley fire started from a spark as the Denali Star Train passed Denali NP's main entrance. It left patches of dark brown across the landscape. This image was taken from the train as we passed the park entrance a few days before the park's reopening. (Image: Erik J Kramer)
The Riley fire on June 30, 2024, impacted our trip. Located near the park's main (and only public) entrance, the fire shut down the park for a week—exactly when we were scheduled to visit. For that reason, we did not experience the park but did see where the fire was from our hotel across the Nenana River. In fact, while there, we witnessed a helicopter use the river to fill a water balloon and dump it on areas that were still smoking due to the thick underbrush that tends to trap heat.
We booked a few tours of the area at the last minute because roads outside the park remained open. Was it disappointing not to get inside Denali NP? Yes. Was it a total loss? No. The whole area is beautiful.
Tips: First, I recommend staying in Healey, about 12 miles north of Denali’s main entrance, for its many lodging and restaurant options. It’s where many of the Denali staff and seasonal workers live. We stayed across the Nenana River from Denali’s main entrance at the Grande Denali Lodge. I don’t recommend this hotel or location. The hotel is uphill from ‘Glitter Gulch,’ a tacky strip of stores, coffee shops, and tour providers. The Lodge was noisy with no black-out curtains—a must during the summer months and midnight sun. You’ll likely save money in Healey as well.
Second, if taking a bus tour along the 92-mile Denali Park Road is on your ‘must-do’ list, know that the park road closed at Mile 43 in 2021 due to the Pretty Rocks Landslide. Repairs are actively underway, and there are plans to reopen mid-summer 2026, but this is a heavy-lift construction project, so check before you finalize plans.
Girdwood/Alyeska
Lower Virgin Creek Falls is in Girdwood, a temperate rainforest. It's approximately a half-mile round trip. (Image: Erik J Kramer)
Girdwood is about 40 miles south of Anchorage. Located on the coast of Turnagain Arm on the way to Portage and the Kenai Peninsula, the Girdwood area has much to offer, including day hikes, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Area, the Alyeska Ski Resort, and the Aleyska Nordic Spa. This outdoor spa, in particular, is a great place to spend a day or evening just chillin’. It's top-notch.
The area is worth a few days’ visit.
Kenai Peninsula
Many of the pull-offs along Rte 1 on the Kenai Peninsula coast are worthy of a stop and a few pics. This one includes Lake Clark NP across Cook Inlet. (Image: Edie L Kramer)
Bald eagles are pretty common on the Kenai Peninsula, particularly along the coast. (Image: Edie L Kramer)
If you go nowhere else in Alaska, go to the Kenai Peninsula.
Kenai has everything you think of when you picture Alaska: glaciers and fjords, dramatic coastlines, picture-perfect landscapes, and abundant wildlife (whales, sea otters, moose, bears, eagles, and many birds, including puffins). You can fish for salmon and halibut, kayak in quiet coves or near calving glaciers, and hike well-marked trails of varying lengths and skill levels. The restaurants (many family-run and small) are top-notch, offering relaxed atmospheres, exciting menus, and the freshest seafood and ingredients.
Spend four or more days on the peninsula, and you’ll already be planning your next visit.
Homer
Katchemak Bay State Park as viewed from Bishops Beach near downtown Homer. (Image: Edie L Kramer
Although several towns are worth a visit, the best is the waterfront town of Homer, located on the southernmost tip of the Kenai Peninsula.
Known as the "Halibut Fishing Capital of the World," Homer offers some of the best opportunities to catch these massive flatfish, which can weigh over 100 pounds. Huge. Halibut was on every menu across the state, and it was always spectacular.
Along the Homer Spit, a narrow landform that extends 4.5 miles into Katchmak Bay, you’ll find excursions, boat taxis to villages across the Bay, rugged beaches, friendly residents, and wildlife (we saw a moose and calf 1/8 mile from our Airbnb and many eagles).
We spent four nights here and could have stayed longer, soaking in the laid-back town environment, gorgeous views, fun excursions, and great food.
Halibut Cove
Halibut Cove is a quaint artist community with about 200 residents located in Katchemak Bay State Park. (Image: Edie L Kramer)
Our day trip to Halibut Cove, a vibrant artist community/village, was one of the best trip experiences for everyone in our group. It’s a tranquil hamlet with no roads—accessible only by ferry or water taxi from Homer. A network of boardwalks along the harbor gives the village a peaceful, off-the-grid atmosphere.
Transportation to/from Homer and reservations for lunch (or dinner if you take the evening trip) at The Saltry Restaurant (the only restaurant in the village) are booked together as a package. The boat ride across Katchmak Bay includes a visit to Gull Island, a bird sanctuary home to nine nesting species of birds, including puffins.
The Saltry is an open-air restaurant built into the side of a cliff. The menu is organic and fun, and the food is excellent. After lunch, you can walk the boardwalk around the harbor, stop at the village’s art gallery and coffee shop, or enjoy the scenery. The serene atmosphere makes this little hamlet a must.
Seldovia
Virtually every business and residence has a chainsaw carved wood statue near its door. (Photo: Edie L Kramer)
The Seldovia village and surrounding area are the traditional homeland of the Sugpiaq people, who have lived there for thousands of years. Accessible only by boat or plane, it’s tiny and quiet, with only a few restaurants and a gift shop along the harbor. Fishing is king. We saw several people filleting their catch at the dock.
The town has dozens of chainsaw wood carvings, giving it an artsy feel.
Many visitors enjoy hiking the Otterbahn Trail, a 2.5-mile roundtrip hike from town through temperate rainforest to Outside Beach (a great place for beachcombing and tidal pools). In late summer and fall, look for blueberries along the way. If you hike, bring bear spray.
Seward and Fjords National Park
About 10-12 humpback whales bubble feeding in Kenai Fjords National Park. (Image: Erik J Kramer)
If you’re considering a day cruise to see glaciers and sea life (whales, sea otters, birds), the place to do this is in the Kenai Fjords National Park. Major Marine Boat Tours offers a phenomenal 7.5-hour trip that includes getting within 1/4 mile of the Holgate and Aialik Glaciers. The boat takes off from Seward, a town south of Homer on the Kenai Peninsula.
The entire day of our cruise was foggy and rainy, but the waters were calm. The 7.5-hour cruise is on a catamaran, and the tour group states that the ship offers a bit more stability than some of the smaller boats used on shorter cruises. It is also the cruise to go on if you want lots of opportunities and time to see whales, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, puffins, eagles, and many species of seabirds. Some of their shorter tours don’t include Aialik Glacier, and that’s the better of the two we saw (it’s larger and calving). A section of the Aialik glacier calved within minutes of our arrival.
The most exciting part of the day was witnessing about 10-12 humpback whales bubble-feeding. Humpbacks blow bubbles while swimming in a circle to capture krill as a team. Just before surfacing and opening their mouths to feed, birds in the area swarm them to get a few fish for themselves. It was impressive and entertaining.
Katmai National Park
Grizzly and her two cubs eat salmon in Brooks River near Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, Alaska. (Image: Erik J Kramer)
If you’re really into bears and have the financial means, consider a day trip or overnight stay at Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park. Only accessible by air, a visit requires two flights: the first from Anchorage to King Salmon (about 1.5 hours on an 18-seat plane), the second on a floatplane (about 30 minutes) from King Salmon to Brooks Lodge. The floatplane will land on Naknek Lake, just a short walk from Brooks Lodge. Upon arrival, all visitors receive a mandatory bear safety orientation, given by park rangers to ensure both visitor and bear safety during their stay. The peak time for bear viewing is July during the salmon run.
Tip: If you want to stay at the lodge overnight, plan your stay very
early—18 months in advance. Brooks Lodge is open from June 1 to mid-September each year. Reservations are based on a lottery system, and applications are accepted from December 1-31 each year. For more information, visit their website here. The salmon run is during the last few weeks of July. We were there July 21-23 and counted 32 bears feeding on salmon near Brooks Falls one day.
Some Takeaways From Our Trip
Here’s some of what we discovered, in general:
High Diversity Levels: Land and Population
After three weeks of driving, flying, and touring multiple regions of Alaska, I’ve concluded that it is the most beautiful, diverse US state regarding natural wonders and wildlife viewing.
Additionally, the locals are welcoming and hard-working. Many are small business owners. There’s a sense of community, and the population is very diverse. You’d likely notice this on some of your land excursions from a cruise ship, but it is apparent everywhere when you travel by land.
Fun Fact: According to the municipality of Anchorage, over 100 languages are spoken in the Anchorage School District, and Anchorage's Mountain View neighborhood is the most diverse in the nation.
A Combination of Busy and Relaxing Days Works
We were physically busy (hiking trails, walking beaches), changed lodging every 3 or 4 days, drove hundreds of miles multiple days, and didn’t let rain stop us from exploring an area (summers in Alaska can be a bit rainy). We also enjoyed a relaxing dinner every night and a leisurely breakfast most mornings. The combination of being busy but also re-energizing/relaxing a bit each day worked well for us.
Flexibility Is Key
One morning in Girdwood, we woke up to discover that all the electricity across town, including coffee shops, was out. So we hit the road and hoped to find breakfast along the way. We stopped for lunch almost four hours later, with just a few snacks in our bellies. Some areas don’t have many eating options outside of the main towns. The lack of a hearty breakfast, a meal some of us prioritize, didn’t ruin the scenery on the long ride that day.
Tip: Always have a cooler with drinks and snacks for the road.
As mentioned above, Denali NP was closed during our scheduled visit due to a fire near the entrance. With a train and hotel pre-booked, we had to look at options outside the park that would offer a similar experience. Often, ‘Plan B’ can be as good or better an option than ‘Plan A’.
Cruises Can Impact Your Land-Only Trip
Cruise ship schedules determine hotel availability, particularly in Anchorage, Seward, and Denali. Some cruise organizations own some of the hotels and prioritize cruise guests. Cruises also book blocks of rooms once they have their schedules (a year ahead) in Seward, Anchorage, and Denali.
Top hotels in these areas will have single nights here and there that aren’t fully booked. We had to alter our schedule based on Seward accommodations due to the small number of hotels in the town and the number of cruise ships that dock there (it’s the closest deep port to Anchorage).
Book early and call hotels directly or look for Airbnb rentals. Make dinner reservations weeks ahead, particularly in Anchorage during peak season (June-August.)
By Sea Or Land? It’s A Personal Choice
Is a land-only trip better than a cruise or vice versa? I don’t know, as I haven’t taken an Alaskan cruise—yet—although it is on my bucket list. Our land trip will be challenging to beat, but a cruise will be an entirely different experience.
The right choice depends on the type of vacation you want, how much time you have, your budget, and how willing and capable you are to research and create an itinerary. If you are considering a cruise, Learn the Advantages and Get 10 Tips for Smooth Sailing here.
