Thread: Should I fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks

I'm planning to take a 3/4/5 day land tour before taking a south-bound cruise. All suggestions will be appreciated..................

It sounds like you are planning to do your own touring prior to your cruise rather than go with the cruise line tours.

I suggest looking at this years tours offered by the cruise lines to see just what they are sending their folks to see. Then you can research those to see if any private companies are offering something similar.

Bear in mind that some tours are not offered very early and very late in the cruise season because the wild life is not that active then.

Once you decide on where you want to tour, then you can determine where you should fly into. I suspect that Anchorage would have lower fares than Fairbanks, however, you would need to end up in Anchorage for your ship boarding in Seward for the cruise portion.

Is your cruise leaving out of Seward or Whittier?

I would suggest Anchorage -- bigger airport and much more to do there.

It depends on what you want to do and where you want to go.

Fairbanks is a beautiful city with lots of places to visit and things to do. From there, you can head south by train or rent a car and drive to Denali. Spend a night or two there and then keep going south by train or rental car to Anchorage.

Rental car would be the cheapest and afford you more personal options, but the train is very nice and makes traveling easier.

If you fly into Anchorage and wanted to visit Denail, you'd have to go north to the park and then turn around and head back south to Anchorage.

You can also take a tour offered by the cruise line - let them take care of everything. Or you can do your own thing in your own time making all the arrangements yourself.

There are many nice places to stay, including the hotels owned by the cruise line that you can also book on your own.

You'll definitely be glad you spent some extra time in Alaska - it truly is magnificent.

Pete