Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Preparing for Alaska - Summer 2011
There is truly no better fun for me than planning a vacation of any sort! I finally convinced Brad, my husband, that this summer was finally a good time to take an extended-type of RV vacation in the Airstream. And, lucky for me, he agreed. Of course, there could always be last-minute emergencies of some type, but afterall, those can't be prevented, so why not assume all will be well, and plan the adventure!
I actually began the planning process in September 2010 for the Alaska Trip beginning in June 2011. Having been to Alaska before with my parents over 20 years ago, I have somewhat of an idea what we are in for, even though the slideshow in my brain of that trip is probably in reality more like 8mm film!
To begin with, I had to gather resources. I began with AAA, of course, since they do have great maps, average campbooks, and basic transportation information. Then, I searched the various travel and tourism websites for the provinces of Canada--Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon, as well as the state of Alaska and completed on-line order requests. All of these print materials are typically mailed in 1-2 weeks. Third, I began the search of books at local Barnes and Noble, Borders, and also online at Amazon.com, finally settling on these key resources:
I had already decided that traveling one way by the road is plenty and Alaska really needs to be seen from the water-side of things as well. So, the basic route we decided upon was to drive the highway going north, and then return south from Skagway to Prince Rupert by ferry, seeing Sitka with a fast ferry from Juneau, which is not always on the itineraries of cruise ships. We made the assumption that at a later time, we will probably do a cruise to Glacier Bay (no towns there, really, just the glaciers) and hit the major cruiseline cities--Wrangell, Ketchikan, etc. Afterall, we can't be gone for 3-4 months at this point in our careers and trip planning includes what can be done and what can't be done in the given time.
So, I began reading and planning off and on for about 3-4 months. There was no doubt as I read that it was imperative to make the Alaska Ferry System reservations for our rig (we have a longbed, crewcab GMC Sierra + 30 foot Airstream Classic RV) as soon as possible. We had to measure for length, width, and height of the rig prior to making our reservations. That meant I needed a pretty good estimate of dates we would be arriving in Sitka. So, the itinerary was started, leaving June 10 (allowing 5 extra days in case we have to make up school days). Also, built in were 200 mile days of traveling once or twice a week in case we had breakdowns, the highway was under construction, and that sort of thing. (See itinerary.)
Once I thought the reservation for the ferry was in draft form, I decided to use a recommended travel agency that operates in Alaska for making our ferry reservations. Viking Travel 800-327-2571, owners Dave and Nancy Berg are very helpful and easily confirmed my earlier draft of the reservations. We were able to get all of the ferry arrangements made over the telephone during the Christmas Break. That way, if changes need to be made in our three different ferries, one call to Dave will take care of that while we're on the road. Remember there is a 6-hour time difference between most of Alaska and Ohio when calling. We now correspond by email and also Passport numbers are with Dave in case of problems in border crossing with the ferry system.
That reminds me: Don't forget your updated Passports!
I actually began the planning process in September 2010 for the Alaska Trip beginning in June 2011. Having been to Alaska before with my parents over 20 years ago, I have somewhat of an idea what we are in for, even though the slideshow in my brain of that trip is probably in reality more like 8mm film!
To begin with, I had to gather resources. I began with AAA, of course, since they do have great maps, average campbooks, and basic transportation information. Then, I searched the various travel and tourism websites for the provinces of Canada--Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon, as well as the state of Alaska and completed on-line order requests. All of these print materials are typically mailed in 1-2 weeks. Third, I began the search of books at local Barnes and Noble, Borders, and also online at Amazon.com, finally settling on these key resources:
- Frommer's Exploring America by RV which has a "Driving the Alaskan Highway" section
- Frommer's Alaska 20xx which has great maps of several towns, highlights of the major cities and information on the Alaska Ferry System
- Traveler's Guide to Alaskan Camping by Mike and Terri Church (which was out of stock for several weeks, so order this one from Amazon.com early and get the latest edition)
- The Milepost - an Alaskan Travel Planner known as the Bible of North Country Travel (my Dad and Mom used it the first time we went); it has maps and lets the travel known mile-by-mile the various highways of 30 major routes, 60 side trips, and provides 100+ maps; this can also be shipped digitally
I had already decided that traveling one way by the road is plenty and Alaska really needs to be seen from the water-side of things as well. So, the basic route we decided upon was to drive the highway going north, and then return south from Skagway to Prince Rupert by ferry, seeing Sitka with a fast ferry from Juneau, which is not always on the itineraries of cruise ships. We made the assumption that at a later time, we will probably do a cruise to Glacier Bay (no towns there, really, just the glaciers) and hit the major cruiseline cities--Wrangell, Ketchikan, etc. Afterall, we can't be gone for 3-4 months at this point in our careers and trip planning includes what can be done and what can't be done in the given time.
So, I began reading and planning off and on for about 3-4 months. There was no doubt as I read that it was imperative to make the Alaska Ferry System reservations for our rig (we have a longbed, crewcab GMC Sierra + 30 foot Airstream Classic RV) as soon as possible. We had to measure for length, width, and height of the rig prior to making our reservations. That meant I needed a pretty good estimate of dates we would be arriving in Sitka. So, the itinerary was started, leaving June 10 (allowing 5 extra days in case we have to make up school days). Also, built in were 200 mile days of traveling once or twice a week in case we had breakdowns, the highway was under construction, and that sort of thing. (See itinerary.)
Once I thought the reservation for the ferry was in draft form, I decided to use a recommended travel agency that operates in Alaska for making our ferry reservations. Viking Travel 800-327-2571, owners Dave and Nancy Berg are very helpful and easily confirmed my earlier draft of the reservations. We were able to get all of the ferry arrangements made over the telephone during the Christmas Break. That way, if changes need to be made in our three different ferries, one call to Dave will take care of that while we're on the road. Remember there is a 6-hour time difference between most of Alaska and Ohio when calling. We now correspond by email and also Passport numbers are with Dave in case of problems in border crossing with the ferry system.
That reminds me: Don't forget your updated Passports!
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