How to plan a trip to alaska
Alaska travel - 10 things you should know before you go & Things to do in Alaska #visitAlaska
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i'm so excited today because we're
talking about one of my favorite places
on planet earth the beautiful state of
alaska
[Music]
we spent one month up in alaska in 2020
between july and august working during
the week hitting the hiking trails
during the weekend and taking a few days
off to explore all the beautiful wonders
that this state has to offer and in this
video today i want to share with you
some tips to help you plan for your
visit to alaska especially if you are
going for the first time ready let's go
alaska is huge it's kind of obvious if
you look at the map but you only
appreciate it when you are actually in
alaska and just to give you some
perspective alaska is larger than texas
california and montana combined and
these three are some of the largest
states in the lower 48. there are five
main regions in alaska the far north the
interior south central southwest and the
south east the far north region most of
it is above the arctic circle the
interior region of alaska is where
fairbanks is denali national park south
central alaska is where anchorage is
located anchor is the city that most of
people would fly to if you are flying to
alaska this is where the kenai peninsula
is located and then there is the
southwest and then there is a southeast
region this is where the capital of
alaska juno is located five main regions
of alaska and understanding what every
region has to offer will be very helpful
for you to plan for your adventure my
recommendation to you is to go to
travelalaska.com
this is the official website for the
tourism board in alaska and they do have
this useful interactive map where you
can go and click what region you are
interested in and then it's going to
take you to a page with a lot of details
about things to do in that particular
region attractions the main national
parks and that is going to be a good
starting point for you to plan for your
adventure to alaska we spent one month
up in alaska and we only explore the
southeast region so that gives you an
idea how much time you will need if you
want to go and explore every single
region of the state of alaska if you are
interested or if you happen to choose
the south central region as your
playground when you visit alaska we do
have a lot of resources we do have a lot
of videos and i'm going to link to them
in the description box if you are
interested there aren't many roads in
alaska most of the time there is only
one road to get from point a to point b
and that can be a challenge sometimes so
just make sure that you set expectations
with yourself and you are flexible with
your plan make sure that you are getting
an early start in the morning if you
know that you will have to drive from
one place to the other this way you can
be traffic and you can save some time on
driving traveling to alaska does not
have to be expensive and a lot of people
may disagree with me because most of
people look at alaska as this exotic
place for retired people or for rich
people and it can be expensive and it is
expensive but it doesn't have to be
expensive all the time you can still
travel to alaska on a budget you don't
have to be on a cruise to go to alaska
you don't need a month or more than a
month to go to alaska and there are so
many other ways to explore you can rent
an rv you can rent a camper van or you
can rent a car and this is exactly what
we did and it was very cost effective we
flew to anchorage from seattle and then
we rented the car and we were pretty
much just driving from one place to the
other in the south central legion of
alaska so that's something to consider
also what really makes alaska expensive
are the type of activities you are doing
once you are in alaska fishing kayaking
ice climbing hiking and some of these
activities can be really expensive but
if you choose cheap activities like we
did we were hiking most of the time
hiking does not cost anything sometimes
entrance fee took part but that was very
minimal you can still travel in alaska
on a budget you can
pick activities that are budget-friendly
we found some activities like ice
climbing and it was only
a hundred eighty dollars per person and
we found some helicopter tours instead
of going on a floating airplane and that
only cost 125 dollars per person so if
you spend some time researching and
finding some off the beats and path
activities that are um kind of away from
the very touristy areas you can find
some very good deal and you can still
explore alaska without breaking the bank
summer in alaska has nothing to do with
summer in the lower 48 especially if
you're gonna be hiking or backpacking or
up in the mountain and actually it
doesn't even have to be hiking and
backpacking it is still cold so make
sure that you are packing your winter
gear make sure that you do have a rain
gear layers
down jackets if you're going to be
hiking on pretty much every single trail
that we were on it was raining it was
very cold make sure that you are
prepared and make sure that you have all
of the necessary gear to feel warm and
happy while adventuring summer midnight
is such a fun phenomenon to witness
summer in alaska the sun doesn't go down
until after midnight which was great for
us because we would work during the day
and the sun is still up and that gives
us a lot of opportunities to go and hike
and explore the city without being or
feeling pressured by the sun going down
it's a really fun phenomena so when you
go to alaska and it's midnight and the
sun is not going down don't worry it's
not the end of the world it's just
alaska don't expect to see the aurora or
the northern lights in summer a lot of
people go to alaska during summer and
they are disappointed because they don't
get to see the northern lights and who
doesn't want to see the northern lights
in alaska however it's not very common
to see them during summer you have to go
for the north and chances are higher
during winter you might see a lot of
wildlife or you might see no wildlife by
the end of the day it's just a question
of luck we were lucky enough that we saw
a bear and we were able to see moose at
least four times when we were in alaska
but i have some tips for you here just
to maximize your chances of seeing
wildlife number one ask locals when we
were in anchorage we asked locals what
is an area or a park where we can see
moose we had some recommendations and to
our surprise there was one day where
alex drove to the parking lot of one of
the parks that was recommended by a
local and he saw a move and her calf so
ask away ask the locals they are going
to have the best recommendations for you
number two especially if you are hiking
or backpacking make sure that you do
have a pair of binoculars with you so
that you can spot wildlife from far away
and last tip if you are interested in
photography make sure that you invest in
a reliable zoom lens who doesn't want to
take beautiful photos of wildlife in
alaska we did invest in the zoom lens
before going to alaska and i'm going to
leave a link in the description box in
case you are interested or if you are in
the market looking for a new one cell
phone service is weak do not rely on
your phone especially for directions
it's not reliable also if you are hiking
and you are in the back country your
phone is not going to be reliable so
make sure that you do have a physical
map with you or a campus that you can
rely on to find directions and find your
way from point a to point b seafood in
alaska is expensive and that was a big
disappointment for me because you would
think alaska is a hot spot for
commercial fishing but no seafood in
alaska is expensive probably more
expensive than it is in the lower 48
which was disappointing for me
fishing in alaska or going on charters
for fishing is an expensive experience
the only company that i consulted with i
was told that you have to pay 300
to go on a one day fishing adventure for
one person and if you want to get that
fish shipped to the lower 48 that is
going to cost you 300 dollars more so
600 if you want to go fishing in the sea
with a charter but that is just to tell
you that seafood is expensive even when
you go to restaurants however the
quality was stellar i don't think i ever
had any seafood here in the united
states that can exceed what i got in
alaska viking in alaska is different
than hiking in the lower 48 and i feel
like i will need a full episode just to
talk about hiking in alaska because it's
very different two things that comes to
mind when it comes to hiking to alaska
one they don't know what switchbacks are
everything goes straight up and up and
up until you can't anymore so keep that
in mind make sure that you have trekking
poles with you that is the one thing
that i wish that i had with me before
going to alaska and then the second
thing when you are hiking in alaska you
want to make sure that you are
self-reliant you have everything that
you need for worse scenarios you want to
make sure that you have all the
necessary gear all the 10 essentials
were hiking it's not crazy to have a
sleeping bag with you even if you are
going on a day hike remember we talked
about there being limited roads or
sometimes one road from point a to point
b should anything go wrong sometimes
it's very
difficult to get someone to to support
you or help you so when you're hiking in
alaska make sure that you have all of
the gear that you need especially if you
are hiking in their country as well you
you want to make sure that you have
something to start a fire to keep
yourself warm to not get hypothermic and
i'm going to talk about this in detail
in an upcoming episode next tip on the
list many places in alaska are not
accessible by car and that was a
surprise for me knowing that there are
some national parks in alaska that you
cannot access by car like katmai
national park where you will have to fly
a floating airplane to get to kathmaine
national park same thing with kenai
fjords national park although parts of
the national park are still accessible
by car we did drive to the hardin
icefield trail beautiful hike by the way
if you are in the kenai peninsula or if
you are in seward you definitely should
check the hit the hardin ice field trail
it's one of my favorite hiking trails up
until now but anyway so what i was
trying to say is that even the kenai
fjords national park
a big chunk of the national park is only
accessible by cruise boat kayaking or
airplane so don't be surprised because
so many places you can only access by
airplane and actually that is one of the
reasons that makes going to alaska and
exploring alaska a little bit expensive
but if you guys found this to be useful
please give it a thumbs up my goal is to
help you plan for your next adventure my
name is haviba this is trekking pals and
i will see you soon on a new adventure
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