Alaska!

youngdibs

Hey guys

thinking of going on a snow holiday. not skiing. glaciers, bears , whales and such. has anyone done this/ can recommend anywhere? id love to go to alaska but info is thin on the ground RE packages and such. or anywhere cheaper/closer than alaska. any help appreciated.

cheers
youre all deadly

I've heard great things about cruises in Alaska, a cousin of mine went on one and loved it (the photographs of the glaciers and fjords she brought back were breath-taking).
There are lots of different alaska cruises. A quick google brings up this: http://www.thetraveldepartment.ie/CMSTEmplates/ttd/resultsengine/individualresult.aspx?id=18942/individualresult.aspx
But I'm sure some of the experts here, can recommend better.

Tabnabs

I don't know if it would be cheaper, but Spitsbergen would tick most/all of your boxes.

Try http://www.spitsbergentravel.com/

JohnMearsheimer

I was in Alaska for 6 days in November, based myself in Anchorage. I did it independently. A lot of activities and excursions there are expensive, especially in the winter after the place nearly shuts down after a busy summer. The expense of doing things in the winter really caught me off guard but I said feck it, I didn't go to Alaska to sit in my hotel room.

Most of the cruises to Alaska are summer only and finish around September. I think if you want proper snow you'd have to wait until after then, unless you go to high ground/mountains. A lot of the boats that go out to look at whales out around Prince William Sound finish up in September as well. Weather wise, there was heavy snow when I was there in November and it got down to -25.

When I was there I took a flight up to Knik glacier, it was spectacular. We started off out over the sea off Anchorage which was starting to completely freeze up, flew over the mountains around Anchorage and then around the glacier and Lake George. It was 250 dollars for a 1 hour flight but well worth it. I was meant to fly up to Mount McKinley but it was too windy for the plane or something. If you do a flight keep in mind the weather. I was lucky the morning I booked my flight that the skies were clear so you could actually see something from the plane. A lot of companies won't care if there are clear skies or not and will just take your money. Another thing to keep in mind is daylight. It wouldn't start getting bright until 9 am and it was getting dark again at 3 pm.

I also spent a day dog sledding on part of the Iditarod trail, think it was 200 dollars. I spent a day at Aleyska resort in Girdwood, did some skiiing and snow showing, spent nearly 200 on a lift pass and rentals for the day. I did a city tour as well in Anchorage for 50 and a trip to a wildlife park was included in the fee. Saw bears, lynxes, porcupines, other animals typical to Alaska. A lot of bears will be hibernating in the winter as well so you probably won't be seeing then in the wild. The polar bears are further north in Alaska, up aroud places like Barrow.

There isn't that many big chain hotels in Anchorage. I stayed in the Sheraton for the 6 the nights for 500. There is a hostel in Anchorage but I think it was closed for the season by November. Flights were expensive too. I was living in Canada at the time and was travelling in California before coming home but the San Francisco - Seattle - Anchorage flight cost 900 dollars. I checked just Seattle - Anchorage flights on the same day on the Alaska Airlines website and it was still 900. God knows what it would be if you're starting out in Ireland. I think you can take the ferry from Seattle to Alaska but its only summer...I think. Food wise, I stuck to Subway and pizza. It was an expensive trip for one person for less than a week but well worth it. I doubt I'll ever have the opportunity to see Alaska again.

The Black Oil

I loved Alaska. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

It's not really somewhere you can turn up on spec and make it up as you go along. Perhaps if you have plenty of experience, but you need to have done your homework. I didn't go independently (went with Trek America), but as shown above, it can be done. It's the biggest state (planes = taxis is one description I heard before going) and things cost more because of the price of fuel and lot of stuff is imported.

I went in the summer time. Would like to see what it's like in the winter, though. There was still snow in the national parks in that when I was there.

There must be 5-10 Alaska based shows on the Discovery channel at this stage, but if you can go, I'd say don't turn down the chance.

Stinicker

Alaska has some of the best Salmon fishing in the world if your into that sort of thing also.