Ever driven to Alaska from the lower 48?

[mom2boys]

What type of vehicle did you drive? What should one know prior to embarking on such a journey (with 2 preteen boys)?
Please share the good, bad & ugly.

 

[lynetteSC]

Hi! I haven't, but one of my clients that was afraid to fly did! They were going on a cruise and decided to drive from NC!!!!!!!! I have had several clients that rented an RV once they were there! I do know that it is the most beautiful trip I have ever taken. Also, I know that it is VERY easy to get around and travel by car/RV there. Good luck!

 

[suzannews]

Sorry I can't be of any help as I've never driven to Alaska but I just wanted to say it sounds like an awesome trip. Got room for 1 more?!!

 

[janette]

My sister took a bus in 2003, her and her DH have a charter/tour business .

They are going again in Aug 2005. This is the tour description:

We will spend two nights in Edmonton, Canada. Visiting an historic area in the morning with historic buildings and spending the afternoon at the Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in the world. Besides the shops and restaurants, there is a full size wave pool, skating rink and many more things to see. Traveling west, we will drive the entire Alcan Highway. We will travel a few hundred miles each day so that we will have plenty of time to stop along the way and have opportunity to take pictures. We will visit several sights along the way. A museum on building the highway at Dawson Creek, the sign forest at Watson Lake. steamboat museum in Whitehorse, besides many other things. We will be staying two nights in Fairbanks. Taking a boat ride on the river for some history on the area. A salmon bake that evening and a saloon stage show. We travel to Anchorage, spending the night in Denali National Park. Two nights in Anchorage, we will spend the day relaxing a little, getting some shopping in and seeing the town. There is a Botanical Garden and an Ulu Factory which we will visit. Traveling to Tok and Whitehorse, we will take a ferry from Skagway to Juneau, where we will spend two nights. In Juneau we will take a boat ride into the Tracy Arm Fjord. A magical trip, up close and personal with a glacier. You will have some free time the following day, prior to boarding the ferry again. We will travel for three nights, two days on the ferry. This will be a time to relax and get some time away from the others and to have your own schedule. The ferry follows the Inside Passage, It will make a couple of stops along the coast prior to landing in Washington. It is a relaxing trip. Land is always in view and you get a good opportunity to see some whales. When we land we will spend four days coming home. Last trip we saw mountain sheep, caribou, black bears, a grizzly bear, moose and other animals.

It worked out very well to use the ferry, it takes the same route as the cruise ships but for a lot less $$. There are also berths you can book so you have a place to rest besides your car but they are limited so you'd want to book early.

 

[candykisses]

When will you be going?

My Aunt and Uncle left with their 2 grandchildren (12 & 8) on Jun 14 bound for Alaska. They won't be back until the last week of Aug.

My Uncle is driving a Ford truck. I'm not very good with vehicle details. I do know it's red and has a back seat. They're towing a 30 ft trailer.

I don't know how the trip is going. We've only had 1 call and 1 postcard since they left. So far the kids haven't killed each other.

Have fun planning.

 

[4greatboys]

We drove from Fairbanks Alaska to Houston Texas back in 1986. My x was in the Army and had just gotten out. We did drive a truck. The a lot of the roads in Alaska were very rough and quite bumpy. I was glad we had a truck. Of course that was almost 20 years ago.
We will be waiting for a trip report and pictures!

 

[p-nut]

Lived in Alaska twice: first time drove from El Paso in a small Mazda- no kids. 14 years ago. Roads were a little bumpy, not too bad. It was a beautiful drive . Only problem we had was it was during the tourist season and in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory all of the hotels were full from the tour groups and we ended up at a motel that looked more like a Brothel???

The second time we flew to Fairbanks but when we left we took the Ferry out of Haines, AK. That was the most amazing trip I have ever taken.