flying to alaska next summer?
My husband and I are thinking about flying to alaska next August, renting a car and touring around on our own. Would anybody know if there is a city to fly into that would be the cheapest. Flights are all over the place for Achorage, Fairbanks, etc. Is there a city that would be the cheapest, such as a large hub? We would plan our trip from that city.
For your first time in Alaska, you almost certainly should just fly into Anchorage. It has many more, cheaper connections that Fairbanks, more things to see in town and is closer to Seward, Homer (both gorgeous places), everything on the Kenai Peninsula, Portage Glacier, and Prince William Sound. Anchorage is the large hub airport in Alaska, the only one.
Fairbanks is a bit closer to Denali National Park (150 miles versus 250 miles) which is probably tops on anyone’s first-time-to-Alaska trip, but you’d likely drive to south to Anchorage and beyond anyway. The reverse is not neccesarily true – you might fly to Anchorage, and only go as far north as Denali NP.
Note that while you can book flights to Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and even Barrow, Nome, and King Salmon; none of those towns connect to anything else. Each is isolated – accesible only by plane or, for some, by boat too.
www.farecompare.com gives a nice overview of what the offerings are as well as ranking the current airfares as fair, good or better. And they plot out months at a time so you can pick cheaper travel dates easily.
Consider taking the train (Alaska Railroad) from Anchorage to Denali NP and back. It leaves right from the Anchorage Airport. Then rent a car and tour around South Central Alaska when you get back to Anchorage. It lets you look at the scenery without having to drive and you get better views of the scenery and critters when you’re 15 feet up in an observation car than 4 feet off the highway in a rental car. Your rental car is almost useless in Denali NP – to go into the park, you board park bus, you can’t just drive in. So put 4 days of car rental and gas towards the train tickets and relax.
August is a great time to come. But very late August or early September is a lot less busy. Few salmon are running anymore, but if you’re not big on fishing, then you avoid the lines, traffic and the first freezing nights really knocks the misquitos down. You might even see the northern lights, which you can’t see mid summer because it doesn’t get dark enough.
Fairbanks, Alaska
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