Transportation

By Ship

The most popular way to get to Alaska is on a cruise ship.For an affordable, independent trip by sea, with a chance to stop as long as you like along the way, take the Alaska Marine Highway System.

It's the best form of public transportation. The big blue, white, and gold ferries ply the Inside Passage from Bellingham, Washington, and Prince Rupert, B.C., to the towns of Southeast Alaska, with road links to the rest of the state at Haines and Skagway. In summer, one ferry a month connects from that system across the Gulf of Alaska to the central part of the state. From there, smaller ferries connect towns in Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula to Kodiak Island and the Aleutian Archipelago.

By Rail

You can't get to Alaska by train, but you can get close. Amtrak serves Bellingham, Washington; the dock for the Alaska ferry is quite close to the railroad station. From the east, it makes more sense to catch the ferry in Prince Rupert, B.C., getting there on Canada's Via Rail ; you change from the transcontinental route in Jasper.

By Car

Driving to Alaska is a great adventure, but it requires thousands of miles on the road and plenty of time. By car, Anchorage is 2,250 miles from Seattle and 3,400 miles from Los Angeles. By comparison, New York to L.A. is 2,800 miles. Traveling at an average of 50 miles per hour, few vacationers will want to cover more than 500 or 600 miles a day, and that's on a day of nothing but driving. On such a plan, Seattle is four or five days from Anchorage without breaks.

Some of the 1,400-mile Alaska Highway is dull, but there are spectacular sections of the route, too, and few experiences give you a better feel for the size and personality of Alaska. Putting your car on the ferry cuts the length of the trip considerably, but raises the cost; you could rent a car for 2 weeks for the same price as carrying an economy car on the ferry one-way from Bellingham to Haines. 

Renting a car is the easiest way to see the Interior and South-central parts of the state. All the major national car-rental companies are represented in Anchorage as well as many local operators, who may have lower prices for older cars and possibly will allow you to drive on gravel roads. In smaller cities and towns, there are usually a couple of agencies; the town descriptions throughout the book provide details on firms in each town. Base rates for major rental companies are in the range of $50 a day for an economy car. Weekly rentals equate roughly to 5 day's cost.

One-way rentals between Alaska towns are an attractive way to travel, but you generally pay steep drop-off charges, so a more popular plan is to fly into and out of Anchorage and pick up and return the car there. There are two popular circular routes from Anchorage: to Denali and Fairbanks on the Parks Highway and back on the Richardson and Glenn highways, or to Valdez by ferry from Whittier and back on another part of the Richardson Highway and the Glenn Highway.

By RV

Touring Alaska in an RV, or even driving one to the state, makes a good deal of sense. The home on wheels offers spontaneity by freeing you from hotel reservations, and it gets you out of town and into the countryside, closer to the natural Alaska most visitors come for. At the same time, an RV is more comfortable than a tent in cool, unpredictable weather conditions.

Many retirees drive to Alaska in their motor homes, park the RV by a salmon stream, and spend the summer fishing. Sounds nice, but for most of the rest of us, with limited time, it makes more sense to rent an RV after flying to Alaska. Rental agencies are listed in Skagway, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. The option of shipping your own RV to Alaska is also covered in the section on Anchorage. Unless you have a large family, an RV rental saves little over traveling with a rental car, staying in hotels, and eating in restaurants (RVs rent for around $1,400 a week, plus gas and possibly mileage charges), so you make this choice to gain advantages, not avoid costs.

Alaska Highway Cruises offers the unique option of traveling one way on a Holland America cruise ship then picking up an RV for a land tour. You can choose a package that ends up back at Seattle by road or by air. The tours follow set itineraries with reservations along the way -- the service is designed for first time Alaska travelers and RV drivers who don't want to worry about the details -- so some spontaneity is sacrificed. You get the security and simplicity of a package without being marched around in a group or cooped up in hotels. A 2-week cruise and tour cost $3,000 to $4,000 per person, double occupancy; a 3-week cruise to Alaska and drive back (or reverse) is up to $5,000 per person. There are various discounts, including for third and fourth passengers.