Coming to Alaska for the first time? Looking to make a more than just a long weekend of it? You can easily get lost looking online at various sites for lodges, guides, tour operators and so on. Probably the best site to make sense of it all from a big picture perspective is www.alaskab4udie.com. It breaks down Alaska by geographic region, or by interests (fishing, wildlife viewing, cultural stuff, etc.), and has maps and sample trips to plan with. Once you have an idea of where you want to go and what you would like to do, run a more focused search and you will likely find a variety of specific sites. Just try "Seward" and "charter fishing" and you’ll see what I mean.
Another thing to keep in mind is that much of the state can only be seen aboard a ship or aboard a train. And by train, I refer to one of the world’s great railways, the Alaska railroad, and it has an excellent website, www.akrr.com. Bear in mind that the various rail/cruise packages you can find at this site refer to day cruise packages in Prince William Sound, not the week-long cruises through the Inside Passage. The railroad is probably also the best (and easiest) way to visit Denali National Park.
If you want to do the cruise through the Inside Passage, most run between Anchorage and Vancouver, British Columbia. Whittier is a common port of call and is just 15 minutes and a mile-long mountain tunnel from Girdwood, where the wedding will be. Alternatively, Seward is another good place to catch up with a ship, and it is about 2 hours from Girdwood. Travel agencies appear to have the best cruise finders, like www.alaskatravel.com/alaska-cruises. I was able to figure out that a ship named the Sapphire Princess leaves Whittier the day after the wedding on an 8-day cruise to Vancouver, and expedia.com lists cabins for under $900 per person.
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Wow - you guys are on the ball with putting together travel info! Can't wait to see you next month. Amelia is ready to show you all her new moves :)
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