Ready for an Epic Family Roadtrip Adventure in Alaska?
In addition to cruising Alaska, our family loved our time road tripping around mainland Alaska! Come and read more about it!
How to get there
Our family ended our cruise in Seward. We rented a car from Alaska Car Rental from the cruise port to start our road trip.
You could also fly straight into Anchorage to start your trip.
Things to do
Kenai Fjords National Park
We drove from Seward to the trailhead for Exit Glacier. We did a short hike to go see the glacier. It was 2.2 miles round trip.
You could also take a boat tour of the National Park. This is the best way to see the majority of the Park.
Whittier
One of the coolest parts of visiting Whittier was driving through a 2.5 mile tunnel.
This town was small and secluded with great views of the lake and mountains.
There are lots of boat excursions to embark on here.
Alyeska
Alyeska is about 45 minutes away from Anchorage. This area is so beautiful and there is so much to do.
We stayed in an Airbnb in Girdwood. I think that this would be a great place to stay year round.
A highlight of this stop was spending an evening at a Nordic Spa. The spa was outdoors and included different cold plunges, hot tubs, and a variety of saunas. It was so relaxing and a lot of fun! They also have a cafe inside if you want to eat as well. However, there is an age minimum of 18, so this would be better for a parents night out or with older kids.
Our kids went on a hike one day while my husband and I were sick. The hike is called Chutes & Ladders. It is definitely a more adventurous hike, so be aware of that. This hike is not clearly marked, so look up the hike Chutes & Ladders to find more information about getting there.
We weren’t able to get a reservation, but we would have loved to get a dinner reservation at the Four Seasons on top of the ski resort.
Eat at Double Musky Inn! This food was so good. However, be sure to get there early if you don’t want to have a very long wait (we got there 30 minutes before opening). The portions are huge, homemade, and delicious.
Anchorage
Anchorage was a regular city. I’m not sure what I expected, but it looked very similar to regular American cities.
We had delicious pizza at Moose’s Tooth! The flavors were so unique and did not disappoint!
If your family has any plane-lovers, there is a parking lot right next to the airport runway. We had fun watching the huge planes fly into Anchorage.
We didn’t do much in Anchorage, but there are so many outdoor excursion options here! You can find tons of ideas with a Google search.
Talkeetna
Talkeetna is a very small town a couple of hours from Anchorage.
We stayed at the most amazing Bed & Breakfast, Denali Overlook Inn. I cannot recommend this enough!
Malia was the best host and baked fresh breakfast and treats for us! The home has huge windows overlooking Denali. They also had lots of games and puzzles to do. This place was so special!
We went on a white water boat tour through Devil’s Canyon.
These boats were very unique and especially designed to go over the white water. The views were amazing and the rapids were fun to experience.
Our favorite and biggest excursion was a plane ride into Denali National Park with a landing on a glacier.
We flew with Talkeetna Air Taxi. They were great.
This was everyone’s favorite thing that we did on this trip. It was absolutely amazing and unreal.
The plane seated 10 people. It lands on “skis” on the snow. It’s amazing!
After landing on the glacier, we had about 1.5 hours touring around the mountains in the plane.
There are several good restaurants in town. We got pizza one night and burgers/BBQ the next day.
Denali National Park
We drove 2.5 hours from Talkeetna to the park. We spent one day here, but wished we had at least one more day.
The visitor’s center offers a meet and greet with some sled dogs. We missed the tour unfortunately, but it looked fun. So check that out!
The park has so much to do! There is hiking, rafting, zip lining, and so much more! It’s amazing!
We hiked to Horseshoe Lake. We got to see a mom and baby moose playing in the water! The hike was beautiful and relatively easy.
Explore the downtown area with shops and restaurants!
Fairbanks
Next we drove 2 hours 15 minutes from Denali.
Fairbanks did not have the same charm as other cities we visited.
We ate Thai food, visited the city North Pole, and visited the Pipeline. It wasn’t the most exciting city, but we enjoyed seeing more of Alaska.
You can also pan for gold near the Pipeline!
We stayed in a 4 bedroom VRBO house.