Timeless Talkeetna (Our Alaska Adventure Part 4)

I love Talkeetna because it’s an interesting and historic town.   But also because, despite having lots of tourists, it does not feel as touristy as other popular Alaska destinations.    Sure, there are signs hawking souvenirs and sightseeing tours, but most of the buildings haven’t changed for decades, and it’s a hub of activity for bush pilots and mountaineers, as this is the jumping off point for Mt. McKinley treks and flightseeing tours.  (Talkeetna is closer to Mt. McKinley than the Denali National Park entrance, and has spectactular views on clear days.)

 

Our home for 3 nights was the charming Fireweed Station Inn, a historic homestead carefully restored and modernized, and now recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.  We thoroughly enjoyed the company of our hosts, Hobbs and Tom, who shared stories of their life in Alaska, and cooked up delicious breakfasts incorporating fresh vegetables and herbs from their garden.  And they will cook a private dinner on request as well!



Hobbs & Tom

 

Fireweed Station Inn

 

The inn is small so it’s imperative to book early.  Two rooms on the main floor are comfortable and spacious, and families will find lots of space in the suite which takes up the whole second floor.  A cabin is also available for guests who want more privacy.



Suite at Fireweed Station Inn

Talkeetna is not a large town, but it does offer several other accommodation options,.  They range from the large modern Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, favored by cruise passengers and escorted tour groups, to rustic cabins along the river.   Princess’s Mt. McKinley Lodge is about an hour away, but it has a spectacular mountainside setting facing the Alaska Range, and they run regular shuttles to Talkeetna.

 



Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge back deck view

Though I am not much more than an avid day hiker, I am fascinated with the sport of mountaineering.   So I found the Historical Society Museum especially interesting, as one building is dedicated to the history of Denali climbing.  It contained an impressive scale model of Mt McKinley which filled an entire room, each layer cut by hand, using a topo map for reference.  The museum is worth a visit for anyone, to learn about the history of the area and what life was like for early settlers.




Photos on the wall show the actual view from each angle.

We followed that up with a visit to the NPS station, where all climbers have to register and get briefed on mountain procedures.  They have a very good film that details the route to the summit and the preparation required.   I would imagine this is a fascinating place to be during climbing season (April through June), seeing both the climbers who are heading out, and the ones who’ve just got back.

There are a lot of fun activities available, another good reason to spend a few days here.  Most popular are the flightseeing tours, for close up views of the mountain and optional glacier landings.  Mountain weather is fickle, however, so travelers have to be prepared for last minute cancellations.

Talkeetna is located at the confluence of three rivers:  the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna, so travelers have many opportunities to get out on the water.  Because the rivers are wide and braided, you’ll find float trips rather than whitewater rafting, which is available further north near Denali N.P.  

 




Looking for wildlife on the Susitna River



 Jet boat tours are an option if you aren’t comfortable sitting on the edge of an inflated raft for a few hours, and want more protection from the elements.   And of course, there’s fishing, probably one of the most popular activities in the state.  Off the river, travelers can visit a dog sled kennel, go zip-lining, hiking, or take an ATV tour (note minimum age is 16, per state law).



Small jet boat departing the dock.

If you have a car, check out Kahiltna Birchworks.  It's on the Spur Road just off the Parks Hwy, so a quick and easy stop on the drive between Denali and Anchorage.  Every gift shop in the state seems to sell birch syrup products, and this is where they all come from.  The presentation lasts about 10-15 min, and then you get to taste the different grades of syrup which have different uses, some of which can only be purchased here.

 

Getting to Talkeetna is easy - you can arrive by train, bus, car, or plane.  But once you get there, if you don’t have your own vehicle, you have to rely on shuttles, as there are no rental cars or taxis in town.  If you are independent and like to explore off the beaten path (and if you want to stay at Fireweed Station), then you need a car. 

 

It’s easy, interesting, and fun to drive through interior Alaska.  I am happy to help other adventurous families plan their own itinerary through the Great Land, just send an email to suzette@family-treks.com.

The Anchorage Top Ten List (Our Alaska Adventure Part 3)

We left Juneau via a pretty flight over glaciers for our 2 night stay in Anchorage. Despite the fact that I have traveled all over the state of Alaska, I had never been in downtown Anchorage before.  So I was excited to explore someplace new.



The Captain Cook Hotel is by far the favorite of most visitors, whether traveling by car, train, or cruise.  It’s a great hotel run by a longtime Alaska family, and a major hub of activity.  We wanted something quieter, so we stayed in a small B&B a couple blocks away, the Copper Whale Inn.  I really enjoy the bed and breakfast experience, but it’s not for everyone.  And since all inns are different, it’s important to know what to expect to make sure it’s a good fit.



Porch and garden at Copper Whale Inn

 

Room at The Copper Whale Inn




Captain Cook Hotel Lobby

Here’s my top ten list of things to do while visiting Anchorage.


1.    Visit the Anchorage Alaska Center located in the historic Old Federal Building.  I highly recommend the movie about the 1964 earthquake.  It’s good to watch at the start of your trip so you can watch for sights mentioned.

 

2.    Rent bikes for a ride along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.   You’ll find Earthquake Park interesting if you watched the movie in the visitor center.



3.    Hike to Flat Top Mountain in Chugach State Park for 360 degree views.

4.    Have a cup of coffee at the historic Fur Rondy shop, which is home to the Dog Mushing Hall of Fame.    A statue outside marks the ceremonial starting location for the Iditarod, and on Wednesday afternoons you can meet a musher and his dog.




Statue dedicated to dogs & mushers,
often referred to as the "Balto Statue"



5.    Spend a day driving south of Anchorage about 40 miles to visit Girdwood and Alyeska Resort.

6.    Drive 9 miles further south to take the 1 hour Portage Glacier Cruise.
 

7.    On the way back to Anchorage, stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see rescued bears, moose, musk ox, bison, caribou, and brown and black bears.  There are lots of cute babies, too!

 

8.    Visit the Captain Cook Monument on the waterfront at Resolution Park.

9.    Drive 45 miles north to the Iditarod Race Headquarters in Wasilla. (This is also a good stop on the way to Talkeetna or Denali).   You can see videos and memorabilia about the history of the race, see the actual trophy, and take a dog sled ride.

 

4 week old puppy



Original Iditarod trophy, retired in 1999

10.  On weekends visit the Anchorage Market and Festival, Alaska’s largest open air market.  You can grab a bite in the Eat Local section, and find souvenirs at good prices.

If you'd like assistance planning your own custom Alaskan adventure, just drop me a note at suzette@family-treks.com.

Exclusive Hotel Amenities from the Dorchester Collection

We all want the most for our money when traveling, especially when paying premium prices for a five star hotel.  Now my clients have yet another way to get more value when booking a hotel.

The Dorchester Collection recently announced a new preferred agency program, called The Diamond Club, and Brownell Travel is one of the charter members.

This is one of the best amenity programs I’ve seen, and there are no blackout dates! It’s good at all nine hotels in their portfolio:

 

(And more hotels to come)



Here’s what guests receive when they book a Dorchester Collection hotel through me:

• A one category upgrade guaranteed at time of booking (if available, up to a junior suite)
• Daily breakfast for 2 people per room
• A hotel credit equivalent to 100 units of local currency, applied to the final bill
• Unlimited internet access for an unlimited number of devices

 

Hotel Principe di Savoia Classic Room

 

For guests who book a suite, or any room at 45 Park Lane, they receive the same amenities, with a few enhancements:

• Daily breakfast for 2 people per bedroom
• A daily hotel credit of 100 units of local currency

 

45 Park Lane Deluxe King Room

Suite at Le Meurice

Also, each hotel will have a Diamond Club ambassador on-site around the clock, to ensure my clients are getting their amenities and to assist with any special requests.  This is especially helpful when I need to reach a hotel in case of emergency at any time of day, especially when clients are traveling abroad.

Hotel Plaza Athenee Paris

This is just one of several preferred agency programs with which Brownell is affiliated, including Ritz Carlton STARS, Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Rosewood Elite, and Starwood Luxury Privileges.

The next time you plan to book a hotel, whether it’s for one night or two weeks, contact me first at suzette@family-treks.com to check if you are eligible for any exclusive amenities or upgrades.   

The Beverly Hills Hotel

In the Know About Juneau (Our Alaska Adventure Part 2)

After Glacier Bay, we headed to Juneau for a 2 night stay.  Our destination was the Westmark Baranof, a full service hotel at the edge of the historic downtown.  It was close enough to walk easily to everything, but with fewer crowds around.  They had a room perfect for our family with a teen boy and girl: it had a queen bed, a single bed, and single sofa sleeper.   Historic hotels have their shortfalls (like no A/C, which is really not an issue in Juneau), but also unique features which I actually found useful: a walk-in closet (it held a couple suitcases which kept our floor clear), built-in shelves in the small but modern bath (room for 4 toiletry kits!), and a full length shelf along one wall which was useful for stashing small items like books, backpacks, wine, etc.  Parking and wifi were free, and breakfast in the café was very good.  There is also a fine dining restaurant, bar, and meeting facilities.


"Standard Double" room

I like staying overnight in Juneau because you get to see how the vibe in the Inside Passage towns change when the cruise ships leave.  On our first evening, we had dinner at the Red Dog Saloon.  Most passengers had to be back onboard the ships by 7 pm, so the place was packed when we walked in at 6, but completely empty by 6:30.  The second night ships were in port until 10 pm, so restaurants were full later in the evening.


Juneau with and without cruise ships

 



Ship getting ready to leave

Juneau is the most touristy town along the Inside Passage, with lots of stores selling jewelry, t-shirts, ulu knives, you name it.   If you head out of town, you won't necessarily escape the crowds, but you will find fun things to do besides shopping.

 

Almost everyone visits Mendenhall Glacier, and it really is worth a stop even though it can be crowded.  Because we were there when the salmon was running, we had a once in a lifetime treat: watching bears catch salmon in the stream right by the parking lot!

Yes, these are wild bears, and one even had 2 cubs with her.  Normally it would be unsafe to be this close.  But these bears are habituated to humans, so as long as observers are quite and keep food put away, they can continue to watch from a boardwalk right above the stream.    



Dinner!

A short walk leads to the visitor center, where you can get your first glimpse of this famous glacier.  Then a 1 mile trail leads out to the edge of the lake for a closer view.   To get right up close to the glacier, you can hike about 7 miles round trip on West Glacier trail located across the lake, or book a kayak tour for an easy paddle on the calm lake.




Best view from visitor center trails




Getting to touch some glacial ice

One of our favorite places to visit is the Macauley salmon hatchery which is especially interesting July through September, with tens of thousands of salmon swimming in from the ocean.  The hatchery has an artificial ladder, so we spent a good 20-30 minutes watching salmon fight their way up with acrobatic moves.  There is a short presentation outdoors by the staff at regular intervals, and then you can pay extra for a behind the scenes tour.  Inside are salt water aquariums, a live video feed of the workers in back, a nursery for the babies, and a gift shop offering samples of salmon jerky.  
 



Thousands of salmon are entering the ladder

 



He (she?) made it!

 

And no trip to Juneau is complete without a stop at the Alaskan Brewery Company.  They have a storefront downtown, where you can catch a shuttle out to the brewery for a tour.  But if you have a car it's much better to go on your own and avoid the crowds.

 

Another popular attraction is the Mount Roberts Tramway located right at the cruise port.  The ticket cost includes unlimited all day rides, a film, and entrance to a bald eagle display and nature center.  There are also bear viewing platforms, hiking trails for all abilities (including a trek to the top of Mt. Roberts) and a bar and grill.  Hardy travelers can also hike up from downtown and ride the gondola back for a much lower fee.

 

Two nights was just the right amount of time, and we headed back to the airport for the next leg of our trip: Anchorage.

 

If you'd like to plan your own adventure in Alaska, be it by cruise ship or on your own like we did, contact me at suzette@family-treks.com.

 

Going Wild in Gustavus (Our Alaska Adventure Part 1)

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know that I just returned from a 2 week trip to Alaska.  Glacier Bay was the starting point for our adventure, my kids’ first trip to the 49^th state.  Most people visit Glacier Bay by cruise ship, but I wanted to spend several days there, to have more time to enjoy the unique beauty of southeast Alaska.  Few visitors actually stay overnight, so this would give my kids an authentic experience in a small Alaskan town.

The “Gateway to Glacier National Park” is the tiny town of Gustavus, home to no more than 500 year-round residents.  The airport in Gustavus is an interesting sight, as the tiny terminal stays empty all day until the sole Alaska Airline flight arrives (the TSA agents are flown in to meet the jets by a small local air service.)  But that doesn’t mean it’s not busy, small private planes and charters constantly fly in and out.  We were told that just a few weeks earlier, the airport was shut down because a bear ambled onto the runway, and it had to be shoo’ed away by a fire truck!

 



Arriving in Gustavus

 


The quiet Alaska Airlines terminal

Gustavus is the kind of town where the lone gas station has old fashioned pumps that you only see in museums these days, and everyone knows to watch out for moose #1 who’s really ornery.  There are no rental cars, so lodges transport their guests wherever they need to go.  We became quite familiar with one main intersection in the middle of town:  one road led to the ferry, one to the airport, one to Bartlett Cove, and the last to our lodge.  Nothing is more than 10 miles away.

Our wonderful home for 3 nights was the beautiful, and thoroughly Alaskan, Bear Track Inn.  Meals and transportation are included. and we ate like kings.  A chef and his assistant worked diligently in the kitchen adjacent to the dining room each evening, serving up 4 gourmet choices each evening. 

 

Surf & turf night!

 

Breakfast was cooked to order every day, including amazing muffins made with wild blueberries, and the best pancakes my kids ever tasted.  On the rare chance you were at the lodge for lunch, you got gourmet sandwiches, and if lucky, some leftover chowder from the previous evening.  The owner, Janie, who opened the lodge in 1997, told me about some of the amazing experiences she can arrange for my clients, to create the trip of a lifetime.

 

The cozy lodge




Relaxing in the evening (yes, evening)

What to do in Glacier Bay?  Enjoy the scenery – by kayak, boat, foot, or air.  A must do, of course, is a full day glacier tour out of Bartlett Cove.  On the small boats, you travel close to the shoreline so you can see the scenery up close, and also get a good view of the glacial silt and ice bergs.  If there’s something interesting to see, such as a calving glacier, a bird rookery or wildlife, they have the luxury of stopping for a short while so everyone can get a good view.



Entering Glacier Bay

 

A brown bear on shore!

 


The scenery never ends

 

Then if you want more time on the water, I’d suggest a kayak tour.  If you are experienced you can rent kayaks yourself, but you can’t get very far in a few hours.  I’d suggest going with a tour operator who will take you by boat to more scenic location for kayaking, where you might even see whales.  For the more adventurous, there are overnight trips kayaking & camping next to glaciers. You can also go whale watching, or go on a fishing charter.   And then there’s hiking, either in the gorgeous rainforest along the waterfront, or up into the hills for panoramic views.



Paddling through a kelp field in Bartlett Cove

 

Boats ready for fishing & whale watching

 

Rainforest walk

We left via a slightly different mode of transportation.  I originally planned to take the ferry to Juneau, but found it did not run on our departure day (oops).  Instead we booked a flight with a local air service, which was actually cheaper than Alaska Airlines.  Our family was the only passenger in the 6-seater plane, so hubby got to fly shotgun, while the rest of us took pictures. 

 

Our plane has arrived

 

 

A happy husband!

 

It was a clear day with no turbulence, so our pilot took us right over the mountains, which was thrilling.  Now THAT is the way to travel in Alaska!



On the way to Juneau

 

Glacial lake

 

Alaska is one of my favorite destinations.  I’ve traveled all over the state, including above the Arctic Circle, and I've even driven all the way from California, returning via the Inside Passage ferry!  So if you'd like to plan your own adventure in Alaska, just contact me at suzette@family-treks.com

 





A Guide to Tour Guides

The adage “You get what you pay for” is very true when it comes to booking sightseeing tours and guides.  Not that it means the best guides are the most expensive.  But in general, paying extra for a private guide ensures you’ll have a more enriching experience.  A good guide is not only an expert in their field, they are better trained at customer service, they can personalize a tour to match your interests, and can even make adjustments on the fly based on the weather, the crowds, or even your kids’ mood!  And private means all their attention is focused on you, no waving your hand amidst a crowd, trying to get your question answered.

Many times a run of the mill group tour is really all you need for a particular attraction. Want to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower without waiting in line, then sure, book the relatively cheap Skip The Line tour. But planning to visit the Louvre, Vatican, or Pompeii?  Look at these quotes from  tour guides in a recent article on Conde Naste Traveler:

 

"We can do the job in our sleep.  What sounds spontaneous on a tour is completely rehearsed."

 

"Americans are probably the kindest and most generous people we work with.  They're happy with everything we show them.  But because of that, some guides take them for granted, treat them with laxity, and don't give them the fullest experience."

 

Now, compare this with testimonials from my clients for whom I arranged private tours:

"Our guide for the Louvre in Paris, Robin, was absolutely fabulous and made the tour so interesting and memorable for the kids.  She was incredibly passionate about her work and knew so much about absolutely everything at the Louvre as well as Versailles.  It was an unbelievably rewarding experience and my kids still ask if we can see Robin again after two years."

 

 

"The tour you booked for us was an unforgettable experience.  Our driver was also the owner and he has a zoologist/botanist background, so he was able to fully entertain the kids on the long drives with lots of facts about Australia and its flora & fauna…Thank you so much for everything you did to help us with this vacation.  It was such a great experience!"

And from a colleague’s client:

"From the minute we arrived in Istanbul we were in the safe hands of our fabulous guide. The days in Istanbul were planned perfectly and his knowledge of all the sights we visited was over the top.  We learned so much from him, and also went to the most delicious restaurants where he knew the clientele and we were treated like royalty!   Our visit there was so enriched by [his] knowledge and connections…  I actually cried when I had to see him go, and our four daughters wanted him to join us for the remainder of the trip on our gullet!  We had not only had the best Turkish tour guide in the world, but we had gained a friend."
 

A guide book, a group tour, or even a free walking tour* are often perfectly fine.  But for sights that are crowded, historically or culturally significant, or are of high interest to you, definitely consider splurging on a private tour.  Do your research or work with a travel professional to find a guide that is the best match for you.  If you have young children, you’ll appreciate a guide who is good at engaging and entertaining kids, it’s worth every penny in a hot & crowded museum!  Hotel concierges can help for last minute plans.  But I have heard of not so great experiences with some of their recommendations.  I will only book my clients with companies I know will offer outstanding & reliable service.

 

* A word of caution: We booked a free tour of a residential neighborhood in Paris, just to try it out and get some insider tips from a local. Two days before we arrived, she emailed to say she had broken her collarbone and had to cancel.  She offered to set us up with another guide in a different location, with another family, but we declined.  We couldn’t complain, it was free after all, but we were disappointed.  I was glad this wasn’t a “must do” item on our list.

No matter where you plan to travel, consider adding a few hours with a private guide to your itinerary.  Just give me a call and I can help you sort out the options, so you can have a memorable family vacation.