My Wild Honeymoon in Alaska

What you need to know to save money, time and romance.

I haven’t seen any newly wed couple go to Alaska for honeymoon so far. My initial reaction was that it was far from being a romantic place, but I chose Alaska for some practical reasons: short vacation days and relatively short planning, flight and money, and my husband who is into armchair mountaineering for long-held fantasy about Denali, the tallest peak in N. America.

At first I insisted to my husband that we take Alaskan cruise trip and possibly do some land-extension, but it didn't fit into our schedule so my husband who is more adventurous and wanted to take flight was granted his wish.

Thus our honeymoon in Alaska began, where we had possibly the best 7 days in our lives. After the trip, I felt that it might be helpful to provide information for folks who want to venture out on their own in Alaska, since travel planning takes quite a bit of efforts.

My husband also wrote his version of travel log in Korean.

Our Itinerary

The table below shows the overall itinerary of our trip, in terms of the places we stayed, and activities we did. I put the rating (out of 5) next to the activity, so that you can see how much we liked each.

On Talkeetna & Denali

Talkeetna is a small town which mostly caters to people who climbs or travels in Denali, and people recommended doing flightseeing here, since Talkeetna is the closest city to Denali (the mountain) and you can save time in approaching the mountain.

IMHO, Flightseeing is worth every penny, but I can imagine the experinece would not be the same when the weather is not so nice. (we had rare clear sky) Also, try to sit next to the pilot, especially on the way to Denali — this will maximize the viewing time for Denali. Boat tour in Talkeetna was nice and relaxing, but seemed a bit redundant after doing the flightseeing.

On Denali National Park, you should take the whole day for the bus tour, even if you do just a round trip without any excursion on your own. People recommended going at least as far as Eillson to see a up-close view of Denali. ATV tour was nice because it is very different experience , yet the view was not comparable to what you can see during the bus town.

On Seward & Whittier

Seward is another compelling destination for several reasons. First, there are many attractions on the way to Seward, including Alaskan Wildlife Refugee where we could see all the animals we missed. Also, the experience at Exit Glacier was exceptional, especially if you do the Harding icefield trail. Sealife museum is also worth a visit, especially in a rainy day.

Seward is also a port which provides many cruises, sea kayaking, and fishing boat rental. The cruise we took provided many opportunities for wildlife viewing, including the rare sight of humpback whale feeding on a giant swarm of small fishes. I heard that the cruise at Whittier (around Price William Sound) provides more chances of glacier viewing, but our cruise was cancelled due to the weather.

On Anchorage

We stayed one night at Anchorage before heading back to Seattle. The most memorable experience was the visit to the Anchorage Museum, which boasts extensive collection and various types of experiences in a modern architecture. If your tour at Seward or Whittier was cancelled due to weather, it will be definitely an option worth considering. There are many other museums / attractions in Anchorage, but not was even close to the Anchorage Museum. (please avoid Alaska Experience Theater and Aviation Museum especially)

Advice & Tips

Cruise vs. Venturing Out

Let’s first dive into the differences between taking cruise and venturing out. In summary, it’s the choice between comfort and freedom.

Cruise:

• No opportunity to experience the local culture or the real outdoor adventures (hiking, bus tour to Denali, etc).
• No need to search, gather visitor info, or drive a car to destinations.

Venturing out:

• Meet local folks, experience the Alaskan culture in restaurants, national parks, go hiking, and overall have more freedom to do activities you want.
• Need to drive, make reservations or do planning on your own.

For cost, it varies depending on how much you are willing to pay for the cruise deck, and what kind of sightseeing activities you are willing to sign up for, so I didn’t include it here.

Since we chose ‘venturing out’ for our trip, I will start with Trip Planning for venturing out.

Before Trip

Purchase ‘Northern Light’coupon book ahead of the travel start date. This has hundreds of comprehensive discount coupons for food, entertainment, and tours.

Schedule at least one week. Weather in Alaska is very fickle and can change in a matter of minutes so if you are unlucky, your entire travel period may have clouds and rain which will make it hard to do sightseeing activities.

The most compliment we received from tourists passing by was on our mosquito hair mask. If you plan to go into mountains it is almost impossible to keep mosquitoes away from your face without the hair mask. It just won’t work. You just have to feel better by thinking you are donating blood to them.

Wearing mosquito hair mask is certainly not going to make you look pretty in pictures or to your spouse, but it is a way to save your face from many mosquito bites and swelling. I am pretty sure your spouse would love you regardless as my husband does. ☺

You might think that you will have cellular phone reception in Alaska, but it might not be the case. I have T-Mobile 4G, and I had no reception at all. Had my husband not had Verizon, we could have been stuck in the wilderness.

Remember Alaska has its own timezone 1 hour behind West coast. And sightseeing is usually for summer time and possibly into fall. Their fall ends around August, so if you want to do any activities, remember that starting September it will be very cold with snow. Northern lights start around August, but as hard as viewing wild animals is, viewing northern lights may be hard as time and place is unknown. It is better to have multiple activities planned.

During Trip

Leverage the resources in Visitor centers. Visitor information for Alaska trip, especially smaller tourist places is not readily available in websites, so talking to folks working in visitor centers and getting brochures will help much.

Use TripAdvisor. Not many small local stores are updated in yelp, but many of them are in TripAdvisor.

Ask, and share info with other tourists. If you talk to only the local employees in a lodge or tours they are likely to provide information that pertains only to their companies as competition to attract tourists seems high among the different companies.

Beware of wildlife if you plan to go hiking or venture out in the woods. Alaska state is very good at protecting wildlife. So wildlife animals such as bears or moose are not usually afraid of humans and might approach. If you turn around and run, they might chase after you and attack you.

Alaskan local people seemed surprised every time we asked to adjust our schedule or amenities. For example, when we asked an employee at a lodge to change our room, he seemed surprised and he said he had to fill out a room change request on paper to submit to his manager. When we asked a restaurant server to sit us at another table closer to the buffet, she seemed surprised.

My guess was that employees working at touristic places such as Denali National Park usually handle cruise customers most of them senior citizens so they are not used to customers asking for something that is not part of their usual process. Don’t be too self-conscious of this and just ask for things you need if reasonable.

After Trip

Alaskans are a lot more concerned about climate change which they believe is global warming. They have seen glaciers receding for many years now. 90% of the glaciers are receding, and the pace is increasing so fast. Exit glacier which we enjoyed is receding at around 130 ft annually.

Whenever we go on tours with guide explanations, they talk about global warming and its effect in Alaska. Alaska tries very hard to preserve nature as is, and I hope the significance would be communicated to us living in other parts of the world clearly.

Now I want to share what my experiences were like and how it kindled our romance.

Tips for entertainment

We went hiking next to Exit Glacier, which had breathtaking views of Exit Glacier created from Harding Ice field which stretches over 50 miles. We also went hiking near Denali National Park watching Savage river. In Seward we went hiking at Tonsina trail on a rainy day. Despite hundreds of thousands of acres of nature and land available for tourists, there were not many trails well maintained and convenient for casual hikers.

It seemed like Alaskan nature was more for serious hikers or campers. All the hiking trails had one thing in common; a sign that says to beware of wild animals. We were afraid of encountering bears (especially grizzly bears), but we or other hikers we asked didn't get to see them.

Major museums such as Anchorage Museum, or Seward Sealife center were very impressive with interactive platform, high-tech gadgets, and curiosity-provoking displays. There are not many amusement or entertainment activities in Alaska, but I can tell that they have many artisans with much creativity which may emanate from watching the beautiful nature and scenery.

Wildlife conservation center had all kinds of wild animals: moose, musk ox, bears, fox, and etc and you don’t have to go through the pain of hours of looking for a wild animal so far away that you can barely see. We tried very hard to look for wild animals in Denali National Park bus tour, and after a few hours of staring into the woods we found a grizzly bear and some moose.

But viewing the wild animals in the wilderness is truly a great experience. They look elegant with dignity since they live at balance with the beautiful wild nature and can adapt naturally. We humans are going after them to just have the pleasure of viewing them.

Tips for food

Food in Alaska is not cheap, but not too expensive, either. Seafood portions are fairly big, so when we craved for steak which was not easy to find, we just decided to eat seafood instead. So when you get an opportunity to have buffet and very hungry, go for it!

Tips for ‘natural’ romance

Driving several hours a day (my husband did the driving) made me feel like living on a street, chasing after something unknown and yet beautiful like storm chasers. In endless stretches of road it is just me and my husband and no outside world. We need, support, and care for each other. It arouse a very serene and yet powerful emotion as the trip was the first step to living ‘happily ever after’ with him. It was a good start of our life together.

Whenever we went to touristic places, we saw many senior citizens who usually came with tour companies. I was glad that we didn't take the cruise! we are still young and enjoy some adventures. But when I saw the senior couples were enjoying their lives in Alaska after retirement or for vacation, I reminded myself to come to Alaska to celebrate our many years of happiness together.

Weather in Alaska is fickle, so one day we had our boat tour of William Sound Glacier cancelled due to wind and rain. We stayed in our hotel, watching the rainfall and with nothing much to do in Whittier we just focused on each other and shared what we want to do with our lives in the next few years. It is very calming, and relaxing time after many eventful days.

Lastly, I thought of living with just basic needs. My husband and I are not much into materialistic luxurious goods, but we still probably have more materials than the average Alaskan resident. This trip reinforced that notion that life can be simple in needs and yet happy.

Last but not least, share your trip reports with others!

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