July 15-18, 2024.
Our trip to Seward highlights several travel strategies that have proved to be very important as we make our way across Alaska, so I’m using it to illustrate these points.
Start at the visitor center
Even if you did all your homework and you feel like you have a good handle on a place, you’ll pick up new ideas at the visitor center. Don’t just flip through the brochure rack. Talk to someone there. They might say one little thing that makes your whole trip take a different turn. Or they might recommend an event you didn’t know was happening. Pro tip: give the staff an idea of what you’re looking for and what you’ve already researched! The more they get a sense of who they’re talking to, the more tailored their advice will be.
There is also usually a big overview map or some fun trivia to be found in a place like this, so it’s always worth the stop. Logistically, you’ll find bathrooms, trash cans and other traveler services at the visitor center as well. At this visitor center, we learned about the walking tour of murals and picked up a brochure with a map that helped us find them!
Plan to linger for at least a few days
Whenever possible, spend 3 or more days in a place before checking it off your list. You cannot get a sense of a place in a day. Most businesses and attractions are not open every day, so you’re giving yourself a better chance to see more things. You might not be feeling up for a particular activity on one day or, of course, the weather might not cooperate. The ranger at Kenai Fjords encouraged us to do the Harding Icefield hike on our last day despite the crummy weather we’d been having because the clouds tend to linger down low and dissipate up high. She was NOT wrong and it was one of our favorite hikes of the trip!
If we had planned less time in Seward, we would have had to eliminate so many fun things we did and I’m not sure which would have made the cut. BUT, if you don’t get to spend as much time as you’d like at a destination, you’ll leave with a list of ideas for your next visit! And this is something I learned on this year plus of non-stop travel: sometimes you just want to have a day or two with nothing planned. Everyone needs a rest day. So if your rest day coincides with your single planned stop somewhere, you won’t be able to see anything. It’s important to give yourself some downtime so that you don’t start to resent your long-term travel plans. Take it slow, linger, rest, pause and for goodness sakes sometimes do nothing.
If you get advice from locals or fellow travelers, take it
Some of the best places we’ve visited we only found through other people’s recommendations. While this is not 100% guaranteed, we’ve almost never been disappointed by the places folks have pointed us to. A couple weeks prior, a chance meeting with a fellow van traveler shared his absolute favorite place to camp in Alaska, on the gravel riverbed along the road to Exit Glacier. We looked up the directions and double checked the rules, then venture out onto the rocks. Lots of other people were boondocking out there but we found our own little spot to camp all three nights we stayed in the area! It was definitely a unique and fun place to spend the night.
Keep a list of ideas handy
But, let the conditions dictate which ones you do and when. If you have each day’s itinerary mapped out already, then one bad weather day or road closure or other obstacle can throw off your whole schedule. Better to do the long hike on a decent weather day, for example, than to gut it out in a storm and then get blue skies the next day. During a stretch of completely miserable weather, we decided to visit the Alaska Sea Life Center. I loved meeting all the Alaskan sea critters and watching the puffins! We even got to see the puffins swimming among the fish in one of the aquariums. The place made me feel like a kid again.
Have indoor and outdoor options available
I cannot say it enough: the weather changes so often that it’s impossible to stick to an itinerary you planned 9 months ago from the comfort of your living room. But if you have a list of hikes, museums, shops, downtown events etc. to choose from, you can make spur-of-the-moment decisions. Sometimes the weather changes five times in the same day, so you can quickly pivot from a delightful sunny beach walk in the morning to a show at the local theater in the afternoon downpour. Note that in a cruise ship town, the local library, coffee shop and any indoor place within walking distance of the dock will be packed when it’s raining. If you have a vehicle, drive clear out of downtown for your best bet at finding quiet.
Make time to sample the local food
I’ll admit, just because food is local or highly rated does not mean you’re going to love it. But you should at least try! Alaska has some of the best and freshest fish in the world. If you eat fish, it should definitely be on your menu when traveling here. Some of our favorite fish dishes came from small hole-in-the-wall places and not fancy, expensive restaurants (your mileage may vary). Intrigued by a wooden sign announcing “Cheap beer and lousy food,” we took a chance and went in. What followed, one of the best salmon meals I’ve had anywhere across the state. So please take this recommendation from me, and refer back to the third piece of advice on this post.
Travel is so fun and rewarding but it can also be annoying, difficult and energy-sucking. Especially when you are on the go every day, it takes a particular mindset to get through the tough stretches. After being mobile for over a year, I feel confident that these tips will help you enjoy any time you spend away from home, whether it’s a three-day weekend, a three month sabbatical or an endless retirement road trip.
I look forward to revisiting this post after I reach two years of travel to see what I’d add or change! Always happy to hear from you, reader as well. Drop a comment below if you’ve got some seasoned travel advice to share.