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Best to give we here, some idea of your"all in" budget for lodging, transport, food and attractions...It would give responders a better platform to recommend Alaska OR Thailand ... carracar2
Ferries get you there from Washington State or British Columbia up the inland archipelago and SE Alaska towns (Juneau, Petersburg, Ketchikan, Sitka, Haines, Skagway) and also around Prince William Sound (Seward, Cordova), the lower Kenai Peninsula and over to Kodiak. Check the Alska Marine Highway ferry system out here http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/Trains get you to Talkeetna, Denali National Park and Seward. Check it out here http://alaskarailroad.com/Transit/Schedules/tabid/98/Default.aspx
Busses get you around to mainland cities and towns. Check them out here http://www.alaskatravel.com/bus-lines/?gclid=CIPR-N7qr7ACFQhahwodFVnRWg
Bush planes get you to small remote villages, between southeast panhandle towns and wilderness areas. check them out here http://www.alaskaaircharters.com/
8
Check http://www.AlaskaHostels.com for the list of their web addresses and daily rates for crowded bunkrooms. If you are lucky, you will find someone renting a car at the hostel who would like to share gasoline expenses with you for travelling around Alaska. It costs about $100 to take the shuttlebus one way to Seward -- about $1/mile. $40 to take that shuttlebus to Girdwood. If you take the shuttlebus from the airport to Girdwood, it cost more than $100 for the 40 miles! Alaska is not cheap!9
Actually Alaska can be the cheapest state in the U.S. for backpacking , and it might be possible on 40$ a day. Two years ago, I spent only a little bit more- you are not obluged to rent a car, you can hitchhike safely, unlike in most or all other states. The Alaska Ferry is also a good deal if you want to visit Southeast Alaska
- you can hike and camp for free (even in Denali NP, backcountry permits are free). Even close to cities, you can go and camp in the surrounding forest. This is legal.
10
In the "lower 48" we assume you have a car. In Alaska, people will assume you have (or have access to) a car, an airplane, and a boat unless all you want to do is "camp out" in Anchoage and Fairbanks. There is nothing "cheap" about traveling into the Alaskan interior.You see more hitchhikers in Alaska but I don't pick them up.
