Alaska - 5 days to spend

Hi guys,

I will be traveling to Alaska this summer (from mid-August till the beginning of September). I am going to join a G Adventures tour since I don't like to drive around on my own for several weeks. This tour will bring me to Anchorage - Homer - Seward - Valdez - Wrangell-St Elias - Tangle Lakes - Denali - and back to Anchorage.

After this I will have 5 extra days to spend in Alaska. Since I will arrive in Anchorage 2 days before the start of the tour, my plan is to leave Anchorage immediately when it ends. I will rent a car to drive around and was thinking of heading north.

I am interesting in hiking (not the multi-day stuff as I will be on my own, but some nice day or half-day trips), kayaking, ... Nothing too crazy, but just enjoying nature and being outdoors.

Do you guys have any suggestions on where to go? Since there is a chance to see the northern lights I was thinking on heading in the direction of Fairbanks, but then I don't want to waste my time going there if there are better places to spend a few days before heading back to Europe.

Cheers!

Perhaps wait and see what the Denali experience is like on the tour ... if it is fast and just a taste, you might want to go back and have a longer look for 3-4 nights more - or incorporate that with a trip to Fairbanks as well (not that I've been out as far as that, so can't comment on its attractions).

Same might apply to the whole Kenai Peninsula ... you might like it enough to want to do a follow-up trip.

G-Adventures is excellent; go on my 6th trip this march to Marocco: but Alaska is definitly on my bucket list; unfortunatly the tours are in that time, when everybody likes to make holidays, so I'll need some luck and patience to bring me there. Wouldn't wonder if more "G-Adventurer" show up here on TT, as they just closed their own "Watering Hole-Forum"

Fairbanks doesn't have much to see/do. Depending on how indepth your tour of the Kenai is, you could go to some of the smaller towns that some local arts or remnants of the old Russian culture. At that time of the year you could see bear at Russian River. Seward is likely to have a lot of fog and rain and if you hit bad weather on your tour you might want to return if the forecast is better. Denali accommodates shot as well as long hikes. The drive up is boring--the real scenery is along the train. Things start to close the first weekend in September, including restaurants and even the more small scale lodging.

Thx for your replies!
I am actually looking for some other ideas than the places that are already included in the G trip. We will spend 3 days in Denali and 4 days around the Kenai peninsula, so I was thinking of going to another place after the trip has ended. Off course, I can decide to go back to Kenai if I feel like it, but I just want to have a plan B.
Also, as you say, in September places start closing down, so I want to make sure I have some kind of plan and don't have to look around for hours to find a place to sleep/eat. And no, I am not taking a tent. :-)

So, any other ideas?

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