Learnify me please; Alaskan vacations

I'm trying to play an Alaskan vacation for 2016. Airfare for my family of 5 is covered by frequent flyer miles. I'm thinking about renting a motorhome while up there because a hotel room is about $200 on up, a motorhome is less than $300 a night. Anyway, I'm rambling.
A co-worker here says everything up there is incredibly expensive, from restaurants to grocery stores. I guess I'm looking for verification or something. I can plan expenses like sightseeing and restaurants, but I don't want to get up there and find that groceries and fuel are twice what I was expecting.

Any help from the hive?

Things we take for granted like veggies and milk can be stupid expensive.

I did not find that food overall was ridiculous.

The place is way busier than I thought it would be. Pretty much a tourist camper parade in places. Beware the bugs; they can be pretty interesting at certain times.

Alaska is certainly not a cheap place to vacation. Outfitters, Government and Merchants have about 5 months to harvest their income, and you are part of the crop.

What a smart man would do is stay in the Yukon. The tourist plucking industry is not nearly as finely honed as Alaska. The crowds are much smaller for everything and everywhere you want to go. The scenery is every bit as beautiful, and as of today, your USA dollar is worth 23% more than it is at home.

I live in Alaska (Fairbanks) and work in tourism in summer.

Locally, gas is $3.50 a gallon right now for 87. Add up to a dollar for more remote towns and stations. Meals and such, average prices for a burger and fries from a local place is about $12-15. Fast food is about $8-10 for a combo, and its worse than you get down there, so you're better off eating locally. Most dinners are $25-30/plate. I don't find that groceries are terribly more expensive than where I lived before (Baltimore). Maybe 10-50% higher, with the higher end going towards bulky boxed goods. You also don't typically get fresh Sockeye in the stores back home either.

Hotel rooms are expensive, but there are deals out there too. They do have to get a year's worth of income between May and September for the most part, especially the seasonal lodges. Anchorage is ridiculous, Fairbanks is somewhat better. Don't know about how much RV spaces with or without hookups are, or how happy the family is boondocking.

The Yukon is just as expensive as Alaska. Gas is definitely more $6+ per gallon equivalent, last I was there. Food is as or more expensive, lodging is more scarce and just as high in the summer. And you probably can't take your rented RV there.

I guess the big question is... where do you want to go while you're up here? What do you want to see? How long do you have? Remember that it's a big BIG state, and much of it isn't accessible by road...

skierd wrote: Hotel rooms are expensive, but there are deals out there too. They do have to get a year's worth of income between May and September for the most part, especially the seasonal lodges. Anchorage is ridiculous, Fairbanks is somewhat better. Don't know about how much RV spaces with or without hookups are, or how happy the family is boondocking. I guess the big question is... where do you want to go while you're up here? What do you want to see? How long do you have? Remember that it's a big BIG state, and much of it isn't accessible by road...

Your comment about boondocking reminded me of another question. Am I right in assuming there are plenty of places to sleep for the night in a rented RV? I'm assuming that just pulling over and crashing someplace is either illegal or unsafe?
BTW, what exactly is boondocking? If you mean just pulling over and sleeping, we're fine with it. I don't need to park my RV 12' from someone else that parties 'till 3 am, then my other neighbor is up and at 'em at 6 am.

Not sure where we want to go yet. We'd like to see wildlife, including whales. Other than that, we haven't figured out what months we'd want to go or what part of the state we'd like to go either. I figure we'd like to stay for 10 days or so. Less seems like a rush-job, more will be that much more expensive.

Start here:

http://www.themilepost.com

Buy a copy, online or locally. It basically lists every road, attraction, hotel, campground, etc in the state.

I'm pretty sure you can park an RV and camp anywhere on public land unless otherwise marked. That's mostly what I meant by boondocking i.e. stopping outside of designated campgrounds.

Assume you fly in to Anchorage... Take a drive down the Kenai Penninsula to Homer, then go around to Valdez for fishing and whale watching. Head north to McCarthy and the Kennicott Mine. Go all the way up to the Alaska Highway and head to Fairbanks. Take a riverboat cruise, go out to the Hot Springs, check out the gold dredge, kayak the Chena River, go fishing for grayling, etc. Then go south on the Parks Highway to Denali National Park and take one of the wilderness tours (Kantishna Experience goes the furthest in to the park, bus tours are the only way in to the park itself). ATV on the stampede trail and take a whitewater raft trip on the Nenana River the next day. Then head south to Talkeetna which has an awesome zip line tour and a great brewery. Then back to Anchorage to fly home... Just a couple suggestions...

skierd wrote: Start here: http://www.themilepost.com Buy a copy, online or locally.

This. I bought a 2010 copy and I have been studying it ever since. It gets updated every year and it will get you really excited about this trip.

skierd wrote: Start here: http://www.themilepost.com Buy a copy, online or locally. It basically lists every road, attraction, hotel, campground, etc in the state. I'm pretty sure you can park an RV and camp anywhere on public land unless otherwise marked. That's mostly what I meant by boondocking i.e. stopping outside of designated campgrounds. Assume you fly in to Anchorage... Take a drive down the Kenai Penninsula to Homer, then go around to Valdez for fishing and whale watching. Head north to McCarthy and the Kennicott Mine. Go all the way up to the Alaska Highway and head to Fairbanks. Take a riverboat cruise, go out to the Hot Springs, check out the gold dredge, kayak the Chena River, go fishing for grayling, etc. Then go south on the Parks Highway to Denali National Park and take one of the wilderness tours (Kantishna Experience goes the furthest in to the park, bus tours are the only way in to the park itself). ATV on the stampede trail and take a whitewater raft trip on the Nenana River the next day. Then head south to Talkeetna which has an awesome zip line tour and a great brewery. Then back to Anchorage to fly home... Just a couple suggestions...

WOW, you just described my Honeymoon in Alaska 23 years ago! Except for the ATV part and the fact that Denali was FULL and not taking any more visitors. That was unexpected.

Forgot about that part. Reservations are strongly encouraged, especially in active fire seasons like this year. There's been a couple weekends where there hasn't been a room available in Fairbanks at all, anywhere. My wife works at a major hotel in Fairbanks and had fun finding rooms for her guests when they are overbooked.

And I know it's a lot of money, but I highly recommend taking a cruise up or back down. Lodging is guaranteed at least if you add a land tour, food is provided on the boat, and it's a great way to see southeast Alaska. The interior too, if you add a land tour.

Also if you fly in, consider starting in Fairbanks and taking the Alaska Railroad to Denali and on to Anchorage before you rent the RV to go to Homer and Valdez. I'm told it's out of this world amazing.

Thanks. That's the kind of feedback Inwas hoping for. I knew there were some folks here from Alaska that would have tone of insight.