Reservations - Flights and Lodging

Yes, we are flying, but, no, not in this!  Though ti was a great flight we took in this plane to remote places in Maine and OVER Mt. Katahdin!  

So, now we decided that we'd fly to Alaska (and believe me I tried to come up with any other way possible to get there in a reasonable amount of time and cost!).  

First Class:

Yes, First Class!  We have worked very hard all of our lives and have been very, very frugal.  We seldom go far from home and our vacations are usually hiking and going to remote places where we'd find a camp somewhere.    We just tend to travel little and pay light!  Until now.  We talked at length about the pros and cons of First Class (the con being cost!).  But for the length of time flying, and the degree to which I hate flying we leaned in that direction.  We also didn't want to make several stops on our travel whereby opening up more potential for delays and falling pray to the horrid travel stories I've heard about-not making connections, no luggage, luggage going on a different vacation, etc.  So, we wanted the most minimum stops for the flight.

Searching for Flights:

As Cindy has mentioned, part of the decision making process was cost. When I first started to research flights I was looking for the economy sitting having only one stop, preferably Chicago.  I used Orbitz  in the beginning to get a feel concerning schedules and cost. It appeared the only airline using a stop in Chicago was United and the cost was in the $1,400 range.  Out of curiosity I price the cost of a 1^st class seat for the same route and it was $3,600 which was way too much.

With this information we headed to our local AAA office to see if they could find cheaper flights either economy or 1^st class.  The travel agent was not able to find anything much cheaper so we make attentive reservations with Chicago being the only stop using economy  seating.  We had 24 hours to change our minds.

We still were toying with the idea of doing this trip via 1^st class because of the time in the air but the cost was still getting in the way.  So I went back to the internet for more research.  This time I visited the United web-site and looked at the same itinerary we had discussed with AAA and the prices were again basically the same except they gave me 250 different flight routes.  After searching through the variety of flights I was able to find a 1^st class flight for $1,600; less than half the previous quote.

So how come so cheap, I added a stop at Seattle on the way back. We would arrive at Burlington 10 hours later than the original itinerary. Since it was on the way back it wasn’t really a big deal. So back to AAA to discuss our new itinerary and the cost I found on-line.  At first the travel agent couldn’t match the price or flight I found; it appears there are different codes related to 1^st travel with no difference in benefits, after searching through the codes she was able to match the price and itinerary. Success, we’ve going  flying 1^st class!!

Lodging:

Once again, we had to think about the kind of lodging we wanted...so the search was on.  We spend hours, leading to days, leading to weeks searching.  We took stop by stop and searched.  One thing about the areas in Alaska we are traveling to is that there are no big hotel developments all around.  It is much more on the scale of the luxury wilderness lodges all the way to very rustic lodging or camping.  It runs the gambit.  We used Tripadvisor significantly as there were many, many personal reviews about the accommodations and we did go through the reviews carefully.  In each place we were planning on staying, we knew the general area we wanted to stay in.  For example, because Seward is such a coastal town, we knew we wanted to stay within the city limits of Seward and experience the beautiful small-town surroundings.  But, we did not want to stay in a hotel as we wanted to do all of our own cooking and have our own home-like space.  So we searched out rentals.  Again, they ran the range from cliff dwellings at $1,000 per night, to yurts at $100 per night.  B & Bs are all over Seward, so we started in that direction.

Another wonderful tool we used was Google Maps/Earth!  We would be bringing up a B & B website, and be looking at the street and house at the same time.  It is incredible how much of a view you get of your potential stays with this tool.

Ira and I went back and forth and finally made the decision from 1: reviews, 2: the B & B we selected was a full side of a big house (like a separate huge apartment), and only the owner lived on the other 1/2 of the building.  Which meant for us, no other tenants, privacy, and the ability to get to know people more closely.  The Brass Lantern was our selection

The Brass Lantern with Mt. Marathon behind it

Let's see on our trip how good it really is.  I've spoken to the owners already, and they seem really sweet.  Note:  it seems B & Bs are slightly different in Alaska than Vermont.  From the research we did, most B & Bs (which serve breakfast) meant you would have a basket of food at your door in the morning that way you can have breakfast in your own privacy - sounds good to us!

Watch for the review when we get back.



While in Seward, we plan on doing some additional touring on the Kenai Peninsula, and may end up staying on the west side of the peninsula one night if the distance is too far, or we just lollygag during our trip.  But, Seward is our base.  


Next stop, Talkeetna!  In Talkeetna, it is in a more mountainous spot, so we wanted to stay in the mountains - out of the village.  We did the same kind of searching as we did for Seward and we came upon the Traleika Mountain Cabins several miles outside of Talkeetna.  And it has spectacular views of Mt. McKinley (on a good day).  We figured being there for several days, might afford us a day with a great view.  Fingers crossed! Again, our cabin here will be fully equipped so we can be as much of a pair of hermits at we want to be. 

Denali (Mt. McKinley) from the Cabin

Our last longish stay which will be near Denali National Park will the cabins near Denali.  These cabins (Denali River Cabins) were selected based on location, location, location!  We are foregoing some solitude for being very accessible to Denali National Park entrance.  The cabins are cute (though WAY too close together for us!) and we picked one of the ones RIGHT on the river!   Also, comparing price for the lodging near Denali, this was one of the better-priced places.  We'll let you know when we get there!

While in Anchorage, which is just for our first couple of nights and our last night, we kind of didn't care where we stayed because it was just a room.   But, it does have a good location, right in the midst of Anchorage and right at one of the parks.

Those are our selections and why we selected them.  We'll let you know how our choices panned out when we get back.