If you’re planning to visit Alaska, here’s a few tips you should know before going. First up, there’s very limited direct (non-stop) international flights into Anchorage and from Hong Kong, it’s 18+ hrs via Seattle.  This means unless you’re really keen, you need to be visiting other parts of the USA. Because most of the flights into Anchorage are from west coast cities, I’d probably do LA or Seattle. You could also do Hawaii but do you really want to be traveling around Hawaii with all your warm weather gear if you’re going during the winter to Alaska?

There’s not much to do in Anchorage itself. If you’re into hiking, head to Chugach State Park, which is almost 500,000 acres and one of the top 4 largest state parks in the United States. You can reach the start of some of the best trailheads within 20-25 minutes from downtown Anchorage.  Chugach State Forest is the second largest national forest in the US and this has some brilliant mountain biking, hiking, rafting, kayaking and other adventure sports.   If you’re going to visit and flying into Anchorage, it’s worth spending some time at both of these.

There’s a number of Alaskan cruises you can do.  I’ve never been interested in staying on a ship for a holiday but if I was going to visit Alaska again, I might consider a shorter cruise as they look quite good.  You’re going to see massive ice formations and ice bergs, and some ports that aren’t accessible by car including Juneau.  If you’re going to go on a cruise, make sure you pick a nice one as to be stuck on an old boat with an old room, shit service and shit food would be an absolute nightmare, especially with kids.

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