i'm so excited today because we're talking about
one of my favorite places on planet earth the beautiful state of alaska
we spent one month up in alaska in 2020 between july and august working during the week hitting
the hiking trails during the weekend and taking a few days off to explore all the beautiful wonders
that this state has to offer and in this video today i want to share with you some tips to help
you plan for your visit to alaska especially if you are going for the first time ready let's
go tip number one traveling to alaska during the pandemic i share two videos in which i talk about
what the expectations are if you are traveling to alaska however as of february 2021 it is no longer
mandatory to present result of a coveted 19 test you're not mandated to take a test when you get to
the airport which makes it a lot easier for people to travel to alaska i do encourage you however to
check their website to understand what is expected from you as a traveler to alaska to make sure
that the communities that you are visiting are staying safe alaska is huge it's kind of obvious
if you look at the map but you only appreciate it when you are actually in alaska and just to
give you some perspective alaska is larger than texas california and montana combined and these
three are some of the largest states in the lower 48. there are five main regions in alaska the far
north the interior south central southwest and the south east the fart north region most of it
is above the arctic circle the interior region of alaska is where fairbanks is denali national park
south central alaska is where anchorage is located anchorage the city that most of
people would fly to if you are flying to alaska this is where the kenai peninsula is located
and then there is the southwest and then there is a southeast region this is where the capital
of alaska juno is located five main regions of alaska and understanding what every region has
to offer will be very helpful for you to plan for your adventure my recommendation to you is to go
to travelalaska.com this is the official website for the tourism board in alaska and they do
have this useful interactive map where you can go and click what region you are interested in and
then it's going to take you to a page with a lot of details about things to do in that particular
region attractions the main national parks and that is going to be a good starting point for
you to plan for your adventure to alaska we spent one month up in alaska and we only explored the
southeast region so that gives you an idea how much time you will need if you want to go and
explore every single region of the state of alaska if you are interested or if you happen to choose
the south central region as your playground when you visit alaska we do have a lot of resources we
do have a lot of videos and i'm going to link to them in the description box if you are interested
there aren't many roads in alaska most of the time there is only one road to get from point a
to point b and that can be a challenge sometimes so just make sure that you set expectations with
yourself and you are flexible with your plan make sure that you are getting an early start
in the morning if you know that you will have to drive from one place to the other this way you can
be traffic and you can save some time on driving traveling to alaska does not have to be expensive
and a lot of people may disagree with me because most of people look at alaska as this exotic place
for retired people or for rich people and it can be expensive and it is expensive but it doesn't
have to be expensive all the time you can still travel to alaska on a budget you don't have to
be on a cruise to go to alaska you don't need a month or more than a month to go to alaska
and there are so many other ways to explore you can rent an rv you can rent a camper van or you
can rent a car and this is exactly what we did and it was very cost effective we flew
to anchorage from seattle and then we rented the car and we were pretty much just driving from one
place to the other in the south central legion of alaska so that's something to consider also what
really makes alaska expensive are the type of activities you are doing once you are in alaska
fishing kayaking ice climbing hiking and some of these activities can be really expensive
but if you choose cheap activities like we did we were hiking most of the time hiking does not cost
anything sometimes insurance fee took part but that was very minimal you can still travel in
alaska on a budget you can pick activities that are budget-friendly we found some activities like
ice climbing and it was only 180 per person we found some helicopter tours instead of going on
a floating airplane and that only cost 125 dollars per person so if you spend some time researching
and finding some off the beats and path activities that are kind of away from the very touristy areas
you can find some very good deal and you can still explore alaska without breaking the bank
summer in alaska has nothing to do with summer in the lower 48 especially if you're gonna be hiking
or backpacking or up in the mountain and actually it doesn't even have to be hiking and backpacking
it is still cold so make sure that you are packing your winter gear make sure that you do have a rain
gear layers down jackets if you're going to be hiking on pretty much every single trail that we
were on it was raining it was very cold make sure that you are prepared and make sure that you have
all of the necessary gear to feel warm and happy while adventuring summer midnight is such a fun
phenomenon to witness summer in alaska the sun doesn't go down until after midnight which was
great for us because we would work during the day and the sun is still up and that gives us
a lot of opportunities to go and hike and explore the city without being or feeling pressured by the
sun going down it's a really fun phenomena so when you go to alaska and it's midnight and the sun is
not going down don't worry it's not the end of the world it's just alaska don't expect to see
the aurora or the northern lights in summer a lot of people go to alaska during summer and they are
disappointed because they don't get to see the northern lights and who doesn't want to see the
northern lights in alaska however it's not very common to see them during summer you have to go
further north and chances are higher during winter you might see a lot of wildlife or you might see
no wildlife by the end of the day it's just a question of luck we were lucky enough that we
saw a bear and we were able to see moose at least four times when we were in alaska but i have some
tips for you here just to maximize your chances of seeing wildlife number one ask locals when
we were in anchorage we asked locals what is an area or a park where we can see moose we had some
recommendations and to our surprise there was one day where alex drove to the parking lot of one of
the parks that was recommended by a local and he saw a move and her calf so ask away ask the locals
they are going to have the best recommendations for you number two especially if you are hiking
or backpacking make sure that you do have a pair of binoculars with you so that you can
spot wildlife from far away and last tip if you are interested in photography make sure that you
invest in a reliable zoom lens who doesn't want to take beautiful photos of wildlife in alaska we did
invest in the zoom lens before going to alaska and i'm going to leave a link in the description box
in case you are interested or if you are in the market looking for a new one cell phone service
is weak do not rely on your phone especially for directions it's not reliable also if you are
hiking and you are in the backcountry your phone is not going to be reliable so make sure that you
do have a physical map with you or a campus that you can rely on to find directions and find your
way from point a to point b seafood in alaska is expensive and that was a big disappointment for
me because you would think alaska is a hot spot for commercial fishing but no seafood in alaska
is expensive probably more expensive than it is in the lower 48 which was disappointing for me
fishing in alaska or going on charters for fishing is an expensive experience the only company that
i consulted with i was told that you have to pay 300 to go on a one day fishing adventure for one
person and if you want to get that fish shipped to the lower 48 that is going to cost you 300
more so 600 if you want to go fishing in the sea with the charter but that is just to tell you that
seafood is expensive even when you go to restaurants however the quality was stellar
i don't think i ever had any seafood here in the united states that can exceed what i got in alaska
hiking in alaska is different than hiking in the lower 48 and i feel like i will need a
full episode just to talk about hiking in alaska because it's very different two things that comes
to mind when it comes to hiking to alaska one they don't know what switchbacks are everything goes
straight up and up and up until you can't anymore so keep that in mind make sure that you have
trekking poles with you that is the one thing that i wish that i had with me before going to alaska
and then the second thing when you are hiking in alaska you want to make sure that you are
self-reliant you have everything that you need for worse scenarios you want to make sure that you
have all the necessary gear all the 10 essentials were hiking it's not crazy to have a sleeping bag
with you even if you are going on a day hike remember we talked about there being limited
roads or sometimes one road from point a to point b should anything go wrong sometimes it's very
difficult to get somewhere to to support you or help you so when you're hiking in alaska
make sure that you have all of the gear that you need especially if you are hiking in bear country
as well you you want to make sure that you have something to start a fire to keep yourself warm
to not get hypothermic and i'm going to talk about this in detail in an upcoming episode next tip on
the list many places in alaska are not accessible by car and that was a surprise for me knowing that
there are some national parks in alaska that you cannot access by car like katmai national park
where you will have to fly a floating airplane to get to kathmaine national park same thing
with kenai fjords national park although parts of the national park are still accessible by car
we did drive to the hardin icefield trail beautiful hike by the way if you are in the kenai
peninsula or if you are in seward you definitely should check the hit the hardin ice field trail
it's one of my favorite hiking trails up until now but anyway so what i was trying to say is
that even the kenai fjords national park a big chunk of the national park is only accessible by
cruz boats kayaking or airplanes so don't be surprised because so many places you can only
access by airplane and actually that is one of the reasons that makes going to alaska and
if you guys found this to be useful please give it a thumbs up my goal is to help you plan for your
next adventure my name is haviba this is trekking pals and i will see you soon on a new adventure