If you've ever dreamed of an RV adventure to Alaska, you'll be
surprised at how much it actually cost. We just spent an
entire summer up in Alaska in our fifth wheel and we tracked
every single penny. It's pretty surprising how these numbers
turned out and I'm glad we had the chance to share 'em with
you. If you ever plan to RV Alaska, you're going to want to
stay tuned to see if this is going to be appropriate for
your situation. In order to make sense of all this, we need
to give you somewhat of an overview of our trip which is
going to include the amount of days we spent in Alaska,
mileage, and the entire route. We crossed into Alaska on June
13th this year on the main Alcan Highway and we hit Valdez
first followed by Palmer, the Kenai Peninsula and then made
our way towards Denali and Fairbanks. We departed Alaska
on September 2nd via the top of the world highway so we spent a
total of 78 days in Alaska. That's a great amount of time
to spend up there. When you plan your trip up to Alaska, you're
going to want to account for the time it takes to get there
and then more importantly, the actual time you spend in
Alaska, it's a long drive up there. You want to get the most
out of your trip. How many miles did we drive in the state
of Alaska? Going into this, we tracked not only our towing
mileage but our entire mileage throughout the trip. Now, we
did caravan with our friends Raini and Keith on this trip
and they had a vehicle as well so you gotta imagine we did a
lot of carpooling when we were parked at an RV site in order
to do some points of interest. Alright, our total mileage
arriving to Alaska on June 13th and departing on September 2nd.
3,166.3 miles.
That's a lot. That is a lot. And we barely even touched the
surface of Alaska just to give you an idea of how big of a
state it really is. That's more miles than it takes to drive
across the US like if you went from San Francisco all the way
to New York on Interstate eighty. So to say the least, you
got some mileage cut out for you. So what did we track for
this video? Whenever we do cost breakdowns related to RVing, we
only like to include categories that are relevant to RVing. If
that makes sense. It does make sense. Like groceries, that's
huge, going out to eat. How much was fuel? Like these are some
important things that are going to be applicable to
everybody especially you guys that are planning for your
upcoming adventure to Alaska. So, pay attention, take some
close detailed notes, and then you can refer back to it along
your trip and at a later time if you need to make adjustments
along the way of like, you know what? I'm not going to spend
that much in groceries. We'll go out to eat. Keep it
flexible. Make the plan according to what you want to
work with. Yeah, because this is the information we wanted
before going to Alaska. Like, we understand that everyone's
cost is differently but what are the cost of the main
things? We got fuel, groceries, restaurants, excursions, and RV
parks. What about propane? Well, I think we've only filled
up propane once in Alaska because it is the summer, we
weren't really running the heat that much so it wasn't really a
cost we needed to track. Or laundry? Man, laundry is always
a tough one because depending on how clean you want your
sheets or how clean you want your underwear? That varies for
each person, right? Or how many people you have in your family?
Like, are you a family of five going on trip to Alaska, you're
probably going to be doing a lot more laundry than a couple.
The cheapest we paid for a load of laundry in Alaska was five
dollars. That includes wash and a dry and that was in Palmer.
The most expensive load of laundry we paid for was in
Fairbanks at the KOA. How much was that? $8 a load and if
you're looking to cut cost, you can go to a public laundromat
but I Googled to see what those cost and it's still anywhere
from $3 to $7. Now, you're already starting to get a taste of
what Alaska is like. They know that tourist season only happens a
couple months out of the year and they take full advantage of
that. It's ridiculously expensive. Keep that in the
back of your mind because it might surprise you guys how
much we spent there. Well, to defend them, the campgrounds
only open for a few months out of the year. So, they have to
make up those cost in order to maintain the grounds all year.
Some things you're going to notice that we don't speak of
in this video are cost of like RV repairs. Why is that? Well,
we believe you should always have that money set aside like
an emergency fund and we can't really speak on what repairs
you're going to need when you travel to Alaska. Some people
get away with nothing happening to their rig or you can have an
experience like us where you have a blowout, lose a water
tank or water leaks. We're not really going to be speaking on
that topic in this video. Along with items like toiletries or
souvenirs, general shopping, listen we're full-time RVers, we
don't do the souvenir thing because I, we're, where in the
world are you going to put them? Now, last but certainly
not least, we are going to exclude our trip up through
Canada and into Alaska. This video is strictly related to
Alaska costs. If you're looking for more information on the
whole breakdown of cost going through Canada, we already made
a video on that right here, baby. When you get done
watching this video, go watch that one. Oh, and then you can
add the two together and have like a grand total. We're just
so ready to give you this information. Are you ready? I'm
ready. Let's start off with the most important one. The one I
was extremely wanting to know before we headed up there. How
much is the fuel going to cost? What pricing are we talking
about? We drive a 2017 GMC Sierra 3/4 ton diesel. Single
rear wheel obviously with the 3/4 ton. She's our pride
and joy. I'm getting the data ready. I'm getting the data
ready. After driving approximately 3,166 miles in
Alaska, we a grand fuel total of $1,240.96
Let's take that in for a second. I thought
it was going to be more. How you guys feel about that one?
Well, when you do the breakdown of that, it's about 39 cents
per mile. Alright, we're just going to leave it at that but I
will share a tip. As we go through these categories, we
have tips to share on each one. There is no Open Roads in
Alaska and Open Roads is a diesel-saving fuel program
where you basically can use the same card that truckers use and
you get discount like bulk discount pricing on fuel. So,
if you're highly dependent on that program, just know that
you're going to be going to regular fuel stations. They do
have fuel stations that are truck stops. Yeah. But you just are
going to be paying regular price. But that program is free
so you want to look into it if you have a diesel. Now, what
can you do? You're just going to want to have to scope
out fuel stations throughout the state and I'm thinking you
might want to fuel up in big places like Anchorage and
Fairbanks where it's more populated. The more desolate
you go, the more you're going to be paying for fuel
basically. Oh, without a doubt. Um there's an app called Gas
Buddy and it allows you to kind of look at the general
area to see where the best fuel prices are. So, add that into
your planning to know when you're going to fuel up.
Thanks, Hanks. Let's move on to my favorite food. Grocery
bills. How much do we spend in groceries? How much do we
actually utilize the grocery stores? Walking in the store, I
was like, wow, you could tell in Alaska right now. Was it
because there was moose jerky? That too. Yeah. Now, we're
pretty good at itemizing all of our receipts especially when it
comes to groceries. We like to keep kind of somewhat of a
total of what we're spending in certain categories of groceries
just to refer back to, where can we cut cost personally in
our own budget? Yeah, it's going to be a good detailed
assessment of our grocery bill coming up. And the total we're
giving you for groceries is strictly food that we buy at
stores and bring back to the RV. So, our total for groceries was
$2,294.55
Ooh. That's over $900 a month in groceries
alone. Just groceries. We haven't gone on to the other
category so just let that sink in. Alaska is hammering those
prices but you gotta think they gotta ship all that food up
there. It's a long ways to Alaska. So they gotta account
for that pricing by upping the grocery bill. Do you remember
how expensive groceries were in Valdes. They had a safe way
there and we frequently would walk out of there spending like
eighty to a hundred dollars on just a few items. Take that in
consideration. If you're going to visit some of those
beautiful places, you're going to have to pay some of
those beautiful grocery bills. Great places to refer to are
like Costco in Fairbanks. We love going there because we can
bulk up as much as we can with our groceries. Pay less of a
cost compared to going to some of those smaller towns. Costco.
Before you sit there and think we're done with food, right?
We're not. We decided to indulge in some fine dining in
Alaska. So, we have a separate category for restaurants. Make
sure you kind of keep this in the back of your mind as well.
You're going to want to balance between groceries and eating
out according to your travel days and everything. It really
helped alleviate some of that stress for us. Yes. So, I would
say we went to dinner at the most two to three times per
week. I'm going to do this one. Our total for 78 days in Alaska
for restaurants. $1,883.64
Comes out to about $175 a week. Now this
total not to be really confusing to you guys but only
in this category does this also include alcoholic drinks when
we're out at the restaurant. So just know this whole total was
food and alcohol. Are you guys surprised that our grocery bill
was more expensive than our restaurant bill? And basically
buying food at the store versus going out to eat was not really much
of a money saver. I like that though. I like that a lot. If
you're looking for the total of those two categories together
in regards to food, I'll give it to you. $4,178.19 to
eat some good grub in Alaska. 4000 buckaroos. Yeah, it only
gets better. Now, how can we talk about Alaska without
talking about excursions? So, how much does it cost? How much
do you need to plan for and pricing of these excursions
going forth. There's another video we did where we talk
about excursions, everything you need to know. We broke down
each one we did, pricing, and tips but just to give you an
overview, we did two fishing excursions. We did a glacier
sea life boat tour, dog sledding, and a flyover Denali
tour. So cool. So, it sounds like a lot of money was spent
in Alaska on excursions and you're absolutely right. Hold
on to your bridges for this one. Total for excursions alone.
$3,533.35
$3500 to go out and about in Alaska and
just have a grand old time. It's just, it's hard sometimes
looking at those numbers. I think if you're planning an
Alaska trip, this is where you budget a lot of your money
because everyone goes there and they want the Alaska
experience. There's only so much hiking you could do for
free and just meandering around but if you want to see the
bears and you want to see Denali and Dog sledding, it's
going to add up. So, how can he cut some of the cost? Well, one
that comes to mind for me is maybe doing some group pricing
instead of individual tickets. If you call ahead and say, we
have a big group coming. Maybe you have a whole family. Can you
guys accommodate with like a bulk pricing for our group?
They might be able to help you out. Look into Groupon as well.
Sometimes, they have some great deals and sometimes it's
better to shop around. So, while you're not really getting
into the nitty-gritty of your Alaska planning, you can start
shopping around to see which companies have better pricing.
Listen, we're in America and everything is negotiable.
Speaking of more expensive, let's talk about RV campgrounds
because they were a little bit more pricey than what we were
used to down in the lower forty-eight. Wow, did this
category add up? You thought what we were talking about
before was not, yeah, please, please. We really, I mean, we
did this to ourselves. Out of the 78 days we spent in Alaska,
we only camped for free two days and that was the day we got to
Alaska and the day we were leaving Alaska. We really
wanted to check out multiple campgrounds. We really wanted
to collect that data for you guys. Just going forth before
you hear this number, know that this is flexible but just take
the number, take a breath, and then just figure out how you
can manipulate it to your budget and go from there. Yeah,
this is like the extreme. The total that we spent in RV
campgrounds came out to $4,766.29
So, we almost spent $5,000 in RV parks in just over 70
days. Now, you remember I said two days we camp for free. So,
you take that number, you divide it by seventy-six. Comes
out to about $63 a day which is pretty average when you look at
how much we've been paying for campgrounds and I like that we
got this number because you can take that and do your own
planning. You can say, alright, $63 a day if we want full
hookups. Maybe we'll only do full hookups for three days out
of the week and the rest of the time we're doing dry camping
and saving money there. And if you don't have a boondocking
setup, this data will maybe motivate you to getting a
boondocking setup and a good one before you go to Alaska.
The cheapest campground we stayed at, was a campground that
was no hookups in Denali State Park. It was $20 a night. The
campground that cost the most per night when we were there
was Diamond M Ranch in Kenai. We paid just about $80 an night for
full hookups there. FYI, we're going to be going over
campgrounds in Alaska specifically in a whole other
video. So, this is a reason for you to hit that subscribe
button if you're really getting into some Alaska planning
because we have more coming your way. We come out with
fresh videos every single Thursday. It's over three years
now that we've been coming out with these kind of videos every
Thursday. So, you have a lot to go get caught up on and you
have a lot to look forward to. So, yeah, definitely hit that
subscribe button. We love having you. And we appreciate you guys.
Let's go over some tips on how to make RV parks more
affordable. Now a huge one that we frequently rely on is
actually booking RV campgrounds a week at a time instead of
having to pay that nightly rate. Not every campground
honors weekly rates so just a heads up. Another free resource
you're going to want to use is called iOverlander. It's an app
on your phone that you can find great boondocking resources
throughout Alaska and your travels. This isn't really a tip but just
know that even though you're paying to stay at these
campgrounds, it is not abnormal for them to charge you extra to
use their showers. Before we move on and give you the grand
total of all these categories, we just have a few more tips we
want to share with you to make the spending of your money a
little bit easier. You're going to want to purchase as
many items as you can in the lower 48, toiletries, pet food,
and stuff you could get across the border with, okay, where
it's not going to get confiscated. Wherever you can
save money in the lower 48 before you head to Alaska, it's
going to help cut those costs. Always have cash no matter
what. We used a credit card for just about everything but
you're going to want cash for those showers I was talking
about. Yeah. Or coin laundry and also tipping your guide
after excursions. The Mile Post book. It's basically a travel
planning bible for Alaska and it also includes Canada. That
is something you're going to want to purchase ahead of time
because if you buy it in Alaska, first of all you can't use it
through Canada, and then second of all it's going to be way
more pricey especially if it's at a grocery store or a gas
station. So what did we spend in total in all these categories?
Now remember there's other things we didn't track that
differs between people so you gotta imagine this number in
reality was a little bit higher. Alaska, summer of 2023, Hanks
style. $13,718.79 - Wow. That's a lot. Do we regret it?
No. Not at all. Now, if we peaked your curiosity with
Alaska, the costs involved and everything that we did. We have
a whole playlist to get you caught up to speed and you're
not going to want to miss it. These videos are incredible.
Check 'em out right here. We'll see you guys next Thursday. You
know where to find us. Love you all. Bye, guys. Bye.