My Jam-Packed Alaska Itinerary: Going Heavy on Adventure (10 Days)

For someone writing an Alaska itinerary, it’s funny that Alaska was never really on my radar. I thought of it as a place that I would visit after I retired. Maybe I would  take a cruise along the glacier filled waterways when my legs were too tired to hike anymore.

That would have been a mistake, because Alaska isn’t just a place to look at glaciers. It’s a place where I finally understood how vast wilderness could be. It’s a place where the hiking landscape put me in awe and the place where I learned that you didn’t need a defined trail to hike to the top of a mountain. I flew on planes that dodged icy summits, landed on glaciers, and arrived at lakes only reachable by air. I hung out with ancient tribes and I made eye contact with the only well fed polar bears on this planet.  And I kayaked under a bald eagle in the middle of a rain storm and almost got tipped over by a porpoise.

Alaska isn’t just a place to go once you’re retired (although it’s still a great choice). Alaska is a place to go for adventure, because when you look out the plane window in Alaska, it’s the first time you may see mountains as far as the horizon extends. The experiences and the wilderness here are neverending.

Not to mention, you can eat the freshest salmon accompanied with some great craft beer every single night. 🙂

Here’s my jam-packed itinerary for Alaska, one of the most incredible (and expensive) trips I’ve ever been on.

This Alaska Itinerary includes Anchorage, Seward, Barter Island, and Denali National Park.

Day 1 of Alaska Itinerary: Anchorage

Our trip started out in Anchorage, where we settled into our cozy Airbnb. Once we had our things sorted, we headed to a brewery for our first meal. We chose 49^thState Brewing since it was nice out and they had a roof deck that we spotted from the street.

The entire brewery was really cute, decked out in wood and iron fire places.  The menu had a lot to offer, from king crab avocado toast to ox quesadillas. Actually, almost every menu I looked at in Alaska ruled, since I’m a huge fan of seafood. 

Day 2: Hike Up Flat Top Mountain & Byron Glacier

On the second day of our Alaska Itinerary, we woke up early and stopped at the grocery store to stock up on bear spray and hiking snacks. We then headed to Flat Top Mountain, a 3 mile hike that ends with a view over Anchorage.  We didn’t wear hiking boots since the hike was only 3 miles, but that may have been a mistake. The top is pretty rough and rocky and involves some scrambling, so definitely would have been nice to have the ankle support. Lesson learned for the rest of the trip!

Next, we drove towards Seward and hiked to Byron Glacier which was a short and easy hike. The drive to Seward was pretty scenic and there were lots of cars parked on the side of the road for whale watching.

Once we arrived in Seward, we checked into our Airbnb with a view and headed to the Cookery to eat dinner. I LOVED THE COOKERY and it seems like every one else I met on this trip did too. While you wait for your table, you can order drinks and oysters out back by their outside kitchen. Eventually we were seated at the bar where we ordered one of the best meals of the trip. We had scallops, brussel sprouts, salmon and haddock. Unfortunately I didn’t have room left for the cream cheese ice cream which I heard was incredible (please get it and let me know how it is!)

Day 3: Hike Harding Icefield in Seward

On the third day, we woke up early and headed to the Harding Icefield trailhead. Rated difficult, this hike took us about 6 hours to complete with little rest. There were bear sightings the day we went but we didn’t spot any (kind of a bitter sweet feeling). If you do any day hike during your trip to Alaska, it should probably be this one. The scenery on this hike was some of the best I’ve ever seen. 

For more information and pictures on this hike, see my full post on the Harding Icefield hike here.

After the hike, we relaxed by meeting some of the Iditarod dogs.

For dinner, we headed to the Salmon Bake, a small wooden restaurants that we spotted from the road. It looked cute from the outside, plus my friend Kim was trying to beat the record for the most salmon eaten consecutively in a row.

After the Salmon Bake, we headed to “downtown” Seward to check out the Seward alehouse where we drank wine from a box and played pool with the locals. 

Day 4: Kayak Tour of Seward

Day 4 was another early morning for a kayaking tour of Seward. Unfortunately it was the only day it rained for us in Alaska, but the tour went on without being canceled. The rain actually ended up being a good thing since more animals come out to play in the rain. We saw porpoises, otters, and a bald eagle. I have to admit I was kind of freezing by the end of the tour, but the tour guide had hot chocolate and we warmed up with some Pho afterwards.

Once we dried off and got warm, we drove back to Anchorage (since the next stop on our Alaska itinerary was seeing POLAR BEARS!)

Day 5: Head to Barter Island

We woke up and boarded our flight to Barter Island, Alaska. We had a layover in Deadhorse, which I would try to avoid if you could since there is literally nothing there.

Barter Island is one of the few places in the world that you can view polar bears. It’s kind of the United States’ best kept secret. Or best kept good secret.

Some polar bears around the world are starving due to global warming melting the ice away, but these bears coexist with the villagers that live on Barter Island. The natives that live on Barter still take part in whaling, and the polar bears are able to survive off of the whale carcasses they leave behind.

We arrived to Barter Island by landing on a gravel runway, and boarded a school bus to our hotel. We stayed at Waldo’s, one of the two “hotels” on Barter island made out of trailors. 

Day 6 of Alaska Itinerary: Polar Bear Tour!

 Our polar bear tour started in the morning when our guide picked us up at Waldos.  We drove to the shoreline and boarded the boat we’d be on for the day. Luckily the tour guide had parkas for us to wear, since it can get a little cold on the water. We went with the company Akook Arctic Adventures.

Here’s an entire post dedicated to seeing the polar bears in Barter Island if you’re looking for more information or want to hear about the full experience.

Whale carcass

I’d recommend bringing a 400-600 lens for this tour. I rented one for my Sony a6000.

After our tour, we flew out of Barter Island in the afternoon. We had to be careful making our flight since they sometimes take off without visitors and don’t follow a strict time schedule. We flew back to Anchorage and ate dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse.

Day 7: Brown Bear Tour

Another early morning for another bear tour! This time we’d be seeing brown bear at Lake Clark National Park with Rust’s Flying Service . Although I was pretty hungover this morning, it may have been my favorite day of the Alaska Itinerary. The flight to Lake Clark alone was worth the money, taking us over frozen volcanos and weaving through mountain ranges.

If that wasn’t enough, we continued on to land on a secluded pale blue lake in the middle of nowhere.  We would later find out that this was Lake Crescent and the only way to get here is by plane. This is the creates a sort of paradise for the brown bears, who can eat salmon from the this lake undisturbed.

Once we deplaned, we boarded pontoon boats to spot some bear. The brown bears were a lot more fun to watch than the polar bears since they were so active. You can watch them tactically hunt salmon and tear them to shreds  about 20 feet from you.

People also stay at the lodge in this area if they have a lot of money. So you know, we were just on a day trip. 😉 If you’d like more information on the brown bear tour in Lake Clark, you can see my full post on it here. 

After the brown bear tour, we drove north to Denali National Park and checked into the McKinley Chalet Resort. 

Day 8: Glacier Landing Tour in Denali National Park

We woke up the next morning to join a glacier landing tour in Denali National Park. This tour flies right by Denali, giving us the best view of the highest mountain in the United States. Most people don’t get to see Denali since the clouds cover it most of the time, so I figured this would be our only guaranteed way to see the mountain. Plus we got to land on a snow runway! If you’d like to read about the full experience on the glacier landing tour, here is my full post on it. 

After the glacier landing, we decided to do the Healy Overlook Trail hike. Although only three miles long, this hike is pretty steep so I’d recommend still bringing along your hiking shoes.  The steepness pays out and gives you one of the prettiest views in Alaska:

We rewarded ourselves with dinner at the hotel bar and tried to stay up to see the Northern Lights (but unfortunately weren’t successful).

Day 9: Denali National Park

In the morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to Denali National Park. The only way to go through the park is by taking the bus. Although I originally thought boarding the bus was annoying, I have to admit that you do see way more wild life in Denali than other national parks due to the lack of cars and people driving and walking around. I got a few incredible shots of grizzly, moose, and caribou on this trip. We took the bus to the Eielson Visitor Center and back which was a pretty long ride. Other people also recommended going all the way to Wonder Lake, but we didn’t have the time for that.

Day 10 of Alaska Itinerary: Matanuska Glacier

Although we spotted a few moose from far away the day prior, I really wanted to get a few more shots. We woke up early to go back to the entrance to Denali to see if we could spot any before heading out… and what do you know we almost got stampeded by one!

With our spirits high, we jumped back in the car and headed to Matanuska Glacier. Matanuska wasn’t originally on our itinerary, but when the Montenegrin waiter recommended it on our first night, we decided to add it in. 

Matanuska is beautiful and it was sort of impressive how uncrowded it was. There was just a few people hiking on the glacier, which made it easy to really appreciate the glacier instead of looking at it like a tourist destination. 

After finishing up on the glacier,  we grabbed dinner at the Bubbly Mermaid, an oyster and champagne bar in Anchorage that our Uber driver told us about. This will sadly be the last stop on this itinerary for Alaska. 🙁

After our last well fed meal in Alaska, we hopped on a night flight out. I was definitely sad to leave, but I knew I’d be back some day.

Have any questions out my Alaska Itinerary? Feel free to comment below!