Alaska Itinerary: 5 Days in the Summer
To celebrate my partner Korri’s recent milestone birthday, we jetted off to his favorite place in the world: Alaska! We’ve been together for nine years (!), and this was my first time visiting Alaska. Isn’t that funny? He goes up at least once a year to visit his family.
I’m usually the planner when we go on trips, but I wanted him to plan my first trip to Alaska…so I let him have the reins. Because of that, we didn’t book our flights until about a month before we left. 🙈 We also had no plans set in stone, but he had ideas for what he wanted to do—it would all depend on the weather!
As you probably expect, the weather in Alaska can be relatively more unpredictable due to the lower number of observations and lots of complex terrain (e.g., mountains). In summer, it can be quite warm and sunny in one location and then cool and cloudy an hour or so away.
Below, I shared our full 5-day Alaska itinerary to inspire your own summer trip to Alaska. Of course, there are an unlimited number of ways you can spend five days in Alaska. This is just one option! We stayed in the Anchorage area (where Korri’s family lives) and did a few day trips from there. Our entire trip was seven days including two travel days.
Alaska Itinerary: 5 Days in the Summer
As I mentioned earlier, use our 5-day Alaska summer itinerary (plus two travel days) as inspiration for your own Alaska itinerary! There are countless ways to spend a few days exploring and experiencing the beauty of Alaska. This is an easy itinerary to follow if you plan to set Anchorage as your home base and rent (or have access to) a vehicle, but you can also visit all of these locations via train from downtown Anchorage!
Looking for a place to stay? There’s an interactive map at the end of the post that will help you find an accommodation in or around Anchorage!
Arrive at Anchorage
You can either fly to Anchorage direct from a wide variety of U.S. cities (plus Frankfurt, Germany, and Vancouver, BC) or get to Anchorage via a cruise. For our trip, we flew to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines via Portland, OR, on the way up, though Seattle is another popular layover spot if you don’t have a nonstop flight option (*cries in Boise*).
As an aside, if you have a choice, I’d recommend avoiding a layover in Seattle if you can help it. In our experience, it seems as though more and more flights arriving to and departing from Seattle are subject to ATC delays.
Alaska is four hours behind Eastern time and one hour behind Pacific time. If you are visiting in the summer, the sun stays out LATE (it’s called the Land of the Midnight sun for a reason). If there are no clouds, it’ll still be light out if you land at midnight Alaska time! The late nights definitely confused my brain and wrecked my sleep schedule, ha.
We stayed with Korri’s family; they live in Anchorage and have a vehicle we used, so it was the perfect base to visit the places Korri wanted to go.
Day 1: Day Trip to Talkeetna to See Denali
On our first full day in Alaska, Korri looked at the weather and decided we needed to drive two hours north to Talkeetna to see Denali in all its glory—with no clouds! Denali is the tallest mountain in North America at 20,156 feet, and it’s said that 70% of the people that try to see Denali in person don’t succeed because it’s covered by clouds.
When we pulled into Talkeetna, Korri checked the Denali live camera and there were a few clouds around. So, we opted to stop at the Flying Squirrel for a mid-afternoon meal and to wait for the clouds to clear. It ended up being the perfect idea because our food was delicious (I got the good morning breakfast sandwich and the “Kimmie” cookie, naturally), and the clouds cleared during our meal!
We drove to the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, which has a great view of Denali from behind the lodge and restaurant. We are fortunate to be part of the 30% of people that got to see Denali with no clouds! It really is a stunning mountain. The lodge is also just south of the Talkeetna airport, so we watched a bunch of bush planes take off for flight tours of Denali, including the exact same plane my brother was on about two weeks earlier when he visited with his girlfriend and her family.
After our stop at the lodge, we drove down the main road through town, which was crawling with tourists. At the end of the road, where the Talkeetna River meets the Susitna River, we parked and walked out to the river to see Denali from that vantage point. The Talkeetna River looks cloudy as it meets the other river because it’s full of silt from glaciers!
We walked through town, where there was a little market, places to eat, and lots of local shops. Korri was very tempted to do a flight to Denali because the weather was so nice, so we stopped into K2 Aviation to learn about the options. We decided not to do it because the timing didn’t quite work out.
When driving out of Talkeetna, we passed the passenger train that was going to depart for Anchorage! I’d love to do that train someday. It doesn’t take much longer than the drive.
Also, fun fact about Talkeetna: Their mayor is a CAT! 🐱
Day 2: Day Trip to Whittier and Girdwood
We took it easier on our second full day in Alaska and went downtown for lunch at Simon and Seafort’s. The restaurant has beautiful views of the water. Popular meals include anything with seafood (particularly the clam chowder and fish and chips). I’m not a huge seafood gal and got the summer picnic salad. Korri’s grandma LOVES their key lime pie.
Later that afternoon, we drove a little over an hour south of Anchorage to see Whittier. The highway south of Anchorage takes you along the Turnagain Arm, and this is the same highway you take to eventually get to Soldotna, Kenai, Homer, and Seward. (There is also a passenger train that goes from Anchorage to Whittier!)
There are a couple of fun things to know about Whittier. First, you have to drive through a 2.5-mile-long one-lane tunnel through the mountains to get there. As you drive up to the tunnel, you pay the toll fee (it’s a round-trip fare based on the type of vehicle you’re driving because they assume you’ll need to leave Whittier at some point), and then you have to wait for the light to turn green before entering the tunnel.
We timed it perfectly and showed up to the tunnel when the light was green, so we didn’t have a wait going through. Because it’s a one-lane tunnel, you drive over the train tracks in the ground. It feels sort of like you’re on a Disneyland ride as you drive through (like Pirates of the Caribbean or something like that…it’s spooky, underground, kind of misty wet).
Whittier sits at the end of Passage Canal, and it’s known for being the town in Alaska where all of the residents live in the same building (this is the second fun thing, if you consider that a fun thing, haha). There are only a couple hundred residents, and there are shops and places to eat inside the building, too. It basically looks like a large apartment building.
We drove through town past the creepy-looking Buckner Building and then up Shotgun Cove Road to the Lu Young Park and Public Beach to see the landscape and take photos. We continued down the road until the end and took more photos of Passage Canal with the stunning snow-covered mountains in the background.
The train was getting ready to depart Whittier as we joined the line of cars ready to go back through the tunnel again. We watched the train go through first, and I think it made it completely through the tunnel before the vehicles were allowed to follow. It would be so fun to go through that tunnel from inside the train cars with the glass dome on top!
On our way back, we stopped to take photos at Portage Lake (just outside the toll entrance on the west side of the mountain) and then stopped again in Girdwood (the one gas station you’ll see on the highway).
Next to the gas station are a bakery and espresso shop, Subway, ice cream shop (also with espresso), touristy gift shop, and local pizza place. The line for the pizza was SUPER long but moving quickly. It smelled so good! We grabbed gas station snacks, and Korri got a giant cinnamon roll (his favorite) and coffee drinks for us (so good!) from the bakery, Alpine Bakery.
Day 3: Day Trip to Seward for a Kenai Fjords Boat Tour
We woke up bright and early on our third full day (the 4th of July in this case!) to drive a little over two hours south to Seward to catch a boat tour of the beautiful Kenai Fjords National Park! This is Korri’s favorite town in Alaska and his favorite national park (out of all the national parks he’s been to), so we had to make it happen during his big birthday trip.
On the 4th of July, Seward is a busy place, mostly because their annual Mount Marathon Race is held on the 4th. This is when tons of runners take their shot at running up to the top of Mount Marathon (adjacent to the town) and back… hopefully without hurting themselves! The race is short (5 km), but the change in elevation is massive (over 3,000 feet of vertical).
I personally had no desire to watch the race, so I was excited to head out on a boat tour. We booked the 7-hour Captain’s Choice tour with Kenai Fjords Tours. Basically, the captain had the freedom to take us to the best spots to see a variety of wildlife plus an active glacier. They kind of make the tour up as they go, which makes it fun and exciting (and different every time)!
We saw sooo much wildlife: bald eagles, orcas, Dall’s porpoises, sea lions, puffins, humpback whales, and of course…lots and lots of seagulls. They served us a quick lunch on board (included with our ticket) of a burrito and chips, and at the end they baked chocolate chip cookies! They tasted SO good (and made the boat smell amazing too).
You could tell that our captain, Emma from Kansas, really loved her job. She was fantastic at pointing out the wildlife and sharing cool facts and history! She also took us to Aialik Glacier, which calved a bit while we were there. It sounded like fireworks or gun shots. Nature’s fireworks! (Way better than “real” fireworks, in my opinion.)
The last (and maybe best?) thing we saw was a group of humpback whales bubble net feeding! It was sooo cool! The boat tour really went by super fast because we were almost constantly watching something. We got pretty lucky with the weather, too; the marine layer kept clouds overhead most of the day, but the seas weren’t too bad, and the sun did peek out at times.
Before leaving Seward, I stamped my national parks passport book at the Kenai Fjords visitor center (of course!). We drove south to Lowell Point to check out the beach and view of Resurrection Bay before heading out.
The restaurants in Seward were all crazy busy, so we opted to stop in Girdwood again for pizza at Coast Pizza (tip: it’s less expensive to buy a full pizza if you’re feeding a group versus everyone getting slices), ice cream at The Ice Cream Shop, and more coffee drinks from Alpine Bakery.
P.S. You can also take a passenger train from Anchorage to Seward (and back), but you won’t have enough time for a 7-hour-long boat tour if you just go to Seward for the day.
Day 4: Anchorage Trolley Tour + Dinner
Once day 4 rolled around, we definitely needed a bit of a break from driving long distances, so we slept in and booked a one-hour local tour aboard the bright red Anchorage Trolley. The trolley takes you through downtown Anchorage and parts of the west side of Anchorage including Lake Hood, the busiest seaplane base in the world.
We had a great driver/narrator, Alice “of Winterland” as she called herself, and learned more about the history of the city. She took us through a neighborhood and to Earthquake Park, where you can see the ripples in the ground from the big earthquake in 1964. We even got to see a moose!
Later in the evening, we went to Bear Tooth Grill for dinner. It was chilly outside from the breeze, so almost everyone was dining inside, and we had to wait a bit for a table to open up. We decided to just eat outside, which worked fine besides the wind! We ended up moving to a table under a working heat lamp, though there were also tables close to two fires.
Of course, I ordered the potato burrito. It was delicious and huge! Korri loved the bowl he ordered, and we also tried the fries, which also tasted yummy. I was nervous about the garlic and cilantro fries since I’m not a cilantro fan, but it was easy to avoid eating it.
Bear Tooth offers the restaurant as well as a theater, where you can watch a selection of movies and they bring the food to you! This is a sister restaurant to Moose’s Tooth, which is Korri’s favorite place to get pizza in Anchorage. (Funny enough, we didn’t make it there!)
On most nights of our trip, we’d drive to the end of the north-south runway to watch “big mama” planes (as I call them) land and take off. Anchorage is a popular spot for them to stop and refuel before continuing their journey east towards the lower 48 or west towards Asia. We even watched one plane take off as another was a couple miles out from landing. Stressful!
Day 5: Brunch + Bike the Coastal Trail in Anchorage
Today was Korri’s big birthday! He wanted to kick it off with brunch at South Restaurant. This is another place we should have made reservations for ahead of time, but their estimated 45-60 minute wait only ended up being about 20 minutes. We drove to a nearby Kaladi Brothers for coffee drinks and had to rush back to make our reservation.
Brunch at South was worth the wait! I ordered two scrambled eggs with roasted smashed potatoes and sourdough bread, and it was the perfect amount. The potatoes were delish! Korri’s favorite is the Vegas, baby! three-egg omelet with all the fixings, and his grandma ordered the love on a plate dish with potatoes, veggies, and eggs. The portions were large!
After brunch, we were so full that we went back to the house to digest for a bit. Then, Korri and I hopped on bikes and rode the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail over to the end of the runway and then turned around and headed towards downtown!
The Coastal Trail is a popular paved multi-use pedestrian path that follows the water from downtown Anchorage to the airport. It is quite hilly around Earthquake Park and the airport but mostly flat east from the park to downtown. The foliage and the views are beautiful!
We rode all the way to the Anchorage Train Depot but didn’t hang out for long before going back because a rain cloud was headed our way. We made it almost all the way back to the house before it started raining! The total length of our ride was 11 miles, which was impressive for me considering I normally complain if Korri wants to ride longer than half that distance at home. 😆 It really didn’t feel too long to me!
We finished Korri’s birthday and closed out our trip by watching a few more big planes land at the airport. It felt like a treat to see so many wide body planes land and take off since we never see them in Boise!
Depart Anchorage
Sadly, the Alaska trip has come to an end and it’s time to head back to the real world! 🥲
Korri and I flew out in the late afternoon on the Hawaiian Airlines A330. It was our first time flying Hawaiian Airlines, and it felt so luxurious to fly in a wide body aircraft for a relatively short flight (it’s about a three-hour flight between Anchorage and Seattle). It also felt luxurious because our bids up to first class were accepted, so we go to experience their food and lay-flat seats! I definitely want to fly them again next time we go to Hawaii.