SPLENDIDA NATURA D'ALASKA — NAAR

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SPLENDIDA NATURA D'ALASKA

Tour e Crociere10 Giorni

Anchorage, Stati Uniti

Anchorage›Kenai Fjords National Park›Seward›Talkeetna›Denali›Nenana›Fairbanks›Delta Junction›Valdez›Prince William Sound›Matanuska Glacier

Abstract

An unforgettable journey through the natural wonders of Alaska: from Anchorage to the Kenai Fjords, Denali National Park and Prince William Sound. Accompanied by your Italian-speaking guide, you will discover this state in the far north-west of the American continent, known for its spectacular landscapes, with imposing mountains, glaciers, pristine forests and abundant wildlife, including bears, moose and eagles.

Starts from

10 days / 9 nights - from Anchorage to Anchorage.

Characteristics

Collective tour.
Driver/guide in Italian
guaranteed departures min 8 / max 10 participants until seats are sold out
small groups, max 10 participants
breakfast and some of the meals included.

Meals

Legend: B breakfast, L lunch.

Itinerary

Giorno 1 — Anchorage

Welcome in Italian upon arrival and private transfer to the hotel. Available evening. Nestled in a splendid location between Cook Inlet and the Chugach Mountains, Anchorage welcomes over 40% of Alaska's population. It is an expansive city on the edge of one of the largest wilderness areas on the planet.
Accommodation Hilton Anchorage

Auto

Giorno 2 — Anchorage → Kenai Fjords National Park → Seward

Breakfast. I will meet you in the hotel lobby within 30 minutes of departure. Departure for Kenai Fjords National Park at 7.30. You travel along the Seward Highway, a scenic coastal road carved into the side of the Chugach Mountains. Also known as the National Forest Scenic Byway, it follows the first 50 miles along the arm of the sea that extends inland from Turnagain Bay and leads to Seward, passing through bays, glaciers, and alpine valleys. Arrive at Seward. It is a picturesque town surrounded by rugged mountains and overlooking Resurrection Bay, rich in salmon. Born at the beginning of the last century as a ice-free port at the southern end of the Alaska Railroad, it has become famous as a starting point for gold seekers heading to Nome. At 11:30, we board the M/V Spirit of Adventure for the cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park, Chiswell Island Wildlife Refuge, and Holgate Glacier, as well as a small island where over 20,000 puffins return to nest every summer. You will see a marine and terrestrial wildlife habitat like you have never seen before! Exotic seabirds, puffins, sea lions, seals, humpback whales, orcas, and bald eagles are all within sight, along with enormous icebergs from the Holgate Glacier. Packed lunch along the way. Return to Seward. I am available for the rest of the afternoon.
Accommodation Seward Harbor 360 Hotel

Auto

Giorno 3 — Seward → Anchorage → Talkeetna

Breakfast. Departure to Talkeetna. You pass through Anchorage and reach the Alaska Native Heritage Center; the center brings together representatives of 11 indigenous cultures and aims to preserve and pass on the traditions, dances, and songs of the natives. Various villages have been reconstructed, each dedicated to a specific culture or group of related cultures. Late afternoon arrival to Talkeetna Talkeetna is a small town with an international atmosphere, as it serves as a base for climbing Mount McKinley, now called by its indigenous name Denali, which stands at 6,190 meters, making it the highest mountain in the American continent. The best view of Denali can be seen from a viewpoint south of the town.
Accommodation Talkeetna Denali View Lodge & Cabins

Treno

Giorno 4 — Talkeetna → Denali

Breakfast. Morning available. Transfer to the Talkeetna station. Travel by train to Denali. Lunch on board. Upon arrival in the mid-afternoon, I will meet with the tour guide. There is a possibility of stopping at the Denali Visitors Center or having free time to hike one of the trails within the park.
Accommodation Denali Park Hotel

Giorno 5 — Denali

Breakfast. Day dedicated to visiting the park. Packed lunch. The huge Denali National Park is a vast world of tundra and taiga, glaciers, huge mountains and abundant wildlife, so that backcountry hiking is a wonderful experience, but it's undertaken by only a tiny fraction of visitors. Most travellers just want to see Mont Denali, so in In high summer, the visitor centre and the Park Highway becomes a stream of car, RVs, tour buses. Typical dinner at the Alaska Cabin Nite dinner theater, with a show about the stories of the gold prospectors.
Accommodation Denali Park Hotel

Auto

Giorno 6 — Denali → Nenana → Fairbanks

Breakfast. You follow the George Park Highway north with a stop in Nenana; its name, of Indian origin, means "a beautiful place to camp between rivers". I arrive at Fairbanks. Fairbanks is located in the geographic heart of the state. It is the second largest city in Alaska and is situated on a plain near the Yukon River, close to the foothills that border the White Mountains glaciers. It was founded in 1902 after the discovery of a large gold deposit by Felice Pedroni, an Italian immigrant. During World War II, it became an important military base and later served as a base for the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. You visit the Museum of the North, located on the campus of the University of Fairbanks, which catalogs and preserves the cultural and natural heritage of Alaska and the Arctic Circle, with particular attention to the phenomenon of the Northern Lights, visible during the winter months. Then, you reach the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, which houses a collection of extremely rare carriages, steam cars, electric machines, racing cars, and classic pieces from the 1930s. The tour continues with the experience of gold panning, sifting through the soil to find flakes of the precious metal. You will be transferred to the Gold Daughters site to experience the thrill of gold panning with a pan, the famous tool used by prospectors. ATTENTION: Due to organizational or weather reasons, the order of visits may change.
Accommodation SpringHill Suites by MarriottFairbanks

Auto

Giorno 7 — Fairbanks → Delta Junction → Valdez

Breakfast. Early in the morning departure for Valdez following the Richardson Highway via Thompson Pass, in a landscape of green forests. Stop at Rika's Roadhouse, a historic building near an important ford of the Tanana River, close to Delta Junction, and at the Bridal Veil and Pony Tail waterfalls in the Keystone Canyon, a gorge with almost vertical walls, reaching heights of almost 200 meters in some places. The Richardson Highway is a very scenic route, with beautiful views of the Chugach Mountains and the Alaska Range, and some of the best views of Alaska's glaciers. The road is wide, paved, and in decent condition. You can also see the trans-Alaska pipeline, which runs from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to the terminal in Port Valdez (1300 km). The Richardson Highway was the first known route in Alaska for gold prospectors in 1898, known as the Valdez to Eagle Trail. Prospectors again traveled the trail in 1902, this time heading to Fairbanks. The route from Valdez to Fairbanks became an important inland route, and in 1910 the trail was widened under the direction of Gen. Wilds P. Richardson, the first chairman of the Alaska Road Commission. In the 1920s, it was adapted for cars and paved in 1957. Arrival at Valdez. Valdez rises in a spectacular position at the head of a deep fjord in southern Alaska, surrounded by steep mountains, glaciers and waterfalls, so much so that it is nicknamed 'Alaska's little Switzerland'. The northernmost ice-free port in the state and terminal of the trans-Alaska pipeline, it is an ideal base for cruises among the glaciers of Prince William Sound, kayaking, salmon fishing and watching whales and otters. In winter it draws extreme-skiing enthusiasts for its very abundant snowfalls. Between fjords, glaciers and mountains, Valdez is wild nature in its purest state.
Accommodation Totem Hotel and Suites Valdez.

Traghetto

Giorno 8 — Valdez → Prince William Sound → Valdez

Breakfast. Boarding for the cruise in Prince William Sound. We will also see the Columbia Glacier. Lunch on board. Prince William Sound is probably the best place in Alaska for spectacular coastal landscapes and glaciers that terminate in the ocean. Prince William Sound has the highest concentration of tidewater glaciers in the world, with ice fronts that rise tens of meters above the water. Return to Valdez.
Accommodation Totem Hotel and Suites Valdez

Auto

Giorno 9 — Valdez → Matanuska Glacier → Anchorage

Breakfast. Departure for Matanuska Glacier. You cross Matanuska Valley, the fertile valley where Alaska's agriculture is concentrated; visit the Matanuska Glacier, 45 km long and 6 km wide, a glacier lying on the plain, not descending from the mountains. The road is very scenic: from Eureka Pass you can see the Tazlina Glacier. Arrival at Anchorage. Farewell dinner at a restaurant.
Accommodation Hilton Anchorage

Giorno 10 — Anchorage

Breakfast. Airport transfer. End of the tour.

Price includes

Local companion/driver in Italian for the entire tour
Private transportation in a minivan for up to 5 participants, van with 15 seats for 6 to 10 participants.
Accommodation at the scheduled hotel (or similar)
Entrance fees, visits and excursions as per the programme: private arrival and departure transfers in Anchorage, stop at the Matanuska Glacier viewpoint, entrance to and visit of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, visit to the Iditarod Headquarters, cruise in Prince William Sound to the Columbia Glacier with light lunch included, entrance to Rika's House Historical site and the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, gold panning at Gold Daughters in Fairbanks, excursion to Denali with snack box included, cruise to the Kenai Fjords with light lunch included, Wilderness Express train journey with lunch included, CabinNite dinner at Denali, Kenai Fjords cruise with light lunch included and farewell dinner
Meals: 9 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 2 dinners

Price does not include

Opening fee and Zero Risk coverage
Medical-luggage-cancellation insurance
Unmentioned meals, beverages and extras in general
Tip
Flights and airport taxes
Everything not expressly mentioned in "The fee includes"

Important notes

In Alaska, most rooms booked as triples have two beds, but there are some issues at Denali and Talkeetna. In the event of a triple room booking, the actual availability of rooms with two beds will need to be checked.

Cancellation policies

Up to 61 days before the start of the tour: 10%, from 60 to 45 days: 30%, from 44 to 30 days: 60%, after that deadline or no show: 100%.

Optional visits

Your guide will propose optional excursions to be paid locally (with no obligation to purchase) in cash or by credit card. We provide here an indicative list, and the prices will be communicated on-site. There is no guarantee that all the options listed here will be available: it will depend on the available time, reaching the minimum number of participants required, and various considerations.

Notes

LUGGAGE: A medium-sized luggage (max 23 kg) per person is allowed. Due to space limitations, we cannot guarantee extra luggage. In case there is space available, but it is not possible to know before the tour departure, the fee for each extra item will be $7 per day, collected by the tour guide at the beginning of the tour. For security reasons, it is not allowed to leave excess luggage in storage at the hotel where the tour starts.
ROOMS: The rooms are always and only for 1 or 2 beds. The terms triple, quadruple, family room refer solely to the number of occupants, who will be accommodated in the existing beds (maximum 2 beds). An additional bed (rollaway), even if requested at the time of booking, is always subject to availability and payment of a local supplement. Requests for rooms with a double bed or twin beds, connecting rooms, adjacent rooms, on higher or lower floors, etc., are always subject to availability and are never guaranteed.
TRAVEL DOCUMENTS: Participants must ensure before departure that they have the necessary and valid documentation for entry into the countries visited during the tour.
MINIMUM AGE: 8 years old. Anyone who has not yet turned 18 must share a room with someone older, or hotels will not accept them as guests.
OPTIONAL EXCURSIONS: a list of optional services, to be paid by credit card or in cash, will be offered to you on site. The courier is under no obligation to provide assistance to the passengers for excursions purchased before departure.
SMOKING: smoking is not allowed on buses and in hotels.
HOTEL, CHECK-IN: Anyone who has not yet turned 18 (21 in Las Vegas) must share the room with someone older, or hotels will not accept the guests.
HOTEL, SECURITY DEPOSIT: at check-in, a personal credit card is required as a guarantee for any additional expenses. If the credit card is corporate, prior authorization is necessary. The amount blocked as a guarantee for any additional expenses varies depending on the hotel category. The release of the blocked amount occurs within 3-10 business days from the check-out date, and even longer if the bank supporting the credit card is not American. It is recommended to bring at least two credit cards with you.
HOTEL / ITINERARY, CHANGES: The organizing company reserves the right to modify the itinerary and/or hotels with others of similar or higher category, means of transportation, etc., if required by unforeseen circumstances and necessary for the safety and normal continuation of the trip. Furthermore, when it is not possible to accommodate all participants in the same hotel, the group will be divided among different hotels of equal category.
TOUR START: meet at the designated location for departure at least 30 minutes in advance; punctuality and respect for the schedule are recommended. No refunds are provided for services missed due to customer delay.
TIPS: not included, but practically mandatory, unless there are serious shortcomings. It is recommended: for the tour guide $5-$6 per day per person, for the driver $4-$5 per day per person.
MEALS: not included unless specified.
SEATS ON THE BUS: daily seat rotation.
REFUNDS: There are no refunds for parts of the tour or excursions not carried out due to force majeure; in any case, no refund is due to the customer who decides to interrupt the trip or stay.

Abstract

Starts from

10 days / 9 nights - from Anchorage to Anchorage.

Characteristics

Collective tour.
Driver/guide in Italian
guaranteed departures min 8 / max 10 participants until seats are sold out
small groups, max 10 participants
breakfast and some of the meals included.

Meals

Legend: B breakfast, L lunch.

Itinerary

Giorno 1 — Anchorage

Auto

Giorno 2 — Anchorage → Kenai Fjords National Park → Seward

Auto

Giorno 3 — Seward → Anchorage → Talkeetna

Treno

Giorno 4 — Talkeetna → Denali

Giorno 5 — Denali

Auto

Giorno 6 — Denali → Nenana → Fairbanks

Auto

Giorno 7 — Fairbanks → Delta Junction → Valdez

Traghetto

Giorno 8 — Valdez → Prince William Sound → Valdez

Auto

Giorno 9 — Valdez → Matanuska Glacier → Anchorage

Giorno 10 — Anchorage

Breakfast. Airport transfer. End of the tour.

Price includes

Local companion/driver in Italian for the entire tour
Private transportation in a minivan for up to 5 participants, van with 15 seats for 6 to 10 participants.
Accommodation at the scheduled hotel (or similar)
Entrance fees, visits and excursions as per the programme: private arrival and departure transfers in Anchorage, stop at the Matanuska Glacier viewpoint, entrance to and visit of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, visit to the Iditarod Headquarters, cruise in Prince William Sound to the Columbia Glacier with light lunch included, entrance to Rika's House Historical site and the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, gold panning at Gold Daughters in Fairbanks, excursion to Denali with snack box included, cruise to the Kenai Fjords with light lunch included, Wilderness Express train journey with lunch included, CabinNite dinner at Denali, Kenai Fjords cruise with light lunch included and farewell dinner
Meals: 9 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 2 dinners

Price does not include

Opening fee and Zero Risk coverage
Medical-luggage-cancellation insurance
Unmentioned meals, beverages and extras in general
Tip
Flights and airport taxes
Everything not expressly mentioned in "The fee includes"

Important notes

In Alaska, most rooms booked as triples have two beds, but there are some issues at Denali and Talkeetna. In the event of a triple room booking, the actual availability of rooms with two beds will need to be checked.

Cancellation policies

Up to 61 days before the start of the tour: 10%, from 60 to 45 days: 30%, from 44 to 30 days: 60%, after that deadline or no show: 100%.