subject: Why To Have A Luxurious Holiday In Alaska [print this page] Cruising. Cruising.
Take in spectacular sights on your Alaska holidays as you relax and enjoy some pampering on a luxurious trip. The freezing waters that surround Alaska's coastline may not be ideal for human swimming, but they are home to vast numbers of whales.
Alaskan cruise ships sail you past icebergs as you watch the whales. Sail along the Inside Passage, the coastal route for ocean going vessels that passes thousands of islands and around Glacier Bay, Tracy Arm and Admiralty Island. Cruise ships will take you to visit the Glacier Bay National Park, a protected area that can only be reached by sea or by air.
Whale watching and glacier viewing are easily accessible in trips from luxury hotels in the state's largest city, Anchorage. Six mountain ranges Aleutian, Talkeetna, Tordrillo, Kenai, Chugach and Alaska mountains surround Anchorage. You can go skiing and snowboarding in winter, or camping, hiking and canoeing in summer.
Festivals.
The three summer months of June, July and August are the best time to visit Alaska because the weather is mild and the day is long. There are summer festivals that celebrate Alaska's rich culture of Inuit, Russian and European settlers, as well as American. There's a crab festival, a Norwegian festival and Eskimo blanket tossing at the Inuit spring whaling festival, Nalukataq. See the ancient Inupiart culture at Barrow, North America's most northerly point.
Midnight Sun.
These are the latitudes where you can watch the Midnight Sun in summer. Private planes fly from Fairbanks, Alaska's second city, some 300 miles to the north to the Arctic Circle to make sure you see the sun in the middle of the night. In contrast with the helicopter rides associated with Grand canyon Tours, here the really adventurous can take a hot air balloon to watch the sun throughout the night.
Bear watching.
This state offers the best bear watching scenery in the world. In September, salmon migrate upstream to spawn and bears come out in great numbers to catch the fish. The weather is slightly cooler than high summer, but remains fine even for the most pampered of tourists.
The Katmai National Park and Reserve in southern Alaska holds the world's largest brown bear population. Bears gather around Kulak Bay, Chiniak and Hallo Bay because of plentiful salmon, clams and other seafood. The bears here are not interested in humans, so they can be photographed quite closely. The viewing platforms are as high as those on Grand Canyon tours.
Fly from Katmai to Kodiak Island, that lies just off the south coast. The first non-Inuit settlers were Russians who came here in the late 18th century. The island is famous for its own species of bear and the Karlok river salmon run.
The Denali National Park lies in the middle of Alaska and includes Mt. McKinley, the United States' highest mountain. This is home to moose, caribou, grey wolves and Dall sheep, as well as black and brown bears. It's paradise for bird watches, from Arctic Warblers, tundra swans and Ptarmigans.
