Alaska Itinerary: 7 Days From Anchorage
Alaska is a fifth of the size of the rest of the country, so seven days means two regions at most. The standard week is Anchorage, then Seward for Kenai Fjords, then Denali, then back. Seward is two and a half hours south by road or four hours by train. Denali is four hours north. The alternative week goes east instead, eight hours to McCarthy and Kennecott inside Wrangell St Elias, which is the largest national park in the country and the emptiest. June to August has the daylight, up to 19 hours of it. Our Kenai Fjords kayaking itinerary covers the coastal half.
Version 1: Kenai Fjords and Denali
- Day 1, Anchorage. Land, collect the car, and ride part of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Drive to Girdwood in the evening for the Winner Creek trail.
- Day 2, the Seward Highway to Seward. Two and a half hours along Turnagain Arm, with stops at Beluga Point and the Byron Glacier trail at Portage. Arrive Seward for the evening.
- Day 3, Kenai Fjords by boat. A six to eight hour day cruise to a tidewater glacier, with puffins, sea otters, humpbacks and often orcas. This is the single best purchase of the week. Kayaking Aialik Bay is the better version if the budget allows.
- Day 4, Exit Glacier and the Harding Icefield Trail. Eight and a half miles and 3,500 feet up the flank of the glacier to a viewpoint over 700 square miles of ice. The best day hike in Alaska. Snow lingers on the upper section into July.
- Day 5, Seward to Denali. Six and a half hours by road, or take the Alaska Railroad and let somebody else drive. Break it in Talkeetna, where the flightseeing trips onto the Kahiltna Glacier leave from.
- Day 6, Denali. The park road is open to private cars only as far as mile 15 at Savage River, and a landslide at Pretty Rocks has closed the road beyond roughly mile 43 in recent seasons, so check the current status. Take a transit bus as far as it runs, walk the Savage River loop and Horseshoe Lake, and consider a flightseeing trip around the mountain instead of a long bus day. See our Denali park road guide.
- Day 7, back to Anchorage, four hours, with a stop at the Denali viewpoint south of Trapper Creek if the mountain is out. It is visible about one day in three.
Version 2: Wrangell St Elias
Thirteen million acres, six of the ten highest peaks in the United States, and almost nobody in it. Eight hours from Anchorage to McCarthy, the last 60 of them on the gravel McCarthy Road, which most hire car agreements technically forbid. Check yours, or fly into McCarthy from Chitina.
Give it four nights. Walk out to the Kennecott mill town, take a guided day onto the Root Glacier with crampons, and if you have the legs, climb toward Donoho Peak or Bonanza Mine, 9 miles and 3,800 feet. Our Wrangell St Elias itinerary and Root Glacier hike guide cover it properly.
Version 3: the Kenai Peninsula only
Seven days without the long northern drive. Seward for three nights, Homer for two, and Cooper Landing for two. Kenai Fjords by boat, halibut fishing or a water taxi to Kachemak Bay State Park out of Homer, and the Russian River or Resurrection Pass trails inland. Less driving, more water, and better fishing than either of the other two weeks. See our Resurrection Pass itinerary.
The train, and whether to drive
The Alaska Railroad runs Anchorage to Seward and Anchorage to Denali and Fairbanks, on tracks that reach places the road does not. It is slower than driving and far more comfortable, and the Seward run in particular is worth doing for its own sake. The catch is that without a car you are dependent on tours and shuttles at each end, which costs more than the rental you skipped. Most people should drive and take the train for one leg.
When to go
- June: longest days, up to 19 hours of usable light, snow still on the high trails, mosquitoes arriving.
- July: warmest, busiest, best for the Harding Icefield Trail being fully clear.
- August: salmon running, berries out, the first hint of autumn colour on the tundra by the end of the month, and more rain.
- September: tundra gold in Denali, northern lights returning, most tours winding down by the middle of the month. This is also when the Denali road lottery runs, covered in our road lottery guide.
- October to May: a different trip entirely. Fewer than a fifth of the businesses stay open.
What it costs, honestly
Alaska in July is not cheap and pretending otherwise ruins trips. A Kenai Fjords day cruise runs well over a hundred dollars a head. A flightseeing trip to Denali is several hundred. Hire cars in Anchorage in high season cost more than they do anywhere in the lower 48, and one way drop offs cost more again. Book the car and any flightseeing before the beds, because those are the two things that sell out and swing the budget.
Have us build the week
Tell us your dates and what you most want to see, glaciers, wildlife or mountains, and we will pick the two regions that fit and lay out the days. Planning is free, and we earn only if you book through us.
Alaska Itinerary: 7 Days From Anchorage FAQs
For two regions, yes. Anchorage plus Kenai Fjords and Denali is the standard week. Trying to add Wrangell St Elias or Homer to that same week turns it into a driving trip.
Anchorage and Girdwood, then two nights in Seward for a Kenai Fjords day cruise and the Harding Icefield Trail, then two nights at Denali, then back to Anchorage. That covers tidewater glaciers, marine wildlife and the interior in one week.
About 240 miles and four hours north on the Parks Highway. The Alaska Railroad takes closer to eight hours and is more comfortable, and Talkeetna at the halfway point is worth a stop for the flightseeing trips.
Only to mile 15 at Savage River in private vehicles. Beyond that the road is bus access, and a landslide at Pretty Rocks has closed it beyond roughly mile 43 in recent seasons. Check the current status before you build a bus day into your plan.
July for the warmest weather and fully clear high trails, June for the longest daylight, and late August into early September for tundra colour and the return of the northern lights. Most tour operators run from late May to mid September.
For a seven day trip, yes. The Alaska Railroad covers Seward and Denali well, but without a car you are dependent on shuttles and tours at each end, which usually costs more than the rental. Driving with one train leg is the common compromise.
