Alaska Hotels

My third trip to Alaska in three years… Since I arrived back from my short winter trip to Alaska in March 2008, I’ve been thinking about heading back up in the summer of 2009. I am on a budget like a lot of folks, so I started saving for this trip during the summer of 2008. There are a number of activities & adventures on my life’s ‘to-do’ list that I desire to achieve and Alaska seems like a great place to accomplish them. - Ride & sleep on a Ferry (maybe see a whale or two) - See the Southeast Alaska ; Ketchikan , Sitka , Juneau , Haines & Skagway - Relax in the Hot Spring - Go whitewater ...

June 13, 2004, Portland I arrive in Portland at 11:20am local time. From the airport I take a cab to the shipyard, leave the luggage at the door, and have my first meal onboard. It is not bad at all. It is Semester at Sea's first voyage with the ship: the Olympic Explorer. It is a two years old former cruise ship, purchased from the bankrupt Royal Olympic Cruises. I happily find that I get to have my own room, a small cabin with two single beds. The cabin has a compact yet efficent design which includes almosteverything I need: a bathroom with shower, plenty of storage space, a tv, atiny ...

First visit to Alaska… In the summer of ’07, I lived out of a backpack and traveled throughout the Interior & Kenai Peninsula of Alaska by myself for 17 days. It was the ‘best’ trip that I had taken! Early that year, my co-worker in Anchorage and I were taking about how we were going to spend on PTO time for work, she suggested I visit Alaska. I asked her “are you crazy? Me? Go on vacation by myself and to Alaska, where there are bears? What was she thinking? I’m a city girl. “ My co-worker sent me brochures and booklets on Alaska, another friend told me about the ‘Milepost’, which is an ...