 Hi everyone and welcome back to the channel. In this video today, we're going to talk about travel restrictions to Alaska, what to expect and what you should know before you get there. If you're new here, welcome to the channel. My name's Habiba and this is Trekking Pels. And alongside with my partner, we spent the past month in the beautiful state of Alaska working from our Airbnb during the week and hitting the hiking trails during the weekend and exploring some of the most beautiful treasures of the beautiful state of Alaska. But before getting there, we did have a lot of doubts and concerns because the rules seem to be a little bit different from the lower 48 states. And so with that, we wanted to make this video for you guys to help you plan for your next trip to Alaska and share with you our experience. First of all, the rules are different between residents of Alaska and non-residents of Alaska. And we'll start with non-residents of Alaska. If you are coming to Alaska as a non-resident either from a different state within the US or from a different country, you are expected to fill a travel declaration form. This form is available online at covid19.alaska.gov. It's free, you go in and you enter your information including your first, last name, contact information, phone number, email. If you are experiencing any symptoms you are going to be asked to enter that information as well. What time are you entering Alaska? When are you leaving? How much time are you spending in the state? And this information is going to help the state for tracking purposes and to ensure that the state can easily reach out to you if necessary. Now on the top of the travel declaration form you are required to show results of your covid19 test assuming that you took a test before arriving to Alaska and I think that's the best option for a household-free experience. So let's imagine you took your test before getting to Alaska. When you arrive to the airport you're going to talk to a healthcare representative and you're going to show them your negative results and you are good to go. Now there are scenarios where you might arrive to Alaska but your results are not out yet. In that case you have to show proof that you took your test and that you are waiting for your results to be out and while you are waiting you are expected to self-quarantine at your own expense either in your hotel, Airbnb, family or friends until your results are out. Once the results are out you have to go online to the portal and upload the results of your test. Now let's say for some reason you were not able to get tested before arriving to Alaska. In this case there is an option for you to purchase a test at the airport at your own expense and that is $250. Now when we were in Alaska it used to be free for residents and no residents but as of August 11th the rules are different and it's no longer free for no residents. So just keep that in mind. Now when you get tested at the airport you will be asked to self-quarantine until the results are out when the results are out. If you are testing negative then you are good to go. Now once you are in Alaska you are also expected to take a second test within seven to 14 days upon arrival. So keep that in mind. If you are coming to Alaska for work as an employee you are expected to follow the plan that's going to be communicated to you by your company. There are usually collaborations between companies and the states to make sure that people are abiding by the rules and that takes care of the rules for no residents coming to visit Alaska. Now for residents who are coming back to Alaska you are still expected to fill a traveler declaration form. You are expected to show results of your test if you already took it. If you did not take a test before traveling there is an option for you to get tested at the airport and this one is free because you are a resident. If for some reason you are not able to get tested at the airport then you will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days and this used to be an option for even no residents of the state but it's no longer the case as of August 11th and that takes care of the rules for Alaska residents coming back to the state. Now say for example that you tested negative you followed all the rules you did your due diligence as a good citizen and you are ready to roll and explore the beautiful state of Alaska. What is it like during the pandemic? As you know the state of Alaska relies heavily on tourism and so most of businesses related to tourist activities were operating and open for tourists and visitors. We were able to dine in in most of the restaurants in the area in Anchorage, Seward, all around the Kenai Peninsula. Most of the time they do ask you to give your name and phone number so that they can reach out to you and contact you in case they detect any cases in this particular restaurant. This is mainly in the big cities like Anchorage. I don't think that we were asked to share our information in Seward for example but most of the restaurants are going to be open. We were able to go to the rock climbing gym in Anchorage for example. There were some rules in place to follow but it was open for the public. The laundry mats were open as well. We were able to take a day cruise in Whittier to see some glaciers. They do operate at a lower capacity compared to usual but they were still operating. There were a bunch of people on board. We were able to dine in on board, drink while we are trying to keep our distance as much as possible and keep our faces covered. We were also able to take a guided tour to go ice climbing in Matanuska Glacier. There was no issue there. What I'm trying to get to is that most of the activities that tourists would come to Alaska for are still available to enjoy. Obviously there are also rules to follow when you are out and about. Make sure that you are covering your face if you are in the public. Want to make sure that you are keeping your distance between you and other people. You also want to make sure that you're not interacting with a lot of people. You want to keep track of places that you go to in case you have to trace back. You also want to make sure that you are washing your hands regularly. So this is pretty much it for what I wanted to share with you today. I hope that you found it useful. And if you did, please give this video a thumbs up and consider subscribing to our channel. We are trekking pals Habiba and Alex, amateur hikers and backpackers and we create video content about hiking, backpacking and adventure traveling. Thank you again for watching and we'll see you very soon on a new adventure.