 I'm so excited today because we're talking about one of my favorite places on planet Earth, the beautiful state of Alaska. I spent one month up in Alaska in 2020 between July and August, working during the week, hitting the hiking trails during the weekend and taking a few days off to explore all the beautiful wonders that this state has to offer. And in this video today, I want to share with you some tips to help you plan for your visit to Alaska, especially if you are going for the first time. Ready? Let's go! Alaska is huge. It's kind of obvious if you look at the map, but you only appreciate it when you are actually in Alaska. And just to give you some perspective, Alaska is larger than Texas, California, and Montana combined. And these three are some of the largest states in the lower 48. There are five main regions in Alaska, the far north, the interior, south central, southwest and the southeast. The far north region, most of it is above the Arctic Circle. The interior region of Alaska is where Fairbanks is, Denali National Park. South central Alaska is where Anchorage is located. Anchorage is the city that most of people would fly to if you are flying to Alaska. This is where the Kenai Peninsula is located. And then there is the southwest, and then there is the southeast region. This is where the capital of Alaska, Juno, is located. Five main regions of Alaska and understanding what every region has to offer will be very helpful for you to plan for your adventure. My recommendation to you is to go to travelalaska.com. This is the official website for the tourism board in Alaska, and they do have this useful interactive map where you can go and click what region you are interested in. And then it's going to take you to a page with a lot of details about things to do in that particular region, attractions, the main national parks, and that is going to be a good starting point for you to plan for your adventure to Alaska. We spent one month up in Alaska and we only explored the southeast region. So that gives you an idea how much time you will need if you want to go and explore every single region of the state of Alaska. If you are interested or if you happen to choose the south central region as your playground when you visit Alaska, we do have a lot of resources. We do have a lot of videos and I'm going to link to them in the description box if you are interested. There aren't many roads in Alaska. Most of the time there is only one road to get from point A to point B and that can be a challenge sometimes. So just make sure that you set expectations with yourself and you are flexible with your plan. Make sure that you are getting an early start in the morning if you know that you will have to drive from one place to the other. This way you can be traffic and you can save some time on driving. Traveling to Alaska does not have to be expensive and a lot of people may disagree with me because most of people look at Alaska as this exotic place for retired people or for rich people and it can be expensive and it is expensive but it doesn't have to be expensive all the time. You can still travel to Alaska on a budget. You don't have to be on a cruise to go to Alaska. You don't need a month or more than a month to go to Alaska and there are so many other ways to explore. You can rent an RV, you can rent a camper van or you can rent a car and this is exactly what we did and it was very cost effective. We flew to Anchorage from Seattle and then we rented the car and we were pretty much just driving from one place to the other in the South Central Legion of Alaska. So that's something to consider. Also what really makes Alaska expensive are the type of activities you are doing once you are in Alaska. Fishing, kayaking, ice climbing, hiking and some of these activities can be really expensive but if you choose cheap activities like we did we were hiking most of the time. Hiking does not cost anything. Sometimes entrance fee to parks but that was very minimal. You can still travel in Alaska on a budget. You can pick activities that are budget friendly. We found some activities like ice climbing and it was only $180 per person. We found some helicopter tours instead of going on a floating airplane and that only cost $125 per person. So if you spend some time researching and finding some of the beats and path activities that are kind of away from the very touristy areas, you can find some very good deal and you can still explore Alaska without breaking the bank. Summer in Alaska has nothing to do with summer in the lower 48, especially if you're going to be hiking or backpacking or up in the mountain and actually it doesn't even have to be hiking and backpacking. It is still cold so make sure that you are packing your winter gear. Make sure that you do have a rain gear, layers, down jackets. If you're going to be hiking on pretty much every single trail that we were on it was raining. It was very cold. Make sure that you are prepared and make sure that you have all of the necessary gear to feel warm and happy while adventuring. Summer midnight is such a fun phenomenon to witness. Summer in Alaska, the sun doesn't go down until after midnight, which was great for us because we would work during the day and the sun is still up and that gives us a lot of opportunities to go and hike and explore the city without being or feeling pressured by the sun going down. It's a really fun phenomenon. So when you go to Alaska and it's midnight and the sun is not going down, don't worry. It's not the end of the world. It's just Alaska. Don't expect to see the Aurora or the northern lights in summer. A lot of people go to Alaska during summer and they are disappointed because they don't get to see the northern lights and who doesn't want to see the northern lights in Alaska. However, it's not very common to see them during summer. You have to go for the north and chances are higher during winter. You might see a lot of wildlife or you might see no wildlife. By the end of the day, it's just a question of luck. We were lucky enough that we saw a bear and we were able to see moose at least four times when we were in Alaska. But I have some tips for you here just to maximize your chances of seeing wildlife. Number one, ask locals. When we were in Anchorage, we asked locals, what is an area or a park where we can see moose? We had some recommendations and to our surprise, it was one day where Alex drove to the parking lot of one of the parks that was recommended by a local and he saw a moose and her calf. So ask away, ask the locals. They are going to have the best recommendations for you. Number two, especially if you are hiking or backpacking, make sure that you do have a pair of binoculars with you so that you can spot wildlife from far away. And last tip, if you are interested in photography, make sure that you invest in a reliable zoom lens. Who doesn't want to take beautiful photos of wildlife in Alaska? We did invest in a zoom lens before going to Alaska and I'm going to leave a link in the description box in case you are interested or if you are in the market looking for a new one. Cell phone service is weak. Do not rely on your phone, especially for directions. It's not reliable. Also, if you are hiking and you are in the back country, your phone is not going to be reliable. So make sure that you do have a physical map with you or a campus that you can rely on to find directions and find your way from point A to point B. See food in Alaska is expensive and that was a big disappointment for me because you would think Alaska is a hotspot for commercial fishing, but no, seafood in Alaska is expensive, probably more expensive than it is in the lower 48th, which was disappointing for me. Fishing in Alaska or going on charters for fishing is an expensive experience. The only company that I consulted with, I was told that you have to pay $300 to go on a one day fishing adventure for one person. And if you want to get that fish shipped to the lower 48th, that is going to cost you $300 more. So $600 if you want to go fishing in the sea with a charter, but that is just to tell you that seafood is expensive, even when you go to restaurants. However, the quality was stellar. I don't think I ever had any seafood here in the United States that can exceed what I got in Alaska. Hiking in Alaska is different than hiking in the lower 48th. And I feel like I will need a full episode just to talk about hiking in Alaska because it's very different. Two things that comes to mind when it comes to hiking to Alaska, one, they don't know what switchbacks are. Everything goes straight up and up and up until you can't anymore. So keep that in mind. Make sure that you have trekking poles with you. That is the one thing that I wish that I had with me before going to Alaska. And then the second thing, when you are hiking in Alaska, you want to make sure that you are self-reliant. You have everything that you need for worse scenarios. You want to make sure that you have all the necessary gear. All of the 10 essentials we're hiking. It's not crazy to have a sleeping bag with you, even if you are going on a day hike. Remember, we talked about there being limited roads or sometimes one road from point A to point B. Should anything go wrong, sometimes it's very difficult to get somewhere to support you or help you. So when you're hiking in Alaska, make sure that you have all of the gear that you need, especially if you are hiking in a bad country as well. You want to make sure that you have something to start the fire, to keep yourself warm, to not get hypothermic. And I'm going to talk about this in detail in an upcoming episode. Next tip on the list, many places in Alaska are not accessible by car. And that was a surprise for me, knowing that there are some national parks in Alaska that you cannot access by car, like Katmai National Park, where you will have to fly a floating airplane to get to Katmai National Park. Same thing with Kenai Fjords National Park. Although parts of the national park are still accessible by car. We did drive to the Hardin Icefield Trail. Beautiful hike, by the way. If you are in the Kenai Peninsula or if you are in Seward, you definitely should check the HIT, the Hardin Icefield Trail. It's one of my favorite hiking trails up until now. But anyway, so what I was trying to say is that even the Kenai Fjords National Park, a big chunk of the national park is only accessible by cruise, boat, kayaking, or airplane. So don't be surprised because so many places you can only access by airplane. And actually, that is one of the reasons that makes going to Alaska and exploring Alaska a little bit expensive. But if you guys found this to be useful, please give it a thumbs up. My goal is to help you plan for your next adventure. My name's Habiba. This is Trekking Pals and I will see you soon on a new adventure.