**Update in reply below**



Hey guys, the wife and I will be visiting the great state of Alaska in mid-January.  No set plans as of yet, just get around as much as we can, check out different areas for a possible future relocation (probably Denali NP and south), and have a hopefully relaxing vacation without the kids





Any recommendations on things that we must see/do while there?  Or recommendations on places to stay (hotel, B&B, other)?





Thanks!
 

Yup, kinda figured certain options will be limited, seasonal closures of services/roads.  So we'll get around as much as we can, check out the areas south of Denali (homes/land), find things to do and enjoy the time away!

What is your definition of "south of Denali" ?

Are you looking at the Talkeetna area? or Wasilla/Palmer? Or Anchorage? or south of Anchorage?

Depending on the areas you want to look at, there could be some very large, dark drives in the works for you and your wife.

Talkeetna is a nice  place to visit, I would  only consider living there if you  are a pilot,  or are  semi or fully retired, or you   like crowds of tourists in summer, ie plan to work  in tourism trades..

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 Visit  in January, I would definitely recommend  the  drive up to Fairbanks, and  spend a  day+night at Chena Hotsprings resort, really nice facility there,   you will like soaking in hot mineral water, outdoors at negative whatever degrees, very cool.

Take the 'back way down' from Fairbanks, ie Richardson highway,  beautiful country,  very little traffic that way.

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 Drive down  the peninsula, check out  (both ) Seward, and Homer if you have time.

Kenai is pretty too, BUT in july It gets crazy... Also check out Girdwood(our local Aspen clone, lots of hippies/yuppies, stupid spendy houses, and skiing,).
check out north birchwood shooting range too, it is pretty awesome.

OP, be careful driving up here in the winter..roads are slick in spots not to mention moose on the roads...last thing you want to do is hit a moose or have a traffic accident .. good places for a visiting drive , lots of roadhouses along the hi ways but most are closed down in the winter, do stop at the open ones though, many have great things to see from back in the old days including mining stuff, animal mounts ,guns and such...if you get down around willow or palmer head up into hatchers pass and check out independence mine..pretty impressive stuff...

 The southern drive from anchorage is a great drive if its sunny   and has some of the most scenic views of any roads in the US... plus  great things to do and see all the way down to homer...then hit seward on the way back..pay attention to the weather though, roads up here get nasty quick and the weather rolls in fast..nothing to dump feet of snow in turnagain pass in hours....

Watch for Bison in the road driving up. Stop at Laird Hot Springs, and the cinnamon roll place near the hot springs.

Oh and have fun.

Aviator

Yep the cinnamon roll place!! driving through middle of nowhere and BLAM "Best cinnamon rolls in 200 miles stop here" signs for like 2 miles before hand. and they are danm good and home made. stopped and talked Ironman triathelons with the gal who runs the place for 30 minutes in 2014.

South of Denali for possible future relocation. Most likely Wasilla/Palmer or Sterling/Soldotna.  But nothing set, part of why we want to check it out in winter and then head back again in spring/summer.  Look at maybe renting for a little while before any buying.

For the trip itself we definitely want to explore as much as possible in all directions

Damn op do you have any idea of the average temps in the winter time for those 2 places?  soldotna is normally a balmy 0 to 20 degrees above zero most of winter but can go below zero for a week or two once in a while... wasilla...well its normally 0 to -20 with sometimes weeks to a month at -30 below zero... and palmer...well palmer is like the armpit of alaska..all summer its nice everywhere else around..hit palmer..its blowing..hard..and raining normally..but for sure blowing....winter time.....snowing everywhere around..drive thru palmer..its a blizzard......if its not a blizzard..its raining....if its not raining..its blowing...its just a weird place....weather wise..takes a special person to live there..basically the further south..the warmer and milder in the winter..further north..the colder and wilder winter is..both are ok..just gotta make sure you can handle them.. wasilla/palmer area both have huge issues with criminals due to drug use..might come closer to Anchorage and try eagle river/chugiak area..still the small town feel but not near the issues of further out.........and property prices are still ok......

That is a big part of why we wanted to head up there during winter, make sure the wife (and me of course) can handle a week in cold winter, let alone the entire winter.  Should give us a tiny taste at least.

Definitely taking in all the input on various areas of the state and also part of why we were thinking of renting first.  Get all the info we can from you guys and being on the ground, before making the big commitment to buying a house.

Thanks again!

Where do you live? I have lived in Palmer for the last 10 years and Fairbanks the 10 before that I have yet to experience a month of solid -20 in Palmer Fairbanks however... I have yet to have issues buck use of the "huge" drug problem in the valley.  On fairbanks when we lived in an apartment complex we did have issues with drunksstumbling into the building and banging on doors and stuff.

A close friend lives in butte, she has held druggies at gunpoint after kicking in her front door on 4 occasions now over the last 10 years, have more friends that live on Big Lake, they have been robbed dozens of times since the mid 90's, have more friends who live at Willow same deal, guys breaking into the connex's while they are there trying to steal shit to sell for drugs..yes it is an issue... I could go on and on, if you arnt seeing it you are lucky.. I've lived in Chugiak, Anchorage, Willow, Wasilla, Palmer, Eagle River,  and other places in the area,  since 1971......

Brief update:



We made a quick trip out there, arrived very early on the 17th into Anchorage, picked up our car and proceeded to Kava's off of Airport Heights for breakfast, yum!  Definitely recommend this to anyone that hasn't tried yet, I got the reindeer omelet, ended up having leftovers of it for snack and dinner it was so much food.  We also stopped there just before we left, got the Loco Moco (minus the macaroni salad), also really good, similar to a dish my mom made when I was younger.



Stayed up in Wasilla at the Best Western on Lake Lucille, again, definitely recommended if you're staying in that area.  Tammy that works there was great, helping us out with whatever we needed.  Free breakfast was ridiculous, sausage, eggs, potatoes, pancakes/french toast, biscuits and gravy, cereal, bagels, coffee, juice...we left completely stuffed every morning.  First night had a parking lot view, but we switched to a lake view after that.  Saw lots of folks ice fishing and several folks spinning across the lake in their trucks.



Drove around the area a lot, out to Houston, up to Willow, just about up to Trapper Creek, check out the area, see a few properties.   Also made a drive up to Hatcher Pass, back through Palmer.  Wednesday we were planning to drive down to Soldotna, ran into some freezing rain about when you hit Chugach State Park on Seward Hwy.  Kept going until you see the Kenai sign going through the mountains after Portage, it was snowing pretty decent, road was looking a little rougher than we wanted to deal with that day, so we decided to head back up towards Anchorage.  Stopped by Portage Glacier area (mostly closed), but had a good time walking around a bit, driving where we could, went through the tunnel.



Made a little time to talk with one of the realtors I'd been dealing with up in Wasilla.  Gave us some good tools to use, showed us some properties, changed my expectations a little, so it was a good meeting.



Oh we also saw a bunch of moose as we drove around, even caught a small bull across from Turner's Corner (ice cream machine was down, we were hoping for what was said to be the best ice cream).



All around had a really nice time, no problems other than having to go back to Dallas very early on Friday the 22nd, wife and I both wanted to stay and say the heck with Texas  But that will have to come another day, sooner rather than later hopefully.

We stayed at a Best Western while we were in California, just prior to flying up to Alaska, breakfast was nowhere near this.  There it was turkey bacon, some sort of scrambled egg-like substance (or hard boiled), and a waffle maker, along with coffee and juice.  Looked like things they just heated/re-heated.  But everything we had up in Wasilla seemed to be freshly cooked/baked...making me hungry just thinking about it  I wonder if maybe they've changed recently.



Plan for now is to head up later this year, find a rental, make more permanent plans once we're there and able to quickly/easily look at properties.  Maybe spend a full year in the rental to give us time to figure out what we really need, where we want to/can be, before we go all in on a permanent home.

Next trip to Alaska, try to get out of the city.

Yup, we had intended to try a drive up into Denali (as much as possible), onto Fairbanks, back down the Glenallen side, but time got away from us, had things to do back in town with the realtor.



Definitely more travels in store once we are up there!