"Alaska -a long way from South Africa" Alaska by junecorlett

Alaska Travel Guide: 6,662 reviews and 14,000 photos

Alaska

Travelling to Alaska from South Africa is a very long and tiresome journey. Our journey begins by travelling to Frankfurt in Germany which is an 11 hour flight. We spent 5 hrs in the noisiest airport in the world (Frankfurt)before embarking on the rest of our journey to Vancouver in Canada. 10 hours flying time to Vancouver from Germany.
My husband has always wanted to see the Glaciers in Alaska. We decided to do the trip on a cruise (Holland America Cruises).
Coming from one of the sunniest countries we had to don our warmest gear, with thermal underwear at the ready for our cruise.
Vancouver really is a beautiful clean city. We spent the night in a hotel at the Pier in Vancouver where OUR ship would be docking the next morning.
We were in bed and asleep by 5pm as we were exhausted.
In the morning on awakening, Roger opened the curtains and THERE.....WOW, our ship was waiting. Less than 100 metres from our window.
I could not wait to experience our first cruise.

Alaska is a beautiful country. The villages the ship docked in are sleepy, and very safe. I call them villages, even though a big passenger liner can dock here.
The towns people seem a bit like hill-billies to me. They are mainly fisherman, or shopkeepers in the towns, which cater mainly to the cruise-ship tourists. Our trip was towards the end of the summer season(September). In fact I think we were the last ship to dock for the summer. We could already see the shops removing their facades, to pack away until the next summer. I was amazed that all these shops close for 7 months of the year. I wondered where the "Folk" move off to for jobs. On questioning the locals I was told that they move "Back Home", be it Seattle in the USA or Boston .

Pictures will be appearing soon.

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Helicopter trip ONTO a Glacier.

It is recommended that you do not spend more than Half an hour on the glacier. We were warmly dressed, thermal socks, thermal gear, boots with non-slip chains wrapped around them (Provided by the tour operator) and leather gloves. After about 15 minutes I felt frozen.

Pictures will be appearing soon

The ship.

I will not recommend the Alaska cruise for people younger than 30. The ship can carry up to 1000 passengers and 450 crew. I must have seen less than 50 young people.
I will tell you more about the ship later...things to do

Pictures will posted soon.

Last visit to Alaska: Sep 2004
Intro Updated Jan 25, 2009
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Reviews (3)

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Helicopter over remote wilderness. Juneau. - Alaska

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Have you been to Alaska? Share your travels with the world!

Comments (29)

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RickinDutch May 8, 2012 at 5:52 PM

Did you like your helicopter ride? Seem worth the money? Friend of mine owns Temsco and he has done quite well with it.
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mallyak Dec 28, 2010 at 2:05 PM

Wish you had more pics of this beautiful part of the world! And the Rocky mountain railways????
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Tugboatguy Mar 22, 2010 at 11:58 PM

June, Very nice take on Alaska-it was great you had a chance to fly, that is the best way to experience the mountains, glaciers, countless lakes & immensity of our largest, wildest frontier state. A favorite trip of mine. Doug
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Bwana_Brown Jan 24, 2010 at 11:17 AM

June, it is great that you were able to help Roger's dream come true! Yes, Alaska is a long way from SA but it seems you had quite a pleasant time on both the cruise ship and Alaska itself once you got close!
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Yaqui Nov 10, 2009 at 8:27 AM

Howdy June, the cruise ship looks fantastic. That is a great way to see Alaska from the beautiful sea. Lovely page!
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mvtouring Oct 21, 2009 at 5:51 AM

Nice page, never been to that part of world. Just uploaded many tips about my recent trip to Turkey. Would appreciate if you could visit and rate me ;-)
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PierreZA Oct 5, 2009 at 9:06 PM

A very nicely written page, I would love to go there.
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SLLiew Jul 24, 2009 at 3:21 AM

Nice page of Alaska.
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yellowbell Jul 22, 2009 at 1:54 PM

Hi June, I'm over 30 so I can go. I bet you should bribe or drag me to stay in the glaciers longer than 5 minutes. Thanks for sharing.
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DAO Jul 1, 2009 at 2:35 PM

Amazing June.