Herbert Levinsky browsed brochures on Alaska Inside Passage cruises aboard luxury liners carrying 1,000 or more passengers. Along with spectacular scenery, the 54-year-old Connecticut toxicologist could enjoy a whirlwind of daytime activities, stage shows, discos, casino gambling and formal dinners.
The brochures also touted “cruisetours,” a big-ship voyage combined with a land package. On one, he could travel on a 50-passenger bus and a train with dome cars to the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, Denali National Park and Fairbanks.
Instead, Levinsky thought small-and reaped large rewards. He chose an adventure ship carrying 70 passengers and five naturalists. These experts led excursions to unspoiled wilderness areas and presented lively lectures and cocktail-hour recaps of each day’s events and wildlife sightings.
Then Levinsky added a nine-day land tour offered by Alaska Wildland Adventures. With 12 other outdoors-oriented people, most 50 or older, he hiked and rafted rivers in the Kenai Peninsula. His group got close-up views of marine mammals and other wildlife on a daylong sail in Kenai Fjords, and spent several nights at a lodge deep in Denali National Park.
“I saw the difference between the two kinds of trips in Glacier Bay,” Levinsky says. “Our Special Expeditions boat was hugging the coastline looking for animals, stopping when we came across something interesting. We spent four hours watching the face of the glacier close up as it calved icebergs, with every passenger and staff member up on the foredeck with their cameras and binoculars ready.
“While we were there, I saw two of these big ships steam up the middle of the channel at full speed, putting out a lot of smoke that hung in the air for an hour or more. Then they immediately turned around and steamed out. Through my binoculars, I saw only a few people sitting out on deck, with several more playing basketball. The rest of them probably didn’t know that they’d just missed what most likely was the most beautiful sight on their trip.”
Because of its natural beauty and mystique as “America’s last frontier,” Alaska has for years ranked high as a destination with mature travelers such as Levinsky.
Many of them find that luxury-liner cruises or cruisetours are just the ticket. But because these mass-market travel programs are heavily advertised and most often suggested by travel agents, many seniors never hear about other ways to see Alaska.
So they return home wishing they’d been able to smell the tundra and rain forest and see bald eagles and glaciers up close.
By choosing from among the alternatives to the mass-market approach to Alaska, Levinsky was able to do just that. Other options for Alaska-bound seniors range from easygoing outdoors-oriented tours requiring little physical exertion to camping trips incorporating difficult hikes and climbs on glaciers.
Among the options are recreational-vehicle caravans, grandparent-grandchild tours, educational programs and special interest tours for photographers, birders and nature-lovers. All are specifically geared to 50-plus travelers, or appeal primarily to seniors.
In addition to the nine-day lodge trip that Levinsky went on, Alaska Wildland Adventures offers a similar Senior Safari that also stays in lodges. Points of interest include the Kenai Peninsula and Kenai Fjords National Park, the bush town of Talkeetna, Denali National Park, and returning to Anchorage by train.
Great Alaska Safaris’ seven-day Silver Safari is a low-exertion tour. A group of six rafts the upper Kenai River, makes a daylong yacht tour of Kenai Fjords, takes a gentle hike in the Chugach Mountains, goes on a flightseeing trip and travels by rail to Denali for an all-day wildlife excursion.
Elderhostel, a non-profit network linking travelers over 60 with low-cost academic programs, lists courses thoughout the year in Alaska. For example, two educational institutions use an Alaska Marine Highway ship as a floating campus with courses on the Gold Rush era and natural history. At the Arctic Sizunvunmun Ilisagzik College in Barrow, where the summer sun never sets, Inuit elders teach senior students about their culture.
Alaska Women of the Wilderness has organized an Elderhostel program on glaciers for physically active women. Participants camp and hike in the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountains, and make a challenging glacier climb. A second course focuses on women pioneers in Alaska and the Matanuska Valley’s natural history.
Elderhostel also operates intergenerational programs in Alaska, including courses on geology, habitats and wildlife of Denali National Park geared to children ages 11 and 12 and their grandparents.
Grandtravel, a Maryland specialist in trips for grandparents or surrogate grandparents and their grandchildren, has an Alaskan Wilderness Adventure encompassing Eskimo culture, dogsledding, salmon fishing, river rafting, a glacier cruise and other experiences.
Recreational-vehicle enthusiasts might join a 40-day RV tour with Woodall’s World of Travel, in which you bring your own vehicle. The caravan starts in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and goes to such places as Whitehorse, Dawson City, Tok, Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage, Homer, Valdez and Stewart/Hyder before ending in Prince George.
Accompanied by tour directors, it incorporates more than two dozen special excursions, cruses, special dinners and performances. Time is built in for such options as a two-day trip to far-north Prudhoe Bay.
RVers who also love luxury cruises can look to Alaska Highway Cruise. New this year is its Alaska and Gold Rush country program, which combines an RV tour with a seven-night cruise between Vancouver and Seward on a Holland America ship. Participants pick up rental RVs in Anchorage and drive to Denali, Fairbanks, Tok, Dawson City, Whitehorse, Skagway, Beaver Creek and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Whether you cruise or drive first depends on the dates you go.
Photographers might sign up for one of the seven Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris’ trips to some of the state’s most alluring photo destinations. The Best of Alaska stays at a backcountry lodge in Denali National Park, sails the Kenai Fjords and visits the Anan Bear Preserve near Wrangell. Other safaris focus on the Pribilof Islands, the bears of Katmai National Park, the bald eagles of Chilkat River and Southeast Alaska.
Birders reach varied habitats on Victor Emanuel Nature Tours’ Grand Alaska. Around Nome, they explore the seacoast, river rapids and inland hills. The Kenai Peninsula features lakes, gravel bars in rivers, and forests. The Pribilof Islands offer thousands of nesting seabirds, while Denali hosts high-latitude land birds. An optional extension visits Barrow, with its high-Arctic birdlife.
Nature Expeditions International’s two-week Alaska tour, led by professional naturalists, reaches Glacier Bay, Kenai, Denali and Katmai National Parks, as well as Sitka, Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks, studying the wildlife and natural history of each area.
Those who prefer to travel independently can consult an Alaska specialist such as World Express Tours in Anchorage. The company works with travel agents as well as individual vacationers to customize an itinerary and select lodges, hotels, fish camps and attractions.
Like Levinsky, seniors who study the Alaska options before they go will return home not only in awe of the state’s magnificent scenery, wildlife and cultures, but also satisfied that their vacation dollars were well spent.
CONTACTS FOR MORE DETAILS
For more about cruises mentioned:
– Alaska Highway Cruises, 3805 108th Ave. Northeast, Suite 204, Bellevue, Wash. 98004; 800-323-5757.
– Alaska Wildland Adventures, P.O. Box 389, Girdwood, Alaska 99587; 800-334-8730.
– Alaska Women of the Wilderness, Box 773556, Eagle River, Alaska 99577; 907-688-2226.
– Elderhostel, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. 02110-1941; 617-426-7788.
– Grandtravel, 6900 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 706, Chevy Chase, Md. 20815; 800-247-7651.
– Great Alaska Fish Camp & Safaris, HC01 Box 218, Sterling, Alaska 99672; 800-544-2261.
– Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, P.O. Box 655, Vashon, Wash. 98070; 206-463-5383.
– Nature Expeditions International, P.O. Box 11496, Eugene, Ore. 97440; 800-869-0639.
– Special Expeditions, 720 5th Ave., New York, N.Y. 10019; 800-762-0003.
– Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours, P.O. Box 33008, Austin, Texas 78764; 800-328-VENT.
– Woodall’s World of Travel, P.O. Box 247, Greenville, Mich. 48838; 800-346-7572.
– World Express Tours, 200 W. 34th Ave. Suite 412, Anchorage, Alaska 99503; 800-544-2235.
