ALASKA SUMMER TRAVEL – What to expect during your Alaska vacation

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.

I'mAndrea Kuuipo and today I'm going to be talking about Alaska summer travel.

I'mgonna let you guys know what you can expect during Alaska's largest season, solet's jump to it.

I'm gonna start off by saying that Alaska is massive.

It'sactually twice the size of Texas and it would take you years to see the entirestate.

I was born and raised in Alaska and I probably only have seen 10% ofwhat Alaska has to offer and I'm someone who is a little bit not so much youraverage Alaskan, in a sense if I get out I'm exploring, I'm hiking, and visitingother parts of the state.

I'm flying to other parts of the state.

So just knowthat when I talk about Alaska, I'm speaking in general because there areplaces that are so spread apart that they can be drastically different interms of weather, in terms of climates, in terms of what you might wear in one partof Alaska versus another part of Alaska, and that's just how big it actually is.

Ican almost guarantee you that by the end of your week-long stay in Alaskayou're gonna see more of the state than most of us Alaskans that actually livehere.

It's crazy! So let's start off by talking about theweather in Alaska.

Weather in Alaska is going to be the best during the months of June, July, and August.

This is when the temperatures are the warmest.

It's actually really crazy because a lot of people think that Alaska is just thisgiant ice block and it's not.

There are places in interior Alaska like Fairbanks, for instance, that actually reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit and all across theboard because of where Alaska sits.

It's longitude is so far up north that it'sgonna feel 10 degrees warmer on top of that.

So yes, to everyone's misconceptionAlaska gets really hot and especially to us locals because all winter long we'reso used to very cold temperatures that the summers can be insane and summersare just getting warmer and warmer.

so you have places in Alaska like retailstores that are that have actually been selling out of air conditioning units.

Last year, I believe it was, where there was a massive line waiting outsideCostco because they knew that air-conditioning units were gonna be inand so everybody was in line before the store was opening just to get theirhands on these things.

That's how hot it was in Alaska, so you're gonna be feelinglike it's a hundred degrees Fahrenheit in Alaska and you're gonna be out therewearing your t-shirts or tank tops and might as well bring your flippy floppiesbecause that's the kind of thing that's happening in Alaska during the summer.

Ialways recommend people to visit during July.

It's actually my favorite time ofthe year.

One of the reasons mainly is because of how hot it is andtemperatures are really pleasant.

if you're coming from another state or out of the country, you'll find that summers in Alaska are really nice and a lot ofpeople who visit Alaska in the summertime always want to come back.

It's quite a difference between visiting in the wintertime because when people moveto Alaska during the wintertime we always like to say like congratulationsyou made it through because it is that drastic of a difference to move toAlaska in the summertime.

When it's nice and warm, there's lots of daylight, incomparison to coming in wintertime when it's cold, it's dark, it's rough.

It is a long winter season but if you get through that, props to you becauseyou are going to be a lifelong Alaskan after that.

The most important thing toknow about the weather in Alaska is that it's very unpredictable so my best pieceof advice or any Alaskan will tell you to make sure to bring your layers.

Theyare going to save you in a lot of different situations.

The best thing isalways to have enough options for clothing to layer up if you need tobecause you can always take those layers off.

It makes a huge difference in anytype of activity you're going to be doing in Alaska.

The next best thing about Alaska is thehours of daylight.

This is my favorite thing about Alaska.

In the days thatsurround summer solstice, we're getting 24 hours of daylight and it is amazing.

This basically means that I can go to work, I can get home from work , and I cango out and hike for a few hours, and get back home, and it is still daylight.

It isthe coolest thing ever and I always think that everybody who visits Alaskaneeds to experience this.

The downside to this, of course, is sleeping so because ofall the daylight.

During the summer time, it can be a little bit more difficult tosleep and adjust to that sunshine or light coming through the window.

So Alaskans we actually use blackout curtains in our bedrooms to try to justmake our rooms as pitch-black as possible so that we're able to sleep, buthonestly, because of our summers being so short, we're not even really trying tosleep.

You know we want to go out there and experience everything that Alaskahas to offer while we can.

We're out there fishing for our salmon, we're outthere biking and backpacking our through trails, hiking the mountains, we're out onthe water, on the rivers, on the lakes.

We have massive canoe systems, we're staying in cabins and remote areas, we're drinking beer on the deck, doing yoga in the park.

Just there's so many activities that Alaska has to offer.

So let's juststart talking about that.

My favorite thing to do in Alaska duringthe summertime is hiking.

There are so many different trails all over the state.

We actually have eight national parks and within there there's so muchbackcountry that you can go and explore on your own.

There are four nationalparks in Alaska that are easier to access.

You can access them by theroad system and there are four national parks that you have to fly into.

So itreally depends on what kind of experience you're looking for, butthere's definitely a lot to offer.

If you're not interested in hiking by yourself, there are definitely a lot more trails that have a lot moretraffic on them during the summer time, but it's really easy to escape that.

Mynext favorite activity to do in Alaska is biking and with that comes bikepacking as well.

There are tons of biking trails in Alaska.

We have a lot of single-tracks as well a very popular spot in Anchorage actually is Kincaid Park andyou'll find a lot of people out there mountain biking.

Really awesome trailsover there but all over the state there's so much to offer.

You know youwant to get onto the water, there's great trips to do outside of Seward and youcan get out and into Kachemak Bay.

You can get over to Kayakers Cove.

You can get out Halibut Cove.

A really great canoe system in the Kenai Peninsula, ifyou're looking to go on a portage trip a multi-day.

There's you know so manyoptions to do something like that.

Fishing is huge.

If you're looking to getsalmon or rainbow trout or a Dolly Varden or catch some big ol halibut.

All of that is possible.

You know traveling in Alaska, glaciers are awesomeas an activity to do in the summertime.

One of the easiest glaciers to get to isMatanuska Glacier.

Make sure if you're traveling within these areas that youare familiar with that kind of terrain.

It's very different and it can be veryvery dangerous, very unpredictable.

You never know what's gonna happen andaccidents do happen, so always be prepared and know where you're going andknow what you're doing and what you're getting yourself into becauseit's going to make a huge difference in your experience between a good trip anda bad trip in Alaska.

Summer travel in Alaska is also going tobe the busiest time to visit Alaska and with that it's also going to be the mostexpensive time to visit, so you'll find that accommodations increase in price aswell as activities but on the bright side of that, you'll find that Alaska hasa lot more events to offer during this time.

You can find things like yoga inthe park in downtown Anchorage , you can find the blueberry festival that happensin Girdwood every year, there are also a lot of concerts that are happeningduring this time so you may stumble upon one a lot of local bands play in barsand parks and other places all around the state.

I know you guys have been waiting forthis one.

Let's talk about wildlife.

Summertime in Alaska is the best time tosee wildlife.

You have a lot of different tour operators that start to openmid-may so what this means is that if you're interested in going whalewatching this is a time when you're able to do it.

So if you're trying to seeorcas or humpback whales or stellar sea lions or sea otters or a variety ofbirds like puffins and others then you definitely want to go on a whalewatching cruise.

There are also bear viewing tours theones that leave from homer and go to places like Katmai National Park or LakeClark National Park.

These are also the tours that start mid-may that's when ourtourist season begins if you're looking to see moose you can see them all overthe state of Alaska.

They're pretty easy to find but you never know depending onthe day but they're crossing the roads of downtown Anchorage, they're in parks, they're sleeping in the neighbor's yard.

They're actually everywhere but they aresuper super cool to see if you've never seen one before.

They are massiveanimals , which makes them so mesmerizing to watch but make sure if you do see anywildlife, including moose, bears and other animals that you always treat them withrespect.

Keep your distance and know what to doin case something happens.

These animals are wild and they're also veryprotective, especially when they have cubs or calves around them they become alot more dangerous and you always want to be prepared and know how to handlethose situations as best as you can and as safely as possible.

Driving in Alaska is actually crazy allyear long, I think.

During the summertime, when it's peak tourist season, there areso many people on the road especially the Seward Highway and the SewardHighway is actually one of the most dangerous roads in the world.

There areso many people driving it and a lot of people are very distracted because ofhow scenic it actually is.

You have mountains on one side of you, you have abody of water on the other side of you while you're driving and especially ifit's a bluebird day, it is gorgeous, you can see different kinds of wildlife likemountain goats and bald eagles and potentially beluga whales all in thesame area so it becomes a very distracted drive and on top of that youhave people who might be coming back to Anchorage from places like Homer whichare four and a half hours away driving that might be really tired after a verylong weekend and all of these different combinations, these factors make thishighly really, really dangerous so just always be aware of where and when you'redriving in Alaska and know that accidents do happen along these roadsand you could be stuck for a couple hours, even more.

One of the other biggest differences oftraveling to Alaska in the summertime is going to be the small towns.

During thesummertime, all of these small towns come to life.

You have places like Talkeetnaor Whittier or the Homer spit and they have all of these tourist shops that don'tactually open until mid-may and then when the winter comes, they close downfor this season.

So you have all these places that are open and a flock oftourists coming in and on top of that all this locals really enjoy theseplaces too.

We're out there drinking and dancing and enjoying the local musicthat often happens during the summertime.

So I hope that made you really excitedabout traveling to Alaska this summer and I also hope you enjoyed watchingthis video if you haven't subscribed to my channel please subscribe below.

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See you guys next week.

They're bursting and all of the.