Alaska Adventure

Upon arrival, you will be met and transferred to your hotel. Fairbanks is a modern frontier settlement, providing visitors with a look at old-time "Tom Sawyer" paddle wheelers cruising the muddy rivers, refurbished pioneer saloons, and outlying mining villages.

Denali National Park – larger than the state of Massachusetts – is one of the world's great wilderness preserves. Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America, towers over the tundra and taiga below, habitat for wolves, grizzlies, moose and caribou. From your base at historic Kantishna Roadhouse, 92 miles inside the park, you have time and space to encounter the wilderness. Hiking, nature walks, biking, fishing and optional flightseeing are available. Early morning and evening offer excellent opportunities to see wildlife in the lodge environs.

Depart Denali by train on a journey through Alaska's rugged interior, over Broad Pass and along the Susitna River to Wasilla. From here, drive south to Alyeska Resort, Alaska's premier ski area that is replete with summer activities, too. Set in a lush glacial valley in the Chugach Range near the coast, Alyeska offers nature and luxury in tandem. Streamside trails lined with wildflowers beckon at the base, or board the tram to the summit, where you may choose to dine at Seven Glaciers, a five-star restaurant with vistas of the ice-bound peaks and Turnagain Arm far below. Visit the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center for up close and personal encounters with Alaska's wild residents.

Fox Island, a private island bordering the Kenai Fjords, reveals the pristine side of Alaska most visitors miss, providing accommodations for just 18 guests in comfortable beachfront cabins. The region is famed for sea kayaking, and an easy paddling trip may unveil some of the area's prolific marine life.

Cruise through a land where the ice age still lingers. The small yacht allows you to approach wildlife more intimately, and Kenai Fjords National Park provides unparalleled opportunities for viewing humpback and orca whales, porpoises, sea otters and a large colony of puffins. Here, glaciers pour into the sea, and you may observe icebergs calving with a crash. Stay overnight in Seward, on Resurrection Bay.

The mountain ranges of the Kenai Peninsula rise one after another on the drive to Anchorage. Time permitting, stop at Exit Glacier for a close-up look at this active river of ice. Spend the night in Anchorage.

Katmai National Park is home to the world's largest population of brown bears. Fly by small plane to King Salmon, then by floatplane to world-renowned Brooks Lodge, one of the best places to view these coastal grizzlies in their natural habitat. From the safety of platforms built over Brooks Falls, observe this classic spectacle up close, as the bears fish vigorously for salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

Continue activities at Katmai in the morning before the return to Anchorage.

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for connecting flights home.