Expert: Michael Donaldson - 3/11/2006

Question
WE are just starting our planing for a trip to
Alaska.  WE have a class A motor home.
We hope to leave New Hampshire in May of 2007 and leave Alaska some time in Sept.2007.
Would like to do some fishing and a lot of site seeing. We very seldom make reservation when we travel. Can we tour Alaska with out reservations?And still get into all the National Parks ?
Any other information you can give us would be greatly appreciated.
                    Thank Your
                        Ted & Liz


Answer
Hello Ted & Liz!

Sounds like you have an awesome trip planned and you're planning early which is great.

The #1 suggestion I give everyone planning a trip to Alaska is to go to your nearest bookstore and buy a great travel guide entitled "The Milepost". It's a large easy-to-carry paperback, jam-packed with every bit of information you could ever want while traveling up in Alaska. It will provide you the name of every paved and gravel highway and explain where you're at and what you'll expect to see along the entire route. It'll also give you information about RV campgrounds, gas stations, restaurants, gift stores, and even all the phone numbers you could ever want at each location. Bottom line: it's considered the "bible of Alaska" and it'll become a great companion up there...trust me! I lived up there for over 3 years and had it handy anytime I did any kind of traveling. It only cost about $26, but would be well well worth every penny. Check out a preview of it at www.milepost.com.

Now to answer your original question:
You'll be going up there at the most busiest time of year, but there are many many RV campgrounds to choose from. You MIGHT get into campgrounds with no problems whatsoever...but to be safe, I would highly recommend plotting out some kind of timeline of what you want to see and where you'd like to go throughout Alaska and make some tentative reservations. The Milepost will provide you with all the names, locations, services, and phone numbers of every RV campground in the area you plan on visiting.

I hope that helped answer your initial question with your planning.  If you have any other questions or concerns, please write me back anytime, and I'll see what I can do to help you out.  Take care!

 Michael Donaldson