Travel to the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska – Episode 553

Hear about travel to Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula as the Amateur Traveler talks to tour guide Mareth Griffith about her adopted home.

The Kenai Peninsula is located near Anchorage and is an area about one and a half times the size of the state of Maryland.

Mareth says, “it’s big enough that there’s a lot of variety and different things you can see and do there, but also small enough that you can get to all the different locations you want to go with reasonable driving times. When exploring Alaska, you really just have to pick one spot to focus on for most trips because it’s just so massive and many of the places in Alaska are very difficult, expensive, or time-consuming to get to and from. There’s a lot to see, and it’s very easy to do a self-directed trip in the Kenai because there are roads and because you can travel by car.”

“Many people’s perspective of a trip to Alaska is that you’re going to go to the inside passage and or you’re going to go to Denali or you go and do a cruise, and you fly up to Denali, which are both excellent destinations. But if you’re trying to do an independent trip where you are not just on a boat or a bus that someone else is driving, there can be real logistical hurdles in either one of those places. Where the Kenai Peninsula is more amenable to independent-minded travelers.”

We start in Seward, where Mareth directs us to some of her favorite hikes, like an easy stroll to the Exit Glacier or in Canes Head State Park near Seward or the more strenuous hike up the Harding Icefield Trail. She tells us why we should take a longer boat tour from town to get into the beautiful Kenai Fjords National Park, where we will see whales and tidewater glaciers.

She tells us the best spot to get some Alaskan King crab in town, and also why we should not miss the local Alaska Sealife Center.

From Homer, she gets us on a water taxi across the bay to Kachemak Bay State Park, where we can stay at simple places or at fancy resorts like the Tutka Bay Lodge.

For people who have the money and what to see bears and salmon and bears catching salmon, she has us fly down to Katmai National Park when the salmon are running. You better plan in advance (and start saving now) for that trip.

Elsewhere on the peninsula, she tells us the best places to fish, to see moose or beluga whales. She recommends we get out on some of the lakes for a float trip or a fishing trip or we tackle the six-mile creek for a class five rafting experience.

Whether you are kayaking by a glacier, hiking one of the many trails, or just looking at wildlife from the deck of a plush hotel, there is much to do in this corner of Alaska.

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Show Notes

Kenai Peninsula
William H. Seward
Alaska Purchase (Seward’s Folly)
Seward, Alaska
Homer, Alaska
Kenai Fjords National Park
Alaska Sealife Center (Seward)
Alaska Sealife Center Encounter Tours
Visit Exit Glacier
Harding Icefield Trail Map
Caines Head State Recreation Area
Ray’s Waterfront (Seward restaurant)
Chinooks Waterfront Restaurant (Seward)
Home Alaska Art Map
Pratt Museum
Kachemak Bay State Park
Tutka Bay Lodge
Brook’s Lodge (Katmai National Park)
Katmai National Park
Cooper Landing, Alaska
Hope, Alaska
Seaview Cafe (Hope)
Beluga whale
Travel to Arctic Manitoba – Episode 411
Alyeska Resort
Winner Creek Trail
Alaska: The Last Frontier
The First Great Race by Dan Seavey

Community

Ernest write about Travel to Zambia – Episode 551

Just heard your podcast on Zambia. Loved it. You have one opportunity to take an African safari . . . which country (or countries) would you go to and when?

Clemente left this review:

This is my first iTunes review and this podcast is well deserving of the honour. Brilliant travel podcast for binge listeners. I listened to one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site episodes and discovered that I had visited more than one UNESCO site, without even knowing it. So I did some research and found that I have been to at least 40! That blew my mind and all thanks to the Amateur Traveler. Also, Episode #290 on the Azores was rather special because I’m from the Azores and Jeanine Barone’s best day in the Azores happens to be the same as mine. The trek down from the serra to the Fajã da Caldeira do Santo Cristo on the island of São Jorge is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Caldeira, as the locals call it, happens to be my father’s village. I was baptized in Caldeira, and that hike down the mountain, through the valley, between the pastures, past old abandoned houses that used to belong my ancestors, and down to the fajã by the ocean is breathtaking. I was walking it with my brother and he turned to me and said… “You know what this is, don’t you? This is the Shire!” And I agreed. The Shire exists on Earth, and it’s on the island of São Jorge in the Azores. Love the podcast!

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