Alaska: Flights, RV Rental and Packing Woes

I think one of the most difficult parts of planning our trip to Alaska was all of the logistics that went into the trip. From the RV rental to flights to knowing what gear to pack…it felt like there were constant decisions that needed to be made. The first thing we did when we started to plan our vacation was to decide if we would be renting an RV to travel through Alaska or if we would be renting a minivan/SUV to travel. My husband was team RV from the start and he was correct that we needed to be careful with COVID and moving hotel to hotel wouldn’t be ideal. With that in mind, we did some research and found that Great Alaskan Holidays was the number one recommended RV rental place in Anchorage. We decided to book with them and rented a 31′ Forester RV. I will say that it isn’t cheap…we ended up paying $9,600 when all was said and done for our rental. This included the RV, rental of 6 camp chairs and BBQ, insurance (thank God we got this because I backed into a pole!), windshield insurance, fees, taxes, prepaid gas, prepaid propane and unlimited miles. In addition to the cost of the RV, you also have to factor in the cost of each RV site. Now, YOU COULD BOONDOCK, but we liked the idea of being hooked up to electric and water, PLUS with six people in the RV we needed to dump often. More on the dump sites later because it is something we did NOT know because this was our first RV experience. You need to dump both your black tank (AKA=POOP) and your grey water tank (AKA=shower water, dish water, sink water). We apparently use a lot of water so we had to dump our grey tank MUCH more frequently than the black tank. We ended up doing it at the same time, but one shower for each of us in the RV resulted in a dump needed after the fourth shower and then the fifth and sixth person could take one. So, you see…we needed to be at a site. PLEASE, do not dump your black or grey tank on the side of the road, at a gas station’s grass area or any other undesignated spot. It isn’t safe!

So, we flew into Anchorage from our home airport. We did a layover in Seattle and the layover was so long that we ended up taking a side trip to Pike Place in Seattle. We weren’t upset by this and ate like pigs before going back to the airport and finishing our flight to Anchorage. Now, while I will say we didn’t mind it, I would do a straight through flight in the future. It is so much easier, especially with kids! I am going to add a few photos of Pike Place because we plan to go back one day and really enjoy Seattle, PLUS, the food was amazing. Our favorite was the macaroni and cheese from Beecher’s. My youngest still talks about their flagship cheese. We plan to head to NYC, which is close to our house and eat at the Beecher’s location there.

For our RV rental, we landed in Anchorage at 11:30pm, so we ended up doing a late night check-in with Great Alaskan Holidays. You basically get to sleep in the RV the night you arrive. We had the RV for 22 nights originally, but when we confirmed our flights, we added a night for our arrival so we wouldn’t have to check-in to a hotel, unpack, repack and go to RV. It worked out really well and we woke up at 6:30am on Friday morning, in line with Great Alaskan Holidays at 7am and we could have been on the road by 8:30am, which was our original plan. It ended up taking us a while to figure out everything and we stored our hard case luggage at Great Alaskan which is an AMAZING service. They do charge, but there is no way we would have had enough storage space in the RV for the luggage and our stuff.

Once we were on the road, we headed to Walmart with a long list of things we would need. The most helpful things we bought in no particular order:

1. Baskets for storage. I took a photo because these baskets fit perfectly in the kitchen cabinets so the groceries that we bought weren’t rolling around. The things we didn’t put in a basket would fall out when we opened the cabinets because things shift around as you drive. We were able to fit about 8 of these across and they held all of our stuff like peanut butter, cans of beans, etc.
2. Toilet deodorizers. You have to drop one in after you dump your black tank. We dumped more often than most I guess because we went through 2 bags. They have these over in the RV area of Walmart.
3. RV toilet paper. You can find this in the same area as the toilet deodorizers. We ended up going through quite a bit of toilet paper, but my youngest uses a lot of it.
4. Bottled water/gallons of water
5. Laundry tabs, dryer sheets
6. Non-slip bath mat for in front of shower area (one of our best purchases)
7. Dish rags and dish drying cloths
8. Clothespins
9. Nonstick frying pan (the RV comes with pots, but not a nonstick pan which we used a lot of eggs)
10. Spatula for grill that we rented from RV
11. Fuel for grill we rented from RV
12. Food items: we got stuff for breakfast, lunch and then some things for having a dinner or two in the RV. Our plan was to eat out for one meal a day.
13. Gatorade
14. Trash can
15. Trash bags
16. Bug spray
17. Sunscreen
18. Bath stuff: shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hand cream, deodorant, Q-tips
19. hairdryer
20. Foil, plastic baggies
21. Ketchup, mustard, mayo
22. Clorox wipes
23. Laundry basket for dirty and laundry basket for clean clothes

Due to luggage space concerns, we didn’t pack a lot with us. If we do a trip like this again, I would take half of the clothes with us. My original thought was: I don’t want to do laundry at each stop…but I did laundry at each stop anyway so the boys would have been okay with 3 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of shorts, 3 short sleeve, 3 long sleeve shirts and undies, pajamas, sweatshirts and then their fleece and rain layer. I also took sandals, sneakers, hiking boots for each boy and we definitely needed each type of shoe. Hiking boots were the best because it kept their feet warm and dry, but while they were drying out, sneakers or sandals worked. The boys swam in Talkeetna area so having their sandals also was good for that. I’ll cover that more when I talk about Talkeetna.

Another tip…get packing cubes. Each of us have our own color and the largest has bottoms, next largest has shirts/sweatshirts, smallest has pajamas, undies, socks and swimsuits. It makes traveling so much easier, but in this case…RV life so much easier. Dirty stuff went in the hamper we bought at Walmart and then when it was clean, it would go back in each packing cube. Made packing at the end of the trip so much easier too. This is a photo of the packing cubes for my youngest in the cabinet of the RV:

Packing woes were what to bring and what not to bring. Here are the things we used that we definitely needed:

1. Fishing waders. We had one for each of us and we used them a lot. They kept us dry and warm. We bought some from Amazon for the boys and me, but my husband got a pair from Cabela’s for himself. The ones we got for the boys were perfect. Easy to get in and out of and kept them dry during our fishing trips and out whitewater rafting experience. I would highly recommend them! Here is the link for them through Amazon: waders for kids
2. Boot dryer. We ordered one through Cabela’s 4 weeks before our arrival date and marked it as a pick up in Anchorage. This thing was a lifesaver. Our feet and boots got wet at different times and this thing dried them so well. We were originally going to donate it, but we loved it so much that we paid for it as a luggage piece to bring back home. Here is the one we ordered: boot dryer
3. Rain jackets. We only had one day of rain, but we used it on things like the whitewater rafting trip and fishing because we would get splashed so it was nice to have them with us.
4. Fleece jacket. This was good on the chilly days to layer under the rain jacket.
5. Really good Merino socks. This was another thing that was so nice to have. I wouldn’t have thought of them, but my husband said it would be a good idea, so we all got them from Amazon. Kept our feet dry and warm! Here are the socks we ordered: socks
6. Gloves and a hat…this we only used once on our tour, but we were happy to have them on that very chilly tour day

After visiting Walmart and picking up our boot warmer from Cabela’s, we went to Costco and grabbed groceries and items. We bought the street tacos from Costco for our meal for one night, plus ground turkey and ground beef for dinners. Our meals in the RV were:

1. Burgers and hot dogs
2. Spaghetti
3. Tacos
4. Street tacos from Costco (first time having them and they were delicious!!)
5. Salmon (fresh caught by us) with Caesar salad
6. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
7. Grilled cheese
8. Eggs

Once we were done getting all the groceries, we hit the road to Talkeetna.