Insight Guides Alaska (Travel Guide eBook)

Insight Guides

Description

Insight Guides Alaska

Travel made easy. Ask local experts.
Comprehensive travel guide packed with inspirational photography and fascinating cultural insights.

From deciding when to go, to choosing what to see when you arrive, this guide to Alaska is all you need to plan your perfect trip, with insider information on must-see, top attractions like Glacier Bay National Park, Chena Hot Springs and Kodiak Island, and gems like the Alaska Railroad (used by locals to reach remote cabins), the sight of bears feeding on spawning salmon at Brooks River and Camp, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to polar bears and the greatest biodiversity of any protected area in the Arctic.

Features of this travel guide to Alaska:
- Inspirational colour photography: discover the best destinations, sights and excursions, and be inspired by stunning imagery
- Historical and cultural insights: immerse yourself in Alaska's rich history and culture, and learn all about its people, art and traditions
- Practical full-colour maps: with every major sight and listing highlighted, the full-colour maps make on-the-ground navigation easy
- Editor's Choice: uncover the best of Alaska with our pick of the region's top destinations
- Key tips and essential information: packed full of important travel information, from transport and tipping to etiquette and hours of operation
- The ultimate travel tool: download the free app to access this and bonus content from your phone or tablet
- Covers: Southeast Panhandle. Southeast Alaska: Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Southcentral and Interior Alaska, Downtown Anchorage, Around Anchorage, Kenai Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Palmer, Denali National Park and Preserve, Fairbanks, The Far North, Southwest Alaska and Kodiak

Looking for a specific guide to the US's western national parks? Check out US National Parks West for a detailed and entertaining look at all the city has to offer.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

Sujets

• Anchorage, Alaska
• Ketchikan, Alaska
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Sitka, Alaska
• Juneau, Alaska
• Ketchikan
• Sitka
• Fairbanks
• Anchorage
• Juneau

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781839053023
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book
This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to Alaska, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editor’s Choice categories of activities and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in Alaska. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, activities from culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.
In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.
Maps
All key attractions and sights in Alaska are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.
Images
You’ll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Alaska. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.
About Insight Guides
Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.
Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.
All Rights Reserved © 2021 Apa Digital AG License edition © Apa Publications Ltd UK

Table of Contents
Alaska’s Top 10 Attractions
Editor’s Choice
Plan & Book Your TailorMade Trip
Introduction: The Last Frontier
The Fragile Wilderness
An Independent People
Decisive Dates
Beginnings
The Making of Modern Alaska
Visiting Alaska’s Natives
Life in Winter
Alaskan Wildlife
Surviving in the Wilderness
Cruising and Touring
Alaska From the Air
Introduction: Places
Introduction: Touring the Southeast Panhandle
Ketchikan
Misty Fiords National Monument
Wrangell
Petersburg
Sitka
Juneau
Glacier Bay National Park
Haines
Skagway
Insight: The Great Klondike Gold Rush
Yakutat
Introduction: Southcentral Alaska
Anchorage
Chugach State Park
Prince William Sound
Wrangell-St Elias National Park
Kenai Peninsula
Matanuska-Susitna Valley
Introduction: The Interior
Denali National Park and Preserve
The Alcan
Fairbanks
Insight: The World Eskimo-Indian Olympics
Beyond Fairbanks
Introduction: The Far North
The Arctic
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Gates of the Arctic
Cape Krusenstern
Insight: Native Art and Artifacts
Nome and the Seward Peninsula
Insight: The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
Introduction: The Southwest
Kodiak
Insight: A Serengeti of the North
Lake Clark National Park
Katmai National Park
McNeil River State Game Sanctuary
Remote Communities and Wildlands
Transportation
A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
Further Reading
Alaska’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction 1

Denali . North America’s highest peak is surrounded by one of the world’s greatest wildlife sanctuaries, Denali National Park and Preserve. For more information, click here .
iStock

Top Attraction 2

Totem poles . Tall and elaborately carved, totem poles are comparable to family crests and are used to tell a story or recall an event. The totemic symbols are often animals or birds – typically bears and eagles. For more information, click here .
iStock

Top Attraction 3

Bald Eagles. Alaska is the stronghold of bald eagles, which congregate in places where fish are plentiful. For more information, click here .
iStock

Top Attraction 4

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Sixteen tidewater glaciers flow down from mountain peaks and plunge into icechoked fjords. The park is one of the best places to view bears, seals, humpback whales, and eagles. For more information, click here .
Glacier Bay NP

Top Attraction 5

Cruising. Traveling along a stretch of Alaska’s 33,900 miles (54,500km) of coastline by ship is a popular and often luxurious way to see wildlife. For more information, click here .
Danny Lehman/Princess Cruises

Top Attraction 6

Travel by rail. Trains such as the McKinley Explorer, with glass domes or openair viewing platforms, penetrate deep into Alaska. For more information, click here .
Holland America Line

Top Attraction 7

Fishing. Prime fishing in pristine waters offers anglers a sporting chance of reeling in massive king salmon, leaping trout, halibut, and northern pike. For more information, click here .
iStock

Top Attraction 8

National and State Parks. With eight national parks and a state parks system of more than 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares), Alaska has tremendous appeal to outdoor enthusiasts. For more information, click here .
T. VandenBerg/NPS

Top Attraction 9

The Northern Lights. These can be viewed most clearly in winter in the area around Fairbanks, which calls itself an ‘auroral zone.’ For more information, click here .
iStock

Top Attraction 10

Bears. Getting close to brown bears allows you to recognize their individuality – some are aggressive by nature but others are mildmannered. McNeil River State Game Sanctuary creates safe conditions for bear watching. For more information, click here .
iStock
Editor’s Choice

Trans-Alaska oil pipeline is also known as the Alyeska Pipeline.
Fotolia

Only in Alaska

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Home to musk oxen, polar bears, and the Porcupine caribou herd, this refuge is the nation’s largest and has the greatest biodiversity of any protected area in the Arctic. For more information, click here .
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Moving oil 800 miles (1,300km) from the North Slope to Valdez and across three mountain ranges, this feat of engineering is an important part of modern Alaska and can be seen from several state highways. For more information, click here .
Aurora Borealis Displays (Northern Lights). These heavenly light shows can be viewed only in the darkened autumn or winter skies that begin in late August. For more information, click here .
Alaska’s Thermal Resort (Chena Hot Springs). Soak away your preconceived notions about a ‘frozen wasteland’ in outdoor and indoor steaminghot thermal pools, in summer or winter. For more information, click here .
Land of the Midnight Sun. Communities throughout Alaska celebrate the summer solstice each year with parties and barbecues and, in Fairbanks, midnight tee time for golfers in natural light. For more information, click here .

A plane about to land on Lake Clark.
Kent Miller/NPS

Best Kept Secrets

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. A short flight from Anchorage or the Kenai Peninsula offers boundless recreational opportunities for wildlife viewing, river running, kayaking, hunting and angling, yet this national park is among Alaska’s least known, and least visited. For more information, click here .
Richardson Highway. This scenic road from Fairbanks to Valdez provides spectacular views of Worthington Glacier, the many waterfalls of Keystone Canyon, and Thompson Pass. For more information, click here .
Ship Creek. This salmonladen stream, within casting distance of downtown Anchorage hotels, is a favorite fishing spot for locals during lunch hour. For more information, click here .
Yakutat. Said by some to be one of the top, and certainly most unusual, surf beaches in the US, this is a great spot for serious surfing en thusiasts. For more information, click here .

Brown bear.
iStock

Best Spots for Bear-Viewing

Brooks River and Camp. Located in Katmai National Park and Preserve, the location is only accessible via plane or boat. Safe viewing platforms allow you to watch bears feed on spawning salmon near the Brooks Falls. Visitors may stay at Brooks Lodge, or fly out on a day trip from Anchorage. For more information, click here .
Denali National Park and Preserve. Shuttle bus tours present visitors with excellent opportunities for bearspotting. For more information, click here .
Kodiak Island. Famous for its healthy population of large brown bears. Bearviewing tours will take you to see them in the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. For more information, click here .
McNeil River State Game Sanctuary. Created for the