{"id":41767,"date":"2016-02-02T13:35:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T03:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/?p=41767"},"modified":"2018-05-14T06:22:33","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T20:22:33","slug":"tips-for-the-top-of-the-world-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/tips-for-the-top-of-the-world-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for the top of the world | Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Call me crazy, but my idea of heaven right now is an open field full of snow, mountains as far back as the horizon. Black, skeletal trees with snow straining their branches, and a still silence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u2019ve been back from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Destinations-In-Alaska.d203.Flight-Destinations?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Alaska<\/a> for two weeks, but a part of me is still there, staying up till 3am watching the Northern Lights, trudging through knee-deep snow, drinking hot chocolates and watching pastel sunsets.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"6\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 30.1388888889% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;\"><a style=\"color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BAtHQXpPPt5\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Check out the pastel colours in this snowy sunset Our very own @whosmitzi discovered her love of #Alaska while on her trip recently \u2744\ufe0f Have you been to Alaska or is it on your list? \u2708\ufe0f #livelastminute #snow #arcticcircle #pink #sunset #adventure #travel #travelgoals #adventuretravel #wilderness @explorefairbanks<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\">A photo posted by www.lastminute.com.au (@lastminutecomau) on <time style=\"font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;\" datetime=\"2016-01-19T03:05:28+00:00\">Jan 18, 2016 at 7:05pm PST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><br \/>\nInfatuated is an understatement, and I\u2019m still shaking my head at some of the crazy adventures we got up to. There\u2019s more to come on that later, but first, an introduction to the USA\u2019s most northern state.<\/p>\n<h3>Here are five things worth knowing before you travel to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Destinations-In-Alaska.d203.Flight-Destinations?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Alaska<\/a>:<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Dawn is drawn out<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Get out your globe of the world and take a look at where Alaska is. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/a.travel-assets.com\/media\/bex\/lm\/blog\/01-02-2016\/thumb_Screenshot_2016-01-05-14-44-34_1048.jpg\" alt=\"ALASKA | lastminute.com.au\" width=\"1048\" height=\"1863\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll notice it\u2019s right at the top &#8211; which means in summer the sun barely dips below the horizon and there\u2019s almost 24 hours of sunlight! Winter is the opposite; you\u2019ll only see the full glowing ball of the sun for around 3-4 hours each day, and you\u2019ll never see it directly in the middle of the sky \u2013 weird huh?! Compared to the stinging\u00a0sun we know here in Aus, the Alaskan sun is nothing but a fleeting breath of warm air.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 1058px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/a.travel-assets.com\/media\/bex\/lm\/blog\/01-02-2016\/thumb_IMG_20160103_152932237_HDR_1048.jpg\" alt=\"ALASKA | lastminute.com.au\" width=\"1048\" height=\"1397\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sun on it&#8217;s way down after a short trip above the horizon.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>L<\/strong><strong>ady Aurora can be a shy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ever since I got my subscription to <em>Techno Quest<\/em> in Primary School and learnt about space, I\u2019ve wanted to see the Aurora. I\u2019ve spent hours on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-ux3DMkbCrA\">Youtube watching the Northern Lights<\/a>, wondering what they would look like in real life. Turns out, the dancing Aurora is one of the coolest things I\u2019ve ever seen. The shimmering curtains of colour tumbling among the stars is something I\u2019ll never forget. So will you ever get to see them? Come to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Fairbanks-Hotels-Luxury-Hotel.0-0-d1190-tLuxuryHotel.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Fairbanks<\/a> in winter and you&#8217;ll have a really good chance\u2013 especially if you head\u00a0out of town. You need clear skies, a good solar forecast and a good sense of direction, which is where the help of a local comes in handy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"6\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 33.0729166667% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BAkO43Qr8Rw\/\" target=\"_blank\">A warm blanky covering the lodge&#8230; my favorite kind of blanky! #northernlights #aurora #auroraborealis #fairbanks #alaska #visit #travelfairbanks #travel #travelalaska #ak #907 #lodgelife #comevisit #alaskalife #thealaskalife #alaskan<\/a> A photo posted by Mount Aurora Lodge (@mountauroralodge) on <time style=\"font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;\" datetime=\"2016-01-15T16:19:00+00:00\">Jan 15, 2016 at 8:19am PST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>We stayed at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Fairbanks-Hotels-Mount-Aurora-Lodge.h10616933.Hotel-Information?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Mount Aurora Lodge<\/a>, on Cleary Summit which is elevated\u00a0so\u00a0the sky tends to clear out in the middle of the night. You can stay overnight at the lodge or come and watch the lights here for $30 dollars and drink all the hot chocolates you can handle while you&#8217;re waiting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hot tip:<\/strong> If you can\u2019t make it out of town, you still might get lucky. On our last night in Fairbanks we managed to see them in the middle of town from our room at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Fairbanks-Hotels-Westmark-Fairbanks-Hotel-Conference-Center.h17360.Hotel-Information?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Westmark Hotel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The\u00a0Second Amendment\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s be real- \u00a0it can be a little unnerving for us Aussies to see guns\u00a0on sale in the local Walmart. Alaskan\u2019s are very liberal and upfront with their gun use, so don\u2019t be surprised to see gun paraphernalia sold in everyday places like chemists, or even see people walking around with them in town. In fact, you\u2019re likely to get into a conversation with a local on this topic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hot tip:<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s best to leave your negative opinions about guns at the door. Just like we love our Vegemite, Alaskans love to hunt and during hunting season (August to October) residents are allowed to hunt animals like Moose and Caribou, something that is highly policed and regulated.<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/a.travel-assets.com\/media\/bex\/lm\/blog\/01-02-2016\/thumb_IMG_20160103_153022871_1048.jpg\" alt=\"ALASKA | lastminute.com.au\" width=\"1048\" height=\"1397\" \/>\n<h3><strong>Winter is wild<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Come to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Destinations-In-Alaska.d203.Flight-Destinations?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Alaska<\/a> in winter and you\u2019ll actually freeze your bum off, especially if you buy your clothes in Australia. We experienced a mild winter, with temps around minus 20 degrees, but usually you can expect to feel the wrath of minus 30\/40 degrees. Add wind-chill to that and you\u2019re looking at cracked lips, flaky skin and shivers that never seem to stop.<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/a.travel-assets.com\/media\/bex\/lm\/blog\/01-02-2016\/thumb_Snapchat-7226391036230241543_1048.jpg\" alt=\"Alaska | lastminute.com.au\" width=\"688\" height=\"1143\" \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lucky there\u2019s heaps of reputable places to get decent gear and trust me, you\u2019ll wanna fork out for it when it\u2019s that cold!\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Anchorage-Hotels.d178230.Travel-Guide-Hotels?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">\u00a0Anchorage<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Fairbanks-Hotels-Luxury-Hotel.0-0-d1190-tLuxuryHotel.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Fairbanks<\/a> are both well equipped with shops \u2013 we hit up JC Penney and Nordstrom while we were in town and bought insulated coats, base layers and mid layers to keep us warm and toasty.\u00a0The coldest temperature we experienced was minus 26 degrees, somewhere near the Artic Circle.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"6\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BAQc4ObCRbF\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u2744 What does -25\u00b0 feel like? \u2744 It feels like the source of the cold is within you. The air so dry it makes you cough. Your nose stings. Your throat scratches. Eyeballs burn. Shivers never stop. Ice makes everything look like it&#8217;s covered in diamonds. Fog comes out of everyone. Dryness, everything is frozen. #alaska #articcircle #artic #ice #snow #travel #travelwriting #AK #USA #cold #winter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A photo posted by M I T Z I (@whosmitzi) on <time style=\"font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;\" datetime=\"2016-01-07T23:56:26+00:00\">Jan 7, 2016 at 3:56pm PST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>Have you ever wanted to see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Destinations-In-Alaska.d203.Flight-Destinations?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\">Alaska<\/a>? Tell us below.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Destinations-In-Alaska.d203.Flight-Destinations?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\"><strong>Fly to Alaska<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Anchorage-Hotels.d178230.Travel-Guide-Hotels?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\"><strong>Hotels in Anchorage<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/Fairbanks-Hotels-Luxury-Hotel.0-0-d1190-tLuxuryHotel.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels?brandcid=lastminute-au.display.BLOG.ALASKABLOG.generic&amp;utm_source=BLOG&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=ALL&amp;utm_campaign=ALASKABLOG\"><strong>Hotels in Fairbanks<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Call me crazy, but my idea of heaven right now is an open field full of snow, mountains as far..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":41775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4515,4517,4520,3757,4518,4519,85,4516,4616,87],"acf":{"credits":[{"name":"","label":"","full_url":""}],"enable_review_score":false},"posts_api_cpm_point":{"name":"","description":"","thumbnail":"","address":"Fairbanks, AK, USA","latitude":"64.8377778","longitude":"-147.7163888","icon":"\/images\/icons\/marker.png"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41767"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44239,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41767\/revisions\/44239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}