Renting an RV in Alaska

[Scoot]

I'm going to Alaska next July and taking my mom and two sisters. We'll be renting an RV for our trip and I'd like some recomendations on what type of/how big of an RV we need and where to rent from. Any and all info appreciated.

[weld1]

We do this motorhome rental in anchorage atleast every other year and have used a different one each time, havent found one we really like, as for ones we will NEVER rent from again, they include alexanders and clippership! reserve early and stay clear of these..if i can think of others i will let you know, last year we did a great alaskan holidays motorhome.

when we were waiting for check out looking outside at the row of rigs there was one out of like 20 that was well used, i told the wife, hey thats prob our motorhome! and wouldnt you know it it was!! took over a extra hour just to check out as it had damage that wasnt noted and it was gross inside like they didnt even clean it! very disapointing so im not sure we will go there again!

If your going to hit homer and halibut fish i can give you the name of a boat that did a awsome job!

[Scoot]

Thanks weld- I'll avoid those two. Yes, we'll be in Homer for several days and plan to chase buts! A name of a tub to look for would be good!

[anyfishanytime]

we did this last year and had a fantastic time, I think we drove around 1600 miles in 9 days, almost hit 3 moose and 1 elk, those things are BIG, try not to drive at dusk. We rented from ABC, its right at the airport and the rig was very nice, no problems at all. We signed up early and paid in full and got a great discount for doing that, like half price. We rented the biggest one but we also have 4 kids, but I would recommend the biggest, gives you more room, price is not that different and the gas mileage is pretty close.

[kitchy]

We rented from GA last year. weld, at least ours was clean and fairly new. But their customer service was not good. We gave them all our arrival info and I think we still ended up waiting like 4 hours for our rig. I'm thinking they dropped the ball a bit. I will be shopping around for the next trip. I would not recommend our halibut guy. He was OK but he just had us over a bunch of chickens and wouldn't go find the big guys.

[weld1]

kitchy, thats the only thing about going from homer on a day trip is you would have to spend most of the day driveing out and back, as with most of the day trip boats we caught mostly 20 pounders or so, which is great with me! we also made a haul of silver salmon at the same time!! on a combo trip the salmon are usually in the area about aug 1st i believe, we brought back 50lb of each, which is plenty for the 2 of us.

scoot, the charter we went on was captBs alaska Cs- the ashtikan if i spelled that right. there on the homer chamber site, good stable boat and will only take 6 people.

[Scoot]

Thanks for the info, fellas- keep it coming!

If we rent the biggest one, as suggested, how much are we to expect to pay for 8 days?

Thanks for the info so far!

[kitchy]

We had a 30' for 7 nights. I beleive it came to about $250/night (with some options and tax). At risk of stating the obvious...don't forget to budget for gas...it can be a killer.

[kitchy]

BTW, the guy next to me in my avitar is the guide we used for the Kenai. Great guide.

[traveler]

The 2 that I would look at are ABC and Great Ak holiday. A friend has had good luck with ABC, and taken advantage of thier discount. The discounts are both for early booking/paying, and also for renting during shoulder seasons, aka not June 15 thru the end of July. GA was my choice through exaustive research last year, although we didn't get to go.

[Sherpa]

we did this last year and had a fantastic time, I think we drove around 1600 miles in 9 days, almost hit 3 moose and 1 elk, those things are BIG, try not to drive at dusk. We rented from ABC, its right at the airport and the rig was very nice, no problems at all. We signed up early and paid in full and got a great discount for doing that, like half price. We rented the biggest one but we also have 4 kids, but I would recommend the biggest, gives you more room, price is not that different and the gas mileage is pretty close.

Elk in Alaska?

[globug]

Over the course of three rentals ABC has been great for us- good value, super service, helpful staff. Check them out for sure. Like traveler posted, the early reservation/shoulder season discounts at ABC are great if you can take advantage of them.

Rented once from Great Alaskan Holidays (this was several years ago) and that was a positive experience as well. GAH offers RVs with the slide out feature, I don't think that is an option at ABC.

The 30' models have worked well for our family of 4, they are easier to drive than you would think looking at them.

Mark

[traveler]

Alaskan elk = Caribou:)

[Eastwind]

We were happy with Lucky Pierre Charters for 'But fishing.

[Scoot]

Thanks again for all the info on this, fellas.

One related question, and sorry if this is a dumb one, but I've never driven or an RV or rented any vehicle before. How much of a pain is it to find a place where I can park one of these beasts? Where would I park the rig for the night? How much additional cost would this be? We'll be Soldotna and Homer most of the time, if that helps.

Thanks again!

[traveler]

Some of them aren't beasts, depending on how big you go. There are people parking all over in RV's...rest stop areas, parking lots, etc...and also plenty of pull in campgrounds. Maybe 25-35 a nite (guessing). If you don't need hookups, the parking won't bleed you.

[kitchy]

You might want to check out the Alaskan Milepost Guide http://milepost.com/

It has a lot of good travel info in it and lists campgrounds and RV parks. We never had an issue finding a place to park the big rig for the night.

[Sherpa]

There are definitely a good amount of RV parks on the Kenai Peninsula. In Homer there are a couple right near the beach. You should not have much trouble finding a place to park.

[Scoot]

Thanks again fellas.

[Scott M]

Great info. I'm hoping to give this a try some day. I read that it's really a growing business...I know Field and Stream did a story on it last year.