Alaska: Expensive, Exhausting, and Absolutely Worth It

Recently, we made it to one of my most-awaited travel destinations, Alaska. Sometimes, cheaper flight tickets can (mis)lead you into spending thousands of dollars on a trip. And that’s pretty much how it started. One of my toxic traits is that I am on Google Flights a lot more than I should be. But what’s the fun in life if you are not randomly Googling flights to random places on a random Tuesday? So, I was doing something like that when I found reasonable flight tickets to Anchorage. And my other toxic trait is embracing the mantra of YOLO (You Only Live Once) and moving forward with planning the trip.

Of course, I am the trip planner of the house, so I map out the detailed itinerary and usually try to book the reservations for all activities and accommodations as soon as we get the tickets. Not this time, though. I don’t know what got into me, but we waited for a hot minute before we booked anything. I then stumbled upon either an Instagram reel or Reddit post saying that August is prime Alaskan summer and all the tourists are trying to do this summer trip, so everything is usually sold out over there. Whether it’s rental cars, hotels, Airbnbs, tours, or whatnot. Only then did the light bulb in my head flicker, and we started to tackle this big giant task of booking stuff for the trip.

The first thing we usually book is the rental car. When I say the rental car price gave us a mini heart attack, you should understand that it is not even an exaggeration. I reached out to our friends who had been to Alaska and pleaded with them to check their credit card statements. It was almost less than half of what the price was for us. We found out that an Alaskan summer trip is quite a serious business!

The same was the story with accommodations. By the time we tried booking, most of the hotels were sold out. Airbnbs were expensive. At one point, the math was so not mathing that I thought of going somewhere else. No lies, I checked the tickets to Peru and other places outside of the U.S. But also, YOLO. We were going to take this trip anyway, so we went ahead and did all the hard stuff of spending money on all those reservations.

Without going into too much detail in this post, let’s just say life happened a week and a half before this trip. I wrote about it in my other blog post. We were discussing cancelling the trip when we found out the universe had other plans for us. So, on the date we were supposed to go, we went.

All trips we have taken so far have been pretty amazing, but this trip must be one of the ones at the top of the list. Although we paid big bucks to be there, I have no regrets that we did it. I am especially thankful that we didn’t deviate from our original plan. And I would like to believe that I was meant to take this trip.

I have been to many places, but the vastness of Alaska was something I had never ever experienced in my life.

Nature does humble you. That was my firsthand experience on this trip.

I think one of the biggest things Alaska gave me was the reminder to step out of my cocoon every once in a while, whatever that cocoon may be for you. For me, I am a remote worker, and I am always home. I am usually out and about when the weather is favorable, but Texas summer has been brutal this year, and I am inside the walls of my home most of the time. In a way, my whole world is in this house and in my computer. It kind of sounds sad when I write this. However, it is what it is.

I realized that being in this cocoon means everything that happens in my life is happening in this small space. All the situations, problems, or whatever they are, are happening in this space, and because I am here day in and day out, everything is zoomed in. Everything that happens here seems like a big deal because it is zoomed in. At least it felt like that to me. Everything that was happening was a huge deal.

The timing of this trip could not have been more perfect. I felt like in the vastness of Alaska, everything that was zoomed in at home got zoomed out. Standing in nature with the mighty mountains in all directions, I felt so small, and so did my problems. In the vastness of nature, I was nothing but a speck of dust. That feeling was humbling and healing at the same time. Whatever I was going through at home felt so small too. I do not remember worrying about anything while I was there. I was just so grateful that I was there to experience all of it.

I would also say that the Alaska trip was very meditative. With no network on the phone in most places, there were no distractions and so many different things to explore in nature. It built up anticipation of what we might experience. From majestic mountains to stunning glaciers and so much wildlife, Alaska offered so much. Usually, in about 4–5 days, I am ready to head home from a trip, but this one definitely felt different. I wanted more time. I was so exhausted physically, but it was a typical “Dil Mange More” situation, where my heart wanted to be there more than anything else.

This trip did wonders for me in so many ways. I learned so much about myself, nature, and definitely wildlife too. Whether it was learning about the glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park, patiently waiting for orcas and humpback whales to surface, looking for bears and moose in Denali National Park, or listening to our Airbnb hosts share their stories of being in Alaska and starting their businesses, each day had something new to offer and gave us moments of awe, one after another.

I do miss stretching our eyes to find bears and moose in the wild. Now, it’s back to staring at emails and tasks, but I am still grateful to have lived those moments when we could. Definitely something to be grateful for forever.

Following the trip, I was so fascinated with whales and other marine life that we started watching the Netflix documentary Our Oceans, and it made me extra sad and somehow ashamed of humankind for being so unkind to nature. We definitely are not going in the right direction, and we and our future generations are going to suffer the consequences of our greed and our greedy actions. In fact, we are already suffering in many forms.

Hopefully, we are able to take corrective action in time, as nations and as the collective force of this world. I really hope so.

If you made it to this point, I appreciate you indulging in my ramblings. What’s the point of a great trip if the rambling didn’t make it to my blog post, right?

So, to conclude, I highly recommend this trip if it is within your interests and resources. I am happy to share our itinerary if you want to steal it. And if you have already experienced Alaska and would like to share your own story, I am so excited to hear all about it. 😃

Thanks again!

See ya later... Byeeeeeeee! 😊