There are an increasing number of visitors to Alaska in the winter… and many of them are coming here to experience the Iditarod.

The Iditarod starts in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March, and the race lasts about two weeks. Most guests arrive on the Thursday before – you wouldn’t want to schedule a Friday flight into Anchorage and end up stuck in Chicago because of a Midwestern blizzard – you’d miss the start of the race!

Dogs discuss race strategy while sitting in the back of a musher's dog truck.

The ceremonial start is on Saturday. This is when all of Anchorage turns out and lines the the streets to watch the mushers as they head through town. Most people head to Fourth Avenue, which is the starting line… but there are many great places to watch the mushers all over town, so it isn’t necessary to fight the downtown crowds. Among the more favorite spots are on the hill on Cordova Street as the mushers head down towards Chester Creek.

The route winds its way south through the parks in Anchorage. At one point the mushers cross a bridge over Northern Lights Boulevard, and a tunnel at Tudor Centre. In 2009, the Anchorage trail ended at Campbell Airstrip in Centennial Park.

A view of the "chute" at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod.

One advantage of heading to Fourth Avenue is to see the mushers prepare their sleds and dogs for the race. While the festivities on Saturday are purely ceremonial – the clock on the race doesn’t start until Sunday – there is still plenty to see in the “chute”. The area of downtown on Fourth Avenue west of D Street (the actual starting line) is fenced off, and each musher brings in his or her “dog truck”. A dog truck is how the dogs, sleds and equipment is hauled to different locations. The most distinctive feature of a dog truck are the boxes on the back where the dogs ride. You’ll often see dogs sticking their heads out of holes in the doors of the dog truck.

This is a great opportunity to get some photos of the mushers, talk to them a bit, and see the dogs. Most people can’t imagine the preparation and training that goes into a run to Nome. While the show on Saturday is just a very small piece of the entire process, it is very clear from watching the mushers get ready that a run to Nome in the Iditarod is something that takes years of planning.

Musher heads down Fourth Avenue in Anchorage at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod.

After the ceremonial start, the mushers pack up the dogs and sleds and head for Willow, where the race restarts on Sunday afternoon. Several thousand spectators attend the restart in Willow, and this event is an even more authentic Alaskan event – people arrive by car and truck, snowmachine (this is Alaska-speak for snowmobile) and even a few by airplane.

The atmosphere is a little different in Willow; the trail heads out across the frozen lake, and spectators line the trail and cheer as the mushers head out to Nome. At the same time, snowmachines race across the lake, and airplanes on skis come and go.

After the restart, many guests head north to Talkeetna, where they catch a flight out the next day to some of the remote checkpoints in the foothills of the Alaska Range. Flights leave in the morning and head to Skwentna and Rainy Pass. The first day is often a very entertaining time to be on the trail, because this is when the fastest of the teams try to set the pace.

For guests that are serious about the Iditarod, you can fly from checkpoint to checkpoint in a “Chase the Race” package. Other guests take a few days off and head to Fairbanks where you can take in the World Ice Art Championships, do a dogsledding adventure, where you can actually learn to drive a dog team and spend the night under the northern lights in a cabin or arctic-weight tent. After your dogsled adventure, an afternoon soak at Chena Hot Springs sounds like a very good idea.

The following week the lead mushers approach Nome, and guests fly out to this Norton Sound community to greet the mushers as they arrive on Front Street.

Iditarod packages have become more popular over the last few years, but there is still time to arrange your package if you’re up for a winter adventure in Alaska. Alaska Vacation Store creates custom Iditarod packages that include lodging, rental cars, and all of the activities. Packages can be as short as four days, or last for as many as twenty.

I doubt that I’ve developed a regular readership yet… but I should at least explain the month-long gap in the blog.

In September I started working on another website, writing all of the content myself, and doing all the graphics and layout work. One look and you’ll understand why I am not in that business… but at least it is a start, and I’ve already gotten a few people to contact me based on their visits.

The website is www.alaska-honeymoon.com, and it an extension of this site, and the focus is on planning honeymoons and romantic getaways to Alaska. We have done a few honeymoons every year, but we would like to do more.

Our honeymoon guests are looking for something a little different than our usual Alaskan vacation. Typically honeymooners want to travel around less, and are more focused on particularly romantic destinations and lodging. I mostly wanted people who were looking specifically for that sort of a package to be able to find us quickly… and so far, it seems to be working.

I’ve also got another blog entry that I wrote when I was down in the lower 48, and I’ll be posting that one shortly.

Alaska has become one of the more popular destinations for travelers in the United States. The hospitality industry in Alaska is one of the largest single sectors of our economy, and we have experienced a slow and mostly steady growth in visits to Alaska. One implication of this growth is that once-small businesses have had to grow and change to accommodate higher and higher demand for their products and services.

In the years that I have been in the industry, my business has been transformed in the opposite way. Most of my guests contact me because they are looking to avoid the larger, more commercial destinations and activities. So as the Alaska Hospitality industry grows, and the businesses within that sector try to accommodate larger and larger volumes of people, my business is charged with the task of courting and maintaining relationships with small or very small business that offer highly customized and personalized experiences, whether it be lodging at a secluded cabin on a hilltop with views of Mt. McKinley, or a personally guided rafting and float trip, or a personalized adventure in the Brooks Range.

Much of the information that people outside of Alaska receive about our state come from large, sophisticated marketing engines operated by industry groups and/or large vendors. You’ll notice a lot of cruise ships, domed rail cars, king crabs and big mountains in these advertisements, and I am the first to admit that these images are very compelling, and the cruise lines and other large players have done a very good job at getting their guests to some truly spectacular destinations. However, to be on that cruise ship looking at that glacier or visiting that national park requires you to compromise about the number of people with whom you share that experience. So while the experience with both the cruise lines and the railroad is very good, once you reach your destination you’re faced with a rather commercial and often crowded set of options.

View from the entrance of one of the large hotels in Denali Park, Alaska. Numerous business, hotels and other commercial enterprises are located in the area known as “Glitter Gulch.” This picture was taken in September 2005, after the guests had left for the season.

The biggest enterprises are the drum to which the smaller businesses tend to dance. Tour schedules and courtesy shuttles are tailored to match the arrivals of cruise ships and trains. In order to offer these added amenities, the smaller companies must have the ability to handle the large number of guests arriving at once, and so what was once a very personalized experience becomes something geared to a larger audience, and by definition, is less personal. In addition, businesses that are located away from the cruise ship terminals and train stations have a hard time attracting these guests because they can’t offer the transportation options that the larger places offer. While this situation may seem like quite a problem to overcome for a small to very small business, I actually think this is a big advantage for many of them, provided they are focused on a very high quality experience for their guests.

For that reason we generally suggest that people skip the larger vendors, and do a self-guided trip instead. It isn’t that these larger vendors don’t do a good job, but rather that to have that wonderful, personalized Alaskan experience, with great hospitality and great locations, you need more flexibility. In almost every case, that requires that you travel by private vehicle, and for that reason we include rental cars in almost every package we do for our guests.

A lot of people are reluctant to drive during their visit to Alaska. My guests have cited a number of reasons, from finding driving to stressful, to concerns about the condition and quality of Alaskan roads, to the amount of time required to drive the hundreds of miles in a typical stay here. I will admit that I am not typical, and I really enjoy driving, but part of that is because of the tremendous flexibility that having your own vehicle offers. In addition, there are so many wonderful destinations that are not served by cruise ships or the train. Having access to a car opens up your visit to so many possibilities that really make a difference in your stay.

Having access to a vehicle is not the complete answer, however. This past weekend is a perfect example of what can go wrong in Alaska, or in fact, on any trip that you might plan. A week of heavy rains caused widespread flooding that damaged two bridges on the Parks Highway, the major route between Anchorage and Denali and Fairbanks. The road is just now being reopened, and drivers should expect delays traveling either north or south on the Parks Highway between Talkeetna and Denali. Travel insurance is always a good idea, and if you had the right travel insurance, your costs relating to delays and trip interruption would be covered. The same flooding also suspended rail operations, and thousands of guests were stranded, especially in Talkeetna and Denali, so taking the train did not help guests avoid the inconvenience caused by the floods.

So, get in the car, find the special places, meet the special people, buy travel insurance, and have a great vacation.

Last fall, after the visitor season was over, I took the family down to Florida for a week. I had never been to the Florida Keys, and I had always wanted to see them. We originally planned to camp at one of the state parks near Marathon, but Hurricane Wilma did quite a bit of damage, and the park was not available for camping.

Rather than cancel the trip, I decided to do some research and try to find a place for us to spend the week. I found an apartment with two bedrooms and a kitchen, and it actually fit our party of four very nicely.

When I arrived there, and it was time to check in, the first thing I noticed was the number of small signs that were posted everywhere. There was one on the door that said that said that vehicles that did not belong to a registered guest would be towed. There were a number of other ones, too, but I don’t remember what they said.

I went into the office to register. The person was business-like, and had a contract for me to review and sign. Since I actually work in the hospitality industry, I read the contract thoroughly, both because it is a good idea, and because I wanted to see if there was anything that people in Florida were doing differently than what I had come to expect in Alaska.

The contract stated that they would charge my credit card for the entire stay at the time that I registered, and that if I left early, there would be no refund. This was acceptable for me, because this is one of the conditions that I require, too. However, it would have been good to have been advised of this in advance. There was a list of “Thou shalt nots…” having to do with damages and noise… nothing that I thought was unreasonable. I signed the contract, was given a couple of keys, and we went off to our apartment.

The apartment was very nice. There were two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a ceiling fan, air conditioning, cable television and a balcony with a view of the Gulf of Mexico. The kitchen was at least passably supplied, with a stove and microwave, dishes, pots and pans, glasses, etc. At this point, I noticed a sign posted in several places in the kitchen. The sign said that if we left dirty dishes, we would be charged a $200 cleaning fee.

As you might imagine, after a flight across the continent and a drive from Miami to Marathon, it was time to visit the bathroom. When I walked in, I was greeted by a sign that said that if the bathroom towels were used for spills, or were otherwise stained, there would be a $50 replacement charge.

Now I am the first to admit that I pay attention to these kinds of details more than most. However, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable at the constant reminders that I should definitely not make myself at home. I don’t think that any of the things on the signs were in any way unreasonable. In fact, they are completely reasonable. However, there are other ways to let your guests know about these conditions.

Every time I walked in the bathroom to take a shower, or washed dishes in the kitchen, there was that reminder, and it ate at me. I know that I am overly sensitive about such things, but I can’t help but feel that other guests would be similarly uncomfortable, but just not know what they were uncomfortable about.

Now that I was sensitized to the little things, I noticed that the owner spent a lot of his day riding around on his golf cart. Admittedly there was still a lot of cleanup to be done after the hurricane (notice that some of the trees look dead or brown from being flooded with seawater). However, he was a lot more about riding in the cart and supervising than about cleaning up.

The place itself was very nice, and we did have a very good time while we were there. However, there are certainly ways that the owner could have presented his conditions that would have actually been a positive experience. Guests expect that there are conditions and penalties related to their stay. Informing the guests about the payment and cancellation policies in advance is a start. Taking the time to explain the damage penalties, rather than just putting a piece of paper in front of you and having you sign it is another. Having someone take a moment to walk you through your apartment and remind guests about washing the dishes and not staining the towels would be a third. Letting the guests enjoy their vacation rather than reading and re-reading every little condition is a fourth.

I am sure that there are some of you out there reading this thinking that I am just way too uptight about this. However, you can tell from my experience what this particular host is focused on. I never actually met the owner — he never took the time to introduce himself to me, even though I was there for a week. This experience left an impression with me, in part because one of the criteria by which I choose vendors is the way they treat their guests. All of my vendors have very nice places, and they have their own policies and penalties. But they are also very focused on making sure that you have a great time. I have lots of opportunities to visit properties and speak with hosts. I am impressed when they talk about the guests experience, and put off when they focus on the money.

My vendors make their livings by making sure that their guests are not just satisfied, but have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The same is true for me. If that isn’t the most important thing to a vendor, I don’t use them.