12-night Off The Beaten Path Cruisetour #LB5

Alaska's "Golden Heart City" of Fairbanks is a great introduction to the heart of this unique state. Check in to your hotel and get ready for an adventure ahead.

This morning, take a cruise on an authentic Sternwheeler Riverboat down the Chena River before heading via motorcoach for Denali National Park and the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Check in with the Guest Service Desk for help in planning your own Denali adventure. Or you may enjoy the spectacular main lodge, river view deck, and Princess Village with the popular Christmas cottage and sugar shack. Be sure to check out Fannie Q's Saloon, named after a famed local homesteader.

Explore Denali National Park on a Natural History Tour, watching for glimpses of Denali as well as Denali's "Big Five"; moose, caribou, bears, wolves and Dall sheep.

The journey by Princess Rail to Talkeetna is unforgettable. Once you've arrived there, transfer by motorcoach to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. After getting settled in, have a glass of wine out on the deck or sit and gaze at the majesty of "The Great One" from the lodge's treehouse designed and built by Pete Nelson of Animal Planet's Treehouse Masters.

Next you'll head by motorcoach across the stunning Kenai peninsula to Cooper Landing. Here the charming Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge welcomes you to the classic Alaskan lodge retreat - timber log construction and all. Perhaps you'll explore Kenai Fjords National Park, spend the afternoon river rafting or go fishing. Later, return to your bungalow-style room with its wood-burning stove and sun porch for an evening of pure relaxation.

Relax this morning before boarding a motorcoach to Whittier and your awaiting ship. Embark and sail this evening.

Seventy-five miles long and covering over 1,350 square miles in area, the Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in North America. It is also one of the most impressive, a 300-foot wall of ice rising sheer and jagged from the ocean. You may hear the rumble and see the monumental splash as the glacier breaks off in great ice chunks, known as "calves."