Alaska RV Rental

Top Three RV Rental Locations in Alaska

Alaska is famous for glaciers and fjords, lakes, rivers, waterways, and mountains, promising a marvelous RV vacation and adventure. Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Wasilla are three popular RV rental locations in Alaska. Two of the most popular drivable RV-style rentals in Alaska are Class C and Class A motorhomes, which generally cost $175-$400 a night. If you have a vehicle strong enough to pull a load, you will also have plenty of travel trailer options. Many of these travel trailer models can sleep up to 10 people and are less expensive to rent. They run around $130-$160 a night. Consider one of Alaska's pop-up rentals if you still want a pull-behind camper but have lighter towing capacity. 

Alaska RV Rental by City

At first glance, Anchorage looks like a typical American city; however, up close, you'll see some surprising facets of urban life in Alaska. Anglers come from all over the area to fish in well-stocked Ship Creek, the only urban salmon fishery in Alaska. See beyond the trails and roads in a flightseeing tour by plane or helicopter with professional pilots. Public art can be found throughout the city, from life-sized murals of Alaska marine life and bowhead whales to a bronze work honoring the legacy of Dena'ina Athabascan matriarch Olga Nicolai Ezi. 

Fairbanks was originally a gold rush boomtown; today, it's known as the "Golden Heart of Alaska." Get lucky panning for gold, cool off in an ice museum, mingle with wildlife, or float down the Chena River. Visitors generally enjoy exploring the array of art galleries, museums, historic sites, and cultural venues. If you visit Fairbanks when the snow flies, you can take advantage of other cool things to do like skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, dog mushing, and snowmobiling.

Surrounded by the Talkeetna and the Chugach Mountains, Wasilla is a scenic spot nestled between Lake Lucille and Lake Wasilla. The city is 315 miles south of Fairbanks and 40 miles north of Anchorage by car. It serves as an entryway to the alpine adventures of Hatcher Pass, which reaches 3,886 feet in elevation above the treeline, providing scenic views of the jagged granite peaks of the Talkeetna Mountains.

Best National Parks in Alaska

Located in northern Alaska, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve sits entirely north of the Arctic Circle. It's essentially a vast untouched wilderness park with over 8.4 million acres of superlative natural beauty to explore with no roads, no trail, and no established campsites. The terrain is challenging and is ideal for experienced hikers. An air taxi is an option for those who lack backcountry skills. 

Glacier Bay National Park covers 3.3 million acres of rugged mountains, deep sheltered fjords, dynamic glaciers, wild coastlines, and temperate rainforest. It sits in southeast Alaska, where the ocean currents sway with the weather. Glacier Bay has an abundance of plants, fish, and wildlife that are celebrated through dances, songs, stories, and ongoing traditional practices.

Kobuk Valley National Park is another national park in Alaska that has no roads to provide access, so commercial airplanes take care of most transportation needs from Anchorage to Kotzebue or from Fairbanks to Bettles. This nearly 1.8 million-acre piece of remote backcountry offers summer fun like flightseeing, boating, backpacking, hiking, camping, and wildlife watching. Skiing, snowmobiling, and dog mushing activities are available for individuals with their own equipment and keen Arctic winter survival skills.

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is a piece of land with stunning beauty, craggy mountains, salmon runs, volcanoes, foraging bears, and shimmering turquoise lakes. This place strives to preserve the ancestral homelands of the Dena'ina people and history so that it can be shared with generations of Alaskans and visitors. Travel through the park using a canoe or kayak on the many lakes and rivers or hike the Tanalian Trails. 

Denali National Parkis perhaps the best-known national park in Alaska, and is home to the highest mountain in North America. The park includes 6 million acres of forest, glaciers, snow, and bare rock, and it's larger than the entire state of New Hampshire.

Katmai National Park has become well-known in recent years for its bear cam that captures bears fishing. The area protects Mount Katmai and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and is an active volcanic area, as well as being home to 9,000 years of human history.

Popular State Parks in Alaska

Chena River State Recreation Area offers 397 square miles of forests, rivers, and alpine tundra for exploring and outdoor adventure. The park follows the Chena River, making it ideal for kayaking, canoeing, and fishing. In addition, you can cast a line in one of the three small well-stocked ponds. Hiking among the abundance of wildlife is great any time of the year. 

Chilkat State Park sits about seven miles south of Haines and stretches across over 6,049 acres. It's nestled in a mixed forest of deciduous trees and evergreens featuring diverse wildlife viewing opportunities. The park provides the most amazing views of Rainbow and Davidson Glaciers, exceptional salmon fishing, and a boat launch for sea exploring. Camping, kayaking, hiking, and swimming at the beach are a few activities to do here. 

Located in southcentral Alaska, mostly within the municipality of Anchorage, Chugach State Park contains about 495,000 acres of land with diverse landforms and rugged topography. The region has extensive ocean shorelines, ice fields, massive glaciers, and an abundance of lakes. Enjoy the sights found in the Chugach Mountains by hiking, biking, and ATV riding or rafting and kayaking in the lakes. 

Denali State Park is located entirely in the Mat-Su Borough, adjacent to Denali National Park, and is almost one-half the size of Rhode Island. This 325,000-acre park sits between the Talkeetna Mountains to the east and the Alaska Range to the west, creating the perfect hub for recreational opportunities. 

Popular RV Parks and Campgrounds in Alaska

Popular campgrounds in Alaska are found almost everywhere throughout the state. As one of Alaska's premier RV parks, River's Edge Resort has full hookups and basic hookup options with wide pull-through sites. Homer Spit Campground is another great location right along the shores of Kachemak Bay. With its full-hookup beachside sites, you will not want to miss stopping here. If you're planning a river-rafting experience on the Kenai River, park your RV rental at the Diamond M Ranch Resort and schedule your excursion down the river at the office. This resort has full-hookup RV sites right along the river. 

RV Dump Stations in Alaska

When taking your RV out for a long adventure, you'll want to stop in at a dump station to rid your tank of its wastewater. Alaska has many free options to clean your tank, including the Holiday Gas Station in Wasilla, Mendenhall Lake Campground in Juneau, and 2-Go Marts-Tesoro Gas Station in Anchorage. Some dump stations charge for this service, including the Trapper Creek Inn & RV Park in Trapper Creek and Centennial Park Campground, which has a set charge of $10. Some campgrounds and RV parks in Alaska offer free dump station access for campers, but visitors generally have a small fee to pay. Other dump stations are open 24/7, so you'll be able to stop at one any time of the day. 

Upcoming Events in Alaska

• Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race – This annual long-distance sled dog race runs in early March from Anchorage to Nome, where a team of 14 dogs and a musher cover the distance in eight to 15 days. Stops along the route will allow spectators to see the lineup as each musher arrives. 

• Winter Folk Fest – This Fairbanks festival is held on either the first or second Saturday in February and often features 30 or more performances with new local music artists every 20 minutes. Another stage is set up for dancers.

• Sitka Music Festival – Since 1972, this festival from early June to early July has brought talented string musicians to perform for Alaskans and visitors.