07-Days | Iditarod - Start Package

Our "Race Start" tour features the Iditarod Race Start on Anchorage's 4th Avenue, the Iditarod Race Restart in Willow, a city sightseeing tour of Anchorage and the Musher's Banquet. The banquet is taking place in the evening where you can meet the Iditarod Mushers personally and get some pictures taken. Customize your preferred Iditarod program around the flexible tour package with many options: join a guided tour to a sled dog kennel of a famous Iditarod musher. Listen to the Iditarod presentation, take pictures and enjoy the exhilarating sled dog ride. Maybe you even want to try mushing the dog team! Join us on a cruise tour of Prince William Sound (Whittier), ski for a day at the Alyeska Resort  - Alaska's largest ski area, or choose from various fly-out options to remote Iditarod race checkpoints around famous Rainy Pass, Finger Lakes, the Yentna River or Nikolai with overnights in wilderness lodges within the Alaska Range foothills. Alternatively take a trip to Nome on the shores of the Bering Sea to observe the action when the first Iditarod Musher arrives after an exhilarating trip of 1100 Miles. This is the ideal itinerary for the independent traveler.

Upon arrival in Anchorage transfer to your hotel. Remaining day at leisure and time to enjoy the many winter festival activities during the ongoing annual Winter Fur Rendezvous with: Native Arts Market, Theater Show, Winter Carnival Activities, Snow Sculpturing Competition, Snowshoe Softball Matches and Firework Displays - while the cities gears up for the Iditarod Race Start over the weekend. Don't miss a early evening gourmet dinner with a breathtaking view across Cook Inlet.

Today visit the sled dog kennel of a famous Iditarod musher and get to know all about the Iditarod Race and mushing basics combined with the exhilaration of a sled dog ride and driving a team (included). This tour is an exciting introduction to the traditional Alaska winter transportation with lively huskies and a musher with a long time Iditarod history. The presentation is inspiring and educational where you'll learn all about the sled dogs, required equipment, how the Iditarod race is organized, checkpoints procedures and mushing basics including dog team commands, running positions, sled harnessing and breading. Then it is all about mushing. Ever dreamed of moving silently across snowy landscape pulled by a team of Alaskan Huskies? Meet the harnessed team and a musher for introductions and take some pictures. Then enjoy the sled dog ride on one of the beautiful winter trails.

Enjoy your free morning in and around Anchorage. At 4:00 PM doors open for the Musher Meet & Greet at the Dena'ina Center. The program and Mushers banquet dinner begins at 6:00 PM. Main part of the exciting evening entertainment is the annual banquet fundraiser and drawing for the official start order. The banquet celebrates the mushers who are about to take part in the “Last Great Race on Earth” – the nearly 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Attendees can help raise funds for the Iditarod via a robust live and silent auction while enjoying a 3-course meal and watching the mushers take the stage to draw for their official start order. This is a must for anyone interested to observe "The Last Great Race on Earth" for the first time. Participants have plenty of photo opportunities, good chances to meet and talk with the Iditarod Musher personally, collect autographs and participate in the auction. 

Explore the sights of Anchorage today during this guided city sightseeing tour (3 hrs). Begin your historical tour at the Port of Anchorage at Ship Creek, where Alaska's metropolitan was born as a tent city. This is also the location of the Anchorage rail terminal for the historic Alaska Railroad. Check out this year’s snow sculptures and vote for your favorite. Next we’ll travel through Bootleggers Cove, stopping for a walk in Earthquake Park where you’ll see signs of the 1964 earthquake. Then, we’ll take a drive around Lake Hood, home to the world's busiest seaplane airport and base! Following this stop, you'll visit the incomparable Turnagain Arm and Beluga Point. Take in the majestic scenery and scout for Beluga whales and Dall sheep. Your journey continues to Potter Marsh, the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, a visit to Chugach State Park and - if road conditions permitting - Flattop Mountain. Get a bird's eye view of Anchorage as well as views of the "Sleeping Lady", Mount Denali and the Alaska Range.

The legendary Iditarod race starts at 10:00 AM on 4th. Avenue in Alaska's largest city. Get up early and observe the start preparations, take close up pictures from about 80 Mushers, over 1000 Sled Dogs and enjoy the bustling and exciting race atmosphere before the teams are leaving from the starting line for the "1050 mile race to Nome". Anchorage parks and green belts are providing also a great alternative to observe the race activities. The Balto Statue marks the ceremonial starting point of the Iditarod. Balto was the final lead sled dog in a relay of dogsleds that brought vaccine from Anchorage to Nome just in time to stop a diphtheria epidemic that was threatening to devastate Nome's population in the winter of 1925.

After breakfast board the motorcoach for a guided tour to the official Iditarod Race Start in Willow. Leave at 9:30 AM and enjoy the drive along the scenic Glenn Highway with a brief stopover in Wasilla. Continue to Willow where the Iditarod restart ceremony begins at 2:00 PM. Enjoy the busy and bustling Iditarod race atmosphere and the mushers final preparation. For mushers, thousands of cheering fans at the official race restart -- following Saturday's ceremonial start in Anchorage -- now give way to remote Alaska wilderness and the promise of a finish line in Nome some 1,000 miles away, but not before crossing a trail that may prove perilous for both mushers and dogs. Return to Anchorage approximately 7:00 PM.

Breakfast at the hotel. Morning at leisure in/around Anchorage. Time for your last shopping activities, visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center or have a nice seafood lunch with delicious Alaska Salmon or King Crabs in one of Anchorage's top restaurants. Transfer from the hotel to the airport. End of tour package. Please note: Individual program extensions are available. Extend your stay and fly to Rainy Pass Lodge or Nikolai Checkpoints.