Alcan Trip Redux! (hotels, wedding, camping)

[AlaskaAma]

I first joined this forum in 2012 when my husband and I were planning to move to Alaska. We enjoyed the drive up immensely, and I'm now in the planning stages for a potential road trip back east to introduce our son to our families and attend my brother's wedding.

I'm familiar with the general recommendations for driving the Alaska Highway, will have a Milepost, and am allowing enough time to do my driving in daylight hours. Our previous trip was at the beginning of October and we lucked out with very little snow. This time it will be at the end of July and I will have a 2-year old in tow. He's good in the car and we will stop to stretch every couple of hours, bring lots of snacks, and probably a portable dvd player of some sort to help keep him occupied. It will just be me and the baby- my husband will need to stay in Alaska to run our store- but I did all of the driving the first time so that doesn't bother me.

I'd love any sanity-saving suggestions from those who've done this sort of thing, especially good places to stop for him to run off some energy, and any insight you have on the weather along the way at that time of year.

Thanks!

[Haolejohn]

We drove up with three kids and our youngest was just over 2 (April birthday). Basically I tried to average 500-600 miles a day and we slept in hotels all the way up. Stopped every 100 miles or so to give kids stretch breaks. We used iPads for the entertainment.

Didn’t stop anywhere special just every town or every other main town.

[AlaskaAma]

Originally Posted by Haolejohn

We drove up with three kids and our youngest was just over 2 (April birthday). Basically I tried to average 500-600 miles a day and we slept in hotels all the way up. Stopped every 100 miles or so to give kids stretch breaks. We used iPads for the entertainment.

Didn’t stop anywhere special just every town or every other main town.

Thank you! I'm currently thinking I'll do a hotel every other night, which is what we did the first time, but I have some play in my budget to do one every night if I need to. The baby sleeps very well in the car seat and I can recline it back farther for long sleeps. My rough plan has a slightly more ambitious average of about 700 miles a day, but I think it's doable, and as with the hotels I can adjust if necessary.

How did the little one do? Was it insufferable?

[Haolejohn]

Originally Posted by AlaskaAma

Thank you! I'm currently thinking I'll do a hotel every other night, which is what we did the first time, but I have some play in my budget to do one every night if I need to. The baby sleeps very well in the car seat and I can recline it back farther for long sleeps. My rough plan has a slightly more ambitious average of about 700 miles a day, but I think it's doable, and as with the hotels I can adjust if necessary.

How did the little one do? Was it insufferable?

We spent so much time in the car and stopping that the only time it became rough was near the end of our day. We had to stop before they fell Asleep so that we could all sleep at same time. That was our main concern.
If we hadn’t of had all three kids (original plan was for wife and I to make the trip), we would have spent more time in the road and more miles and camping vs hotels. But life changed and our plans had to change.