While visiting Anchorage, we took the Alaskan Railway for a day trip to Seward – and honestly, it’s the activity on our trip that the kiddos seemed to enjoy the most. A lot of kids like trains, and Lily and Summer are no exception, but while they’ve ridden trains via public transportation and the like, it’s not often that you get the full dining car-style train experience! We had to take advantage of the opportunity, and as it turned out, we couldn’t have asked for a better destination than Seward.
One thing worth calling out: even though this was a day trip, it was a long day trip – but even with a one year old and a five year old, we all thought it was worth it. The train ride itself is around four hours each way (and although I’d typically say you had to get there before sunrise, the sun didn’t really set while we were in Anchorage, so that’s a bit of a moot point). If you’ve read our travel guides before, you know that we typically like to recommend a place to stay, but in this case, we’d just recommend planning to find ways to stay comfortable – the train itself is great, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare for a nap or two!
To build on that, let’s talk about the train. We aren’t exactly connoisseurs of the railway, but we hadn’t been on anything like it! One of our favorite activities was moving back and forth from our standard seats to the observation car, but there was also a dining car (for which you make reservations at the beginning of each ride – an attendant takes reservations for either breakfast or dinner), and even a small museum onboard that had photos and a historical take on the Alaskan Railway. The views themselves were some of the best we’d ever seen, but there’s plenty to keep you occupied for a lengthier train ride.
Where to Eat in Seward: Chattermark
Seward itself is a quaint town that seems to thrive on day tourists like ourselves, so there’s no shortage of smaller local restaurants that offer authentic Alaskan fare. After a quick Google search (and almost being overwhelmed by options), we stumbled into a smaller restaurant that offered some of the best food we had on the trip. It offered an excellent variety (which was perfect for us, as we had a larger group), but was a bit pricier than even standard Alaskan restaurants; however, that made perfect sense, as Seward is still relatively remote. Everything we had was prepared very well, but the standout was the Alaskan fish and chips – which included freshly sourced salmon (something we’d never seen as the fish offering in that dish). It was stellar, enough so that we ate most of it before we could get an adequate picture! Trust us though: it was worth going out of your way for if you’re in town.
What To Do in Seward: Visit the Alaska Sea Life Center
Despite the size of the town, there’s actually quite a bit to do in Seward: it’s a bustling port for a number of tourism boats that head into Resurrection Bay, the Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center is based there, and the town itself has a number of great local shops. For us, though, having two young kiddos led us to take advantage of the Alaska Sea Life Center, which provided excellent exposure to Alaskan wildlife in a setting the girls could fully enjoy.
True to the other experiences we had in Alaska, the Sea Life Center offers an authenticity that most other zoo-like experiences just can’t – there’s something to the mountainscape that surrounds the facility that we’ve never seen anywhere else. Plus, the SeaLife Center is doing some amazing rehabilitation work; it gets to the true spirit of attractions like this, where people can learn about wildlife in a way that is beneficial to the animals (as many of the animals have been rescued and are in the midst of recovering in some way). At the same time, for kiddos that are Lily and Summer’s ages, the SeaLife Center does a great job of engaging them and educating them about the wildlife that makes Alaska so special.
Overall, even though the day trip to Seward was a bit lengthier than some people might want, it’s still very much worth it – we’d do it again in a heartbeat, and it ranks as one of our all-time favorite activities to do together as a family. From checking off a bucket list train ride to seeing some sea creatures up close in a way that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise, this particular trip is one of the activities in Alaska that we’d recommend most!
