Destination | Nome, Alaska

2008-10-02T11:23:54Z

Nome is the finish line for the 1,049 mile long Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that starts out in Anchorage each March. It was the site of a major gold strike in the early 1900s; the Alaska Gold Company still operates today.

Situated about 539 air miles northwest of Anchorage on the Bering Sea, Nome is a little over an hour’s flight away. A winter visit is not for the faint of heart: the January temperature range runs from an average low of minus 2 degrees to a max of 13 degrees F.

There are also only about 5 hours of daylight in January. However, it really lightens up in June with 21 hours of daylight and a more comfortable temperature range of 44 to 50 degrees. Nome is the jumping off point for some excursions that would make extraordinary incentives for adventurers.

For one thing, through Circumpolar Expeditions (artictravel.net), you can arrange multiple destination visits to Russia. Siberia is only 160 miles from Nome, but this organization even offers escorted private-car accommodations on the Trans Siberian Railway to Moscow. Additionally, Circumpolar is offering a six-person Arctic safari for “Polar Bear Watching and Whale Harvesting" in early September, which includes stops in Barrow on the Arctic Ocean and Prudhoe Bay, as well as a village in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with polar bear observation and also of native whale hunting and its surrounding rituals.

Destination | Fairbanks, Alaska

2008-10-02T11:23:53Z

In winter, fairbanks is a key spot for aurora viewing. At many hotels, you can request a wake-up call if the aurora starts to become active. And in the summer, more than 20 hours of sunlight in the day. You can play 100 holes of golf, or you can attend a midnight sun baseball game where there are no lights in the stadium. Fairbanks can be reached by either the Parks or Richardson highways or by the Alaska Railroad, though most prefer to fly.

The Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau (www.explorefairbanks.com) can also provide a ton of useful services, like meet-and-greets, online room selection, and more. Another web site with information is fairbanks-alaska.com.

The Westmark Hotel & Conference Center Fairbanks (www.westmarkhotels.com)was rebuilt in 2004 to the tune of $34 million, with 264 added rooms (for a total of more than 400) and a whopping 20,000-square-foot meeting area. The Westmark has 13 function rooms, with over 16,700 square feet.

The Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge (www.princesslodges.com/fairbankslodge.cfm) has six full-service meeting rooms; the largest, the Edgewater Room, accommodates meetings for up to 400 guests.

Wedgewood Resort (www.fountainheadhotels.com) has a variety of one- and two-bedroom suites in a landscaped, wooded campus. The resort is close to downtown and the university, but has access to plenty of nature.

It isn’t every day that your hotel package includes unlimited gold panning, but at A Taste of Alaska Lodge (ATasteofAlaska.com) that’s just the beginning. The intimate (8 room), AAA Three-Diamond-rated 280-acre property just outside of Fairbanks is committed to providing an experience that goes beyond accommodations and meals. Not only can guests freely pan for gold at the property’s 17-acre patented gold mine, but there’s also the 45-minute Alaskan huskies mushing tour, plus the chance to truly view the Aurora Borealis without the city lights to take away from the experience.

Meeting spaces in Fairbanks range from spacious arenas and historic sternwheelers to yurts. One great venue for a special event is the newly expanded University of Alaska Museum of the North (www.uaf.edu/museum).

Another option for parties is to consider a riverboat tour. The Riverboat Discovery (riverboatdiscovery.com) holds 800 people, while Greatland River Tours (greatlanddrivertours.com) runs tours on a boat that can hold up to 100 people for dinner events.

For tours over the Arctic Circle, contact Alaskan Arctic Turtle Tours (wildalaska.info) or the Northern Alaska Tour Company (northernalaska.com). For a unique team-building exercise, consider a team-based dog sledding experience by PAWS for Adventure Sled Dog Tours (pawsforadventure.com).

Smart Meetings | Ice Tag Feed

Destination | Nome, Alaska

Destination | Fairbanks, Alaska