Anchorage to Seward: Train, Bus and Drive Along the Seward Highway

On a summer morning in Anchorage, the platform at the railroad depot fills with people holding coffee and looking at the same question: train, bus or the wheel of a car? Each one ends at the head of Resurrection Bay, in the town that calls itself the place where Alaska starts. The trip takes about the same time by road, a bit longer by rail, and every version follows mountains and water.

How do you get from Anchorage to Seward?

You get from Anchorage to Seward by the Seward Highway, whether you drive yourself, ride a motorcoach or take the Alaska Railroad’s Coastal Classic train, which follows its own track to the same bay. Seward is a small port city on the Kenai Peninsula in Southcentral Alaska, and the road and the rails both head there from Anchorage.

Driving the Seward Highway

The drive takes about 2.5 hours along the highway, which stretches 125 miles from Seward to Anchorage. It is designated a National Forest Scenic Byway, a State Scenic Byway and an All-American Road, and it runs through the Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, along Turnagain Arm and past the Kenai Mountains. Roughly 72 miles of it lie inside Chugach National Forest.

Behind the wheel you set your own rhythm. Turnagain Arm unfolds with the Chugach Range dropping straight to the water, and you can stop wherever the scenery asks you to. On a five-mile section between Hope Junction and the top of Turnagain Pass, the posted limit is 55 mph in the right lane and 65 mph in the left lane, so pay attention to the signs there.

The highway is also part of the unsigned Interstate Highway System as Interstate A-3, and U.S. Bicycle Route 97 runs alongside it for its whole length. Cyclists share the same corridor, so expect to see riders on the shoulder.

Riding the Coastal Classic train

The Coastal Classic takes 4.5 hours from Anchorage to Seward, leaving you to watch rather than steer. It winds beside Turnagain Arm, makes a brief stop in Girdwood, and then enters backcountry wilderness that many consider the most scenic stretch of the entire Railbelt. National Geographic Traveler ranked it among its Top Ten Train Rides in North America.

The train arrives in Seward in the late morning and stops on the shores of Resurrection Bay. Passengers can also board in Girdwood. Daily rail passage between Anchorage and Seward runs in the summer, from May 13 to September 14.

Taking the motorcoach

A motorcoach from Anchorage reaches Seward in about 2.5 hours, the same as driving. The Park Connection offers twice daily bus service between the two in the summer, from mid-May to mid-September. You get the highway views without handling the road yourself.

Which options are there?

There are three ways to make the trip: your own vehicle, the Park Connection bus, and the Alaska Railroad’s Coastal Classic. They differ mostly in how long you spend on the way and how much of the landscape you can stop for.

Your own vehicle

Driving is the choice of anyone who wants to pull over along Turnagain Arm or let the day wander. The highway runs through the Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest and the Kenai Mountains, so the landscape changes along the way: water and cliffs first, then forest and mountain country as you approach Seward.

For cyclists, U.S. Bicycle Route 97, created in 2011, runs alongside the highway along its entire length. It follows the same corridor as the cars.

The Park Connection bus

The bus travels in the same time as a car, about 2.5 hours, and runs twice a day in the summer, from mid-May to mid-September. Outside those weeks, the sources place no bus on this route. It suits travelers who prefer to look out the window at the mountains and the arm of water rather than concentrate on the road.

The Coastal Classic train

The train is the slowest of the three at 4.5 hours, and it is also the one built around the view. It travels from Anchorage through Girdwood to Seward, the mountains plunging to the sea along Turnagain Arm, then wilderness beyond Girdwood. Arrival comes in the late morning, beside Resurrection Bay.

It runs daily from May 13 to September 14. Outside those dates the train is not a way to reach Seward from Anchorage.

What should you know before you travel from Anchorage to Seward?

Know your season, because the train and the bus run only in summer, and check the road conditions on Alaska 511 before you set out by car. The state’s 511 service gives a live picture of the highway, and it is the tool to open on the morning you leave.

Checking the road on Alaska 511

Alaska 511 rates road conditions as Good, Fair, Difficult, Very Difficult, Hazardous, Road Closure or No Winter Maintenance. The Alaska Department of Transportation has partnered with Waze, so incidents and closures reported there also appear on the 511 website.

On the map page you can add a camera to My Cameras by clicking a camera icon and then the My Cameras button in its popup. On the camera page, the three dots below the image open the same option. To save routes, you must log in, and an account also lets you receive notifications. By default, route notifications arrive by SMS on weekdays from 6 AM to 6 PM.

What waits in Seward

Seward sits between the Kenai mountains and the waters of Kenai Fjords National Park, with Mt. Marathon rising steeply behind town. It is the ancestral homeland of the Alutiiq, or Sugpiaq, people, and its slogan is Alaska Starts Here. Its population is about 2,700, which gives the harbor town a small feel.

Kenai Fjords National Park is listed as a highlight for wildlife viewing and whale watching, and the Alaska SeaLife Center is a family-friendly attraction. Seward is also the first or final port for many cross-gulf cruise ships traveling between Alaska and Vancouver on the Inside Passage.

Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier is described as Alaska’s most accessible glacier, 10 to 15 minutes from Seward, and a gentle half-mile trail leads to up-close views of it. It is the only part of Kenai Fjords National Park reached by road, so it is the one piece of the park you can approach without a boat.

Visitors can walk close to an active glacier or join a ranger-led walk. You can also walk on Exit Glacier with a guide.

Good to know before you go

Seward offers year-round accommodations and activities, including a winter weekend experience, so the town itself does not close for the season. The train and the bus are the summer pieces: the Alaska Railroad’s Seward service ends on September 14 and the Park Connection stops in mid-September, so a trip in the colder months goes by road, where Alaska 511 is the place to look first.