I Took My 11-year-old Son on an Off-grid Winter Adventure in Alaska — and It Was the Best Trip We’ve Ever Taken

"Run by Jenna and David Jonas, this off-grid homestead sits on a bluff above the Tanana River about 60 miles west of Fairbanks and offers private, all-inclusive winter stays (two to seven days, December through March) for up to four guests. The visit is intentionally immersive and low-key: guests sleep in a small one-room lodge (225 sq ft) heated with wood and served three home-cooked meals a day—highlights include gamy moose stew eaten from hand-carved wooden bowls—and use an outhouse a short walk away. Daily activities put visitors to work and play in true frontier style, from snowcat transfers and dogsled runs behind a nine-husky team (including a dog named Jack) to snowshoeing, ice fishing, quinzhee building, tobogganing, whittling, birchbark crafts and basic bushcraft like starting fires with witches’ broom. The hosts live sustainably on-site—chopping ice for water, handmaking sleds, hunting, foraging and growing much of their food—and aim to provide a restorative, noncommercial alternative to polished adventure tourism; one reviewer found the quiet, elemental pace consoling even without an aurora sighting. Pricing starts at $525 per person per day." - Sarah Manguso