TravelinVic

My husband and I are doing a cruise tour with Princess Cruises to Alaska in June. Of course the first part is the Inside Passage with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. Is there enough to do in these towns right off the ship to fore go an excursion in one or more of these ports? (my husband is a minimal shopper). Though in Ketchikan, the ship does leave by 2 PM; the other towns we are docked a full day. In addition, any feedback about excursions you highly recommend would be appreciated also. We do have a Kenai Boat tour scheduled, our land portion includes a boat ride on the Chena River, and we have a shuttle bus booked for Denali, so we were trying to watch our budget during the Inside Passage segment.

emalloy

In Juneau you can go to the very nice state museum and you can take a bus from town out to Mendanhall Glacier, spend as much time there as you want then take a bus back ( the cruise ship probably has a tour there for about twice as much money)

In Skagway there is a bus that you can hop on or off all day for $10. One of the places it goes to is a gold dredge that the cruises go to also.

TravelinVic

emolloy - Thanks SO much for this info. Could you tell me the name of the company w/ the hop on/hop off buses? Can't seem to find it on-line. Thanks again.

china_cat

i understand wanting to control the costs, and excursions are pricey. But you might be missing out by not going on some of them. If you can spring for one of the helicopter glacier landings, I would highly recommend it. We did the cheapest/shortest one from Juneau and it was worth every penny. Also the whale watching out of Juneau was fantastic.

In Ketchikan you can probably just walk around town, and maybe get a taxi or shuttle to take you out to the Totem parks. there are 2 right next to each other, and they are quite interesting.

sunbum1944

Whale watching from Juneau should not be missed in my opinion. We saw the whales doing "bubble net feeding" and it was one of the highlights of the trip.

YouTube bubble net feeding and you will see what I mean.

AKFoots

I'd have to agree with china_cats, I absolutely loved taking a helicopter up to land on the glaciers in Juneau . Once in a lifetime trip! There are quite a few walks to do, or you can cheaply rent kayaks from the University and go out on their lake which has amazing views of Mendenhall glacier and the surrounding mountains. If you're looking for great places for food in Juneau I'd suggest the local favorites: southeast waffle company, udder culture, and the halibut fish & chips from the Sandbar.