Hello All,
My husband and myself are planning a trip to Alaska at the end of the month and I was wanting some advice on how to spend an unexpected extra couple days...namely I was wanting to visit both Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier and Glacier Bay if possible. We are going to be flying out of Anchorage and will have 3 days of travel to do this but I wasnt sure if it was possible and what the best way to travel would be. We are thinking of flying into Juneau and possibly then flying into Gustavus or taking the boat ride from Juneau..realizing we only have 3 days to do this...Any advice would be appreciated!!

Three days is short time but it can work well. Timing your flights is very important. We have enjoyed out stays at the Glacier Bay Lodge and the day trips from there in Glacier Bay are fantastic. I can not comment on the ferry as I like to fly. Alaska Airlines runs one round trip a day from Juneau to Gustavus at about 5:00 PM daily but there are smaller airlines that fly more often. I believe it is even possible to get a very early flight from Juneau, go on the Glacier Bay cruise and fly back to Juneau the same day. Juneau is an interesting place and visiting the Mendenhall Glacier is easy . I believe there are tours and there is a city bus that runs out to the glacier or you can rent a car. If it is a nice day you get a great view of it as you fly in from Anchorage or return from Gustavus. An Alaska Tour Saver book will save you money. It is a truly amazing place, I am sure you will love it .

Hey Carolyn, what is your itinerary and how many days are you spending all together in Alaska? Would be easier to recommend or give you a personal opinion.

Canyon-we are arriving in Anchorage on Sunday June 27th and that is when I was thinking of flying to Juneau till Wednesday- fly back to Anchorage and we are staying outside of Talkeetna Wednesday night then doing a glacier landing flight on Mt McKinley then we plan to spend the rest of our trip in Kenai Fjords area till Sunday when we fly back out of Anchorage.

Presumably you're aware that ANC-JNU is around 2 hours by jet and costs around $350 - $400 round trip?

That said, and not knowing your overall route/itinerary, I might recommend that if you really want to get there, think about tacking Juneau on as a stop en route to/from Anchorage. It will save time and probably money (you'd route through Seattle before/after Juneau).

Otherwise, there are numerous glaciers much closer to Anchorage, and the College Fjord area of Prince William Sound offers really excellent tidewater glacier viewing (IMO pretty comparable to Glacier Bay) but way more convenient to Anchorage.

If you still want to get somewhere outside ANC for a couple of days, and don't mind some flying, then see if you could amend your ticket to making Anchorage a stopover rather than a turnaround point, then fly out to the bush someplace. I'd recommend Nome or Kotzebue - both very interesting towns (Nome for its colorful history, Kotzebue for its Eskimo culture and the fact that it's above the arctic circle, so in late June you'd have true "midnight sun.") Usually setting up this kind of air itinerary adds surprisingly little to the overall cost, but with tremendous added value IMO. I doubt if 5% of visitors to Alaska in summer ever get off the road system into the bush; it's very well worth the extra effort.