We are taking a cruise on August 24th and thinking of renting a car in Juneau or Skagway? Which place offers the most to see outside of the town where renting a car would make the most sense? Appreciate your comments. thank you

You can walk all of Skagway in 1/2 hour so do not rent a car there (the train up to bennet lake is great). I do not know if you are on a ship or flying, but if you are one a ship, downtown Juneau is about a 5 block area so just walk. In Juneau, you have a total road network of 30 miles, and I believe all of the car rental companies are at the airport in the valley.

In Skagway, we took the White Pass & Yukon RR, which was wonderful, and then went to the National Park Service exhibit, and took their excellent walking tour. We liked the Corrington Museum and City Hall Museum, too.

In Juneau, the only thing we went to that was outside of the downtown walkable area was the Mendenhall Glacier, which was definitely worth the trip. We liked the exhibits, the film, seeing the glacier, and walking the hiking trail.

Downtown, we thought the State of Alaska Museum, State Capitol, Juneau Douglas Museum, and Wickersham House were enjoyable. We didn''t get a chance to ride the tram up Mt. Roberts and hike up there, but that sounded interesting, too.

We rented a car in Skagway and headed toward the Alaska Highway - beautiful scenery (presumably similar to what you see on the train). We very much enjoyed the day and were glad we'd gotten the car.

Also, if your cruise is similar to the one we took, there are many more options in Juneau - whale watching (which we did), helicopter to glacier (which we also did), etc. We really enjoyed our time there but did not feel like we needed a car. As a previous poster said, you can walk all of Skagway in 1/2 hour... which is why I'd recommend that you DO rent a car there. It enables you to get out of town on your own and see the (spectacular) countryside. Have fun!