My husband and I are thinking of going by car ferry from Bellingham, WA up the passage. We would appreciate comments concerning how touristy the towns are, how rainy?, foggy?, we are going in June, July, or Aug.,depending on weather. We are interested in kayaking and seeing the glaciers.

I can't speak for the route from Bellingham to Juneau, except for Ketchikan. However, I did use the ferry between Juneau, Skagway, and Haines last month.

Weather: You pays your money and you takes your chance. All of the inside passafe, from the Alaska border to Skagway are encompassed in the largest rain forest on North America, Tongass National Forest. Being in a rain forest means you get lots of rain. I was in the area for a bit over two weeks in early to mid August. Of that time, I had 4.5 days of glorious weather, The rest of the time was an almost constant drizzle, low overcast, and low-lying fog.

Tourist towns?: Very. Each place the cruise ships stop are pretty much dedicated to being touristy. In Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, there were always 4-6 large ships in port during the day and the streets were crowded. The towns are chock-a-block with tourist oriented businesses such as jewlery and souvenir stores, furriers, and dozens (hundreds) of tourist toru booths. Haines was the exception. It has dock facilities for only one smaller ship and, of the three + days I was there, there was a ship docked only one of them. It is much more like the bush Alaskan towns you find off the coast than the others.

Glaciers: Mendenhall Glacier is just a few miles outside Juneau. You can either get to it by rental car or one of the myriads of tour buses and vans.

Kayaking: I have no idea but the whole area is on the coast and everyone of the towns had at least one kayaking company to serve tourists.

If you interested, you can see a few of my photos and commentary from the area at http://www.worldisround.com/articles/347975/index.html.

We rode the Alaska Marine Highway System ferries last month with stops at Skagway (very touristy but spectacular railroad trip), Haines (small town, not much to do there), Juneau (State Capital, good museum))Sitka (fishing town, much historic interest from Native culture and from Russian colonial days), Petersburg (picturesque small fishing town -- great boat trip to LeConte Glacier), Ketchikan (6000 to 8000 boat people in town from cruise ships every day in summer. We had good weather most days and enjoyed the small towns and scenery along the ferry routes.

I went at the end of May and it was mostly overcast except in Ketchikan where it rained. The towns were touristy, but still fun. Unless you're planning to drive back, I'd leave the car at home and just rent as you need it. Don't know about kayaking up there, altho we saw them at Glacier Park.

We went from Bellingham to Skagway but since our final destination was Anchorage we did not spend much time in any of the towns. The cost to take a car depends on its size/length. We departed the ferry in Skagway and spent two nights. What a difference between day, when the cruise boats were in town, and night, when people went back to their ships. Think huge crowds. The other disadvantage of our itinerary was stopping in one town on a Sunday when everything was closed. We did not get off in Juneau because of the short time in port. Late July was great the year we went. Although we saw orcas, wildlife viewing is much better taking a small boat trip from someplace like Seward. Although the ferry trip was nice and I very much enjoyed the forest service employee who gave lectures several times a day, I liked our land trips better. I was advised to get reservations on the ferry as soon as they start taking them which I believe is sometime in December esp if you want a cabin. We spent an extra day in Skagway just to take the train trip because it had already been booked up by cruise ship passengers. We got a late afternoon trip that turned foggy so it was a little disappointing. I was able to book the train ahead of time so I would recommend booking all your land tours ahead because of the cruise boats. You might have to be flexible on your dates.