Whittier Boat Tours
 

Plan to take a PWS tour from Whittier. I've noticed that Major Marine goes in one direction and Phillips, PWS Tours goes in the other. Phillips covers more distance in less time (4hours), but doesn't spend much time at glaciers. They claim to see whales in open water. PWS Tours (6 hours) is cheaper but takes longer-time that could be used for hiking, etc.

Unfortunately there are no toursaver coupons for these trips. Please share your experience with these operators.

We're planning on doing the Horsetail Falls hike in Whittier suggested by this site:
http://www.alaska.org/glaciers/locals-kelly-bender.jsp
The toursaver has a 2-for-1 coupon for the Inn at Whittier if you're interested.

We took the Phillips 4 hour 26 glacier cruise out of Whittier in June. We didn't see any whales but spent enough time at the glaciers to leave us satisfied--a few of them calved while we were there which was really exciting. We saw a lot of sea otters and a few bald eagles perching on icebergs. Great experience, we would do it again.

One of our trip highlights was our private charter out of Whittier. Truly, for our family of 5, it wasn't THAT much more...and boy was it worth it. Our Captain Jim took us to the most scenic areas..we watched the glaciers calving (i thought someone was shooting at us..ahaa)He prepared a delicious lunch for us. Then, he threw out kayacks and rafts and we paddled to our hearts content...right beside those precious sea otters...OMGoodnes...wonderful!!!

I have gone with both Phillips and Major Marine, both offer excellent glacier viewing. DO NOT expect wildlife and certainly whales would be only a bonus to see them. (I only have about about a 50% sighting ratio out of Seward) :) Pick one that fits your time best.

Visormom-Do you remember who you took the private boat tour with and the cost? There are only 2 of us, but maybe he'd fill the boat with other passengers.

Schnitzel-Thanks for the tip on horsetail falls. I think we'll try the hike.

stillhouse..i apologize, but i no longer have that info. What I do remember is that I located him surfing the web for charters. He was a retired school teacher, and he lives in Girdwood. He keeps his boat in Whittier, and he has not done excursion for long...a newbie..but a good one!! I can't tell you how wonderful that excursion was. There are several LITTLE cabins/stores along the shore, and he was based out of one of those. Definitely do NOT plan on spending any extra time in Whittier...nothing there but the water. I will try to see if I can re-surf and found his location...:)

Yea...Found it...www.breadnbuttercharters.com My contact's name was June, and she might remember our family from 2 summers ago, as I had the broken ankle..fun, fun, fun. She arranged for Jim, not the regular Captain..but great for us! The website will give you all the contact info.
Also...google for Whittier...you can then link to several other vendors...good luck!!!

Thanks, visormom for taking the time to locate the operator.

I'm now starting to have second thoughts about the tour out of Whittier. Two different tour operators in Seward have suggested that there is a fair amount of redundancy, even though I explained that I wasn't trying to choose between Seward and Whittier cruises-I had planned to do both. Cutting back will allow more time to hike, but...

you are most welcome...while in Seward, we did a dogsled ride up on the glacier and also down in their summer training camp..very interesting. One afternoon was rainey, so we did the Sealife Center..very informative. You'll not go wrong doing either. Truthfully, I would agree with the redundancy; however, we loved spending time on the water. Whittier is really a very unattractive settlement, but that's one thing that made it so interesting to our family..people realllllly live here..and in this concrete building??? Anyway, have a wonderful experience..we loved every minute!!!