best tours to do in alaska

Does anyone have any suggestions for tours to take in Alaska ports...ship tours or independent?

Suggest you post your question over in the Alaska forum....

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

We did a snorkelling tour in Ketchikan with Snorkel Alaska. It was incredible! Not a tour for everyone, but we enjoyed it!

In Juneau we booked whale watching with harv & marv it was our favorite excursion. :)

Thank you!!!

We enjoyed our float trip on the Mendenhall River (Juneau), whale watching excursion (Juneau), a jetboat tour from Skagway, a walking tour on our own of Ketchikan, the White Pass Railway train...but if I had to name a #1 it would be our helicopter tour from Juneau, getting out and walking on Mendenhall Glacier. Awesome and worth every penny! As mentioned, see the Alaska Ports of Call forum- and Tripadvisor too!

In Icy Strait we went whale watching with Misty Bay Lodge. Nice small boat, they just took the six of us, saw lots of humpbacks. Good price.

We had a number of fantastic excursions but my favorite was the 5 glacier and Taku Lodge feast seaplane in Juneau. This is a Royal excursion but can also be booked independently.

Whale watching for sure. We saw Orcas and Humpbacks. A baby humpback near our boat must have breached 20 times in a row! Our guide said he was probably just learning a new trick. One humpback actually dove under our boat and came up right on the other side. It was spectacular!

We also enjoyed just walking around Ketchikan. It was our favorite port. As we sailed away, there must have been 50 bald eagles sitting in the trees lining the shoreline. And all the while, seaplanes were taking off and landing close to the ship. Very scenic sailaway as the ship follows the shore for a long distance.

Ketchikan is very doable on your own. We took a city bus out to the totem pole park for just a couple of bucks. Great place to save money in order to splurge in another port.

We did a flight seeing tour from RC that took us to Taku lodge and glacier. We had a wonderful salmon lunch. After we went for a walk in the woods and a guide explained what we were seeing. When we returned to the lodge a small black bear had climbed a tree. Like fools we were all looking at the bear, up close and personal. The guide was keeping the bear at bay with a pole.

Loved this excursion.

Also we enjoyed the lumber jack show in Ketchican. It was fun and for kids a really good show.

In Icy Strait we went whale watching with Misty Bay Lodge. Nice small boat, they just took the six of us, saw lots of humpbacks. Good price.

We had great experience in icy strait as well. Ear Mountain is who we used. Small boat that takes up to 6, we only had 3 the day we went.

We hired our own taxi van and went to St. Therese Shrine and then to Mendenhall Glacier. I don't recall how much but I remember it was pretty reasonable. There were eight in our group.

St. Therese Shrine

Mendenhall Glacier

In Icy Strait we went whale watching with Misty Bay Lodge. Nice small boat, they just took the six of us, saw lots of humpbacks. Good price.

Definitely a SMALL boat (Less then 10 passengers) for Hoonah/ISP. I went with Glacier Winds and it was so amazing. Sitting in a bay circled by 25 plus Humpback was amazing.

R

Suggest you book something for each port but they are always 50/50. Weather generally limits a number of excursions. We have been on 3 cruises in Alaska inside passage and each were amazing. We have used Harv & Marv in Juneau. Small boats and amazing wildlife. It's all beautiful.

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Helicopter to the glacier in Juneau.

Sea plane to a remote fjord in Ketchikan (not offered by Royal).

Alaska still one of my all time favorite cruises.

We just had an amazing cruise to Alaska on the Explorer of the Seas last month.

In Juneau, we really wanted to do the (rather expensive) helicopter ride to the Mendenhall Glacier and Sled dogs but due to bad weather we couldn't. So we changed that to a normal dog sled tour which was also good fun.

We absolutely loved the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari excursion in Skagway.

Details of each excursion along with tons of photos are in my cruise review below (in my signature). Alaska is AMAZING !

You will love Alaska. One of my favorite days ever was a small boat (limited to 25 passengers) to get up close and personal with Glacier, then traveled on to meet the ship in Juneau, where we took the helicopter to go dog sledding.

Ketchikan is fun to just walk around, as is Skagway after the train ride.

Icy Strait point wwe did the zip line several years ago, followed by whale watching- both fabulous!

Also heard the bear watching where there are only 60 permits per day is great- unfortunately we were not among those 60.

Sea plane in Ketchikan was beautiful, lots of fun.

Enjoy your cruise- was one of my all time faves.

For Juneau, we booked directly with Coastal Helicopters for the helicopter flight that landed on a glacier where we were able to walk around and get photos. We weren't sure if we wanted to go to the expense of this kind of excursion but decided to go for it since booking with them was less expensive than through the ship. We are SO glad we did - it was amazing! Definitely the highlight of our cruise.

Another fantastic excursion - we booked directly with Alaska Excursions for the sled dog excursion. It was a lot of fun as well.

We were able to find these excursions partly from reading CC and looking on Trip Advisor. If we were in a foreign country I probably would book only through the cruise line, but being in Alaska I felt comfortable booking with an outside company directly.

Another vote for the helicopter to the glacier

White Pass Railway in Skagway

Taku lodge ! Best excursion ever !!

In Icy Strait we went whale watching with Misty Bay Lodge. Nice small boat, they just took the six of us, saw lots of humpbacks. Good price.

I too have done that excursion. Cost us less to go on a private boat then it did to go through the cruise line where they were lined up 4 deep.

 

Sea plane to a remote fjord in Ketchikan (not offered by Royal).

 

Alaska still one of my all time favorite cruises.

We did the sea plane ride here too and it was by far my favorite excursion. You can find them on the website IWAS. This is a must if you're going there. :D

We did a snorkelling tour in Ketchikan with Snorkel Alaska. It was incredible! Not a tour for everyone, but we enjoyed it!

Brrrrrrrrrrr...hope you a really good wetsuit!:D

Dog sled camp!

1) Ketchikan -- Island Wings with Michelle.

2) Skagway - Dyea Dave to Emerald Lake.

3) Mendelhall glacier - DIY with the local bus.

4) Icy Strait - Bear watching with Misty Bay Lodge - we saw a single bear....

5) Juneau -- Orca enterprises whale watching - didn't see a single whale:(