What can we do on our own in Ketchikan, Skagway and Juneau.

It is very touristy but in Skagway, we did the Days of ‘98 show about Soapy Smith. It was kitschy and fun. Hot, though as it was during our whole cruise.

I will have to look at this Days of ‘98 show about Soapy Smith. We are going mid May 2019, I hope it's not hot or too cold. Again thans for your suggestions.

Rent a car in each port & go at your own pace. Loved doing this!

We might just do this! Thanks

We were just at these places the last week of July. We did lower Reid falls while in Skagway in addition to a long excursion to bennet lake with a tour company. We had a long port time that day. Much of the hike is through town to get to the trail. We really enjoyed the waterfall. We would do this again. Beautiful waterfall.

 

In Juneau,we went out to Mendenhall on our own with one of the colored buses. We really enjoyed spending time at the visitor center and at nugget falls. Enjoyed seeing salmon also. We didn’t feel like it was to crowded and that we had our own space even though there were a lot of people visiting out there also.

 

Ketchikan we did on our own. We did the self guided walking tour and ate lunch at a local place. I did not personally care for this port day. It was really crowded all throughout the town with the ship visitors. We could barely walk along creek street. Loud noises all throughout town during our walk from lots of traffic. If I had it to do over, I would either book a fishing excursion or find a trail far away from the crowds. We did get into port at 9:30, so maybe that had something to do with the crowds. Our other two ports days were a lot earlier.

 

Enjoy your time. We had an amazing time!

Last time we went to Mendenhall, but didn't get to the falls due to a member of our group feeling ill.. we are going to do that trip again. We too took the colored bus..it was easy and the driver was very informative. We walked on our own in Ketchikan...but it started raining rather hard after seeing the Totems, so we decided to go back to the ship as we were soaked.:( Thanks for your suggestions.

Another option at Mt. Roberts is to Tram up and Tram down but hike while at the top. This is what we did. The trails that start at the top of the tram continue up to about double the height of the tram. So hiking from ground to top of tram or from top of tram to top of mountain may be similar elevation change. The trails at the top are vast, we hiked up about 2 hours and did not reach the end of the trail. It is not forested up there - it is more open. The views of the water and city are very nice. Not sure about bears, but you may have more visibility up there than perhaps the forested trail from ground to Tram. I think you would have more notice and visibility of animals. Here is one photo. Some sections are a bit more forested than shown, but this is pretty typical of the trails. Mostly fairly easy but a few sections with rocks to navigate over, etc. BTW the trails are free !

What is the colored bus and how much was it? Where could you catch it?

What is the colored bus and how much was it? Where could you catch it?

There are 2 tour companies that offer shuttles to Mendenhall; white or blue buses are used.

Information for both companies is in this link under Shuttles:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tongass/about-forest/offices/?cid=fseprd495443

Rent a car in Juneau and drive to Mendenhall ahead of the crowds then drive to the coast.

https://www.traveljuneau.com/ download visitor guide

Has anyone rented a car lately to give recommendations on where to rent from and approximate pricing?