Ketchikan on Your Own

[Catknitty]

I did a kayak trip when I was there last year with Southeast Sea Kayaks. It was just amazing! I booked it on my own and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

[carlsbadguy]

I was thinking of possibly kayaking if the weather is nice so I do not want to book in advance.

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed those pictures, Keith!

 

Glad you enjoyed them.

 

We love Alaska.

 

Keith

[roothy123]

The shuttle bus is a free bus service for the cruise ships and runs about every 15 minutes. They usually use the buses with salmon painted on them. I'm not sure what time they stop in the evening but I think they run until at least 6pm unless the ships are gone by then.

Thanks. One thing I'm not clear about is just where they go from the port? Do you know?

[wolfie11]

The free shuttle is a loop. It starts at the Totem Heritage Center up the hill, comes through town to Creek Street, then stops near the Lumberjack show/SE Alaska Discovery Center/pick up area for shuttle to Walmart, then at the cruise ship docks near downtown. It goes through the tunnel, stops at the other cruise ship docks, and continues south a few miles to the Safeway Mall. From there it loops back on pretty much the same route to the Totem center.

[Catknitty]

I was thinking of possibly kayaking if the weather is nice so I do not want to book in advance.

I agree and I also didn't book until about a week before when it looked like the days would be nice. I contacted them directly and they were very nice. Our trip wasn't full so you might be ok to wait until you see how the weather is going to be. It was the highlight of my trip. Edited March 3, 2018 by Catknitty
Trying to add photo

[BBQluver]

I enjoyed the photos and appreciate the information. We are looking forward to our Alaskan cruise in July. We are doing the southbound from Seward to Vancouver. Ketchikan is one of the ports we will be visiting.

[halegliss]

We did the ‘duck’ tour so we could hear the history of the area and see the totem poles. It ended way early with plenty of time to walk around. It is a lovely port

 

 

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[Sea Hag]

We're planning on trying geocaching when we go to Alaska in May. Haven't done that before, and the usual ports of call have lots of caches to hunt for.

[snowmc]

Love Alaska and Ketchikan in particular. Very easy town to walk around and enjoy. Last summer, we saw a bear rummaging through the trash cans in a neighborhood. Police were there trying to capture him and alerting the public to stay away. Please feel free to read my review: https://zest4travel.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/fun-in-ketchikan/

[catsngoats]

We will be in Ketchikan on 8/23 with HAL N. Amsterdam on 1st AK trip. Have booked Duck tour, then will walk

or take free shuttle to Creek St and Heritage Center. I do hope for time to take funicular as it looks quite convenient to Creek St. Research shows much to do there! Kayaking also looks great, but we'll do things my senior mom can handle.

[Sir William]

The day we visited it poured all day long (I lived in Seattle and Oregon, and this was a heavy rain all day). We walked around Creek Street, found a small coffee shop nearby and had some great hot chocolate, walked up to the Totem Heritage Center, then found a small bar that had free wifi. Wife returned to the ship to get her PC so she could do a bit of work, while I visited with some of the locals over beer. Wife says we have to find that bar again when we visit in about 2 weeks!

[anthonyy7]

We were there last week and it was drizzling but we still completed the walking tour in the morning. You can pick up a nice map with walking route and history in the visitor center. Afterward we took the bus up to totem bight state park. All the plane tours were cancelled due to low clouds.

[juantu]

Thanks. One thing I'm not clear about is just where they go from the port? Do you know?

You could just take the free shuttle for one loop and see where everything is located. You can also go on google earth and get a general idea too. I believe from what I have read, there is a map on a board right be the tourist office.

Good luck.

[txwriter]

Thanks. One thing I'm not clear about is just where they go from the port? Do you know?

 

Someone posted this link on another thread showing a map of the bus loop with the stops.

 

http://borough.ketchikan.ak.us/DocumentCenter/View/5424/Notice-of-Route-Changes-Summer-2018