Best ports bears and whales

[travelrevealed]

We will be sailing on NCL in early/mid June 2024, we know we want to see bears (in the wild, not the Fortress of the Bears) and whales. We still need to select excursions in  Sitka, Icy Straight (Hoonah), and Ketchikan. It seems that bear and whale watching is best around Icy Straight, but I am not finding excursions that do both, so am leaning towards focused excursions on bear watching in Icy Straight and then the whale watching in Sitka. Thoughts?

[Crew News]

59 minutes ago, travelrevealed said:

We will be sailing on NCL in early/mid June 2024, we know we want to see bears (in the wild, not the Fortress of the Bears) and whales. We still need to select excursions in  Sitka, Icy Straight (Hoonah), and Ketchikan. It seems that bear and whale watching is best around Icy Straight, but I am not finding excursions that do both, so am leaning towards focused excursions on bear watching in Icy Straight and then the whale watching in Sitka. Thoughts?

Icy Strait Point has the most active whales I have encountered in my many visits to Alaska, while Sitka whale spotting is random at best.  Sitka is noted for sea otters watching.

 

Bears are very visible when salmon season begins in July so before then, seeing bears is random at best.

 

Top excursion in Ketchikan is Crab Fishing that includes amazing eagle photography opportunities.

 

ISP Whales

 

Ketchikan eagles

[Coral]

In Icy Strait Point - I went with Glacier Wind (for whales) in the morning: https://www.g-wind.com and then Gee Star Han tours http://geestahuntours.com for bears in the afternoon. It was mid-May. We saw a ton of whales and we saw 3 bears. I knew going in May would be iffy for bears but Greg was bound and determined to find me bears. We did search a lot.

 

Greg picked me up at the boat pier for the afternoon tour.  Both were in Hoonah so it worked out. They know each other.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Coral