Skagway train ride or drive by car ?

[Manish]

What is a better way to see the scenery in Skagway ?

 

The White Pass train ride or drive on the road in a rental car ? We have a 16 month old baby with us.

 

Thanks

 

Manish

[Florida Beach]

I don't know which train ride you have in mind, but the one we took was 8 hours long (4 hours bus ride to go up and 4 hours train ride to come back). It was tiring and too long for me. The scenery was nice, but we didn't see any wild life either way.

 

If you take a car, one of you might have to take care of the baby, but you have options to stop any time, anywhere and dictate the time you want to come back.

 

Have a nice trip:)

[LibLively]

We've done the White Pass and Yukon Railroad trip, and it was only about 31/2 hours long from Skagway. We did the round trip totally on the train, and I found it to be quite enjoyable. We did the summit trip which does not go to Lake Bennett (which I believe must be the trip the previous poster did). There are restrooms on board and our car was not packed with people, so everyone could move about. You should consider that the person driving the car, if you rent a car and want to do this route, would be driving on narrow and rather winding roads and probably wouldn't get to enjoy the scenery very much.

[Manish]

Thanks.

 

Southeast tours also has a van tour called Skagway Sightseeing. They take you in a van to different spots. The tour is 2.5 hours long and is $35 per person. Has anyone done this ?

 

Manish

[dakrewser]

What is a better way to see the scenery in Skagway ?

Take the train. When we did it (see pix here) it was overcast on the dock, but a raging snowstorm at the top. Fantastic! If you like driving mountain roads (think: Mt. Washington in NH or the Pacific Coast Highway) you'll love the train....

 

And the tour from the dock is the 3-4 hour trip. The other longer one comes from Canada over the mountains to the sea.

[BobbiJane]

The train ride is not a tour of Skagway, Manish. It is a ride through the area that was used by the gold miners to get to the gold fields in the Yukon. It's thrilling for those who are interested in history, and the beauty of the area.

 

I loved it! We took the Skagway Extravaganza tour from the Celebrity Summit. The train brought us to the Yukon, and then we took a bus from Fraser back to Skagway, stopping at a recreated gold camp at Liarsville. The gold camp was "staged", but still enjoyable. I think you'd enjoy this kind of thing more with a baby if the adults are interested in history. The train cars are recreations of the originals as well.

[stephenandrew]

I have never taken the train---it was immensely popular on our cruise though based upon the number of people we saw taking it. Interestingly, a local told me that it was Skagway's largest business bringing in $20 million per year---rather remarkable for a business with such a short season. We went on a van trip with Southeast Tours that included a horseback riding trip--the van trip was on a road that basically paralleled the railroad. I can tell you that the road was very scenic, and that with a car you could obviously stop whenver you wanted and get out for pics or just to stretch your legs. It also looked like the railroad did not really go all that far--though I could be wrong here. The other thing (and I mentioned this in another post) is that the RR seems kind of pricey to me--as I recall $98 per person. I believe you can rent a car in Skagway for signifinantly less. I am sure the train is great---just trying to give you an idea of how the two might compare from a cost and scenery standpoint. Have fun.