Why does everyone rave about White Pass Railroad tour - what else is good in Skagway?

[Yukon]

wishIwascruising - just to clarify, SueL's ride was at Dyea, not Emerald Lake (though some ships also have rides available at Spirit Lake, "next door" to Emerald Lake).

[joanne1]

We are thinking about doing some hiking but I am a little concerned about the bears. Do we need to bring Bear bells or is there really no concerns because it's early in the season?

[emste]

I see a couple posts about horseback riding with small children. We are renting a car to drive to Emerald Lake and my kids (6 & 4 yrs old) would love to horseback ride. So any info that anyone has would be great. Thanks

[Yukon]

We are thinking about doing some hiking but I am a little concerned about the bears. Do we need to bring Bear bells or is there really no concerns because it's early in the season?

 

It's actually not early in the season - both blacks and grizzlies are out cruising now. But the most basic of bear knowledge will keep you safe - make some noise rather than walking silently. No need to make a LOT of noise, just talking is enough. Forget the bear bells - they're just annoying. Virtually any trail you could get on will have other people on it, too, which reduces the hazard to pretty much zero. Bear attacks are a rare occurence.

[141314]

We are going to do the Hike and Float the Chilkoot excursion on our cruise in June. Reading the post has got me even more excited now than when we booked it! thanks for the great and informative review!

[frames]

or are those photos actually taken from the ship?

 

Photos were taken on the top deck, halfway down the starboard side of NCL Spirit, it was just part of the cruise - no excursion.

[countrygal52]

DH and I did the guided Jeep tour in Skagway. You get to drive your own and follow the guide up the Highway into BC and the Yukon with stops along the way for photo ops and he also gave us some history on the area. BEAUTIFUL scenery! You DO need your passport with you for this excursion tho because you do go thru customs. After booking this at the kiosk I had to run back onto the ship to get them while we waited to be picked up. (I knew where to find them:D ).

[Princesa]

Glacier Point Wilderness Safari is the best excursion I've been on in two trips to Alaska. So I do suggest it to anyone who asks. We will do that one again next year when we go to Alaska. It was expensive but worth every cent IMO.

 

Good luck!

 

I was on the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari last Wednesday, May 27th. I loved this tour! I saw many glaciers but no where else did I get as close and personal to a glacier by water. We paddled between 30 to 40 feet up to Davidson Glacier. The tour guides are of college age, extremely informative and excited to be conducting the excursion.

 

As a total treat and surprise to us all including the tour guides is that on the way back to Skagway we were honored by a humpback whale's performance. Without exaggerating, the whale breached over 20 times with fin-waves to the catamaran every four breaches. It was honestly SPECTACULAR!

 

In my opinion also, this tour is worth every penny.

 

P.S. If you are going to do only "one" $250+ tour, then I recommend doing the Mendenhall Glacier Landing by helicopter in Juneau for $245. I booked Temsco Air independently and saved $40 per person over the Princess price -- I was paying for 3. My thoughts are one does not get any closer to heaven than this.

[Princesa]

I researched this before going.

 

I also had it confirmed by a person knowlegebale about Alaska that this tour is exclusively contracted to the ships.