Skagway white pass question

[eaglewingks]

What is the difference between the Chilkoot 7 hour rail trip to White pass and the 6 hour bus trip with Southest tours? It looks like they stop at the same places. Is the rail trip with Chilkoot worth the extra cost(bus-$100 vs. train-$174)?

[Misha]

The train is pretty cool if you like trains and train history... I think the advantage is that you go by rail up and then by bus back and you don't miss anything...Chillkoot makes plenty of stops and the buses are for a small group making it quick and easy to hop on and off.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The train ride -- so wonderful -- beautiful scenery -- you can get up and wonder out onto the platform to get pictures.

[KK11]

Yes, I also looked into all these options

 

There is also other companis offering the same bus tour (you can E-mail me at Khairunkanji@yahoo.ca and I can give you all the websites I have researched)

 

... and I think I am going to pay the extra and do the train and bus

 

- I talked with someone at the office, and was informed, that after the train stops, the bus takes you to Emerald Lake, etc and then this bus brings you back to Skagway.

[eaglewingks]

Sounds pretty unanimous for the train. Thanks for all the input.

[SFO-F/A]

The best tour of our Alaska trip, Chilkoot rail/bus 7 hour tour. First train out in the morning, beautiful scenery on the way. Small bus, stops when you ask, great driver/guide, Sean. If someone saw an animal, Sean would stop the bus so all of us could see, example: a ginger bear, on the way back to town. Emerald Lake, amazing in May.....such color.

[Putterdude]

The YP&YR is one of if the most popular, if not the most popular excursions in Alaska and a trip to the summit is well worth the time and money. If you just go the summit and back then you have the other half of the day to explore Skagway.

[GORDONCHICK]

The thing about a Chilkoot tour on a motorcoach/train and one of the other tours that uses tour buses: The buses are the huge. Not a big deal unless you remember that it takes 20-25 minutes to completely unload one, and the same in reloading, and that's every time they stop. The motorcoaches Chilkoot uses are small (ours would have held 20, but there were only 10 of us - so it took no time to hop off/on. When we were stopped and saw one of those huge buses stopping, we all scampered back on our motorcoach and off we went. Not to mention, the Chilkoot guides are fantastic.

 

I would always recommend a tour that takes one way up and another way back because you do see different things. Youmay overlook the same area, but the view and vantage point is different.

[Yukon]

The thing about a Chilkoot tour on a motorcoach/train and one of the other tours that uses tour buses: The buses are the huge.

 

The OP asked about Southeast Tours bus-only tours - they use the same sort of equipment as Chilkoot (small buses or vans).

[scsunlover]

Consider this - rent a car from Avis (about $95.00) and drive to Emerald Lake / Whitepass. We had ample time, could stop constantly to take pictures or jsut take in scenery AND it was cheaper. You can't get lost and the road follows the same "path" as the train. There is even a post somewhere on here that tells you mile marker by mile marker where you are and some history. We did do the train from Denali to McKinley and then from McKinley to Whittier to board ship.

 

We jsut got back from May 22 to June 2 cruise tour on Island Princess :)

[scsunlover]

Here's the link -

 

http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/sklondike-photos1.html

[serendipity1499]

The train is pretty cool if you like trains and train history... I think the advantage is that you go by rail up and then by bus back and you don't miss anything...Chillkoot makes plenty of stops and the buses are for a small group making it quick and easy to hop on and off.

 

Actually the 7 hr. Chilkoot tour does not always start with the White Pass Rail up..Were doing a 7 hr. tour with Chilkoot Aug 18 with the bus going up...

Our ship "Veendam" does not arrive until 8:a.m so Chilkoot put us on their 8:30 departure, which takes the bus up & the Rail down...Our tour includes, Caribou crossing & the Sled dog Camp (which I'm very excited about), Carcross, Lunch, Yukon Wildlife Museum, Bennett & Emerald Lake & then White Pass RR...On this board someone posted that Chilkoot has their own Rail Cars which are less crowded than the Rail cars the ships use, but I can't swear by that..

In the 90's we did a rail tour from Colorado to Portland & it was one of the best vacations we've ever had..So would not miss the White Pass Railroad..

Cheers...:) Betty

[Yukon]

...On this board someone posted that Chilkoot has their own Rail Cars which are less crowded than the Rail cars the ships use, but I can't swear by that..

 

Chilkoot does have a reserved car for their passengers only - it is usually, but not always, less crowded than the cars the ship excursions use.

 

Murray

[robinsegg]

We had lots of cruise companions do the Chilkoot trip 2 weeks ago (we did the car rental thing as we'd taken the train before). They were all very happy with their decision. We saw them at one of their stops and their little bus looked very comfortable They were able to stop for wildlife, which of course you can't do on the train.