Thread: What are some great and reasonable excursion in Alaska?

My family and I will be taking a 7 day cruise to Alaska. We will be cruising with Carnival Spirit. This is the first time all of us are going age ranges from 31 to 72. We have looked through all the excursions that are offered and we are unsure of what to take. We want to at least take one tour in each port, but theres a group of us going and some of us can't afford some of the tours...I am looking for great tours, but reasonable priced. We will be stoping at the following ports: Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria, BC.

Please help...Thank you!

The train in Skagway is a reasonable tour. And it's quite beautiful.

It depends on what you consider reasonable - as much as I love the WP&YR train trip, it's pricey by my standards. In Juneau and Skagway, a car rental might work for you. At Skagway I have a mile-by-mile guide to the highway so you will know as much as if you were on a guided tour, at a fraction of the cost (about $100 for a car from Avis or local operator Sourdough - Sourdough has vans, too). You can Google "Murray's Guide" for hundreds of reviews of it - it's at murraysguide.com

All of the ports are great for walking - Ketchikan and Skagway in particular have great walking tours - on your own in Ketchikan, guided by NPS rangers at Skagway (but still free). The Mt Roberts Tramway at Juneau offers a superb view and high alpine hiking for $26 pp.

The page at Alaska Cruise Ports: Top Excursions - YourAlaskaCruise.com lists the most popular excursions at each port - at all price levels.

alaska is not cheap

in juneau you can take the blue bus out to mendenhall glacier and spend as much time out there as you -- hiking trails -- last year the bus was $7 per person each way -- the one time we went out there we were warned that there was no place to buy something to eat so we stopped at a little store and picked up some items

also in juneau - if you have a clear day -- take mt roberts tram -- beaitiful views from up there

skagway -- the train is pricey -- but very worth it -- the scenery is great

ketchikan -- you can get buses to go out to totem bight and saxman village -- or you can just walk over to creek street and roam the shops there -- the lumberjack show -- overpriced

You can even take the city bus combined with a short walk to the Mendenhall glacier.
But the $7 blue bus is narrated and the drivers quite funny.

Originally Posted by Krazy Kruizers

alaska is not cheap

in juneau you can take the blue bus out to mendenhall glacier and spend as much time out there as you -- hiking trails -- last year the bus was $7 per person each way -- the one time we went out there we were warned that there was no place to buy something to eat so we stopped at a little store and picked up some items

also in juneau - if you have a clear day -- take mt roberts tram -- beaitiful views from up there

skagway -- the train is pricey -- but very worth it -- the scenery is great

ketchikan -- you can get buses to go out to totem bight and saxman village -- or you can just walk over to creek street and roam the shops there -- the lumberjack show -- overpriced

I second this suggestion!

I agree that the train in Skagway is not cheap but it is a great trip. I have taken it twice, 30 years between rides and enjoyed both trips very much. Ketchikan is a great place to take a walking tour.

to CLF!

We had our Alaskan cruise some years ago and went to the same ports. We often don't do any excursions on our cruises, often just sightsee on our own (I'm big on researching, reading guide books and looking up the websites for each port), and then doing a little shopping for our desired tee shirts and magnets.

In Ketchikan, we decided to check out the tours available at the pier. So we took a tour that went to Saxman, to a beach where there were eagle nests in the trees, the town itself (one of my musts was seeing Dolly's House) and then getting off the tour at that point to do a little shopping. My hubby thought the trolley we were on was very uncomfortable (and a bit smokey from the fumes).

In Juneau, we just walked into town (you're that close from the pier) and walked around. We didn't make it to the state building (hubby wasn't interested). He mailed a postcard to his mother and then we went shopping for souvenirs and then for soda to take back to the ship.

In Skagway, we had booked a tour through Princess (I was reading out loud from a book about the pass there and its history, and hubby decided we should check it out). The van paralleled the path taken by the train referenced above, and we went up past the Canadian border, with stops every once in a while for photo opportunities (and despite some fog, there were some great shots to take). The guide was a history teacher who gave a quite tour.

Before that, we walked around Skagway and ran into one of the ranger tours. This ranger sounded interesting so we followed them and eventually ended up at the Moore House (named for the founder of the town). The tour is free and there's a donation box at the entrance of the house, where you can start the tour. Very interesting place.

In Victoria, we got on the shuttle bus (it was $6 per person back then) that takes you into town. It stops at the Empress Hotel, which is well-known. Since it was pouring rain, we checked out the public areas of the hotel. Then we walked around the corner to the Miniature Museum, which we really liked. After that, we walked around the town, of course, getting more souvenirs and hubby finally was able to buy a postage stamp for that port's postcard.