Alaska Shore Excursions: What a Certified Alaska Expert Actually Recommends

Picture yourself standing on the deck of your ship early in the morning, thinking about all of the Alaska shore excursions ahead of you. The water is so still it looks like glass. The mountains rise straight up from the shoreline in a way that simply does not seem real. And somewhere out there, a glacier is waiting for you.

That is Alaska. And I promise you, no photograph has ever done it justice.

“Alaska does not ease you in. It just opens up in front of you and dares you to take it all in at once.”

I have been planning Alaska cruisetours for years, and I have sailed these waters myself. I am a certified Alaska Expert (Gold Status) through the Alaska Travel Industry Association and a certified Anchorage Wild Expert through Visit Anchorage, with advanced training through Princess Cruises and Holland America specifically for Alaska itineraries. What I am sharing here is not a list pulled from a brochure. These are the Alaska shore excursions I actually recommend. The ones worth every penny. The ones that will still be sitting in your memory years from now.

Let’s get into it.

My Quick Picks for First-Time Alaska Cruisers

• Best overall: Juneau whale watching + Mendenhall Glacier
• Best splurge: Helicopter glacier landing
• Best scenic day: Glacier Bay
• Best history/culture: Sitka or Saxman Native Village
• Best iconic Alaska experience: White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad
• Best underrated port: Icy Strait Point/Hoonah

The One Rule for Booking Alaska Shore Excursions

Before we talk ports, there is one piece of advice I give every single person heading to Alaska. And I want to give it to you first, because it matters more here than almost anywhere else you will ever cruise.

I strongly recommend booking your Alaska shore excursions through the cruise line.

Why This Matters for Alaska Shore Excursions

When you book through the ship, your excursion comes with a guarantee that the ship will wait if your tour runs over time. Book independently and something goes long, and the ship will leave without you. In Alaska, that is not just an inconvenience. That is a real problem.

Alaska weather shifts fast. Road conditions can be unpredictable. Later in the season, independent operators have fewer tours running. There are reputable independent companies that offer a written ship guarantee, and those can be fine options. Just make sure you have that guarantee in hand before you go.

The peace of mind is worth it. Every time.

Port by Port: Alaska Shore Excursions Worth Booking

Juneau

Why Juneau Is a Must for Whale Watching

Let me be honest with you about Juneau. It is one of the richest ports for Alaska shore excursions on the entire Inside Passage. When people ask me what the single best Alaska shore excursion is, I keep coming back to the same answer: whale watching. Every single time.

“I have never once had a client come back from whale watching in Juneau and say it was not worth it. Not once.”

I have been whale watching before, in California, and it was one of the most magical experiences I have ever had on the water. Alaska whale watching takes everything about that and turns the volume all the way up. Most tours head north to Auke Bay, and from April through November you are virtually guaranteed a humpback sighting. Approximately 600 humpbacks feed and travel along the Inside Passage during cruise season. Orcas show up regularly too. Depending on your excursion, you may also spot sea lions, eagles, and bears.

If you want my top recommendation for first-time visitors, it is the whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier combined tour. Most cruise lines offer it as a single excursion, and it gives you two of the most iconic Alaska experiences in one outing. That is the one.

Top Alaska Shore Excursions in Juneau

But Juneau has so much more to offer when it comes to Alaska shore excursions. Here is the full picture:

• Mendenhall Glacier: Only 12 miles from downtown Juneau, this 200-foot-tall glacier is one of the most accessible in Alaska. You can visit on a short excursion or walk to the U.S. Forest Service Visitor Center on your own. Seeing a glacier up close for the first time is something people simply do not forget.
• Helicopter glacier tours: This is a splurge, and it is absolutely worth it for the right traveler. Some helicopters actually land on the glacier, where you can walk, trek, or even go dogsledding. Landing on a glacier is a bucket list experience within a bucket list experience.
• Tracy Arm Fjord: About 30 miles south of Juneau, Tracy Arm is home to the twin North and South Sawyer glaciers, two of the most actively calving tidewater glaciers in all of Alaska. Boat tours run from Juneau and offer glacier views, birds, seals, and whales all in a single excursion. Stunning does not begin to cover it.
• Mount Roberts Tram: A quick and easy way to rise above the city for breathtaking views of downtown Juneau, the Gastineau Channel, and Douglas Island. The tram departs near the cruise dock and features an award-winning film about Tlingit history. If you prefer to hike up rather than ride, the Mount Roberts trail offers the chance to spot wild deer and bald eagles along the way.

More Juneau Shore Excursion Options Worth Considering

• Floatplane wildlife excursions: For the right traveler, a floatplane to a nearby wildlife reserve such as Chichagof or Admiralty Island offers the chance to spot bears in their natural habitat. This is genuinely one of the most memorable Alaska experiences available from Juneau.
• Macaulay Salmon Hatchery: Watch the remarkable life cycle of Pacific salmon, including returning adult fish fighting their way up a 450-foot fish ladder from late June through October. It is fascinating, and it is free.
• Wild salmon fishing: Juneau is a sportfishing paradise. Standing on the water with a rod in hand, surrounded by that Alaska scenery, is an authentic connection to this place that is hard to replicate any other way.
• River rafting on the Mendenhall River: Float past icebergs with the Mendenhall Glacier looming in the background. Whether you want gentle rapids or a relaxed drift, this one gives you the landscape in a completely different way.

Ketchikan

Ketchikan has been charming people since the moment they step off the ship, and I am absolutely one of them. Known as Alaska’s First City because it is the first major port you reach heading north through the Inside Passage, it is a place that wears its character beautifully. Even the name tells a story: it comes from a Tlingit phrase meaning “eagle with spread-out wings,” a nod to a waterfall near town. That kind of layered history is everywhere you look here.

Ketchikan is genuinely one of the most walkable ports in Alaska. Creek Street. The colorful waterfront buildings stacked up the hillside. The totem poles. This place has real soul, and I love it even before booking a single Alaska shore excursion. But I still think you should book at least one.

Top Alaska Shore Excursions in Ketchikan

Ketchikan is also known as the Salmon Capital of the World and home to some of the most impressive totem pole collections anywhere, reflecting the deep heritage of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. Here is what I recommend:

• Saxman Native Village: A guided tour here is genuinely educational and moving. You will see Tlingit carvers working in real time, have the chance to enter a clan house, watch Native dancers, and browse fine art created by local artists. The totem poles are remarkable, and the cultural context makes them mean something far beyond just being impressive to look at.
• Totem Bight State Park: Set in the peaceful forest, this park is home to 14 totem poles each telling their own story, along with a replica 19th-century clan house. It is a quieter, more immersive experience than Saxman, and a beautiful option if you want time to simply be among the totems.
• Creek Street: This historic boardwalk built over Ketchikan Creek was once the town’s Red Light District during the Gold Rush. Today it is a charming stretch of locally owned shops, galleries, and the famous Dolly’s House Museum. Easy to explore on foot straight from the port and a genuinely fun afternoon.

More Ketchikan Shore Excursion Options

• Misty Fjords National Monument: One of the most dramatic landscapes in all of Alaska, encompassing more than two million acres of sheer granite cliffs, 1,000-foot waterfalls, and crystalline lakes. Only accessible by floatplane or boat from Ketchikan, which makes it feel genuinely remote and special. If dramatic scenery is what you came to Alaska for, this one belongs on your list.
• Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show: Do not underestimate this one. World champion athletes compete in springboard chopping, axe throwing, log rolling, and a thrilling 50-foot tree climb. It is a full celebration of Alaska’s logging heritage, it is hilarious at moments, and it is a crowd favorite for all ages.
• Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary: A 40-acre rainforest reserve home to bald eagles, black bears, seals, and a stunning variety of birds. There is also a live eagle display and a totem pole collection. This one is wonderful for nature lovers who want something a little off the typical excursion path.
• Rainforest canopy tours and hiking: Ketchikan sits in a temperate rainforest, and the trails and zip line tours here are absolutely beautiful. If you want to get into the trees, this is the port to do it.
  

Skagway

Skagway might be the most dramatic of all the Alaska ports, and that is really saying something in a place like this.

Known as the Garden City of Alaska, Skagway was the primary gateway to the Klondike Gold Rush. In 1898 alone, 20,000 prospectors flooded this small town chasing gold. The dreams, the desperation, the wild ambition of that era is still alive here. Much of downtown is preserved as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, and rangers lead free guided walking tours through the historic district every day. And then you look up. The mountains surrounding Skagway are absolutely breathtaking.

Top Alaska Shore Excursions in Skagway

Here is what I recommend for Alaska shore excursions in Skagway:

• White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad: Do not skip this one. Completed in 1900, this narrow-gauge railroad carries passengers through some of the most breathtaking mountain scenery in Alaska in 100-year-old antique rail cars. It is slow, it is scenic, and it follows the same path that gold rush prospectors once walked. Iconic is not a strong enough word for it.
• Klondike Summit: Also known as the White Pass Summit, this peak rises 3,292 feet above sea level. The journey up offers breathtaking views of towering waterfalls and sweeping vistas, along with glimpses of the original Dead Horse Trail and the evocatively named Tormented Valley. It runs parallel to the White Pass Railroad and is one of the most spectacular things you can experience in Skagway.

More Skagway Alaska Shore Excursion Options

• Gold Rush Cemetery: The grave sites of Soapy Smith and Frank Reid, Skagway’s notorious villain and its protector, are both here. Their story is one of the most colorful chapters in Alaska history. Scenic Reid Falls is just a short hike from the cemetery, which makes this a lovely and memorable stop.
• Arctic Brotherhood Hall: One of the most photographed buildings in Alaska. The entire facade is covered in driftwood, and it is right in the heart of downtown. Worth seeing just to stop and take it in.
• Chilkoot Trail day hike: For the more adventurous traveler, day hikes on the historic Chilkoot Trail are available without a permit, starting from the nearby ghost town of Dyea. This is the same trail gold rush prospectors once followed. Walking even a short stretch of it carries real weight.
• Red Onion Saloon: During the Gold Rush, this was Skagway’s most exclusive bordello. Today it is a lively bar, restaurant, and a National Historic Building. It reportedly still keeps a pistol that Wyatt Earp left behind on his way to the Klondike. Only in Skagway.
• Hiking, cycling, and more: Skagway is genuinely an outdoorsman’s paradise. From river rafting to flightseeing to gold panning experiences, there is something here for every energy level.

Sitka

If your itinerary includes Sitka, you are one of the lucky ones. Not every Alaska cruise stops here, and that is genuinely a shame, because Sitka is unlike any other port on the Inside Passage.

Why? Because Russia is everywhere you look.

Sitka served as the Russian capital of Alaska from 1808 to 1867, and that history did not just fade away when the United States purchased Alaska that year. It is still woven into the architecture, the landmarks, and the cultural fabric of this city. Twenty-four of Sitka’s attractions are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and seven of those are National Historic Landmarks. For anyone who loves history, this port is extraordinary.

Top Alaska Shore Excursions in Sitka

The waters of Sitka Sound are also spectacular for wildlife: humpback whales, sea otters, eagles, harbor seals, and sea lions are all regular sightings here. Here is what I recommend:

• Alaska Raptor Center and Fortress of the Bear: Two stops no wildlife lover should skip. The Raptor Center rehabilitates bald eagles and other raptors. Seeing one up close is genuinely moving. The Fortress of the Bear offers a safe, close encounter with bears. Together, these two visits make for one of the most memorable wildlife days on the entire Alaska itinerary.
• St. Michael’s Cathedral and the Russian Bishop’s House: Both are National Historic Landmarks that tell the story of Russian Alaska. St. Michael’s was the first Russian Orthodox church built in America (1844 to 1848), destroyed by fire in 1966 and rebuilt, with precious icons saved from the original. The Russian Bishop’s House, built in 1842, is the oldest intact Russian building in Sitka. Walking between them gives you a genuine feel for what Russian America actually looked like.

Sitka’s Historic Landmarks and Cultural Experiences

• Castle Hill: Where the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised in 1867, marking Alaska’s formal transfer to the United States. Originally a Tlingit fortification, it also offers a spectacular view of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano rising above Sitka Sound.
• Sitka National Historical Park: Alaska’s oldest federally designated park, established in 1910 to commemorate the 1804 battle between Russian forces and the Tlingit. Rangers lead tours of the actual battlefield, and the park features an impressive totem pole collection plus the Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center where Tlingit artists demonstrate their craft in person.
• Cultural performances: The Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Dancers perform ancient Tlingit songs in full traditional regalia at their Clan House. The New Archangel Dancers perform lively Russian folk dances, a nod to Sitka’s unique heritage you will not find anywhere else on your itinerary.

Icy Strait Point and Hoonah

This is the port that caught me completely off guard, and I think it might be the one that most people underestimate before they get there.

One important planning note first: Icy Strait Point is not on every itinerary. It is often offered in place of Skagway rather than alongside it. Our own cruise included Icy Strait instead of Skagway. If your itinerary includes it, consider yourself fortunate.

Icy Strait Point is owned and operated by the Huna Tlingit people of Hoonah, and there is a layer of meaning to this place that is hard to fully describe until you experience it. The Huna Tlingit originally called the Glacier Bay region home, but advancing glaciers during the Little Ice Age pushed them from those shores across Icy Strait to their present home here in Hoonah. When your cruise visits both Glacier Bay and Icy Strait Point, you are actually traveling both ends of that story. That connection stops me every time I think about it.

The Story Behind Icy Strait Point

When I visited, I took the local bus with my family into the village of Hoonah itself. It is a small, real Alaskan community. Not a destination built for cruise passengers. Not a curated experience. Just a village with a beautiful totem pole, genuine residents going about their lives, and a quiet authenticity you cannot manufacture. I loved every minute of it.

“Hoonah is the kind of place that reminds you why you travel in the first place. Not to check boxes, but to feel something real.”

Just a mile northwest of the village, back at Icy Strait Point, the restored red buildings of the old Hoonah Packing Cannery are filled with family-owned shops, a museum, and a mid-1930s cannery line display that gives you real context for the history of this place.

Top Activities at Icy Strait Point

Here is what to do at Icy Strait Point:

• The ZipRider: One of the longest zip lines in the world, ending right at the waterfront. The view from the top alone is worth it.
• Brown bear viewing: Icy Strait is one of the best places in all of Alaska to see brown bears in their natural habitat. If wildlife is important to you on this trip, do not skip this one.
• Whale watching: The waters around Icy Strait are exceptional for humpback whale sightings, and orcas are frequently spotted right along the shores near town. The rich marine environment here is extraordinary.
• Cultural tours in Hoonah: I highly recommend making time to explore the village. It is the kind of experience that reminds you why Alaska is genuinely unlike anywhere else in the world.

Glacier Bay National Park

And then there is Glacier Bay. There is really nothing I can say that will fully prepare you for it, but let me try.

“There are places that change you a little. Glacier Bay is one of them.”

Glacier Bay National Park is not a port stop. It is an entire day of sailing through one of the most remarkable places on earth. Ships spend approximately 9 to 10 hours inside the park, and every single minute of that time is worth being on deck. This day made our cruise. It is that simple. Here is Our Alaskan Adventure: 7-Night Cruise and Train Ride.

What to Expect on Your Glacier Bay Sailing Day

National Park Rangers board your ship and narrate as you cruise through a 65-mile-long bay home to 16 tidewater glaciers. You will see glaciers calving directly into the water. Calving is when a massive chunk of ice breaks away from the glacier face and crashes into the sea with a thunderous roar, sending waves rolling across the water. The frequently calving Margerie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier, which sits right at the Alaska and Canada border, are two of the most spectacular sights of the entire sailing. Humpback whales, sea otters, and eagles complete a backdrop that genuinely does not feel like it belongs on the same planet as your everyday life.

Why a Balcony Cabin Elevates Your Alaska Shore Excursion Experience

This is also exactly why I recommend a balcony cabin on every Alaska cruise. Glacier Bay alone justifies it. Having your own private space to step outside the moment something incredible happens, without navigating crowds or competing for a spot at the rail, is absolutely priceless. And most Alaska cruisetour itineraries include a second glacier viewing day as well. That day you also do not go ashore. It is more scenic sailing, more wildlife, more of that Alaska landscape you came all this way for. A balcony for both of those days is something I have never once heard a client regret.

Planning Tips for Your Glacier Bay Shore Excursion Day

A few important things to know about Glacier Bay:

• Not every Alaska cruise includes Glacier Bay: The National Park Service issues permits under a 2020 to 2030 concession plan, and only select cruise lines are authorized to sail there. Those lines are currently Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Viking Ocean, Seabourn, and Cunard, along with small-ship expedition operators like Lindblad Expeditions. Only two ships per day are allowed inside the park, with annual ship calls capped at 153. When you are choosing your itinerary, confirm Glacier Bay is included. It genuinely matters, and this is exactly why working with an advisor who knows the itineraries pays off.
• The Park Rangers are worth listening to: Tune in to the narration and let the Rangers cue you when to move decks. When they call out whales, mountain goats, or sea otters on ice floes, you want to be ready. Huna Tlingit guides also come aboard on some sailings to share the millennia-old culture of the area.
• The ship rotates so both sides see the glacier: No need to worry about which side of the ship you are on. Your ship will rotate during glacier viewing so everyone gets a clear view.
• Wildlife changes by month: June is when harbor seal pups are born. July is ideal for spotting bears on shore catching spawning salmon. May sailings are excellent for seeing puffins gathering on the small islands.
• Dress warmly and plan for the whole day: The wind chill in Glacier Bay can feel 10 to 20 degrees colder than the forecast. Layers, a windproof jacket, gloves, and a warm hat are not optional. This is not the day to sleep in or spend time at the spa. Be outside. All day.

Final Thoughts on Planning Alaska Shore Excursions

“The clients who plan Alaska thoughtfully are the ones who come home saying it was the best trip of their lives. Every single time.”

Alaska rewards the traveler who plans thoughtfully. You do not need to fill every single port day with booked Alaska shore excursions. Some of the best Alaska moments happen when you simply stop, look around, and let the scale of it sink in. But for first-time visitors especially, booking at least one excursion at each port adds a depth to the experience that walking around alone simply cannot replicate.

And if whale watching is ever on the table, whether in Juneau or at Icy Strait, just say yes. Every single time.

Planning Alaska is not just about picking a ship. It is about choosing the right route, the right ports, the right glacier day, and the right excursions for the way you actually want to travel. If Alaska is on your list, I’d love to help you design a cruise or cruisetour that feels thoughtful from start to finish. Schedule your complimentary consultation, and we’ll start with the itinerary that fits you best.

Schedule your complimentary consultation at WhisperingWillowTravel.com, or just send me a message and we will start there. 🌿

Frequently Asked Questions About Alaska Shore Excursions

Your Alaska Cruise Planning Questions Answered

Karla Tugan is the owner of Whispering Willow Travel and a certified Alaska Expert (Gold Status) through the Alaska Travel Industry Association. She is also a certified Anchorage Wild Expert through Visit Anchorage and holds advanced training certifications with Princess Cruises and Holland America for Alaska itineraries.

• European River Cruises for Couples: The Complete Planning Guide
• Alaska Shore Excursions: What a Certified Alaska Expert Actually Recommends
• Why a Guided Ireland Group Tour Is the Best Way to Finally Do This Trip
• Ireland Is Everything People Say It Is (And Then Some)
• Ireland Road Trip Planning | Whispering Willow Travel