Alaska DCL - Best port for walking tour?

[Shellyred8]

We are doing an Alaska cruise on the Wonder in Sept of this year. I'm looking at port adventures and trying to figure out what to do. We would like to do one or two port adventures, but then have one port day where we just walk around and check out the place on our own. Does anyone have any thoughts on which port would be best for the day on our own? Our ports are Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan.

Thanks!

 

[havoc315]

Honestly, none of the above. For me, Alaska was a once in a lifetime trip -- and the really good stuff, isn't around the port so much. It's mostly just your typical tourist shops (from t-shirts to Diamonds International) around the ports.

But if you really want to stay around the port for one, I'd do it by process of elimination -- In what ports, do you most want to do big port adventures?
We did whale watch in Juneau.. and then walked around Juneau... Float plane in Ketchikan, and from Skagway, we took a tour out into the Yukon.

 

[Geomom]

I would likely do it by process of elimination as well--which ports offer the kind of excursions you're interested in...having said that, if we didn't have a full day excursion in Skagway already (Chilkoot charters Yukon bus/rail/dogcart combo), we'd have been interested in doing one of the FREE walking tours with the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Skagway: https://www.nps.gov/klgo/planyourvisit/things2do.htm
Due to limited space on the tours, it is recommended that you book your tix in advance (I think it costs $1.50 to book in advance). https://www.recreation.gov/tourList.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70711

Ketchikan you can walk around Historic Creek Street on your own. It's a great picture taking spot.

Juneau had a bunch of shops at the start of town, not sure what else might be in that area.

So...I'd say that Skagway and Ketchikan have more historic houses to look at.

 

[iivye]

Juneau has the Mount Robert's Tram close by and you can also take a bus or taxi to the Mendenhall Glacier Park. Finish the day with a stop at Tracy's for the giant crab legs and stroll through the shops.

Skagway was a very small town and I felt like it was mostly jewelry shops. There were some small museums but I feel like it wouldn't take long to go through everything.

Ketchikan was large but we didn't really have time to explore after our excursion so I'm not sure what is around the area.

I would agree with the previous posters about planning around the excursions you want to do. We actually did excursions in all three of those ports and they were the highlights of the trip.

 

[ludari]

I tried two excursions for most of my ports on my Alaskan Cruise and the place I didn't feel rushed was at Skagway. I did the White Pass & Yukon train ride and I had time to walk around. Later I did the Days of '98 Show which was okay but what I really enjoyed was our bus driver who drove us all around the small town including a few stops at a couple of graveyards and a great view from some hilltop where we all enjoyed a nice view of the town and our cruise ship.

 

[KayKayJS]

We did an excursion in Skagway and 2 in Juneau, we ended up just walking around Ketchikan and that was fine for us because we spent so much on the other 3 excursions.

 

[wendydarling33]

We did a very nice walking tour of Ketchikan after seeing the lumberjack show. It's been a few years but I remember we rode a funicular, saw some totem poles, went down by the creek to see if we could spot some bears, etc. It was a very woodsy walk.

 

[jdb in AZ]

My elderly in-laws walked through Ketchikan's Creek Street, which is historic because of it's bordellos. DMIL fell on the sidewalk there and told us she was a "fallen woman" on Creek Street.

We liked walking around Skagway because it was quaint and small enough to get around easily. And their public library let us use their Wi-Fi. There's probably several other places in town where you can access the Internet for free, but the library was convenient.

 

[xlxo]

BTW..... Vancouver offers walking tours too.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=vancouver+walking+tour

 

[cruisehopeful]

As mentioned above, the ports are full of touristy shops ("discounted" diamonds, stuff made in China, etc). If you look carefully at each shop, you can find some that are run by people who live in Alaska and sell Alaska merchandise, but they don't have the big flashy signs.

Skagway has a pretty small town, but has a museum, a couple parks and an old train that you can walk around and look at. However, the train ride that goes up the mountain is fantastic. You could take the train and still have lots of time to walk the town.

Ketchikan does have Creek Street to walk around, but it's not impressive enough to warrant a full day. I walked that area and some other areas and still had an excursion afterward. You could walk around Creek St and the town and still have time to catch a log show or the duck tour if you want to add one at the last minute.

In Juneau you can take the tramway up the mountain. It's really nice up there if you enjoy hiking and views. We had a light rain the whole time we were up there and ended up not spending as much time as we wanted to. You can also buy a bus ticket to the Mendenhall Glacier where you can walk around a lot. I didn't spend anytime walking around in the port in Juneau other than to walk through it to go to a cafe. The cheap Tshirt stores and "discount" diamond stores are a really big turn off for me. When I go to Alaska, I want nature.

 

[snoopy5386]

We did Alaska last summer with a large group, some did activities in port, some did not. I would Ketchikan is the best combo of easily walk-able with interesting sights. If you google Ketchikan walking tour, there is a good one out there. Next would be Skagway, it's very small though. Juneau is a bigger city and not as walk-able. In those ports I did the following - Ketchikan - Bering Sea Crab Tour - this was excellent, highly recommend it, in this case only 2 from our party participated. Others went to a museum and still others just walked around port and went back to the ship. Juneau - we rented a car and went to Mendenhall Glacier, again amazing. Then the rest of the party went back to the ship/went to eat and my kids and I went whale watching. Absolutely amazing! Saw tons of whales, breaching and bubble feeding. Once in a lifetime experience. In Skagway the whole group did a 2.5 bus tour to the Yukon and honestly this was kind of a bust for us. We had bad luck weather wise the whole week, lots of rain and fog and this held true for the Yukon tour. I had read that lots of times the clouds go away as you get into Canada, but not our luck. At one point the guide stopped at a lookout and everyone on the bus was like why are we stopping? All we could see out the windows was fog and this was true for the majority of our trip. If we had had a sunny day I'm sure I would have felt differently. Again at this point the group split and 3 of us went on a dog sled-cart/musher's camp tour. Dog sledding has been on my bucket list forever so this was awesome. Again the scenery was gorgeous and the experience was top notch.

Have a great trip!

 

[Shellyred8]

Thanks to everyone for all of your insight!!! So far, we are doing the Steam Train adventure in Skagway. I did a trip on the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Anchorage many years ago and absolutely fell in love with taking a train through Alaska. The scenery was AMAZING!! So the train ride is a must for me. Still looking at the other port adventures. Has anyone done the one with the salmon hatchery tour?