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Our family has just returned from yet another wonderful adventure, this time in the beautiful wilderness of Alaska. Our son’s desire to explore and experience the magic of Alaska as his senior trip inspired us to plan and embark on this remarkable journey. Join me as I share our Alaska tour and travel itinerary.
Alaska tour and travel itinerary
How we started our planning
We started planning this vacation by discussing what we wanted to see. For our son, it was mostly mountains. For others, it was the wildlife. For me, it was to see a bit of everything.
Alaska is remote and difficult to access. The reality is, I don’t know if I’ll go back in the future. Therefore, I wanted to optimize our time and see as much as possible.
From this realization came the decision to do a cruise as well as a land visit portion.
How we selected our cruise package
For an Alaskan cruise, I strongly recommend selecting based on the destinations/ports that you want to see. Our number 1 was Glacier Bay. This reduced the number of cruise lines to only a few.
Additionally, we knew that we didn’t care for lots of entertainment on board the ship for this particular cruise. Our main objective was to visit the ports and enjoy the magnificent scenery.
Ultimately, we landed on the Princess cruise line. We selected a 12-day Alaska tour and travel itinerary.
- Day 1: Embark ship in Vancouver Canada
- Day 2: Scenic cruising
- Day 3: Ketchikan Alaska
- Day 4: Juneau Alaska
- Day 5: Skagway Alaska
- Day 6: Glacier Bay Alaska
- Day 7: College Fjord Alaska
- Day 8: Disembark ship in Whittier Alaska | Train to Denali Princess Lodge
- Day 9: Denali Princess Lodge
- Day 10: Motorcoach to Mount Mckinley Princess Lodge
- Day 11: Mount McKinley Princess Lodge
- Day 12: Motorcoach to Anchorage Alaska
- Day 13: Flight home from Anchorage
An important point to note is why we decided to do the trip from South to North. Some people chose to do the land portion of the trip first and start cruising in Anchorage, traveling Southbound to Vancouver. After recently visiting the Olympic National Park in Washington State, we anticipated that the southern port destinations would resemble Washington, and they did. We preferred traveling northbound so that the scenery would become more impressive as the trip progressed.
Alaska tour and travel | Key Highlights by location
Vancouver, Canada
Being a Canadian, who’s never visited the West, I was so excited to see Vancouver. We arrive in Vancouver a day early to build a bit of a buffer in case of travel disruptions. There are so many air travel issues now these days, that you would not want to miss your cruise departure.
While in Vancouver, we walked around the beautiful downtown to see some of the architecture, shops, and the steam clock. On the morning of our embarkation, we went to the port to see our ship and watch some of the previous cruisers disembark.
We headed over to start the embarkation process around 11:20 in the morning and by noon, we were on the ship! The airline industry really needs to learn from the cruising one, they have their act together and very efficient processes.
Ketchikan, Alaska
We arrived in Ketchikan around 5 am. We had pre-booked a tour of the Totem Bight State Park. This 2.5-hour excursion took off right at the Ketchikan port. We traveled to the park by bus. Our tour guide was great. He told us stories about most totems in the park. We learned a lot about the natives who first lived in the area.
After we returned from the park, we headed over to Creek Street. This is an iconic wooden boardwalk with cute shops. During the summer months, you can watch the salmon run upstream using the salmon ladder. Unfortunately, we were a bit too early. The salmon usually arrive in late June/early July.
If you like smoked salmon, make sure to stop by Simply Salmon on Creek Street.
Ketchikan was a short port day. We had some time to walk around the small downtown before getting back on the ship to depart around 12:30 pm.
Tip: Alaska, especially Ketchikan can be extremely rainy. They get between 141 and 160 inches of rain each year! Make sure to pack rain gear so that you can enjoy your visit to the fullest.
Juneau, Alaska
Juneau is the capital of Alaska and we had about 12 hours to explore the city and surrounding areas.
We had pre-booked a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier during the morning hours. This was such an amazing excursion. The hike from the visitor center to Nugget Falls (the closest view of the Glacier from the land) is about 2 miles. It is listed as a moderate trail and is mostly flat.
After the excursion, we ate lunch at Tracy’s King Crab Shack. This was by far the best King Crab I’ve ever eaten. We ordered a huge bucket for the 4 of us. If you plan to eat there, build in some time. This place is very popular and the line can be quite long.
After lunch, we walked to the famous whale statue. It was an easy and scenic 1-mile walk. We got some great pictures and pranked our family back home. We had a good laugh.
We walked around downtown quite a bit and visited some of the shops. Before getting back on the ship, we went to have a drink at the Red Dog Saloon.
Skagway, Alaska
Skagway felt like a trip back in time. They even kept the wooden sidewalk in town. The town is tiny and I would strongly encourage you to book an excursion. We were there for about 12 hours. We booked the scenic White Pass Summit train trip. It lasted about 3 hours. We went all the way up into Yukon Canada where we turned back around. The views are simply breathtaking. We enjoyed every minute.
We hiked a short trail outside of town named Yakutania Point and Smugglers Cove. It’s an easy 1.4-mile trail with stunning views of the water.
Fun fact: the trail has rustic workout equipment built along the way with explanations on how to use them. I thought this was quite clever.
We finished our adventure by having a late lunch and drink at the Red Onion Saloon in Skagway.
Tip: If you have a balcony, make sure to enjoy the scenery on the way out of Skagway. I thought it was the most beautiful portion of the cruise.
Glacier Bay, Alaska
There are simply no words to describe Glacier Bay. The colors are so vivid and the silence, only broken by the sizzling or the calving of glaciers is surreal. In my opinion, if you are doing an Alaska cruise, this is a must-see on your itinerary.
Tip: Only a few cruise lines are allowed into Glacier Bay. More importantly, each day, only two cruise ships can be in Glacier Bay each day!
Take in this slow day and try to make as many mental pictures as you can. The actual pictures are nice but will never do it justice. We also loved the wildlife we saw that day which included mountain goats, seals, and sea otters. At other times during the cruise, we saw whales, orcas, and doll porpoises.
College Fjord, Alaska
This was another beautiful day on the ship witnessing Mother Nature’s beauty. College Fjord is a long mostly narrow passage with many glaciers to observe along the way.
Our ship went down to Harvard Glacier. It’s an impressive glacier that we were fortunate to see and hear calves many times during our observation.
We also saw tons of wildlife while in College Fjord. Because it was light so late (at least in June when we were there), we didn’t get to Harvard Glacier until 6 PM or so. Make sure to have a later dinner reservation that night so you don’t feel rushed.
Denali Princess Lodge, Alaska
We got off the ship in Whittier Alaska and straight into a stunning glass ceiling train to head to Denali Pricing Lodge. It was a LONG train ride. It took us almost 10 hours to get to the lodge.
The views along the way are quite magnificent. We were fortunate to have a clear sky for the entirety of our time on land. This means we got to see Denali in all of its glory without clouds every single day.
Denali Princess Lodge was my favorite of the two lodges we went to. There is a lot more to do in my opinion. We arrived late and stayed one full day, then departed on the 3rd day around lunchtime.
We booked a 5-hour excursion which consisted of a bus tour in Denali National Park. It was called the Tundra Wilderness Tour. We saw beautiful landscapes and some wildlife including a moose and its baby.
We also hiked on our own. There is a convenient shuttle that runs from the lodge into the park. We did an easy 1-mile trail called Horseshoe Lake where we saw a moose in the water and got incredible pictures.
Our last activity was to visit the Husky Homestead. It is located in Denali National park (you can use the shuttle bus to get there). There have tons of dogs you can meet. They give a thorough presentation to explain what they are about and how they care for the dogs. Its was a fun activity I’d recommend.
McKinley Princess Lodge, Alaska
This was the second and final Lodge we visited during our Alaska tour and travel itinerary. In our opinion, it was the most boring stop. The lodge is beautiful and so are the views, however, there isn’t much to do unless you want to book formal excursions (some of which can be quite expensive).
You can take a bus to the small town of Talkeetna. However, the bus trip is longer than the time it will take to visit the town. We chose not to do it. At this point, we were quite tired of being on buses and trains.
We did tiny trails around the lodge but that will only occupy an hour or so. The tree house is fun to visit and allows for stunning views of Denali if the sky is clear.
Tips for cruises
- Always plan to arrive at least one day early in case of travel disruptions
- During an Alaskan cruise, take advantage of the nature information sessions offered by park rangers. It’s a great way to learn more about the animals and vegetation.
- Bring sea sickness patches. They work wonders and take little room in your luggage.
- Make your dinner reservation on the app as soon as you can (especially if you are the planning type). You can always cancel them as needed.
- Even if the dining rooms serve the same menu, rotate between the different options. We found that each has its own vibe.
- If you can afford it (especially on an Alaska cruise) select a cabin with a balcony. You will not regret it.
- Pack smart. Research recommendations and tips to make the most use of your small cabin.
- Make a plan if you hope to do laundry. Since we were on a 12-day Alaska tour and travel itinerary, we wanted to do laundry before the land portion. We waited and so did everyone. That consumed a lot of our last day on the ship.
In conclusion
Our Alaska tour and travel itinerary will forever remain in our top 3 vacations. I hope this article was helpful if you are planning a similar trip. Feel free to reach out with questions.
Thanks for reading and bon voyage!
Cat xx