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First Time in Alaska: What to Do???


CJS2766

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May 2022 will be the first time my wife and I ever go to Alaska. Are stops are:

Juneau, Skagway and Victoria BC

Since we have never been there before, what are the "MUST" see/do at these ports. I have not scheduled any excursions yet because we simply don't know what we should do? I know there are so many choices.  I think one we want to do is the White Pass Train ride as I hear that is a must do in Skagway. Other than that, we are open to anything as we are very fit (so anything that involves good cardio/walking) is fine!

OK, there you have it! What are your suggestions!!!! Fire away! LOL

Carlos

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In Juneau, spend some time walking the city and visit some local (not tourism stores).   You can walk to the governors house, stop at a grocery store and see how much milk costs.  Highly recommend the local halibut/salmon places.  If you're going in May, you'll be there before the salmon run, but if you have a chance for sampling King Salmon try it.  It will be tough to go back to the stuff we get in the lower 48.  Skagway has a scenic rail to ride.  Also some a nice local microbrew with food and local brew.  You'll find many of the Skagway shop keepers come from Anchorage for the tourist season.  Would be interesting to see how many are still around after the shutdown.  You can see a pic of a big snow blower for the rail below.

There are always excursions (whales etc) which are great, but we found it pretty interesting just to meet locals and see how people live up there.   

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10 hours ago, MicDay said:

If into Whale watching in Juneau I highly recommend https://jayleensalaska.com

It was an amazing experience.

 

This. 
 

And in Skagway, if the border is open, renting a car to drive out to the Yukon is amazing and allows stops that the train doesn’t.  We plan to do this again next year, as long as the border is open. 🙂

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  • 2 weeks later...

In Skagway we booked the Hike/Float tour and we really enjoyed it but when we do Alaska again we will definitely sign up for the train ride.  The pictures people came back with were beautiful.  We did really like the hike/float. We hiked up part of the old Yukon trail and then had a super relaxing float back to town.  We didn't have to paddle at all. Just enjoy the ride and look for eagles.  The guide did all of the rowing. 

In Juneau we didn't plan an excursion.  We just got off the ship and grabbed a taxi to the glacier and stayed as long as we wanted. We hiked trails and just enjoyed the area. Then we called for a taxi to pick us up and had them drop us back in town where we went to the Alaska Brewing Co and did their tour (they drove us from the shop in town out to the factory area). So it was a great day and we did things that people were paying a lot more for with excursions.  It was really nice to have the extra time at the glacier. People on excursions only had a short time there because they had to load back on the bus and move on to the next stop.  

 

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