I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips For Travellers, and I'm going to tell you about the nine
amazing things that you absolutely should do if you're on an Alaska Inside
Passage cruise. For many people, an Alaska cruise is a once-in-a-lifetime
event so I'm going to really focus on things that are going to make that
once-in-a-lifetime really really special. Let's first of all start by talking
about Juneau. Juneau is actually the capital of Alaska it's been the capital since
1906, and it was originally founded by two prospectors Richard Harris
and Joseph Juneau when they discovered that there was gold in the area, with the
help of a local Chief Cowie. It started a major Gold Rush and many people
flooded into what first was called Harrisburg and eventually became known
as Juneau. About 30,000 people live there. The gold mines closed in 1940 and
now it's real heart is the administrative capital of Alaska - and of course tourism.
So what should you do in Juneau? Now many people will go and see the
Mendenhall Glacier, which is the big glacier which is convenient for Juneau.
However, what I recommend is you go dog sledding. This is a helicopter trip where
you board helicopters and you fly off over Juneau, you go over the Juneau
Icefield, you see magnificent glaciers and eventually you land at the Norris
Glacier. Here there's around about 150 dogs which spend the whole season up
there, and you get the chance to then go dog sledding. It's absolutely magical up
there. It's so quiet. It's peaceful. It's an incredible experience. Once you finish
the event you get a chance to interact with the dogs before the helicopters
bring more people and you board the helicopters and fly back to Juneau. This
is probably for me one of the most magical travel experiences I've ever had.
It is though rather costly, so if you go to the Norris place here dog sledding
it's going to cost you at least around about $630 per
person. The dog mushing on the Mendenhall Glacier is a little bit less, but if
you're going on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska you may want to consider
going dog sledding - but I would strongly recommend get up onto a
glacier even if it's just a landing trip.
The other great thing to do in Juneau is set up the Mount Roberts Tramway.
This tramway heads up to one of the two mountains that are in Juneau, you've
got the Mount Roberts and you've got Mount Juneau. The Mount Roberts Tramway
opened in 1996. It's one of the steepest cable car rides in the world
and it's a great way to get incredible views (even in wet and rainy weather
which is what you're likely to find in Alaska). The third thing to do in
Juneau, which is very popular, is to visit the Red Dog Saloon. The Red Dog
Saloon dates right back to the ancient mining days. You often have to queue to
get in it as it is so popular. It's very renowned for drinks food and a great
party atmosphere. The second port I want to talk about is Skagway. Skagway is
right in the northern part of the Inside Passage and is the most northern town.
Skagway became famous as the Gateway to the Klondike.
When gold was discovered up in the Klondike in the Yukon in Canada this
became an incredibly important place as it was one of the easiest ways of reaching
the gold, even though it was many many hundreds of miles away.
30,000 prospectors headed to Skagway to then try and make their way
to the Klondike either using the Chilkoot or the White Pass to get to the
where the gold was discovered. The most important thing to do in Skagway is
to go on the White Pass and Yukon Railway. This was built to not only help
prospectors find an easier way to get to the gold, but it also became really
important for carrying all the ore and cargo back. The railway ran right up from
the turn of the century (the 1900s) right up until 1982. It was then resurrected in
the late 1990s as a tourist attraction. It travels from Skagway the town
up many thousands of feet right up to the White Pass, where it turns around and
comes back down again. It's about a 40 mile return trip up to the top of the
White Pass and back down. There's two ways of going on the train. The first is,
which is the bulk of the Train, is the standard class. There is also though, if
you really want to make it very special, the premium carriage. The premium carriage
cost three times the amount of the standard carriage. So standard is around
about $130 and the premium is about $320
US dollars. There's only 14 people in this carriage, you have big comfy seats,
you have a guide just for the carriage who serves drinks who serves food and
gives you commentary all the way. Every one of the carriages do have viewing
platforms. The great thing they do is there's normally a train allocated for
each of the ships that are in port that day, and they come right to the ship
and pick up passengers from the ship. The second thing I would do if
you're in Skagway is actually spend time exploring the town. It's the most
authentic and most old-world looking of all of the places that you're
going to visit in the Inside Passage. Many of the buildings are either
recreations or restored buildings. There's some great tours and history
about the Gold Rush and there's lots of great things to do just strolling around
the town. The next port I want to talk about is Ketchikan. Ketchikan emerged and
grew out of a native fishing camp and it really became important and developed in
the late 1800s when a salmon cannery was founded in Ketchikan, and it
became the salmon canning capital of the world.
Later on it also became well known for forestry and lumberjacking, and it also
became a really important port as prospectors moved up towards Skagway.
Today it is now very reliant on tourism. So what should you do in Ketchikan? I have
three things that I recommend. First of these is great fun, it is the Great
Alaskan Lumberjack Show on the site of the old Ketchikan Spruce Mill. Now
unfortunately you are not allowed to video at the shows so I can just show you
these stills of what goes on, but there's a whole series of different
tasks. The Lumberjacks split into two groups: the United States versus Canada.
It has become a bit of an institution and it's very very popular. The second thing,
which is another institution in Ketchikan, is called Creek Street.
Creek Street is a series of very beautiful buildings which are built over
the water, and , much of Ketchikan is actually built over the water on stilts.
Creek Street is the old red-light district and between the early 1900s
(about 1902) up until 1954 it was the heart of the red-light district and
prostitution within Ketchikan. It's has very beautiful
buildings with lots of stories behind them, including places like Dolly's house
which was one of the most famous Madams in the area and it's now a museum. The
third thing is slightly more cultural, and is Totem Bight. The park was
originally created right back in the 1930s when it was realized that as many
of the indigenous Native people were starting to move to the centers to look
for work there was a real concern that some of the heritage and the culture
would be lost, particularly beautiful totems that were created (these sort of
storytelling totems) and many of them were just abandoned as people started
to migrate towards more urban centres. So the decision was made to start to
collect and protect and preserve these, and also keep the art of totem making
alive. It's not far out of Ketchikan and you can get there on the trolley bus
which runs tours of the city and heads out there. The fourth destination
that I want to talk about you're not actually going to get off the ship when
you get there, and this is Glacier Bay. One of the big watch outs I would
have is if you're heading into the Inside Passage on any cruise, take a look
and see whether you're going to be going to Glacier Bay. Only two cruise ships
a day are allowed in there, so there's very limited amount of ships that go in there.
So I, for example, cruised with Holland America. Holland America have been
operating in Alaska for over 70 years and they are one of the cruise lines
that will go into Glacier Bay because they've been doing it for so
long. If you don't go into Glacier Bay you
may be going to some other places like Tracy Arm - but Glacier Bay is the most
magical and important place of all to see. It's official name is
the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.
It's 3.2 million acres and there's a number of very beautiful massive idal water
glaciers. The main ones you're seeing are the Reid Glacier, the John Hopkins Glacier
and the most impressive of all which is the Margerie Glacier. Wrap up warm,
make sure you bought a great camera ideally with a zoom lens on and just
go out there and enjoy it. Make sure that you spend most of the day out on deck.
You'll normally spend the whole morning cruising between these different
places with representatives from the National Parks will be on the ship and they will
be giving commentary during the day. Once you get to things like the Margerie
Glacier the ship we'll spend some time there, because
one of the things that everyone wants to see is the calving of the glacier. You are
very likely to see this happen because it happens all the time during the day.
But most importantly make sure that you are on a cruise line that is going into
Glacier Bay, because in my view nothing beats Glacier Bay and you are
going to be shortchanged if you are on a cruise that goes into one of the other
inlets. if you're on Inside Passage cruise there are four things that you
are definitely going to be doing: you're gonna be going to Juneau, Skagway,
Ketchikan and you're going to be cruising through one of the inlets like
Glacier Bay. To make your cruise, which is probably a once-in-a-lifetime cruise,
I've suggested nine things that you absolutely should do. I really believe
these made my Alaska Inside Passage cruise magical and I would definitely do
them again if I was going again. Hope you found that helpful. I have a whole series
of other videos about Alaska cruising with lots of tips and advice on things
to do so please watch those. The thing I'd love you to do, if you enjoyed
the video, is give the video a "like" and very importantly please subscribe to
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