Juneau and Skagway excursion recommendations

I drove to Emerald Lake solo, and felt I was able to enjoy the scenery and there were plenty of turn outs, and little traffic. Definitely use Murray's Guide.

 

I've driven to Mendenhall Glacier several times and ha e never had a problem with finding a place to park.

Thx for the info!

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Last September our group of 6 booked a walking tour of Juneau with Larry Johansen, a long-time Juneau resident who crafted his tour around our interests. He was knowledgeable, entertaining and informative - we all enjoyed the time we spent with him. He does regular public tours and you can also contact him for a private tour. You can get his contact info from his website: http://www.aksightseeing.com/.

As several others mentioned, I would strongly recommend renting a Green Jeep in Skagway. (If there are any still available) We went several places that I would not have gone with a regular rental car such as driving thru streams. Emerald Lake is gorgeous.

 

Juneau - if you do take a bus to Mendenhall, double check to see how much time you actually have there. Our bus only gave us something like 45 min.. so we ended up running down the glacier path to get there and back in time.

If I am not mistaken, a Green Jeep rental does NOT allow you to drive off road, in their contracts. So anyone complying with this would find little difference driving, in using the other 2 vendors. The jeep is allowed to drive the Dyea Highway, one difference that could matter to some.

We are just returning from an amazing first trip to AK ourselves. While in port in Juneau we actually did 2 excursions. (Flight seeing on a float plane and whale watching)

Both were AMAZJNG! Pricey? Yes, worth it? Absolutely!!

The company we used for flight seeing which we booked through princess was Wings, fabulous! There were nine of us in our group traveling ages 8–68 and we were on a 10 person floatplane so it was just our group, every person had a window seat and it was an incredible experience.

Whale watching was also amazing! The day we went out, Wednesday, July 20, there was a lot of whale activity according to our guide. We saw a few breeches but we also saw about 8-10 whales bubble net feeding, we saw lots of tale slapping by one big guy that went on for a long while. We saw 5+ different groups of whales and several other single whales, one surfaced about 20 ft from our boat totally unexpected to everyone inclUsing the driver, and surreal!

We loved Alaska! We did book 2 excursions in Juneau and had limited time to explore the town but we also have no regrets on that because we know if we ever get back we will feel more inclined to just spend time in the town exploring.

I will also say we saw whales from our ship a few times but it does NOT compare IMO to an actual excursion.

Have fun!!! :)

If I am not mistaken, a Green Jeep rental does NOT allow you to drive off road, in their contracts. So anyone complying with this would find little difference driving, in using the other 2 vendors. The jeep is allowed to drive the Dyea Highway, one difference that could matter to some.

We followed one of the side routes that was in our guide, not sure as to what road it was. And we did drive through a stream and other places I would not have done with a regular rental car. To each his own, but we preferred the adventure of a jeep.

we did drive through a stream and other places I would not have done with a regular rental car.

Heh, reminds me of the old joke: What's the difference between a Jeep and a rental car? A rental car can go anywhere!

I guess a rental Jeep is doubly capable then. :)