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What was your favorite Alaskan excursion?


cherryharley
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Juneau. ERA helicopter-dogsledding tour-the extended adventure. The views were amazing. I wanted to go dogsledding ever since the 7th grade and read The Call of the Wild. I'm 48 now and I'm thrilled I got to do it. Expensive, but worth every penny.

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Yukon Rail/Bus + Dogcart experience with Chilkoot Charters out of Skagway. Fantastic 8-hour excursion, taking the White Pass & Yukon Route train from Skagway to Fraser, BC, then switching to a small bus for a drive from Fraser into Yukon to Caribou Crossing for an included lunch and sled dogcart ride, then taking the same bus to Emerald Lake before heading back to Skagway.

 

The scenery was so beautiful there were times that I just wanted to cry. We were a small group of about 20, given the last car on the train, with informative guides on both the train and our bus driver. Stopped for wildlife - bears - and had plenty of time for lunch and wandering the small museums and petting zoo in Caribou Crossing.

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What was your favorite Alaskan excursion and why? Was it exciting, breathtaking, educational? And if you don't mind, was it expensive?

 

Tough, tough question as its so hard to pick and they're all wonderful, but our two favorites:

 

- The Neets Bay Bear Cruise out of Ketchikan - PHENOMENAL. You go up these inlets and to a salmon hatchery and the bears just kind of saunter down outta the woods and eat salmon about 15 feet away from you on the shore. Absolutely beautiful and worth every single penny paid - which was quite a few.

 

- Chilkat Bald Eagle preserve jet boat tour out of Skagway/Haines. Stunning, just amazing. Beautiful area where 3 rivers meet as they come off the glaciers and it's a Bald Eagle habitat - we saw so much wildlife up close, the scenery is astounding and it really feels like Alaskan wilderness. Highly recommend it.

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For me and DH both....

Juneau helicopter flightsee and glacier walkabout.... mind-blowing, beautiful, breathtaking, wild..... was $400pp and worth every penny.

my video:

 

Your video was amazing. I did look at your blog too and see that you did the Best of Skagway tour, did you like it? Was on the fence about Liarsville. Also saw that you have done Moab, we were there two years ago, we thought Utah and the Moab region were so interesting and scenic. Thanks for any info on the Skagway trip.

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From the cruise - Misty Fjords boat and flight combo. Boating far into the fjords and then seaplane back to Ketchikan.

 

Post cruise - Flight from Fairbanks and overnight stay in Barrow with tour around town and trip to Point Barrow and wading (briefly and just a little) in Arctic Ocean. Taking a picture of the sun straight in the north at 2am (on 6/26) - priceless. :cool:

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Any of the train rides in Skagway. Can be pricey depending on which tour.
Another vote for the train ride. I enjoyed both Yukon and "Best of Skagway" combo's.

 

If you can't decide.... look for combos where excursions will mix 'n match activities to maximize your port time.

 

[YOUTUBE]cF1l3vfKWAM[/YOUTUBE]

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Does the entire trip count?

 

It seems like it was an extraordinary trip.

Small boat excursion into Endicott Arm Fjord

Whale watching trip x2 in Juneau

Rental Car driving trip to Emerald Lake for Skagway

Ketchikan Duck Tour

Family Air Tour of Misty Fjord

 

Each one was special.

Trip report with details: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2366744

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My favorite was the small boat excursion in Endicott Arm Fjord (substituted for Tracy Arm Fjord due to heavy ice). Breathtaking scenery: glaciers, ice floes, waterfalls, harbor seals, orcas. Loved it!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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Best I can do is top three, in no particular order:

 

1) Tracy Arm Fjord small boat add-on. The peace & quiet, clean crisp air, being so close to glaciers that the boat gets rocked by the waves when a piece calves off. The beautiful sights of nature, the hearty animals who brave such a climate to live in the fjord. One disclaimer: our second time was RAINY, which takes a bit of the fun out of it.

 

2) Haines Photography Tour (handled as an all-inclusive round-trip from Skagway) by Rainbow Glacier Adventures. A phenomenally well prepared adventure around Haines, with fantastic landscape photo opportunities (to keep my wife happy), great eagle sightings (made me happy), and phenomenal bear sighting to cap it all off. One tour guide, two of us, adventuring out and about. Even though another couple booked the same tour, they got their own guide and we passed them a few times during the day, but we didn't have to share/compete with their wishes as we were "independent" of them. Granted, we did "stack the deck" in our favor with an introductory letter that I asked the office manager to give to our guide ahead of time. :)

 

3) Whale Watching & Mendenhall Photo Safari by Gastineau Guiding. We like it so much we've done it three times: once in 2010, used a different tour/vendor in 2012, and came back to GG in 2014 and 2015. Arguably the best whale watch boats in SE Alaska: as stable as the big catamarans, but 14 passengers max for the photo safari, with huge swing-up windows so the whole window space is open for photography when the boat is stopped. Great guides and boat captains who get truly excited to see the passengers excited, and several have gone out of their way to stretch our time to the max, including a bonus "detour" to the creek near the radio station to see the birds and salmon up close and personal.

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Yukon Rail/Bus + Dogcart experience with Chilkoot Charters out of Skagway. Fantastic 8-hour excursion, taking the White Pass & Yukon Route train from Skagway to Fraser, BC, then switching to a small bus for a drive from Fraser into Yukon to Caribou Crossing for an included lunch and sled dogcart ride, then taking the same bus to Emerald Lake before heading back to Skagway.

 

The scenery was so beautiful there were times that I just wanted to cry. We were a small group of about 20, given the last car on the train, with informative guides on both the train and our bus driver. Stopped for wildlife - bears - and had plenty of time for lunch and wandering the small museums and petting zoo in Caribou Crossing.

 

Which side of the train should you sit going from Skagway to Fraser for the best is?

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My best excursion has been to Tracy Arm in a small boat - I have done this 2x. First time full of ice, didn't make it to the glacier, second time - got re-routed to Endicott Arm.

 

So not exactly what was supposed to happen, I loved both of these trips and Captain Steve made it special both times even though we did not make it to Sawyer Glacier.

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My Alaska adventures are all "favorites". :) I am an advocate of doing- "something". It was alarming the number of people on my last cruises who did = nothing - in ports. Sad state, in my opinion.

 

I'll give a few of my highlight and obscure tourings. Katami- just fantastic- yep costly, I stayed at a "bargain" lodge and it was $3000 for 2 nights (the minimum time, I suggest). Didn't bat an eye, and well worth the cost. Another higher cost spectacular opportunity is a 2 night Prudhoe Bay fly/road trip. I've done this 4 times. Big plus has been my, several, looks at muskox. Nothing compares to seeing them in the wild. :) $2000++++

 

A top scenic experience for me, was a winter cargo flight up to Anaktuvuk_Pass, flying low, under the clouds, through canyons, and over thousands of caribou, then landing at a "mushroom" self governed community of 300+ who came out to meet the plane and "bucket brigade" unloaded it. :) :) Just probably my most scenic flight I have ever taken. :)

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I think my favorite is snorkeling in Ketchikan. I booked it through the cruise line. We've enjoyed all of our kayaking excursions--Ketchikan, Haines, and Juneau (in Mendenhall Lake). I booked each of those privately.

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Juneau. ERA helicopter-dogsledding tour-the extended adventure. The views were amazing. I wanted to go dogsledding ever since the 7th grade and read The Call of the Wild. I'm 48 now and I'm thrilled I got to do it. Expensive, but worth every penny.

I loved reading this! Although I have zero interest in dog sledding, doing what you dreamed of as a child is the ultimate adventure. To each it is something different and special.

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I enjoyed all of my excursions, but the most spectacular was the level 3 extended glacier trek via helicopter with Northstar Trekking. On Mendenhall Glacier, we climbed up a 50-foot ice wall and got a respectable workout going up and down smaller slopes to various features, including a small lake and two active moulins - deadly blue drains plunging hundreds of feet into the ice. We also enjoyed a great flightseeing tour of more glaciers on the way back.

 

Pricey, yes, but worth every cent for a unique and well-run activity. Detailed recap and photos here.

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Just returned from a 10day Alaska cruise on the Grand Princess round trip from San Francisco. I had pre-booked and paid for a helicopter and glacier walk excursion via my cruise personalizer on Princess.com. Princess really screwed up tender disembarkation in Juneau; very long story why this happened and I still don't know all the facts, but this is the first time it's ever happened to me on the many, many Princess cruises and excursions I've taken. And, it ended up being a blessing in disguise.

 

I was able to book a ziplining excursion with Alaska Zipline Adventures. It was absolutely amazing! I've done ziplining before but AZA put the others to shame. I don't know how to post a link to my long, detailed review that I posted on Trip Advisor and Yelp but, if you get a chance check it out. I'm Lynn M. from Sacramento for both websites.

 

The cost was $491 for three persons.

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For me and DH both....

Juneau helicopter flightsee and glacier walkabout.... mind-blowing, beautiful, breathtaking, wild..... was $400pp and worth every penny.

my video:

What company did you use for this excursion?

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What was your favorite Alaskan excursion and why? Was it exciting, breathtaking, educational? And if you don't mind, was it expensive?

 

i booked a helicopter ride to a glacier where there was a sled dog kennel on the glacier and we went for a dog sled ride. it was truly the excursion of a lifetime for me and my six year old grandson.

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