coffeeyogabeach

We are going in May with a 3, 7, & 11 yo. We booked Mountain Flying Service out of Skagway for a tour of Glacier Bay with a beach landing. I had a hard time finding excursions that would be exciting enough for us but allow the 3 yo. I'm very happy with our selections. Juneau we rented a car and will do the Gold Mine Museum and a few hikes and the Alaska State Museum if I can convince the kids. We have been whale watching before and have no interest of a long boat ride with the kids, we boat often and they get bored after about 20 minutes regardless of the scenery.

I'm taking my 3 & 7 year old to Alaska in May and hard a very hard time finding fun excursions everyone could do. If you want to kayak, I would suggest renting one through a park service or independent company in one of the ports. In Sitka, we are renting a car to do some hikes, there are a few companies there that rent kayaks in addition to their guided kayak tours which your 4 year old probably won't be old enough to go on. In Skagway we are doing a flightseeing tour to Glacier Bay with a beach landing. I also looked into the helicopter & dog sledding tour there which will take 3 year olds. I would also suggest booking a private boat charter in one of the stops. Both Sitka & Juneau had several options. You can customize the tour to include stops on a beach to explore tidal pools and view marine life on the boat. I found several boat captains (2 were even teachers so experienced with children) that would do this on Sitka. Basically, the cruise ship tours are going to be limited to big group tours that my family isn't interested in but if you do it on your own, you have tons of options.

We booked Turo for both Sitka & Juneau. I liked that you can specify pick up/drop off location close to port. You probably don't need a car in Sitka but we are a family of 5 and like the flexibility to go wherever we want, some of the hikes I found to do are outside of town and this way we don't have to coordinate a taxi to pick up when we are done. We aren't big on the touristy things like the Bear & Raptor Centers.