Haines to Skagway Independent Tour if Cruise Ship Docks in Haines

[bluetiger9192]

I will by on HAL's cruise ship on Wed, 6/9 in Haines from 6:30am-9pm. Would it be possible to take the earliest fast ferry from Haines to Skagway (which is at 8am), then rent a car from Avis in Skagway, drive the Yukon to Emerald Lake, and then take the latest fast ferry from Skagway back to Haines which is at 5pm? My understanding is the Avis car rental in Skagway is walking distance to the fast ferry departure port. I understand this will be a tight schedule but wanted to see if it is FEASIBLE.

 

The other option would to drive from Haines to Haines Junction but that seems less scenic than the drive from Skagway to Emerald Lake.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Yukon]

You certainly have lots of time to do it, but have a look at the Haines Highway photo album at http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/haines_highway.html While it doesn't have the great lakes that the Skagway drive has, it's a drive that you won't be bored by.

[fleckle]

I would suggest making your ferry reservations in advance to be sure you will get on because the ship's tours also use the ferry and sometimes they fill up.

 

One time when we just walked up and purchased tickets on the spur of the moment they told us the boat was full, but there would be another one along in a few minutes, and sure enough there was. (We were going the opposite way, Skagway to Haines.)

I don't know if they just scheduled the extra boat because they were expecting a lot of passengers that day. Maybe Murray would know if that is something they do regularly or if we just got lucky.

[jer_l]

Last year we tried to get tickets for the first ferry several months ahead and were unable to do. We were told we could try to get tickets the morning of our arrival. In the end we decided against going to Skagway.

(This summer we'll be in Skagway twice so it was a good decision.)

 

The trip up the Haines Highway is well worth taking. We were in Haines twice last summer and rented a car the second week. Our DD and SIL were with us. We stopped numerous times along the way for pictures and exploring. We stopped at 33-Mile Roadhouse and had a great lunch.