Juneau Bike and Brew tour

[BM64]

Has anyone done this tour? Wondering if people who have done this tour liked it. Last time we were in Juneau we went whale watching and had a great time but didn't get to Mendenhall Glacier and really wanted to include that in this visit. We really like the idea of the bike ride. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[amyj23]

Bump! We've already booked this tour for our cruise next month. We LOVE beer but I guess we should sightsee.... :rolleyes: I'm looking forward to this!!!

[sherryf]

We did it in 2009. We are very casual cyclers and found the ride reasonably easy. There were some people on the tour who obviously had not been on a bike in many years. Some couldn't figure out the gears. I tried very hard to never get stuck behind these people when we'd start out after a stop. I'm middle aged and overweight and could ride better than half the people on the tour. Any expert rider would be bored and feel that the ride was too slow, but it is fine for an average cyclist. It was nice to see the glacier from two sides of the lake. And of course, the beer was great!

 

We were very lucky to have gorgeous weather. (See, you can wear shorts in Alaska!)

 

[amyj23]

Has anyone done this tour? Wondering if people who have done this tour liked it. Last time we were in Juneau we went whale watching and had a great time but didn't get to Mendenhall Glacier and really wanted to include that in this visit. We really like the idea of the bike ride. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Okay, we did this tour last Saturday. It was great. Partly because of the gals at Cycle Alaska that ran it. I am a nervous rider. I had ridden a bike once before this in probably 15 years. They totally put me at ease. In addition to me (and my husband that made sure to only go as fast as me), there was a young girl who was way slower than me. They have someone who stays with the "slow" group and they even put someone in the front and took the "faster" group ahead of us. I was glad because I didn't want to be the person holding up the group... There's a stop halfway through with a view of the left side of the glacier and they give you hot drinks and snacks. Then you do the last leg of the tour which ends at the glacier and you leave your bikes and walk to the visitor's center to take all your pics. The girls running the tour were hilarious. It was a very laid back atmosphere. There's only about one hill that goes up. Besides that, it's either flat or down hill. I was nervous about the gears, but it was SO easy to figure out. I'm pretty out of shape, and the only part that was a bit of a struggle was that one up hill. Oh, and there's a few bumpy parts so I had a sore butt the next day. But besides that, my legs weren't even sore. We really enjoyed it. Oh, and the brewery tasting was good, too. The tasting is held right on the docks on the water (within walking distance of the boat) and you'll be able to see sea planes landing. The employees there were also really nice. The beers they gave weren't weird ones so I think they appealed to most of us. (No dark beers or IPA's). We ended up sticking around with a few other people and enjoying another beer. Enjoy your cruise! We had a great time!

[vbmom87]

Amy, it was nice of you to report about your experience. It sounds like a good tour. I wonder what the OP decided to do.

[amyj23]

I wonder what the OP decided to do.

 

Me, too! I need to post reviews on Carnival's website for all the excursions that we did. Their site has so few reviews and it would be more helpful if more people reviewed them! Carnival should offer an incentive for people to do that...

[sherryf]

Okay, we did this tour last Saturday. It was great. Partly because of the gals at Cycle Alaska that ran it. I am a nervous rider. I had ridden a bike once before this in probably 15 years. They totally put me at ease. In addition to me (and my husband that made sure to only go as fast as me), there was a young girl who was way slower than me. They have someone who stays with the "slow" group and they even put someone in the front and took the "faster" group ahead of us. I was glad because I didn't want to be the person holding up the group... There's a stop halfway through with a view of the left side of the glacier and they give you hot drinks and snacks. Then you do the last leg of the tour which ends at the glacier and you leave your bikes and walk to the visitor's center to take all your pics. The girls running the tour were hilarious. It was a very laid back atmosphere. There's only about one hill that goes up. Besides that, it's either flat or down hill. I was nervous about the gears, but it was SO easy to figure out. I'm pretty out of shape, and the only part that was a bit of a struggle was that one up hill. Oh, and there's a few bumpy parts so I had a sore butt the next day. But besides that, my legs weren't even sore. We really enjoyed it. Oh, and the brewery tasting was good, too. The tasting is held right on the docks on the water (within walking distance of the boat) and you'll be able to see sea planes landing. The employees there were also really nice. The beers they gave weren't weird ones so I think they appealed to most of us. (No dark beers or IPA's). We ended up sticking around with a few other people and enjoying another beer. Enjoy your cruise! We had a great time!

 

When we went it was 80 F so they substituted juice boxes for the hot drinks.

 

They must have moved the tasting. Was it at their store? When we went, it was out of town at the brewery location. They had a variety of beers and we got to choose what we wanted. I found one I liked (Alaskan White) and had 3 - 4 samples of that instead of some of the darker ones that didn't appeal to me.

[amyj23]

My favorite beer was the White, too!!! The tasting was at "The Flight Deck". It's on Merchants Wharf. It was probably in the 50's throughout the tour which was ok since we were doing physical activity. But the sun came out while we were finishing the tasting and I went down to a tshirt. They're not lying when they say to dress in layers because of how much Alaska weather varies! On the last day of our cruise we got a bit red laying out on the Serenity deck!