Skagway Excurs - difference between Bennett, Emerald & Yukon?

[lofoten96]

Have been looking at excursions in Skagway and I am confused about the differences in excursions and the offerings and choices of so many excursions. Specifically the excursions with Chilkoot to Bennett Lake, the Yukon bus & rail with dogsled ride and Emerald lake. Which is the furtherest point from Skagway and what are the differences? Is White pass the Yukon railway trip?

 

We are 3 women coming from Australia so want to see the scenery but also have experiences that we are never going to have here like the dogsled ride, but the scenery would take priority as we have never seen a glacier before. Wildlife would be an added bonus but its the scenery. Is Emerald Lake part of either of these excursions?

 

For those that have done these excursions what would you recommend for us?

Thankyou for any assistance.

[Kamloops50]

Have been looking at excursions in Skagway and I am confused about the differences in excursions and the offerings and choices of so many excursions. Specifically the excursions with Chilkoot to Bennett Lake, the Yukon bus & rail with dogsled ride and Emerald lake. Which is the furtherest point from Skagway and what are the differences? Is White pass the Yukon railway trip?

 

We are 3 women coming from Australia so want to see the scenery but also have experiences that we are never going to have here like the dogsled ride, but the scenery would take priority as we have never seen a glacier before. Wildlife would be an added bonus but its the scenery. Is Emerald Lake part of either of these excursions?

 

For those that have done these excursions what would you recommend for us?

Thankyou for any assistance.

 

Emerald lake is the furthest point from Skagway.

Lake Bennett has only one place for road access and that is Carcross (which is just south of emerald Lake ) .

[world_traveler_et]

Have been looking at excursions in Skagway and I am confused about the differences in excursions and the offerings and choices of so many excursions. Specifically the excursions with Chilkoot to Bennett Lake, the Yukon bus & rail with dogsled ride and Emerald lake. Which is the furtherest point from Skagway and what are the differences? Is White pass the Yukon railway trip?

 

We are 3 women coming from Australia so want to see the scenery but also have experiences that we are never going to have here like the dogsled ride, but the scenery would take priority as we have never seen a glacier before. Wildlife would be an added bonus but its the scenery. Is Emerald Lake part of either of these excursions?

 

For those that have done these excursions what would you recommend for us?

Thankyou for any assistance.

 

If you do the dog sled ride in Skagway you will be on a sled with wheels and riding on dirt. If you want to do a dog sled ride on snow you may want to do this in Juneau.

 

I booked with Chilkoot in June and took the Scenic Bennett journey trip. This trip was around 67 miles. The scenery around lake Bennett was beautiful. If scenery is your priority the trip that goes to Lake Bennett is the best when I asked Chilkoot. My priority was scenery and photography. I had no interest in doing the dogsled ride on dirt. The Lake Bennett area is only accessible by train. Don't forget you can e-mail the vendor of the tour directly for more questions. You will not be on a glacier for this excursion. If you take the Lake Bennett excursion with Chilkoot you will also make a brief stop at Emerald Lake. This will be done after you leave the train and board the small van for the rest of your trip. Enjoy your cruise and have fun planning your trip!

[bonvoyagie]

I understand that you are coming a long way and that you really want to get the most out of your cruise experience - so here is my advise.

 

take a look at www.cruiseportinsider.com this will give you some background on the ports, excursion options, and some DIY ideas.

 

Glaciers: most cruises include several hours of Glacier viewing from the ship - three lines visit Glacier Bay NP (Princess, HAL, and NCL) here you will see between 4 and 6 glaciers and will spend lots of time in front of at least one. Park Rangers are onboard the ships to explain the geology and wildlife of the bay. If you are not going to GB then most other lines visit Sawyer Glacier at the end of Tracy Arm. Tracy Arm is a narrow fjord with steep walls and tight turns - the Sawyer Glacier is nice but often the ships don't or can't get very close to it - hence the recommendation of the small boat add on tour that most lines offer. One way cruises also visit Hubbard Glacier and/or College Fjord in addition to the other two. There is also Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau which is a bus ride from the cruise ship docks. If you like to hike there are trails that will get you close to the glacier.

 

Sled Dogs - the best sled dog rides are the ones that are coupled with a helicopter ride to the top of the glaciers - these are offered in both Juneau and Skagway and are far superior to the wheeled cart rides on land that are offered in other places.

 

Now to your Skagway questions. Both the highway and railroad run between Skagway and Carcross - their paths form sort of a figure 8 where the bottom of the loop is Skagway, the top is Carcross and the center is Fraser. The railroad is the right hand path, the road the left. Bennett is mid way along the railroad path above Fraser. The railroad runs three basic trains: Skagway-summit roundtrip (summit is about 6mi before Fraser), Skagway-Fraser one way, and Skagway-Carcross one way. The one way trips use busses for the other portions of their tours - either between Fraser and Carcross or Fraser and Skagway. Emerald lake is about 10 minutes outside of Carcross on the road to Whitehorse - there is a simple turnout on the road where you can get out and take your pictures. Then it is back through Carcross and back to Skagway with stops at the alpine lakes along the way.

 

I highly recommend Chilkoot Tours as they offer smaller busses and vans and their drivers/guides are locals who know the area - cruise ship tours use large Greyhound style busses that can take forever to load/unload - on my tour with Chilkoot last summer we had only 5 of us in a 12 pax van - we also had a railcar with only 12 of us while the cruise line groups were fighting for seats on the other two cars.

 

I would also look into using non cruise line vendors in other ports as well - if you watch/search this board you will find out about other companies.

 

Enjoy your cruise

[Kamloops50]

Couldn't explain it any better.

 

 

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[Budget Queen]

Both of these tours go to the SAME place, Emerald Lake. They get there by different parallel routes. The Lake Bennett train has no road access, includes an extended stop at a historic camp, for a walk around and lunch. The other tour takes the train to Fraser and the Klondike Highway between there and Emerald Lake. If you want the dog sled inclusion, this is a great option.

[lofoten96]

Thanks for the helpful replies. I did a bit more researching and it looks like Bennett pass is closed from Aug 30th? As our cruise is in September, then it doesnt look like we will be going there :(

 

Thanks for the tip on the dog sled ride, we will look into doing that in Juneau now.

 

Thanks bonvoyagie for such a detailed and informative response :)