ADVICE ON EXCURSION PLEASE

[Needtobecruisin']

This will be our first time in Alaska. We want to pre-book an excursion in Skagway but aren't sure which to take. We are looking at the White Pass Railway but.....there are two options. Ride the train up AND back OR take the one riding the train up and a bus back. Any help/advice is much appreciated.

[firstjourney]

I’ve done the White Pass train round trip and I thought the return ride was even more awesome than the ride up! I would highly recommend the train back. I haven’t done the bus so have no insight on that.

[Essiesmom]

First, there is a board here for Alaska, under Ports of Call.  Lots of discussion there.

Second,  you can ride the train up and back without a passport, but if you ride the bus back you need a passport.

i have done the train up and back twice.  I love the scenery.  EM

 

[YourWorldWithBill]

We did the train up and back, and would agree with others; for us, a train is just nicer than a bus. 

[capriccio]

We've done both.  The first time we took the train up and then transferred to a van for the drive to Emerald Lake and then back to Skagway.  That was wonderful because on the drive we were able to pull to the side of the road for picture taking whenever wildlife was sighted.  The other trip we took the train up and back which was also beautiful but we didn't see any wildlife.  Both our excursions were with Chilkoot (https://chilkootcharters.com/).  They were great. 

[dmrrn73]

We went in 2018 and booked an excursion to ride the train both ways but there was some sort of issue that day and they changed it so half of us did bus up and train back and the other half did the opposite. It worked out well. It turned out that there were only like 8 of us on a huge bus so that was really nice. It was a great tour overall, HIGHLY recommend. 

[crystalspin]

3 hours ago, Needtobecruisin' said:

Ride the train up AND back OR take the one riding the train up and a bus back. Any help/advice is much appreciated.

Have done both (I think we needed passports even for the all-train tour). Much preferred the train-up/bus-down; gives you two points of view -- both of how vast that land is! The bus stops for this picture stop:

We took the tour that included a show at a "Gold Rush Camp", and still had time to have fish-n-chips in town and a little shopping!

[wolfie11]

Train and bus combo is good for the first time.  The road parallels the train on the other side of the valley.  I only do the Bennett excursion these days as it accesses the end of the Chillicothe Trail and other places you can’t get to by road.  

[jean-lynd]

We have booked the train/bus combo because the bus has the ability to stop along the way for wildlife and picture taking. We recently did a round trip scenic train trip near our home and it was frustrating trying to take pictures from the moving train. Especially, with the wildlife. I hope this helps!

[SoloAlaska]

I found one way on the train was plenty. The mini bus was a nice change of pace and our driver was hilarious.