Juneau to Skagway: Ferry Routes, Flights and What to Know Before You Go

On the Juneau waterfront, the question usually comes up while looking at a map of Southeast Alaska and noticing that no road connects the two towns. Water is the link.

How do you get from Juneau to Skagway?

You get from Juneau to Skagway by Alaska Marine Highway ferry, which lists Juneau to Skagway among its scheduled service routes in Southeast Alaska. Skagway is the northern end of the whole ferry network, so a boat heading there is going as far north as the system goes. The ferry is operated by the state of Alaska and is headquartered in Ketchikan.

The same mainline routes that serve Juneau continue on to Haines and Skagway. One mainline route starts in Bellingham, Washington, and calls at Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, Skagway and Sitka. Another starts in Ketchikan and calls at Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, Haines and Skagway. Juneau is one of the regional hubs where riders change vessels, so a trip can use one boat or several to reach the final stop.

Finding your sailing

The ferry system publishes its schedules online, and two tools do most of the work. The Sailing Calendar shows sailings in a monthly layout, and you can sort the entries by month, port or vessel. Click any entry and a pop-up window opens with the full schedule for that sailing.

If the calendar does not give you what you need, the Sailing Search lets you enter a port and a travel date. Between the two you can see which departure fits your day. In the calendar, arrivals appear in plain text and departures in bold, which is worth knowing before you read a line and mistake one for the other.

Reading the colored grids

The system also publishes Colored Schedule Grids. They lay out a region or a single vessel by month and show the entire sailing route, so you can see where a boat goes before and after Juneau and Skagway. You can sort the grids by month or by schedule. Arrivals are again in plain text and departures in bold.

The grids help most when your trip is longer than one leg, for instance if you are linking Juneau and Skagway with Haines or Sitka. Seeing the whole route in one view makes it easier to spot how the stops connect.

Why the ferry fits Southeast Alaska

Most communities in Southeast Alaska receive year-round ferry service. Mainline vessels serve the larger towns, while day boats provide regularly scheduled service to smaller communities. Juneau and Skagway sit on the mainline network, which is why the ferry system describes Juneau to Skagway as a scheduled route.

Unlike a typical cruise line, the ferry charges extra for cabins, and most food is served cafeteria-style. It is a working transportation system for the communities it connects, and the pace of the trip reflects that.

Which options are there?

Each one answers a different trip, so it helps to see how they differ.

The Alaska Marine Highway ferry

The ferry is the direct connection between the two towns, listed as a scheduled route from Juneau to Skagway. You step aboard in Juneau and arrive at the northern terminus of the network. Cabins cost extra, and most food is served cafeteria-style, so the ship feels more like a floating public service than a resort.

The ferry is also one of the only ways to carry a vehicle between Alaska and the contiguous United States without international customs and immigration. That matters if you are traveling with your own car and want to avoid crossing a border.

Highway 98 and the Klondike Highway

Skagway is tied to the continent by road, but not to Juneau. The only road access from Skagway to the rest of the continent is Highway 98, which runs to Whitehorse, Yukon, by way of Carcross, Yukon. The Klondike Highway, completed in 1978, connects the town to the lower 48, northern British Columbia and the Alaska Highway.

That means a road trip out of Skagway heads into Canada, and it does not lead back to Juneau. Juneau itself is not completely accessible by car, which is why the ferry and the air routes matter so much for getting between the two towns.

Flying into Juneau first

Many trips begin with a flight to Juneau before the ferry leg. Alaska Airlines offers year-round daily jet service to Juneau from Seattle and Anchorage, and Delta Airlines provides seasonal service. Seattle is Juneau’s only direct departure city in the Lower 48, and the nonstop flight takes about two and a half hours.

Juneau International Airport is just 10 minutes from downtown Juneau, so the terminal and the waterfront are close. Alaska Airlines also runs a seasonal summer route linking Juneau and Gustavus, the gateway to Glacier Bay.

What should you know before you travel from Juneau to Skagway?

Before you go, know that Skagway is a small town at the end of the line, that it changes a great deal with the summer tourist season, and that planning transportation early is the advice Juneau’s visitor bureau gives. Juneau is relatively remote and not completely accessible by car, so the trip rewards some forethought.

What Skagway is like

Skagway is a town in Southeastern Alaska with a population of less than a thousand. In the summer tourist season that population doubles to handle the crowds of visitors. It is a popular stop for cruise ships, and the tourist trade is a big part of its business, so the streets feel quite different when ships are in.

The town keeps a historic district of about 100 buildings from the gold rush era. Walking it is a good way to understand why the place exists at all, and the buildings give the main street its character.

What to see once you arrive

Visitors can explore the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and the White Pass and Chilkoot Trails. The park tells the story of the rush that built the town, and the trails follow routes tied to that history.

The White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad, once part of the area’s mining past, now operates purely for the tourist trade during the summer months, starting at the port of Skagway. In the evening, the Days of ’98 Show is performed in the Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall, a theatrical look back at the gold rush years.

A note on the schedule

Southeast Alaska gets year-round ferry service for most communities, but the ferry does not go everywhere on every schedule. During the proposed winter 2026/27 schedule, the system will not travel to Prince Rupert, and the summer 2024 schedule had no vessel equipped to serve it because of international service regulations and crewing shortages. Use the Sailing Calendar or Sailing Search to confirm the day you want, since those tools show the schedule the system is actually running.

Good to know before you go

Skagway sits at the northern end of the ferry network, so a trip there is a trip to the end of the line, and the town is busiest when the summer tourist season and the cruise ships arrive. The railroad runs only in the summer months, while ferry service reaches most Southeast Alaska communities all year. Cabins and meals on the ferry are paid for separately from the passage itself, and the food is cafeteria-style.