Somewhere in the Inside Passage, a ship slows beside a small town of painted buildings and a ramp of passengers heads ashore with a plan for the day. Some are bound for a glacier, some for a floatplane, some for nothing more than a stroll past galleries. Alaska cruise excursions range from wildlife boats and floatplane flights to rail journeys and walks through historic districts, and they split naturally between the water and the land.
What shore excursions are there on an Alaska cruise?
The choices cluster around a handful of ports, and each one has its own specialty: glaciers in Juneau, floatplanes and rainforest in Ketchikan, bears and whales at Icy Strait Point, and a mountain railway from Skagway. Think of the port first, then pick the outing that suits it.
Juneau: a glacier, wildlife boats and a historic district
Mendenhall Glacier is the outing people picture in Juneau. It lies near the airport and visitors can drive directly to it. The glacier is a lake-terminating, calving ice river, and the Forest Service visitor center and the grounds around it give views of the ice front. Two trails nearby, Photo Point Trail and Steep Creek Trail, are described as easy and accessible.
Wildlife viewing tours are the other big draw. They can bring you close to black bears, Dall’s porpoises, sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, mountain goats and Sitka blacktail deer. Bears, bald eagles and humpback whales are most likely to turn up from April through November, though a sighting is always a chance and never a promise.
If you would rather stay in town, the historic district is small and walkable, with several sights packed close together. Juneau also keeps rotating gallery shows in its museums, so what you see changes from one visit to the next.
Ketchikan: floatplanes, forest and Native culture
Ketchikan sits in Southeast Alaska, in the Inside Passage, and it is home to the cultures of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people. Downtown is easy to walk, with historic buildings, galleries, shops and locally made goods, so a few unhurried hours ashore are rewarding without any booking at all.
For something bigger, visitors can take a floatplane to Misty Fjords, explore the Tongass National Forest, or join a wildlife or sightseeing tour. Misty Fjords is covered in the next part of the page, since it is the port’s signature outing.
Icy Strait Point and Skagway
Icy Strait Point is in Hoonah, on Chichagof Island, and it is owned by Huna Totem Corporation, a company of about 1,350 Alaskan Natives with ties to Hoonah and Glacier Bay. The site includes the 1930s Hoonah Packing Company building, now a museum, restaurant and shops. It opened for cruise ships in 2004.
From here, excursions look for coastal brown bears on the Spasski River, though sightings are not guaranteed, and whale watching trips head for the Point Adolphus feeding area for humpback whales. In Skagway, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway is accepting 2026 excursion bookings.
Which are on the water, which on land?
Whale watching, wildlife boat tours and the Misty Fjords flight belong to the water, while Mendenhall Glacier, the historic districts, the cannery museum and the railway belong to the land. Some outings, like a floatplane, sit in between: you fly over water but the scenery is mountains and granite walls.
On the water: whales, sea life and fjords
From Icy Strait Point, whale watching excursions go to Point Adolphus, a feeding area for humpback whales. In Juneau, wildlife tours can get you close to harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters and Dall’s porpoises, and humpback whales are among the animals visitors are likely to see between April and November. Treat each of these as a chance. The animals decide.
Ketchikan’s wildlife and sightseeing tours fit this category too. They suit travelers who want a few hours looking at the coast and its animals rather than walking on a trail.
In the air: a floatplane to Misty Fjords
Misty Fjords National Monument lies about 40 miles east of Ketchikan, along the Inside Passage coast in extreme southeastern Alaska, and visitors can reach it by floatplane. It covers 2,294,343 acres of Tongass National Forest and is administered by the U.S. Forest Service. All but 151,832 acres are designated wilderness, which gives a sense of how little of it is touched.
What you look at is pale granite, about 50 to 70 million years old, carved by glaciers into deep U-shaped troughs. President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the monument in December 1978. It is a place to see from above, with sheer rock walls and narrow arms of water.
On land: glacier trails, towns and the railway
Mendenhall Glacier sits within the 5,815-acre Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, a federally designated unit of the Tongass National Forest. The glacier is about 13.6 miles long, and the Forest Service visitor center offers interpretive programs throughout the year for children and adults. Photo Point Trail and Steep Creek Trail start near the center.
Downtown Ketchikan and Juneau’s historic district are on foot, and the Hoonah Packing Company cannery at Icy Strait Point holds a museum, restaurant and shops. For a rail day, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway runs summit excursions out of Skagway. Visitors can also search for coastal brown bears on the Spasski River near Icy Strait Point.
What should you know before you book?
Start with the port, then match the outing to what you hope to see, because each place has a different strength and some things are chances rather than certainties. Wildlife in particular cannot be guaranteed: bear sightings at the Spasski River are explicitly not promised, and whales, eagles and bears around Juneau are likely at certain times but never assured.
Match the outing to the port
A short list helps. Each pairing below comes straight from what the places offer.
| Port | Excursion |
|---|---|
| Juneau | Mendenhall Glacier, wildlife viewing tours, historic district |
| Ketchikan | Floatplane to Misty Fjords, Tongass National Forest, wildlife or sightseeing tours |
| Icy Strait Point (Hoonah) | Whale watching to Point Adolphus, brown bear search on the Spasski River, cannery museum |
| Skagway | White Pass and Yukon Route Railway excursion |
Cruise lines also build land programs around their own lodges. Princess, for example, runs Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge one mile from the entrance to Denali National Park, and Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, which is two hours south of that entrance. Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge sits on the edge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge was named one of the Top 12 Resorts in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest by Condé Nast Traveler readers.
Your cruise itinerary decides what is possible
Princess offers round-trip Alaska cruises from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver, and one-way cruises from the Whittier (Anchorage) cruise port. One-way sailings pair naturally with the lodges, since the cruise ends near the interior rather than back where it began.
Look at which ports your own ship calls in, then choose one outing per port rather than trying to cover everything. It depends on what you came to see.
Think about the kind of day you want
If you prefer a slow day, the walkable downtowns of Ketchikan and Juneau, with galleries, shops and locally made goods, need no plan. Ketchikan’s Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian heritage shows in what the galleries and shops sell.
If you want scenery, the floatplane to Misty Fjords and the glacier at Mendenhall both deliver large landscapes. If you want animals, pick a wildlife tour and keep expectations open, because black bears, sea otters and mountain goats are possibilities and not appointments.
Good to know before you go
Bring the patience that wildlife watching asks for, since sightings of bears, whales and eagles are chances. Juneau’s events calendar can add something spontaneous to a port day, and its museum galleries rotate, so there may be something new on view. For the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway, bookings for 2026 excursions are open.
Sources
- Travel Juneau, things to do (https://www.traveljuneau.com/things-to-do/), checked October 11, 2026
- Visit Ketchikan, things to do (https://www.visit-ketchikan.com/things-to-do/), checked October 11, 2026
- White Pass and Yukon Route Railway, Skagway (https://www.wpyr.com/), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Mendenhall Glacier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Glacier), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Icy Strait Point (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icy_Strait_Point), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Misty Fjords National Monument (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misty_Fjords_National_Monument), checked October 11, 2026
- Princess Cruises, Alaska cruises (https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises), checked October 11, 2026
To plan your stay
- Alaska Cruise in May: Port Weather, Whales and Glaciers, and the Cruise Lines
- Alaska Cruise Ports: Ketchikan, Skagway, Sitka, Icy Strait Point and Where Cruises Start
- How Much Does an Alaska Cruise Cost?: Cruise Lengths, What's Included and Extras
- Alaska Cruise in June: Weather, Ports, Wildlife and Glaciers