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In this Alaska Cruise Tips video I recommend and show you the 9 best excursions and things to do on an Alaska cruise through the Inside Passage. An Alaskan cruise is a one in a lifetime trip for many people and these amazing activities and shore excursion suggestions should help make the most of this unique journey. Some of the ideas are quite expensive, but many Alaska tours are and so you may need to save up for them. There are four main places you visit on an Alaska cruise and my tips cover all of them: Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Glacier Bay.
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0:00
I'm going beverage of tips for travelers
0:02
I'm going to tell you about the nine
0:04
amazing things that you absolutely
0:06
should do if you're on an Alaska Inside
0:09
Passage cruise now for many people an
0:11
Alaska cruise is a once-in-a-lifetime
0:14
event so I'm gonna really focus on
0:16
things that are going to make that
0:17
once-in-a-lifetime really really special
0:19
so let's first of all start by talking
0:21
about Juno Juno is actually the capital
0:23
of Alaska it's been the capital since
0:26
1906 and it was originally founded by
0:28
two prospectors richard harris
0:31
and joseph juneau when they discovered
0:34
that there was gold in the area with the
0:36
help of a local chief Cowie it's sort of
0:39
a major Gold Rush and many people
0:41
flooded into what first was called
0:43
Harrisburg and eventually became known
0:46
as Juneau about 30,000 people lived
0:49
there the gold mines closed in 1940 and
0:52
now it's real hard is the administrative
0:54
capital of Alaska and of course tourism
0:57
so what should you do in Juneau know
0:58
many people will go and see the
1:00
Mendenhall Glacier which is the big
1:03
glacier which is convenient for Juno
1:05
however what I recommend is you go dog
1:08
sledding this is a helicopter trip where
1:10
you board helicopters and you fly off
1:13
over Juneau you go over the Juneau
1:16
Icefield you see magnificent places and
1:18
eventually you land at the Norris
1:21
glacier here there's around about 150
1:24
dogs which spend the whole season up
1:27
there and you get the chance to then go
1:30
dog sledding it's absolutely magical up
1:32
there it's so quiet it's a peaceful it's
1:35
an incredible experience once you finish
1:38
the event you get a chance to interact
1:40
with the dogs before the helicopters
1:42
bring more people and you board the
1:44
helicopters and fly back to Juneau this
1:47
is probably for me one of the most
1:49
magical travel experiences I've ever had
1:52
it is though rather costly so if you go
1:54
to the Norris place here dog sledding
1:56
it's going to cost you at least around
1:58
about six hundred and thirty dollars per
2:00
person the dog mushing on the Mendenhall
2:02
Glacier is a little bit less but if
2:04
you're going on a once-in-a-lifetime
2:06
trip to Alaska you may want to consider
2:08
going dog sledding but I would strongly
2:10
recommend get up on two
2:11
place you know even if it's just a
2:13
landing trip
2:15
the other great thing to do in Juneau is
2:17
set up the mount roberts tramway
2:20
now this tramway heads up to one of the
2:22
two mountains that are in junus you've
2:24
got the mount roberts and you've got
2:25
them out juneau the mount roberts
2:27
tramway opened in 1996 it's one of the
2:30
steepest cable car rides in the world
2:32
and it's a great way to get incredible
2:34
views even in wet and rainy weather
2:36
which is what you're norming in the
2:37
fight in Alaska the third thing to do in
2:40
Juneau which is very popular which is to
2:42
visit the Red Dog saloon now the Red Dog
2:44
saloon gets right back to the ancient
2:47
mining days you offer have to queue to
2:49
get in it so popular and it's very
2:50
renowned for drinks food and a great
2:53
party atmosphere now the second part I
2:55
want to talk about is Skagway Skagway is
2:58
right in the northern part of the inside
3:01
passage is the most northern town
3:02
Skagway became famous as the Gateway to
3:05
the Klondike
3:06
so when gold was discovered up in the
3:08
Klondike in the Yukon in Canada this
3:11
became an incredibly important place it
3:14
is one of the easiest ways of reaching
3:15
the gold even though it was many many
3:17
hundreds of miles away
3:19
thirty thousand prospectors headed to
3:21
Skagway to then try and make their way
3:23
to the Klondike either using the
3:25
Chilkoot or the white pass to get to the
3:29
where the gold was discovered now the
3:31
most important thing to do in Skagway is
3:33
to go on the White Pass and Yukon
3:35
railway this was built to not only help
3:38
prospectors find an easier way to get to
3:40
the gold but it also became really
3:41
important for carrying all the ore and
3:43
cargo back the railway ran right up from
3:47
the turn of the century the 1900s right
3:49
up until 1982 it was then resurrected in
3:52
the late 1990s as a tourist attraction
3:54
it which travels from Skagway the town
3:57
of many thousands of feet right up to
4:01
the White Pass where it turns around and
4:03
comes back down again it's about a 40
4:04
mile return trip up to the top of the
4:07
White Pass and back down there's two
4:09
ways of going on the train the first is
4:12
which is the bulk of the Train is the
4:13
standard class there is also though if
4:15
you really want to make it very special
4:17
the premium carriage premium carriage
4:19
cost three times the amount of the
4:21
standard carriage so standard is around
4:24
about 130
4:25
US Dollars and the premium is about 320
4:28
US dollars there's only 14 people in
4:30
this carriage you have big comfy seats
4:32
you have a guide just for the carriage
4:35
who serves drinks who serves food and
4:38
gives you commentary all the way now all
4:40
of the characters do have viewing
4:41
platforms the great thing they do is
4:42
there's normally a train allocated for
4:44
each of the ships that are important
4:46
that day and they come right to the ship
4:49
and pick up passengers form at the ship
4:51
now the second thing I would do if
4:53
you're in Skagway is actually spend time
4:55
exploring the town it's the most
4:56
authentic and most old-world
4:59
looking of all of the places that you're
5:01
going to visit in the inside passage so
5:04
many of the buildings are either
5:05
recreations or restored buildings
5:07
there's some great tours and history
5:09
about the Gold Rush and there's lots of
5:12
great things to do just strolling around
5:14
the town so the next part I want to talk
5:15
about is Ketchikan Ketchikan emerged and
5:19
grew out of a native fishing camp and it
5:22
really became important and developed in
5:25
the late 1800s when a salmon cannery was
5:29
founded in Ketchikan and really it
5:31
became the salmon cannon capital of the
5:33
world
5:33
later on it also became well known for
5:36
forestry and lumberjacking and it also
5:38
became a really important port as
5:41
prospectors moved up towards Skagway
5:43
today it is now really relied on tourism
5:46
so what should you do in Ketchikan well
5:48
as three things that I recommend first
5:50
of these is great finance the great
5:52
Alaskan lumberjack show on the site of
5:55
the old Ketchikan spruce milk now
5:58
unfortunately you know allowed to video
5:59
at the shows so I can just show you sort
6:02
of these kind of stills of what goes on
6:04
but there's a whole series of different
6:05
tasks the Lumberjacks split into two
6:08
groups the United States versus Canada
6:10
has become a bit of an institution and
6:12
it's very very popular the second thing
6:14
which is another institution in
6:15
Ketchikan is called Creek Street now
6:18
Creek Street is a series of very
6:19
beautiful buildings which are built over
6:20
the water and how much of Ketchikan is
6:22
actually built over the water on stilts
6:24
Creek Street is the old red-light
6:27
district and between 90 early 1900s
6:29
about 1902 up until 1954 it was the
6:33
heart of the red-light district and
6:35
prostitution within
6:36
Ketchikan it's a very beautiful
6:37
buildings lots of stories behind them
6:39
including places like Dolly's house
6:41
which is one of the most famous Madam's
6:43
in the area and it's now a museum the
6:46
third thing was a slightly more cultural
6:47
is totem bight so the part was
6:50
originally created right back in the
6:51
1930s when it was realized that as many
6:54
of the indigenous Native people were
6:56
starting to move to the centers to look
6:59
for work there was a real concern that
7:01
some of the heritage and the culture
7:02
will be lost particularly beautiful
7:03
totems that were created these sort of
7:05
stearic storytelling totems and many of
7:08
them were just abandoned as people start
7:09
to migrate towards a more urban centers
7:11
so the decision was made to start to
7:13
collect and protect and preserve these
7:15
and also keep the art of totem making
7:17
alive it's not far out of Ketchikan you
7:20
can get there on the sub trolley bus
7:21
which has tours of the city and heads
7:23
out there now the fourth destination
7:25
that I want to talk about you're not
7:27
actually going to get off the ship when
7:29
you get there and this is Glacier Bay
7:30
now one of the big watch outs I would
7:32
have is if you're heading into the
7:33
Inside Passage on any cruise take a look
7:35
and see whether you're going to be going
7:37
to Glacier Bay it's only to cruise ships
7:39
a day are loud in there so there's very
7:41
limited amount of ships that go in there
7:43
so I for example cruised with Holland
7:45
American Holland America have been
7:47
operating in Alaska for over 70 years
7:49
and they are one of the cruise lines
7:51
that will go into clacey Bay just
7:53
because they've been doing it for so
7:54
long
7:55
if you don't go into place in Barre you
7:56
may be going to some other places like
7:58
Tracy arm but Glacier Bay is the most
8:01
magical and important place of all to
8:03
see places well it's official name is
8:06
the Glacier Bay National Park and
8:08
Preserve
8:08
it's 3.2 million acres there's a number
8:12
of very beautiful massive Thai water
8:14
places the main ones you're seeing are
8:16
the reed Glacia the john hopkins Glacia
8:19
and the most impressive allure which is
8:21
the marjorie Glacia wrap up warm
8:24
make sure you bought a great camera
8:26
ideally with a zoom lens on or you just
8:29
go out there and enjoy it make sure that
8:31
you spend most of the day out on deck
8:33
so you'll normally spend the whole
8:35
morning cruising between these different
8:36
places representatives from the national
8:40
parks will be on the ship and they will
8:42
be giving commentary during the day once
8:44
you get to things like the Marjorie
8:47
glaze here
8:48
ship we'll spend some time there because
8:50
one of the things that everyone wants to
8:51
see is the carving of the case you know
8:54
you very like to see this happen because
8:56
it happens all the time during the day
8:58
but very importantly make sure that you
9:00
are on a cruise line that is going into
9:01
place here Bay because in my view
9:03
nothing beats Glacier Bay and you are
9:06
going to be shortchanged if you are on a
9:08
cruise that goes into one of the other
9:10
inlets if you're on Inside Passage
9:12
cruise there are four things that you
9:15
are definitely going to be doing you're
9:16
gonna be going to Juneau Skagway
9:19
Ketchikan and you're going to be
9:21
cruising through one of the inlets like
9:23
Glacier Bay to make your cruise which is
9:26
probably a once-in-a-lifetime cruise
9:27
I've suggested nine things that you
9:29
absolutely should do I really believe
9:31
these made my Alaska Inside Passage
9:34
cruise magical and I would definitely do
9:36
them again if I was going again hope you
9:39
found that helpful I have a whole series
9:41
of other videos about Alaska cruising
9:43
with lots of tips and advice on things
9:46
to do so please watch those as well the
9:48
thing I'd love you to do if you enjoyed
9:50
the video is give the video a like and
9:52
very importantly please subscribe to
9:54
tips of travelers and you'll get much
9:57
more travel inspiration advice and tips
10:00
[Music]
10:04
[Applause]
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