Cruising is the most popular way for people to travel to Alaska. Well over half of the state’s annual 3+ million visitors arrive by cruise ships, pumping about a billion dollars per month into the Alaska economy between mid-May and mid-September. It’s not really surprising that cruising is a popular way to see Alaska: you can see several of the state’s epic sites in a week-long all-inclusive package where somebody else does the driving and your hotel room travels with you!
As I was working on planning an Alaska cruise, I found a lot of different cruise forums would ask the same questions over and over (“What to see/do/eat in __?” “Where is the port?” etc), but wasn’t finding any posts collecting various port informational links all in one place. So this post is a list of official port tourism sites along the main popular Alaska cruise area (Seward to Vancouver/Seattle). Hope you find this useful!
I’m also including cruise port info where I could find it, including port schedule pages. These are also helpful schedules if you’re trying to decide if you are interested in doing back-to-back cruises but not necessarily the same cruise line, or if you have a particular date in mind and are trying to find a cruise to fit your schedule.
NOTE: I have tried to include all the MAJOR ports of calls that most of the cruise lines will go to along the Seattle/Vancouver/Inside Passage/Seward corridor. For ports that the smaller luxury cruise ships visit, check out CruiseMapper.com’s list of Alaskan ports for schedule information and brief information about each location.
Ports are listed alphabetically.
ALASKA (GENERAL) – Tourism | Port schedule – ALL cruise ports | Alaskan ferry routes & schedules*
* Note: Alaskan ferries are much more likely to be impacted by weather conditions than large cruise ships. If planning your travel around coastal Alaska via ferry, understand that there may be weather delays, especially in winter.
I have found that Alaska Shore Excursions is a great one-stop shop for booking a wide variety of excurions in all the major tour locations. (Not an ad & I do not get a commission; just based on experience!)
ANCHORAGE – Tourism | Getting to/from Anchorage to Seward/Whittier ports | Ted Stevens Int’l Airport (ANC)
HAINES – Tourism | Port schedule
ICY STRAIT POINT – Tourism | Port schedule
JUNEAU – Tourism | More tourism | State capitol building tours | Port info/schedule
KITCHICAN – Tourism | Port schedule
SEATTLE – Tourism | Port info | Port schedule
SEWARD – Tourism | Port info/schedule
SITKA – Tourism | Port info/schedule*
* Note! Unlike most of the other port towns listed in this post, Sitka’s cruise dock is actually a short shuttle ride away from the town itself. While the shuttle is free & runs , they do strongly recommend reservations for the cruise port to Sitka leg, especially for early morning when everybody is getting off the boat at the same time. (Return shuttles are first come, first serve.) These shuttles go to/from the waterfront community center at 330 Harbor Drive. If your cruise is using tenders instead of the dock, there is a dock for tenders close to the Baranof Castle historic site on the SW edge of town.
SKAGWAY – Tourism | Port schedule
VALDEZ – Tourism | Port schedule
VANCOUVER, BC – Tourism | Port info/schedule
WHITTIER – Tourism | Port schedule
INFORMATION ABOUT REGIONAL PARKS IN SOUTHERN/SOUTHEAST ALASKA:
Hubbard Glacier – located inside the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve
THE WANDERBROAD 