5 Fun Cruise Excursions in Juneau, Alaska
There are a lot of great things to do in Juneau, Alaska while there for a day on a cruise. When exploring a new port while on a cruise, you want to maximize your time with the best activities since you will only be there for a short amount of time. Today I’m sharing my top five picks for things to do while in Juneau on a cruise. There’s a little something for everyone: high adventure, scenic outlooks, and, of course, good food!
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“Don’t be afraid to go big on at least one excursion while cruising. If it’s on your bucket list, why not do it?”
During this episode, I mention a great package down jacket and perfect travel pants that I bought for this trip. In case you want to check out what I bought and loved using on the trip, here are the goods:
Lisa’s Packable Down Jacket. This kept me perfectly warm even on a chilly 30-degree morning. It was thin, lightweight, and packed down easily into the little bag that comes with the jacket. I choose dark green)
Lisa’s Perfect Travel Pants. I loved the fit, cargo pockets, and variety of activities I could wear these pants for. All of the outdoor activities were a perfect match for these pants. I bought the long pants in grey.
Ward’s Packable Water Resistant Down Jacket. Don’t forget about the men! I bought this jacket for my husband and he loves his jacket as much as I love mine.
Our Favorite Activities in Juneau Alaska
You will always have a lot of options when choosing cruise excursions and the choice can sometimes be difficult. In a previous podcast episode, I share my process for selecting the best cruise excursions so you are invited to check that out if you want to learn about how I choose excursions.
For today, I want to share five great activities that you can consider doing while you are in port in Juneau for the day. Four of them are things that we did do and one of them was something that I really wanted to do but the weather canceled it.
Normally, I don’t book our excursions through the cruise but because of the pandemic, I wasn’t even sure that we were going to cruise until we were actually on the boat. Because of this, I wanted to book through the cruise in case it was canceled so that we wouldn’t have to deal with individual companies to try and get our money back.
We sailed with Princess Cruiseline and you can see their full list of Juneau excursions on their website.
5 Fun Things to Do in Juneau, Alaska
Helicopter to a Glacier
This has been on my bucket list for years. Flying in helicopters makes me feel pretty nervous but this still seemed like an amazing experience I didn’t want to pass up. We signed up to do a flight to a glacier, land on the glacier, and spend an hour hiking around on the glacier. Amazing, right?
Our day in Juneau arrived and it was very cloudy and stormy. I didn’t see how we would ever safely be going up in a helicopter in that weather. Since it was an excursion through the cruise, we had a meeting point on the ship where we met our group and then all walked together off of the boat to meet the tour company. We got in the van to head to the helipad at the airport and started filling out waivers. At that point, a pilot came out to inform us that it was not safe to fly. I could have told him that an hour previous before we headed to the airport.
It was frustrating because we had wasted an hour and a half only to find out we couldn’t go up in the helicopter. I'm sharing this because if you sign up for this excursion, I think it’s important to have realistic expectations that it could be canceled. The process of having us all go to the airport ready to fly in terrible weather needs to be improved.
If you are planning a helicopter tour, have a Plan B in mind. You can’t book it ahead of time since you don’t want to pay for two different excursions but you can have a back up plan in mind just in case.
We didn’t have a back up plan but we did turn the day into a fun adventure.
Mendenhall Glacier
Since we couldn’t helicopter to a glacier, we decided that we should go and see the popular Mendenhall Glacier.
Enjoying the views at Mendenhall Glacier
We arranged for a ride on a bus to this glacier back at a little stand near the cruise port after we were brought back after the failed helicopter excursion. We did not book this through the cruise. We booked this along with whale watching through Alaska Tales and I would use them again if we are lucky enough to return to Juneau someday!
We took a 20-minute bus ride from Juneau to the glacier. The glacier site includes a short and scenic trail that we took, a visitor’s center, a lake (perfect photo spot!) plus a longer hike
The short trail was called Steep Creek and was only 1/4 mile and was paved and a boardwalk. We would have done other hikes but our time was very limited here (only 40 minutes) so we didn’t have time to do all of the exploring we would have liked to do.
Next time: I’d love to do the Nugget Falls hike which is two miles and take about one hour.
Plan to take lots of pictures while you take in the beauty surrounding you.
You can check out this Mendenhall GlacierBrochure for a map of the area, look at the trails, and more info on the site.
Whale Watching
The tour we booked through Alaska Tales included transportation to the Mendenhall Glacier, transportation to a boat, a two-hour whale watching tour, and a ride back to the port. The total for this excursion was $149 each.
The whale watching tour was more interesting than I thought it would be! We saw many humpback whales spouting and showing off their tales. There was a money-back guarantee if we didn’t see any whales and they said they’ve never had to refund anyone.
We rode inside a warm and dry boat until the captain spotted whales. Then everyone moved out onto the decks to see the whales. We repeated this process several times throughout the tour.
In addition to seeing humpback whales, we also got to see a pod of Orcas.
It was a misty, chilly day which made for some beautiful scenery. Overall, I’d recommend this tour to someone looking to see some wildlife and see a unique slice of Alaska!
Ride the Goldbelt Tram
There is a tram that is about a 5-minute walk from the ship that takes visitors almost straight up a mountain. The views were beautiful even with cloudy and rainy weather. This is something that you could do as an add-on excursion or it could be the main thing you do that day.
There is a restaurant and gift shop at the top but the star of the show for us was hiking on a trail back behind the restaurant building. It felt like we were walking into a fairyland! Plus there were several totem poles back in the forest.
It was raining while we were up there and we were ready for dinner so we didn’t hike for very long but it was well worth the visit.
Eat at Tracy’s King Crab Shack
There are a couple of locations for Tracy’s King Crab Shack in Juneau and we ate at the one right near the port and tram. You order crab by the pound plus they have a lot of other options like crab bisque, fried shrimp, crab cakes, fries, and more.
Although you could eat dinner on the ship, we think enjoying some local cuisine is one of the highlights of traveling so we were very happy to enjoy this meal.
A couple of bonus ideas: Our friends loved the Salmon Bake and Dog Mushing they did while in Juneau. Both of these excursions were booked through the cruise.
So there you have it! The highlights and insights from a wonderful day spent in Juneau, Alaska. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of my suggestions.
In case you missed the links to our jackets and my pants at the beginning of the post, here they are again.
Lisa’s Packable Down Jacket. This kept me perfectly warm even on a chilly 30-degree morning. It was thin, lightweight, and packed down easily into the little bag that comes with the jacket. I choose dark green)
Lisa’s Perfect Travel Pants. I loved the fit, cargo pockets, and variety of activities I could wear these pants for. All of the outdoor activities were a perfect match for these pants. I bought the long pants in grey.
Ward’s Packable Water Resistant Down Jacket. Don’t forget about the men! I bought this jacket for my husband and he loves his jacket as much as I love mine.