Tag: taking

Question by Karen W: has anyone traveled the alaska marine highway? Any recommendations, we taking a cruise & visiting coast guard?
Son stationed in Alaska and we want to visit him & end with a cruise, investigating how to get around and the alaska highway(ships) looks like a fun way to extend out cruise. Any recommendations

Best answer:

Answer by littlemissknowitall
Unless you are traveling for the food and entertainment, the Alaska Marine Highway System (also known as the Alaska Ferry) is just as good as a cruise ship, more relaxed, and a lot cheaper. You can book a stateroom for comfortable sleep, bring snacks on board, and eat in the cafeteria. You will see the same scenery that is seen from the cruise ship, but a lot closer. If you want to take day trips (rafting, flightseeing, etc.) once you reach Juneau, Sitka or Ketchikan, you can do that with the same companies that the tour ship operators use. My suggestion would be to fly to wherever your son lives, have a nice visit, then take the ferries to some other towns. You can either do a round-trip boat ride, stopping in a few ports overnight if you want, and end up back in your son’s town, or you can do a one way and fly out of another town. I am guessing that your son is in Southeast Alaska. If so, don’t miss Sitka. If you can arrive there on a day when there are no cruise ships, it’s a bit less crowded, but it’s worth the visit anytime. Especially Sitka National Historical Park (aka Totem Park), the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Old Harbor Books, and the local tribal house. A great town to walk around in.

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