For a cruise that offers not just relaxation, amenities, and activities while on board, but the most scenic views and exciting shore excursions imaginable, stray from the traditional cruise to the Caribbean and take an alaska cruise.
A cruise to Alaska can be the ultimate holiday with chances to see massive glaciers and examples of wildlife that you can’t see anywhere else, not to mention the adventures that can be had while on shore.
Alaskan cruises depart from beautiful places like Puget Sound in Seattle, Washington and Vancouver Island. Most Alaskan cruises are 10 to 14 nights, but you can find 7 night cruises. There are many different routes from which to choose, each offering several exciting ports of call.
Typical Alaska Cruise ports include
· Glacier Bay National Park – This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that protects plants and animals while they live in a constantly changing landscape of glaciers. If you are lucky you will be able to experience the thrill when a chunk of ice breaks from a glacier and drops into the water. This booming impact can send water up hundreds of feet.
· Juneau, Alaska – From Juneau you can see huge ice fields and the enormous Mendenhall glacier as well as a fertile national forest.
· Ketchikan, Alaska – Ketchikan is an interesting city built over the water along a series of old stairways up a mountainside. Some of the most unusual and exciting shore excursions are available in Ketchikan.
· College Fjord – This fjord is surrounded on three sides by frozen rivers of ice. As your ship cruises through you can experience the wonders of Mother Nature.
Other ports include Skagway and Haines, Alaska. Many cruises also dock in Vancouver, British Columbia or Victoria where you can have afternoon tea or visit the beautiful Butchart Gardens.
The shore excursions may be the best part of an Alaska cruise. In Skagway you can go rock climbing and repelling or be whisked through forests and along tidal flats in a wheeled dog sled. This a true Alaskan experience.
Ketchikan has a variety of adventurous outings like taking a floatplane over rain forests, thousand-foot waterfalls, fjords, and cliffs. While here you can go bear watching on a different floatplane excursion. Try your hand at crabbing from a pontoon boat or catamaran.
When arranging your Alaska cruise you can choose from the large ships that accommodate over 3,000 passengers or book your cruise on one of the smaller luxury ships. The smaller ships have the advantage of being able to visit some ports that the larger ones don’t like Misty Fjord or Sawyer Glacier.
No matter what route and style ship you choose, your Alaskan adventure will be one you always remember.
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