Alaska Cruises
Twenty-four cruise lines sail Alaska. Here is how they actually differ, and how to find the one that matches the trip you want.
Three ways to get started
Tell Me About Your Trip
Alaska’s season is short and the good combinations go early. Send me your window and I’ll tell you what’s still open.
Start Planning
Read the Free Guide
Four pages on when to go, cruise or land, and how it all works.
Download the Guide
A cruise is the easiest way into Alaska.
You wake up somewhere new every morning without repacking, glaciers come to you rather than the other way around, and the towns are small enough to walk into straight off the pier, gold-rush streets, fishing harbors, mountains and forest right behind town.
Want to pair your cruise with a land tour and get the best of both worlds? Check out cruisetours.
What a week actually looks like
Three routes cover most Alaska sailings. Same state, quite different weeks.
- Day 1Seattle. Board and sail in the evening.
- Day 2At sea.
- Day 3Sitka.
- Day 4Juneau.
- Day 5Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier, from the deck.
- Day 6Ketchikan.
- Day 7A Canadian port (usually Victoria or Vancouver), for the evening.
- Day 8Back into Seattle.
US law requires foreign-flagged ships sailing between two US ports to call somewhere foreign along the way, which is why a Canadian port sits at the end.
- Day 1Vancouver. Board and head north.
- Day 2Cruising the Inside Passage.
- Day 3Tracy Arm Inlet in the morning, Juneau after.
- Day 4Skagway.
- Day 5Glacier Bay, a full day of scenic cruising.
- Day 6Ketchikan.
- Day 7Cruising south.
- Day 8Back into Vancouver.
Glacier Bay isn’t a port a ship can simply add. The park limits how many vessels enter each day, so if that day matters to you, it has to be chosen at booking.
- Day 1Vancouver. Board and head north.
- Day 2Cruising the Inside Passage.
- Day 3Ketchikan.
- Day 4Juneau.
- Day 5Skagway.
- Day 6Glacier Bay, a full day of scenic cruising.
- Day 7College Fjord, glaciers on both sides.
- Day 8Off in Whittier, and on to Anchorage, or on to Denali.
This is the one that connects to a land tour, because it finishes near the interior rather than back where it started.
The ports, and what I’d do in each
Juneau
The state capital, reachable only by boat or plane. Whale watching here is as close to a sure thing as Alaska offers in season. Mendenhall Glacier is twenty minutes from downtown and can be done by shuttle for a fraction of the ship’s price. The helicopter glacier landing is the splurge people rarely regret.
Skagway
A gold-rush town of about a thousand people that still looks the part. The White Pass railway climbs out of town into the mountains and is the one excursion I book for almost everyone, sit on the left going up. If you’d rather be outside, you can hike or bike down from the pass instead.
Ketchikan
Built on pilings over the water, and the wettest of the ports. The largest collection of standing totem poles anywhere, and Creek Street is a short walk from the pier. Misty Fjords by floatplane is the one worth the money here.
Sitka
The one port that faces the open Pacific rather than the Inside Passage, and the only one with a Russian past you can still see. Sea otters and puffins on the water, totems in the rainforest at the national historical park, and a raptor center in town. It calls on fewer itineraries than the others.
Icy Strait Point
Not a town but a Tlingit-owned port next to the village of Hoonah, built in a former salmon cannery. Bear viewing, whale watching and the longest zipline in North America. Quieter than the others, because only one or two ships call at a time.
“Sometimes we can feel like we’re supposed to be doing a certain thing, or we’re supposed to be going down a certain path. But if I want to completely turn around, that’s okay.”– Sierra
A different way to see Alaska
Not everyone wants a big ship. These three carry a fraction of the guests and build the day around getting you off the boat, kayaks, skiffs, naturalists who know the water. If wildlife is the reason you’re going, start here.
UnCruise Adventures
The most active of the three, and Alaska is where they started in 1996. Itineraries are set but the day bends to what the wildlife is doing, kayaks, paddleboards and skiffs off the stern, hikes ashore, and several routes that go into Glacier Bay.
22 to 86 guests · 7 to 14 nights · drinks, activities and park fees included
National Geographic
Sailing with Lindblad, which has been running small ships in Alaska for over forty years. Naturalists and a photographer on every voyage, kayaks and Zodiacs off the back, and an undersea specialist filming what is below the surface for you to watch that evening.
62 to 154 guests · 8 to 15 days · strong with older kids
HX Hurtigruten Expeditions
Expedition cruising from a line that has been sailing the Norwegian coast since 1893, and the one that reaches furthest, Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, and on the longer voyages the Aleutian Islands. Expedition boats and kayaks off the ship, a science center and expedition team on it.
Around 500 guests · 10 to 18 days · excursions, drinks and gratuities included
If you asked me to pick
These are the three I recommend most often for Alaska.
Princess
The one I book most. The widest choice of dates and departure ports of any line in Alaska, so the timing almost always works, and there is enough onboard to keep teens busy on a sea day.
Holland America
Princess’s sister line, and the calmer of the two. Exclusive Glacier Bay access, naturalists onboard, and mid-size ships built around watching Alaska go past. Skews 50s to 70s.
HX Hurtigruten Expeditions
The one I’d book for myself, and the one I’d take my own kid on. A line sailing since 1893, with an expedition team, an onboard science center, and routing that goes for wildlife and remote water instead of ports.
Where to from here?
Tell Me About Your Trip
Alaska’s season is short and the good combinations go early. Send me your window and I’ll tell you what’s still open.
Start Planning
Read the Free Guide
Four pages on when to go, cruise or land, and how it all works.
Download the Guide
All 24 lines sailing Alaska
Scroll sideways to see every column.
Fares move constantly with sailing date, cabin, promotions, and what’s included, so I quote live rather than publish numbers here. A seven-night mainstream sailing and a two-week expedition voyage aren’t comparable until flights, excursions, meals, gratuities and hotel nights are in the same column.
Alaska Cruise FAQ
Which month should I sail?
Ships sail May through September, and the month changes the trip more than the line does. May has the most ice at the glacier faces and the lowest fares, but cooler days. July and August are peak for humpbacks in the Inside Passage and for bears at the salmon streams, with the warmest weather and the highest prices. September brings fall color on the hillsides and quieter ships, at the cost of more rain and shorter days.
Round-trip or one-way?
A round-trip Inside Passage sailing from Seattle or Vancouver is the simplest, calmer water, one flight in and out. A one-way Gulf of Alaska sailing between Vancouver and Whittier or Seward covers more of the state and sees more glaciers, but you fly into one city and home from another, and it’s the sailing that connects to a land tour.
How early do Alaska sailings sell out?
Balconies on the popular July and August dates go first, often nine to twelve months ahead, and so do the sailings that enter Glacier Bay, the park limits how many ships may go in each day, so those itineraries are finite. Booking early on this route is about getting the cabin and the date you want, not about chasing a lower fare.
Do I need a balcony?
It’s the one itinerary where I think it’s worth it if the budget stretches. Glacier days and wildlife happen on the ship’s schedule, not yours, and having your own outdoor space at six in the morning changes the trip. If it doesn’t stretch, book the cabin you can afford, the public decks see everything too.
What’s not included in the fare?
On the mainstream lines: flights, excursions, gratuities, specialty dining, drinks and wifi. Excursions add up faster than people expect in Alaska, a float plane or a whale-watching trip is not a $50 afternoon. The expedition lines include far more up front, which is why comparing headline fares between the two is misleading.
Will I actually see whales and bears?
Whales, very likely in peak season. Bears depend on where you go and when, mid-July through September, when the salmon run, gives you the best odds, and a dedicated excursion or a small ship improves them a lot.
Let’s plan yours.
A big ship through the Inside Passage, a small-ship expedition, or something in between, built around your travel style, priorities, and budget.
