Travel Alaska By Sea
Many visitors like to combine an Alaska vacation with the pleasures of a sea voyage aboard a luxury cruiseship or state-owned ferry.

Cruiseships: From May to September, cruiseships visit Anchorage, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Sitka, Valdez, Seward, Homer, Nome, and Seattle, as well as Vancouver and Prince Rupert in British Columbia. One-way and round-trip cruises are available, and several companies offer cruise/tours that combine a cruise with a land tour. Smaller cruise vessels and charter boat operations offer port-to-port travel and day excursions.

Cruise lines serving Alaska

• Carnival Cruise Lines • Celebrity Cruises • Crystal Cruises • Holland America • Norwegian Cruise Line

• Princess Cruises • Radisson Seven Seas Cruises • Royal Caribbean International • World Express Cruises

Itineraries vary with each ship. The most frequently visited sites include Misty Fjords National Monument, Wrangell, Petersburg, Tracy Arm, Haines, Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier, Malaspina Glacier, Valdez, Columbia Glacier, College Fjord, Seward and Whittier.


Alaska Marine Highway System
The Alaska Marine Highway System has been operating year-round since 1963, with regularly scheduled passenger and vehicle service to 33 communities in Alaska, plus Bellingham, Washington, and Prince Rupert, British Columbia. There are currently nine vessels in the AMHS fleet.

Click Here for the Alaska Marine Highway System Routes & Running Times

The Inside Passage route links ports in Canada and Alaska. On the Southcentral route, ferries call at communities in Prince William Sound and also provide a connection to the Southwest route, which offers service to Kodiak and seasonally limited service to the Aleutians. The M/V Kennicott, inaugurated in 1998, offers Gulf of Alaska crossings connecting the Southeast and Southcentral routes.

The ferries carry vehicles and all offer food service, sightseeing lounges, and most have cabins. Travelers without cabins may sleep in public lounges or on solarium decks. Local tours are available in many communities, and naturalist interpretive programs are available on board many sailings.

Schedules and tariffs vary according to time of year. Reservations are required year-round, and early reservations are strongly advised. Contact the Alaska Marine Highway, P. O. Box 25535, Juneau, Ak 99802-5535; (907) 465-3941 or 800-642-0066. Alaska Marine Highway Web Site

British Columbia Ferries: BC Ferries provide year-round passenger and vehicle service between Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, and Prince Rupert on the mainland. BC Ferries sail north one day and south the following day during summer, and make the trip once a week in winter. Contact BC Ferries, 1112 Fort Street, Victoria, BC, Canada V8V 4V2; (250) 386-3431.

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Source: State of Alaska