Alaska Southbound Glacier

The land portion of your Alaska cruisetour begins or ends in Seward, a popular fishing village surrounded by the unrivaled beauty of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, the Chugach National Forest, and the Kenai Fjords National Park. As you might expect, opportunities for up-close-and-personal encounters with wildlife abound.

Hubbard Glacier is the largest calving glacier on the North American continent. The glacier routinely calves off icebergs as high as 10-story buildings, sending massive blocks of ice into the sea every few minutes.

Here’s your chance to take a glacial dogsled adventure via helicopter in Alaska’s capital. A city that gracefully balances frontier ruggedness with cosmopolitan flair. Mendenhall Glacier, a river of ice measuring 1.5 miles in width and over 6 miles in length, is part of Juneau’s Icefield, 1500 square miles of ice that feeds 38 glaciers and ready for you to take a float trip on it.

Uncovering authentic local finds and having experiences that make you feel like you’ve really connected with a place are important elements in ensuring an extraordinary vacation. We’re taking advantage of our partnership with Travel + Leisure to get their editors’ recommendations and insider tips on the places you will want to visit. Here are their picks for just one of the 150 destinations they covered.

For thousands of years, the Tlingit Indians have called this place home. Located just 22 miles southeast of Glacier Bay National Park, Icy Strait Point offers travelers the chance to view wildlife like humpback whales, eagles, and brown bears, or to explore monuments to the region’s fishing heritage.

You’ve never tasted salmon so fresh. Known as the ‘Salmon Capital of the World’, Ketchikan is also the ancestral home of the Tlingit people, who have carved the world’s largest collection of totem poles. If you’re up for an adventure, take a canoe and nature trail excursion through the rain forest or a wilderness exploration followed by a sumptuous crab feast you can’t resist.

24 ports and cities. Over 40 land excursions. Your combinations are nearly endless in this unspoiled land nestled between glacier and rain forest. Explore Alaska by land, sea and air, viewing North America’s most noble creatures and natural wonders. It’s all designed to get you refueled on inspiration.
This is your opportunity to take the adventure you always dreamed of. Witness dramatic displays of ice-shelves breaking off into icebergs. Visit cultures that have lived and loved the land for thousands of years. Marvel at moose and bear on the land, bald eagles soaring above, and humpback whales peacefully rolling with the sea. And gaze upon the backdrop of a million stars showcasing the miracle of the Aurora Borealis.