AKfamily

It depends on how much time you have, and if you will be going whale watching or glacier viewing at other ports. Mendenhall Glacier has receded quite a bit and you won’t be very close to it. If you are going to Tracy Arm or Glacier Bay, you may find it underwhelming. It’s a beautiful area and the walk to the waterfall is nice.

As a local, I’ll give you some important info: the ride to and from the glacier is at least 20 minutes each way. The hike to Nugget Falls is at least a half hour each way. Probably more if you want to see anything along the way or spend any time at the falls. The tram line to board can be from 0 to 30 minutes. Same to return from the top. You do not have enough time to do either of these things without constant worry about your time constraints. It is going to be the hottest, record-breaking, day of the summer on Tuesday here in Juneau. Walk around town. Visit a brewery or two, go for ice cream, *maybe* make your way up Basin Rd and walk the Flume Trail. Visit the Sea Walk. 3 hours is not enough time to leave downtown. That’s all you have if the ship gets in on time. I can’t believe Princess is still running this ship with such short port calls. It’s got to be a major disappointment for the passengers.

Try Caribou Crossings in Juneau. They sell Alaskan-made jewelry. Many Alaskans make what you are looking for. An authentic item would be much better than a mass-produced one. “Buy the Bear” is our official state Alaskan-made certification program.

Yes. Southeast is a temperate rainforest.

This completely depends on the weather and cloud ceiling. Even on sunny days, there can be thick fog in the morning. Your weather chances are better up north. If this is an absolute must-do for you, your chances are better up north. If it’s the dogs you are after more than the flight, there are several actual Iditarod kennels with summer land tours in places like Talkeetna and Seward. The setup in Juneau brings in outside dogs and flies them up to set up a camp for tourists. There is not authentic dog sledding in Juneau in the winter. If you want to glacier flight see, Wings/Taku floatplanes in Juneau are an amazing experience—and I am NOT a small plane person.

As a local I love hiking in the alpine of Mt. Roberts. You take the tram up and down. But, there is quite a bit of snow up there this year. There may very well still be snow in June, but the trail should be mostly clear by then. Nugget Falls is flat, easy, and can get quite congested. You can choose East Glacier trail as a less-trafficked but still busy alternative. Mt. Roberts does not require you to take any extra transportation. As an alternative idea you could walk up to Basin Rd and either go up the actual Mt. Roberts trail and ride the tram back down (free with a $10pp spend at the restaurant/bar at the top) or you could continue to the end of Basin Rd to Perseverance Trail, which would be an out and back hike. There were several slides on that trail and the flume trail this winter, but I would think they would be cleaned up by then. Make noise on the trail, in any of these locations.

We have a decent sized storm coming in Monday evening/Tuesday. Pack the rain gear!