Can you help with Skagway excursions?

[Poohx2]

Hi,

 

We will be going to Alaska in August and through recommendations from this board we have alresdy booked the Whitepass Railroad with Chilkoot Charters, thank you! We would also like to do gold panning and see the Red Onion saloon. Can we do them on our own? How? Or could someone recommend a tour company for those 2 things? We will also be in Ketchikan and Juneau, if they have gold panning there. Also for those who have gone to the Red Onion Saloon, will it be too risque for my son and daughter both almost 14 years old? I know it may sound like a stupid question being that it is a saloon but I had to ask.

 

Thanks so much for any information.

 

Susan

[5waldos]

Haven't been inside beyond the door but I would doubt it. Unless your kids have been very protected they have probably seen worse in their highschools. It is primarily a tourist stop and there are families around all the time. But others may have a more "intimate" take on it, as it were.

[Budget Queen]

There is no issue with your kids going inside the Red Onion. All you do is walk there, located at Broadway and Second. In the past there was fake gold panning down a few blocks, but I think that has closed?? Juneau has gold panning tours.

 

What tour have you booked with Chilkoot?? I would suggest you book their tour with Caribou Crossing, there is gold panning there.

[Poohx2]

Thank you both for your replies!!! We have the Whitepass train ride. I will look into the one you talking about.

 

Susan

[vmom]

Be careful about some of the gold panning places in Alaska...some are really hokey and touristy.

[Poohx2]

Vmom,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Susan

[Budget Queen]

Be careful about some of the gold panning places in Alaska...some are really hokey and touristy.

 

Just about all of the "tour" ones would be as such, totally fake with seeded gold.

 

Crow Creek Mine, is an easy real one to get to, if of interest, near Girdwood.

[Poohx2]

Hi Budget Queen,

 

Thanks for your reply. We have some family travelling with us with young kids who thought they would enjoy it.

 

Susan

[Budget Queen]

Hi Budget Queen,

 

Thanks for your reply. We have some family travelling with us with young kids who thought they would enjoy it.

 

Susan

 

 

 

Sure they will. :)

[bbwex]

We were on a cruisetour that spent a day in Fairbanks doing the paddlewheel on the river for the morning, and then a miners lunch and tour of a gold dredge, followed by going to a gold mine for a tour and some panning for gold.

 

I really expected the whole thing to be hokey, particularly the gold panning. As it turned out, the couple that runs the gold mine there was a real hoot, and the gold panning is fun -- everyone finds a little gold and that makes it exciting.

 

I am sure the kids will love it, and I think you will find that you do as well. I only did it at Fairbanks, but presume it is similar everywhere. Seeing a working gold mine was interesting, but the gold panning could easily have stood alone.