Juneau itinerary questions - looking for help finishing Itinerary

[abaci]

We have van rental for our group of 6 adults and 3 kids (ages 1.5 to 4.5) and will be there June 19th from 7:00 am to 9:30 pm (cruise ship). Our plan is to visit Mendenhall Glacier, DIPAC, downtown (e.g. State Capital, St Nicholas, etc.), Shrine of St. Therese and Eagle Beach.

 

Our planned itinerary at the moment is to head to Mendenhall Glacier first thing and then head to Eagle Beach with stops at Lena Beach & Shrine of St Therese (either on the way to or from Eagle Beach) and then DIPAC. We will then get lunch on the ship before heading back to explore the downtown area. Does this look like a good plan/itinerary for the morning & early afternoon?

 

Is there anything missing from the above mentioned areas we should not miss? Also when is the best time to visit Eagle Beach? It looks like around noon to 12:30 pm is the lowest tide (if I'm understanding my Google results correctly), but is low tide the best time to visit?

 

Additional questions include, what is a good place to stop and view float planes taking off and landing? We are thinking of visiting Savikko Park (Sandy Beach), is this worth a quick stop and is there anything else on Douglas Island we would want to visit? Is Suicide Falls easily accessible and/or worth visiting? Is AJ Mine Gasteneau Mill Tour worth a visit and does anyone know the cost (could find the cost on their site)?

 

We have plenty of time in Juneau and are any of the mentioned spots worth a visit at different times throughout the day, say mid-day and then in the evening again? I appreciate any and all responses. Thanks

[wolfie11]

Depending on where your ship docks, you may not be able to find parking to return to the ship for lunch. Parking is by permit near the ships and parking in downtown Juneau is very limited.

[donaldsc]

From their WEB site. Call them.

 

DON

 

erry has been a miner for over 40 year at sites throughout the world. Beverely is retired from teaching in Alaska and Illinois. Their daughter Ursula is married to a miner and has three children.

Give us a call! We'd love to answer your questions and share our passion for the AJ Mine and Gastineau Mill.

907.463.5017

 

907.789.9797 (winter phone)

Beverly and Jerry Harmon

Ursula Whitmore

P.O. Box 34105

Juneau, Alaska 99803

Email Us (jharmon@gci.net)

[Budget Queen]

Eagle Beach is hardly worth worrying about the tides. Do your stop when your time allows. I'm surprised you were able to get a 9 passenger van. All the basic regular rentals are 8 passengers, that I know of??

 

You really need to consider just turning in your rental when you get back downtown, Parking is very limited.

 

As for floatplanes, are you just going to park yourself and wait around? Can be long waits. You will have endless numerous, views, right from your cruise ship in port in Ketchikan.

 

I happen to like Douglas Island excellent hiking trails. Rainforrest Trail as example is pretty easy with adults, but likely not with your age group.

[roothy123]

We were just in Juneau. We docked along the row there in town next to the tram (i.e., not at AJ dock) and took a cab from there to AJ dock to pick up the rental car from Juneau Car Rental. Then we drove out to the Shrine of St. Therese (about 23 miles out Egan Drive/Glacier Highway I think). My husband doesn't walk all that much, so he stayed in the car while I visited there. I guess I spent 20-30 minutes there. Then we went to Mendenhall and spent about an hour there. Parking was adequate though not tons and tons of it. (It was a four cruise ship day.) I would have liked to have found Chapel by the Lake, but forgot about it and didn't see any signs for it, so missed it. I think it's on the campus of the U there; not sure; ask BudgetQueen perhaps!) We had a quick lunch somwhere along the highway. Then we drove back toward Juneau, went over the bridge to Douglas, and spent a half hour at Treadwell Mine. Locals were having a picnic under the shelter, and some kids and dogs were on the beach. I wasn't feeling great that day and after taking a few pictures of the salt water pumping station in the water from the beach, plus a couple more pictures, I decided to go back to Juneau. I forget how long these stops took, but it was a little more than I anticipated. The distances are not great, but still it made for a decently long and productive day for us. Of course, we're in our late 60s so can't go, go, go like we used to do. You're probably different.

 

We had been to Juneau in 2007 and seen the attractions around town, so we decided not to make a swing through town.

 

I looked into the Last Chance Mining Museum at end of Basin Road above town, but decided it was a little too walk and effort intensive for us. I don't know if I ever saw a price, though.

 

Glacier Gardens sounded nice, but for $25 we decided to pass. There are plenty of freebies around, so no need to spend a lot of money on the tram, gardens, etc. -- and there were enough things inside and outside of Juneau to take up our time there.

 

As for Treadwell, I liked our short visit there, although I decided NOT to go back along the trail. From what I can tell of the map I found, the salt water pumping station in the water and the New Office Building are really the only things that remotely resemble buildings, so from a photographic standpoint, I decided not to make my husband wait while I walked around to find the Office Building. At least the pump building can be seen easily right there in the water from the beach. As for driving there, it was pretty easy, although after driving a while in Douglas, we were beginning to wonder if we had missed a turn. But the beach was right ahead, and it was marked. There's plenty of parking.

 

There are at least 3 gas stations in town, including one off the main highway (Egan/Glacier) so filling up before returning the car was easy. Juneau Car Rental also marked them on a map for us, which was nice.

 

I didn't try to park near our cruise ship -- can't imagine that was easy. If you're at AJ dock, though, it might be possible. There was certainly a lot of space there.

 

As always in Alaska, be prepared for rain - often light and often not for long, but it's best to anticipate at least some and be prepared!

Edited June 5, 2018 by roothy123

[abaci]

Eagle Beach is hardly worth worrying about the tides. Do your stop when your time allows. I'm surprised you were able to get a 9 passenger van. All the basic regular rentals are 8 passengers, that I know of??

 

You really need to consider just turning in your rental when you get back downtown, Parking is very limited.

 

As for floatplanes, are you just going to park yourself and wait around? Can be long waits. You will have endless numerous, views, right from your cruise ship in port in Ketchikan.

 

I happen to like Douglas Island excellent hiking trails. Rainforrest Trail as example is pretty easy with adults, but likely not with your age group.

 

Juneau Rental cars has a very limited number of 11 passenger vans. I think only 1 or 2, but I booked it 1/3/18 so I don't remember specifics. Either way they have them so it works great for our group. I think we will do downtown after the rental is turned in. Also we have decided to not look specifically for float planes and will just watch for them from the ship. We have also decided to explore downtown after returning the rental for the day. We are also planning on still doing lunch on the ship and thanks to your replies have searched the parking situation. Thanks again for your replies.

[Hoyaheel]

Also we have decided to not look specifically for float planes and will just watch for them from the ship.

When we were in Ketchikan, we found a cute bar on the water and relaxed over a couple of local beers and watched the traffic (air & marine) outside for a while. Hoping to do that again on our upcoming trip!!

[reallyitsmema]

Juneau Rental cars has a very limited number of 11 passenger vans. I think only 1 or 2, but I booked it 1/3/18 so I don't remember specifics. Either way they have them so it works great for our group. I think we will do downtown after the rental is turned in. Also we have decided to not look specifically for float planes and will just watch for them from the ship. We have also decided to explore downtown after returning the rental for the day. We are also planning on still doing lunch on the ship and thanks to your replies have searched the parking situation. Thanks again for your replies.

 

We rented a car in Juneau last week and were able to find on street parking downtown. We had planned to return the car and then do downtown, but decided to try to see if we found a spot. Won't hurt to give it a try.

 

We headed to Mendenhall first and was a good move. We were able to get parking in the closest lot and beat some of the buses. There were 5 ships that day and friends on a later excursion said it was crazy when they got there with lines 50 people deep for the ladies room at the base of the visitors center.

 

We walked out to photo point first so we were through there before it was too bad. Then we did Nugget Falls trail but split off to the left along the water on the way out and stayed on the trail on the way back. There were probably only 40-50 people out by the falls when we were out there but passed lots headed that way when we were walking back to the visitors center. We spent almost 3 hours there as we took our time. We saw lots of bear scratchings and prints down by the water, but no bears. We did the trail off the parking lot and the park service guide said they hadn't seen any bears yet the day we were there.