tours from Whittier

[sandiego1]

Our cruise ends in Whittier (mid-June). We're holding a car rental rez to get us to Anchorage where we'll spend the night before heading to Denali. We have nothing planned for that day. Should we head straight to Anchorage and do something in the city? Or go on a tour out of Whittier and either take the 6:45PM train or drive to Anchorage that night?

 

Any advise on tour operators from Whittier would be appreciated. I can't find too much about the area. After seeing all the glaciers from the cruise ship, floatplanes (Ketchikan - Misty Fjords) and helicopters (Juneau - heli-hike), is it worth it to take another tour from Whittier?

[fti]

If it were me, I would take the Prince William Sound cruise. There are a couple of operators - www.26glaciers.com and www.princewilliamsound.com are two of them. princewilliamsound.com offers a 2-for-1 coupon in toursaver (at least they did last year - double check before booking). You get more "up close and personal" to the glaciers on this tour compared with your cruise ship.

 

Were you planning on a one-way Avis rental to Anchorage then a different car in Anchorage to head to Denali? That is usually cheaper than one car rental one-way for the entire time. Or as you said, you could take the train from Whittier to Anchorage (or Alaska Leopard shuttle). There are things to do in Anchorage but if it were me, I would either take the Prince William Sound tour or if you rent the car, stop by Portage Glacier visitor center and perhaps Girdwood.

[Budget Queen]

I too highly recommend Whittier boat tours, just excellent and WAY superior to anything from your ship. Determine, is glacier scenery an interest?? Otherwise, I would be out of Whittier by 9am, do you have time for Seward?? If you can adjust your time, go to Denali Park a day later, Seward is a gem, especially with a Kenai Fjords boat tour- a must do for me. :) Superb for varied wildlife and glacier viewing.

 

Anchorage has plenty to keep you busy too. Request their visitor guide http://www.anchorage.net

[sandiego1]

I looked quickly last night and found a few PWS tour companies. Seems that their tours are mostly offered in the afternoon. What is there to do in Whittier in the AM? I don't know how late we can stay on the ship. I'm sure they want us off as early as possible to start preparing for the next cruise. On our HAL cruises, we were able to stay in our cabin until we disembarked. I believe Princess requires you to leave your cabin and go to a common area/lounge to wait. Celebrity did this to us too.

 

fti - I'll check out the companies you mention. And yes, we have 2 separate cars rented. We pick up a full size in Whittier for 1 day. Return it downtown ANC the next and pick up an SUV for the rest of the wk. It was about $150 cheaper than way.

 

BQ - Seward sounds wonderful but I think we'll have to save it for another trip. We didn't want to do so much driving and prefer to spend 2-3 nights in each place if possible. Trying to avoid the pack/unpack, check-in/check-out of hotels whenever possible. We already purchased our bus tkts for the 1st 2 days in Denali. We're keep the last morning open and will hopefully sleep late before we head to Talkeetna (especially after 2 very, very early buses in Denali!). I'll check out the ANC web site you listed.

 

Thank you both for the info. I read all of your posts regularly! Thank you for responding to my request for info.

[fti]

Not much in Whittier actually. But if you like hiking, you can hike the Portage Glacier trail toward/to Portage Glacier. The trailhead is just before you go to the tunnel in Whittier. I can send more info if you are interested. Supposed to be a moderate level of difficulty. I might do it in July when we are in the area.

 

I think you can also rent kayaks in Whittier - only read that on this board but have never pursued it.

 

Otherwise if you don't want to wait for the afternoon Whittier boat tours, driving toward Anchorage and stopping at the Portage Glacier visitor center and Girdwood are two options.

 

I love Denali - going for three nights in July. Glad you are going there.

[NancyIL]

I considered booking this 6-hour PWS cruise departing at 11:00 after our northbound cruise ends in Whittier: http://www.princewilliamsound.com/579.cfm

The combination of a Toursaver coupon for the Alaskan Leopard shuttle to Anchorage and no Toursaver coupon for that particular PWS cruise (there is one for the 4-hour cruise at 1:00) was the deciding factor. We'll see Prince William Sound later in the week when we ferry from Valdez to Whittier, and we're going on a Kenai Fjords cruise right before returning to Anchorage to fly home.

[DougH]

I did the PWS tour a couple of years on a B2B cruise. We had looked at booking this and then Princess provided it free to all of us doing B2B's. The ship had a norwalk infection and they needed to sanatize the ship and we could not stay aboard, so this was their compensation. Bet the tour operator loved getting an unexpected 75+ passengers :)

 

Very nice tour, the scenery in this area is spectacular. Freind traveling with me really wanted to do the 26 Glacier tour but free won out over $$$!

 

Doug