SE Alaska without a cruise ship - the itinerary

Oct 12

Oct 12 SE Alaska without a cruise ship - the itinerary

It’s been a couple years since I really “planned” a trip and I was ready.... In January 2022, I saw that I had enough Alaska Air miles for two plane tickets to fly from Portland to Sitka, AK continuing on to Juneau and back to Portland, so I jumped at the opportunity.

The summer travel season is short and limited in Alaska, so I wanted to make all the arrangements right away after I made the flight plans, so I was planning in January for a trip at the end of August and crossing my fingers that it would all work out.

I started with the plane ticket, flying from Portland to Sitka on Friday night and then from Sitka to Juneau early Monday morning and then back to Portland the following Monday, which was Labor Day. Once that was set, I filled in the rest of the week.

I knew I wanted to go to Glacier Bay and since Skagway and Haines were not that far, I thought we’d try to go there too. I was mostly connecting the dots with the planes and ferries. And there’s not a ton to do in any one location, so none of them require a lot of time.

And here is the itinerary I ended up with:

Day 1 Friday evening fly PDX to Sitka

Day 2 Sitka

Day 3 Sitka

Day 4 early AM flight (Alaska Air) Sitka to Juneau

Day 5 early AM flight (Alaska Seaplanes) Juneau to Glacier Bay

Day 6 Glacier Bay and flight (Alaska Air) back to Juneau in the PM

Day 7 early AM flight (Alaska Seaplanes) to Skagway and drive into Yukon (that was if Canada opened up prior to August, which it did)

Day 8 Skagway and PM ferry (Fjord Express) to Haines

Day 9 Haines

Day 10 AM ferry (Fjord Express) to Juneau

Day 11 flight Juneau to PDX

One of the main issues with my itinerary was all the moving parts - planes and ferries - and that if one was delayed or canceled it would likely upset the entire itinerary. So I purchased travel insurance and crossed my fingers. In the end it did all work out, but there were some challenges, particularly with the Alaska Seaplanes flights and the very rainy weather that we experienced throughout the week.