Alaskan whales travel waters surrounded by glaciers, bears roam the land, salmon swim the rivers and eagles soar overhead. Alaska is an ideal area for exploring by ship – forested islands, waterfalls and calving glaciers mainly situated on the narrow coastal strip between mountains and sea. The waters of the Bering Sea contain some of the most remote and spectacular islands on earth.
Inside Passage
Seven day cruises to the Inside Passage start and finish in Seattle or Vancouver and explore the twisting and sheltered waterways between the coast and the offshore islands. They go as far north as Skagway and Glacier Bay before returning south calling at ports like Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan on the way.
The Glaciers
The Glacier cruises are also 7 days but travel north from Seattle or Vancouver to Seward or Whittier near Anchorage or the reverse southwards. They follow the sheltered Inside Passage calling at panhandle ports and then enter the more exposed Gulf of Alaska and enter Yakutat Bay or Prince William Sound passing some of Alaska’s largest and most active glaciers.
Bering Sea
The waters of the Bering Sea contains some of the most remote and spectacular islands on earth. Bounded by Russia’s Kamchatka and Chukotka Peninsulas and Alaska’s western coast with the Arctic Circle to the north, you can visit remote Eskimo settlements and the dramatic Commander and Aleutian Islands.