Best Skagway Alaska cruise excursions that I did (Princess cruise + book Skagway tours on your own) 🏔 Alaska cruise travel blog

Hi there!

I went to Skagway on Princess cruise ships, so my experience is looking for excursions for Princess cruises.

But of course, most of the excursions can apply no matter what cruise line you are on.

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Here is your quick list of best Skagway cruise excursions you must consider:

• White Pass Railway + Klondike Highway excursion
• Skagway dog sledding tour by helicopter
• Skagway helicopter tour with glacier walk

The absolutely most popular Skagway excursion is the White Pass railway, which is a train ride through the Alaska mountains… and into Canada too!

Actually, there are many different types of White Pass train excursions, as you can choose to make it just about the train ride, or you can add a land portion to it.

So you can make it a White Pass train excursion only.

If you do the train only, you will be on the train for the whole 3 hours or so, and you won’t be getting off.

You will be taking the train up high to the White Pass summit and beyond, and then taking the train back down.

There is a bathroom on the train.

If you want to do a Skagway train excursion that includes land, most likely you will need to bring your passport along on your excursion, because you will be stepping foot on Canada.

For a Skagway train excursion that includes land, there are tours that take the road up high into the mountains by bus, and then you will take the train back down…

Or you will do it in the opposite direction.

You can take the train up high to the White Pass summit and beyond, and then take the road back down by bus.

There are also different types of these train + land combination tours, and the differences are basically how far you end up going by land.

Depending on which type of White Pass excursion you choose, there are excursions that are 3 hours long, and there are excursions that are 8 hours long.

You might consider if you want to make time for another excursion in Skagway and/or if you want to make time for something else in Skagway cruise port on your own.

It’s easy to do any sort of White Pass excursion through the cruise ship, whether train only or a combination tour.

But if you want to book direct for one of the combination excursions, one Alaska company that gets mentioned a lot is Chilkoot Charters and Tours.

👆 One of the most popular Skagway cruise excursions is the train ride.

If you will be doing any sort of flightseeing tour in Alaska, I highly recommend you do one with some sort of landing!

It will make the experience that much more epic!

In the case of a Skagway helicopter tour, you can do one that includes a glacier walk or dog sledding!

No matter which one you choose, it will be epic and a high contender for one of the best experiences during your Alaska cruise!

👆 An epic so-very-Alaska excursion to do in Skagway is a dog sledding tour on a glacier! You can go dog sledding on snow from Skagway even in the summer!

How to search for Princess cruise excursions for Skagway

If you do want to look through the offerings of Princess, you can do so by logging into your account at princess.com.

Once you are logged in, go to: my account > manage this booking > excursions > view excursions for Skagway!

Look for the “customer reviews” for each individual excursion!

You can also look directly at the Skagway shore excursions with Princess without logging in if you just want to browse.

But when you want to book, you’ll need to go into your account.

You can also book through the Princess app, but I personally don’t even like the way the shore excursions show up on the app so I wouldn’t even want to look through them!

And then when you are on the cruise ship, you can book through your stateroom TV, and of course directly at the shore excursions desk.

If you are getting on your Princess cruise ship without having booked excursions but are interested in doing so, then there is also a live shore excursions presentation with recommendations on shore excursions to book for Skagway and all the other cruise ports you’ll be going to.

If you miss the live presentation, then there will also be a replay available on your stateroom TV. If you can’t find it, you can call guest services or do a “crewchat” with them on the Princess app to find out how to find it.

Only budgeting for ONE excursion during your Alaska cruise? Also take a look at the best Ketchikan excursions and the best Juneau excursions to see if you want to do an excursion in Skagway or Ketchikan or Juneau!

More below about the Skagway tours that I did!

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Best Skagway tours that are so Alaska

1. White Pass Railway + Klondike Highway excursion

As you now know, you can do the White Pass railway as a standalone excursion, or there are many different combination tours you can do that includes the White Pass train.

I did the White Pass train in combination with the Klondike Highway.

You can do the Klondike Highway as a standalone excursion without the train, which is one of the cheapest Skagway excursions.

I did a combination tour of doing the Klondike Highway by bus up to the White Pass summit (and beyond!), and then taking the train back to Skagway.

This is a White Pass excursion that requires a passport.

See more about a Skagway train excursion

• White Pass Railway only
• Klondike Highway + White Pass Railway (I booked this one)
• White Pass Railway website
• Chilkoot Charters and Tours

See more about more Skagway excursions

You can also do the Klondike Highway by bicycle!

• Sockeye Cycle
• Princess excursion

2. Helicopter tour with glacier walk (Glacier Discovery by helicopter)

You can do a helicopter tour in Skagway to see the Juneau icefield, glaciers, and snow-capped mountains.

Your helicopter tour is made even more epic by doing a wilderness landing on a glacier!

You won’t choose a helicopter tour based on a specific glacier, as that will be up to the pilot and the conditions of the day.

My helicopter tour made a wilderness landing at Meade Glacier.

We walked around on the glacier, saw blue ice, and saw glacier waterfalls!

👆 You might see glacier waterfalls as part of a helicopter excursion from Skagway!

See more about a Skagway helicopter excursion with glacier walk

• Princess excursion: Glacier Discovery by helicopter
• Temsco helicopters

3. Dog sledding and glacier helicopter flightseeing

Another helicopter tour with a wilderness landing on a glacier that you can do is dog sledding!

Skagway is one of the best Alaska cruise ports for dog sledding.

See more about a Skagway excursion with dog sledding

• Skagway dog sledding excursion

And if you like dogs and/or dog sledding, then you might like the onboard cruise activity that will happen when a Princess cruise ship is in Skagway cruise port called puppies in the piazza!

And those are Skagway tours that you must consider!

I was in Skagway in May of 2023. Your experience may vary!

Skagway on your own:

• Yakutania Point

What I did to give you more ideas for your Alaska cruise:

• Things to do in Skagway
• My Alaska cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage
• My Alaska cruise from Vancouver round trip

HAPPY TOUR FROM SKAGWAY CRUISE PORT!