Things to do in Sitka from a cruise ship + free on your own! My easy-going one day in Sitka in May (Princess) 🏔 Alaska cruise travel blog

Hi there!

I went to Sitka cruise port on a Princess cruise in May 2023.

This is basically what I did! Your experience may vary!

👆 Totem poles in Sitka: One of the best things to do in Sitka is to explore Alaska’s native culture by visiting one of Alaska’s national park sites! This is one of the free things to do in Sitka on your own.

👆 Things to do in Sitka on your own without a tour: You can take a quiet walk along the paved Sitka Sea Walk. You can also go out and walk closer to the shoreline. This starts near the Sitka Visitor Center from Crescent Harbor. This is another one of the free things to do in Sitka.

👆 Sitka tour: You can go for a boat tour in Alaska through Sitka Sound!

👆 It’s a sea lion in Sitka! You can take a small boat ride through Sitka Sound in search of wildlife! Although, wildlife sightings are never guaranteed in Alaska, you do have a good chance in Sitka!

You do need to take a shuttle from the Sitka cruise port to get to town.

But it is easy enough with the free shuttle from the Sitka cruise port.

How to spend one day in Sitka

You can have a perfect one day in Sitka by going for a marine wildlife watching boat tour in the morning and then have a walk around Sitka National Historical Park in the afternoon.

In the morning, you have a chance to see sea otters, sea lions, and maybe even some whales.

In the afternoon, you can have a quiet walk through a forest along the shoreline to see totem poles that are a part of Alaska’s culture.

What is Sitka known for?

Sitka is known for totem poles, sea otters, and as having a Russian past.

If you want to see totem poles, Sitka is one of the best places to see totem poles during your Alaska cruise!

As it goes in Alaska, your experience can vary based on weather and seeing marine life is not guaranteed! Marine animals are wild and they do what they want! That said, Sitka is one of the best cruise ports to see sea otters floating around on their backs!

I did see some sea otters (but not a lot) on my Sitka Sound boat tour, but apparently it’s not uncommon to see lots of sea otters floating around!

If you want a chance to see sea otters, Sitka is the place to do a marine wildlife tour during your Alaska cruise! (Glacier Bay National Park can also be good for sea otters with binoculars. There are park rangers onboard during a Glacier Bay National Park day to help you spot them!)

Sitka used to be the capital when it was a Russian territory so there’s Russian influence in Sitka.

More below about my experience in Sitka cruise port!

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Things to do in Sitka for a perfect one day in Sitka cruise port

• Sitka Sound boat tour
• Sitka coastal sea walk
• Sitka National Historical Park

This is what I did when in Sitka!

👆 Sitka cruise itinerary: I was in Sitka on Sunday, May 7, 2023 during an Alaska cruise from Vancouver roundtrip on the Sappihire Princess. The scheduled time in Sitka was 8am to 5pm. You can book excursions in Sitka cruise port through Princess.

Just to give you an idea, here is how I spent my one day in Sitka!

• 9:30am: Arrived at Sitka Visitor Center (aka Sitka town)
• 9:45am: Started the Sitka Sound boat tour
• 12:30pm: Arrived back at Crescent Harbor at the end of the boat tour
• 12:40pm: Started the Sitka Sea Walk along Crescent Harbor from the Visitor Center
• 12:50pm: Arrived at Sitka National Historical Park
• 2:15pm: Left Sitka town and got on a shuttle back to Sitka cruise port

👆 My cruise ship was scheduled to arrived in Sitka around 8am.

👆 On this particular morning in Sitka in early May, it was showing as 46 degrees at 7:25am. Time on the display is not correct!

👆 There will be signs around the cruise ship telling you how to get off the ship. There will also be an announcement telling you where to go to get off the ship.

👆 Snap a pic just in case you get into trouble when you’re out in Sitka from the cruise ship!

The cruise ship doesn’t dock directly in the town area of Sitka, which is where my Sitka Sound boat tour started from.

If you’re in Sitka cruise port and want to do things, you’ll want to go to the town area.

You need to take a shuttle to get to there.

Princess offers a free shuttle to get from the Sitka cruise port to town.

I think I got off the ship a little over an hour after the announcement was made that we could leave the ship, and it was quick and easy to get off the ship and get on the shuttle to town.

There was no line for the shuttle, so that was very nice.

The bus departed shortly after I got on the bus.

It was around a 15 minute shuttle ride from the Sitka cruise port to town.

👆 Once you get off the cruise ship, you will follow the signs to get on the free shuttle from the Sitka cruise port.

👆 There is a free shuttle from the Sitka Sound cruise port to downtown Sitka. It’s around a 12 minute shuttle ride and goes every 10-15 minutes.

The shuttle drop-off is right in town at the Sitka Visitor Center.

You can make your first stop there to get a map and find other things to do around town.

There is also a bathroom at the Sitka Visitor Center.

When I walked in to the Sitka Visitor Center, I did see that there was some sort of Russian cultural show for $15 per person.

Right near the shuttle drop-off and visitor center is the Crescent Harbor where a lot of small boats are docked.

This is where my marine wildlife tour was starting from, and it was also the meeting point of my tour. 

I booked the tour independently through Sitka Sound Tours, not through the cruise ship.

I met the captain of the boat at the dock, and shortly thereafter, it was off to sail the Sitka Sound in search of wildlife on a small boat!

It was a 6 passenger boat so it would have been a small group no matter what!

I was the only one booked for the tour, so it was like a private tour!

It is not always the case that tours go on with just one person!

The captain was born and raised and Sitka, and his wife was born on what seemed like a small random island in the Sitka Sound! (He pointed it out.)

As I’ve discovered from taking several tours in Alaska, people have all sorts of stories for why they are in Alaska.

So if you are going on a tour, ask your tour guide about how they ended up in Alaska!

Sea otters look SO cute in pictures!

In looking at the Princess cruise excursions in Sitka, it seemed like there were a lot of “sea otter” tours, so it seemed like Sitka was the place to see sea otters.

And this is what I wanted to see most on a Sitka Sound boat tour.

The captain took us to places where seeing a lot of sea otters is common, but unfortunately, the sea otters were not around.

And so it goes with marine life.

There is no guarantee!

While it’s disappointing, this is just how it goes with marine life watching, so it’s important to understand this.

I did see a few sea otters floating around a couple of time, so the goal of seeing sea otters was accomplished.

Other than the sea otters, I was happy to see sea lions pretty up close!

We passed two buoys in which the sea lions were laying around on.

I learned in one of the Princess onboard speaker sessions about Alaska wildlife that sea lions like to hang out on the pier so it was cool to see it in action!

While we were at one of the buoys, there was even a sea lion that came and swam towards the boat!

It was also interesting that while on the boat ride, there was a distress call that came on the radio that was made by another boat that had to be rescued.

And apparently, it was a tour boat with 12 passengers.

There was an engine fire, and the boat was able to get to shore where the passengers were able to get off the boat.

It turns out the captain also worked on a boat out on the Bering Sea too, with a close call story of his own.

The Bering Sea is the famous rough fishing waters of Alaska.

If you know the TV show the Deadliest Catch, that’s the Bering Sea.

There is also a Deadliest Catch tour in Ketchikan.

Sailing around the Sitka Sound, there were snow-capped mountains to be seen all around.

And that’s the Sitka Sound boat tour I did!

I booked the marine wildlife tour directly with Sitka Sound Tours.

Even if you don’t see all the marine life that you had hoped to, at least you will have the experience of sailing with a true Alaska captain!

After the Sitka Sound boat tour, I walked to the Sitka National Historical Park.

It was around a 10 minute walk from the Sitka Visitor Center to the Sitka National Historical Park.

Part of it was along the coastal Sitka Sea Walk.

Once at the national park, you can go to the national park visitor center for a brochure and a map of the park.

There is also a small exhibit inside the visitor center.

And then you can start the Totem Trail!

It was a quiet walk through the forest on the Totem Trail to see totem poles.

The national park is also located directly on the shoreline, so you can go out and walk along the shore.

Or you can sit at one of the picnic tables or benches to sit and take in the scenery too.

At the end of the Totem Trail, there was also a “totem exhibit” and the “carving shed” which are quick stops.

You can see a totem pole in the making at the carving shed.

And then after I did a little walk around, I headed back to the Sitka Visitor Center to take the shuttle back to the cruise port!

Once again, there was minimal wait and was not a big deal.

👆 On this particular afternoon in Sitka in early May, it was showing as 55 degrees at 3:30pm. Time on the display is not correct!

👆 My cruise ship was scheduled to leave Sitka around 5pm for a back-on-board time of 4:30pm.

And that’s a little bit about my one day in Sitka!

I was in Sitka on May 7, 2023. It was an Alaska cruise to Sitka on the Sapphire Princess. Your experience may vary!

HAPPY ONE DAY IN SITKA FROM A CRUISE SHIP!