Alaska Shore Excursions

A Juneau company selling port-day tours from local providers

Alaska Shore Excursions is a Juneau-based booking company that sells shore excursions run by local tour providers in Alaska's cruise ports. It says so itself: "Every excursion on our site is vetted and selected by us. We work closely with fellow local providers," and its FAQ refers to the company running a tour as "the tour provider." So the helicopter, boat, train and dog sled trips on the site are operated by other businesses, and Alaska Shore Excursions handles the booking, the price and the support. The office address is 212 Admiral Way Ste. 5, Juneau, Alaska 99801. Its port menu covers Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Sitka and Icy Strait in Southeast Alaska, plus Anchorage, Seward and Whittier, and the location list also names Valdez, Vancouver and Victoria. The site is built for cruise passengers with a day in port, and its FAQ says most tours last 2 to 6 hours and are "designed to fit cruise port timeframes."

What is on sale, port by port

The homepage "Top Tours" list shows a star rating and a per-person price for each tour:

• Juneau Icefield Helicopter Tour, 4.9, $429.00
• Mendenhall Glacier Ice Adventure Tour, 5.0, $359.00
• Juneau Whale Watching & Mendenhall Glacier Tour, 4.8, $239.00
• Juneau Whale Watching Adventure Tour, 4.9, $149.00
• Mendenhall Glacier Dog Sledding & Helicopter Tour, 5.0, $699.00
• Skagway White Pass Railroad Summit Excursion & Train Tour, 4.8, $155.00
• Skagway Glacier Helicopter Tour, 5.0, $439.00
• Bennett Lake Scenic Railroad Journey Train Tour, 4.9, $289.00
• Skagway Musher's Camp and Sled Dog Adventure, 4.9, $199.99
• Grizzly Falls Ziplining Adventure, 5.0, $259.99
• Misty Fjords Flightseeing via Seaplane Tour, 4.9, $329.00
• Ketchikan Alaska Fishing & Wilderness Dining Tour, 5.0, $379.00
• Icy Strait Premier Whale Watching Adventure, 4.9, $185.00
• Icy Strait Wilderness Island Tour, 4.7, $150.00

The port menus go further. Ketchikan lists a customized private van tour, the George Inlet Lodge Crab Feast, the Bering Sea Crab Fishermen's Tour, a Mahoney Lake UTV safari, an e-bike and hike tour, the Lumberjack Show and Saxman Native Village, Mountain Point snorkeling and the Neets Bay bear encounter. Skagway adds the Yukon Discovery and White Pass Summit & Beyond tours and a Glacier Point wilderness safari. The Sitka boat page lists trips including a wildlife cruise with a feast at Fin Island Lodge, a Fortress of the Bear and Silver Bay combination, a cruise and tandem kayak trip in the Siginaka Islands, a wildlife photography workshop by boat, and private charters, one for up to 6 passengers and one on a 10-guest vessel. Tours can also be browsed by activity, including an Accessible Tours category.

What the tour pages say about the day

The company's "Best Alaska Excursions" guide gives a feel for the detail on individual tours. The White Pass Railroad trip is a fully narrated ride to the White Pass summit at 2,865 feet. The Yukon Suspension Bridge tour leaves Skagway in a 10-passenger van, spends 30 minutes at the bridge, and crosses into Canada, so passports are required. The Seward Kenai Fjords cruise includes a complimentary deli lunch on the way to the Holgate Glacier. The Mendenhall Glacier Express Bus gives 2 hours at the visitor center, with time to walk to Nugget Falls. Each tour is tagged with who it suits (families, easy-paced travelers, limited mobility and so on), and the FAQ says the "Things to Know" section of every tour lists physical and age requirements and ADA accessibility.

The same guide describes the headline adventure trips. The Juneau Dog Sledding & Glacier Helicopter Tour flies to the Herbert Glacier and puts guests on a dog sled across the snow on the Juneau Icefield. The Skagway Glacier Helicopter Tour lands on the Denver Glacier area for a guided walk on the ice. The Musher's Camp, offered in Skagway and Juneau, uses a wheeled sled pulled by Alaskan huskies through the rainforest, with a talk on the sport and time with the puppies. The Deluxe Misty Fjords tour is a narrated floatplane flight that ends with a landing on an alpine lake or remote fjord, and the Icy Strait whale watching trip looks for the humpbacks that gather off Hoonah each summer. The homepage port notes add context, describing Misty Fjords as glacier-carved mountains towering 3,000 feet over the canals and Seward as about 125 miles south of Anchorage.

On weather, the FAQ says most land tours run rain or shine, but flightseeing may be canceled, a decision "made by the tour provider," and "If your tour provider cancels your excursion due to weather conditions, your tour will be refunded in full."

Booking, guarantees and support

Booking is online, with an order status page to check reservations. The site lists these promises: free cancellation, secure payments, a best price guarantee, a return to ship guarantee, Alaska tour experts and chat and phone support. It says it sells "at wholesale prices" with "no hidden fees or added commissions," and that its team has "personally joined many of these tours." The about page also says it favors operators with eco-friendly practices such as recycling, renewable energy and conservation programs. A "same day tours" page covers last-minute bookings, and the FAQ advises booking early for helicopter, White Pass train and wildlife tours, which it says sell out in peak season.

What the site leaves open, and who it suits

The guarantees are named but not explained on the site's pages that carry them: the site does not give the free cancellation window, or the terms of the return to ship guarantee, beside the badges. The homepage star ratings do not say where they come from, and the about page's mention of "memberships in respected travel associations" names none. Because it is a reseller, the operator behind each tour, and so the guide team and boat, is not named in the lists; check the individual tour page before booking.

Alaska Shore Excursions suits cruise passengers who want to book port-day tours in several Alaska ports in one place, compare prices and ratings side by side, and have a single contact if something goes wrong. Its tagging of easy-paced and family-friendly tours, and the Accessible Tours category, help those planning for older travelers or children. Travelers who prefer to deal directly with the local operator will want to find out who runs their chosen tour.