Alaska Cruise Shore Excursions
To truly connect with Alaska, you must get out and experience it. Create unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime memories only possible in this wild region with Holland America Alaska cruise excursions. Enjoy the adventure, we’ll take care of the details.
Experience Alaska Firsthand
Our Alaska shore excursions get you closer to glaciers, wildlife and mountains. Mush a dog team over a glacier and feel the wind in your face. Go high into the mountains on the White Pass Railway for breathtaking views and a better understanding of the prospectors’ plight. Float a river in Haines as majestic eagles soar overhead.
Make new friends, eat new cuisine, and watch wildlife hunt and play in their home turf. From culture to food to icy thrills, our iconic Alaska cruise shore excursions will make your trip one to remember forever.
Get a glimpse into what you’ll experience in this short video. Better yet, come experience Alaska’s breathtaking beauty for yourself.
Iconic Alaska Adventures You Won’t Want To Miss
From calving glaciers to up close wildlife encounters, these can’t-miss signature experiences bring Alaska’s wild beauty, rich culture, and wide-open horizons within easy reach.
Glacier Exploration
Stand before living rivers of ice and awe as blue walls crackle and calve into icy waters. From Tracy Arm to Glacier Bay and Hubbard, Alaska’s tidewater glaciers are among the few on Earth you can approach by ship, small boat, or helicopter for an up-close encounter with their power and scale.
Paddle past bergy bits on guided kayak tours, hike to viewpoints where vast views unfold ancient ice, or touch down by helicopter for an unforgettable walk on the ice. It’s nature at its rawest and uniquely Alaska — where mountains, sea, and ice meet in views you’ll never forget.
Wildlife Encounters
Alaska provides a front-row seat to the untamed wild. Sail into ocean-life rich channels to watch humpbacks breach and orcas slicing through glassy water. Scan rocky haul-outs for sea lions, playful otters, and nesting seabirds.
On land, spot bears working salmon streams for jaw-dropping moments showcasing Alaska’s apex predators in their natural habitat. Bald eagles soar overhead to their perch on treetops. Denali National Park provides easy opportunities to spot the Big Five roaming the rugged wilderness. You won’t want to forget your camera!
Flightseeing Tours
Take flight into the skies for a grand and expansive perspective — icefields sprawling to the horizon, granite spires lighted by sun and capped by snow, and fjords etched deep by time. Scenic helicopter and floatplane flights unveil patterns and scale that are impossible to grasp from sea level, often with the chance to land on a glacier or remote location.
In minutes, you’re whisked from port to wilderness, soaring past waterfalls and expansive valleys into country few ever see. The contrast is the purest Alaska — vast and breathtaking — turning every window seat view into stories you’ll tell long after you’ve touched down.
Culture and History
Alaska’s history is just as compelling as its scenery and wildlife. Walk among towering totems and learn living Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian traditions through carvings and live dance or storytelling. Trace the gold rush past in boomtown streets and along mountain trails where prospectors once climbed toward the Yukon.
Museums, heritage centers, and guided city highlight tours bring these cultural threads together — maritime lore, logging and fishing legacies, and contemporary Alaska life. What matters here is authenticity: communities sharing their own voices and tradition, connecting guests to a cultural heritage that’s vibrant, resilient, and rooted in both the land and sea.
Outdoor Adventure
Alaska is built for thrills at every level. Paddle kayaks through quiet coves beneath waterfalls, zipline high above rainforests and streams, or hike to alpine overlooks where eagles ride the wind. Prefer more splash? Raft glacial rivers, boat to the backcountry, or test your skill fishing.
The magic lies in variety — slowly-paced adventure that welcomes all and monumental bucket-list challenges for the bold — all made possible by wilderness that feels bigger than imagination. It’s the perfect way to connect with nature, swapping city pace for the cadence of tide, trail, and mountain.
Scenic Sightseeing
Relax in a 4x4, vintage railcar, or day boat and let the views do the talking. Winding routes take you past snow-capped mountain ranges, turquoise inlets, waterfalls, and National Parks, with generous photo stops and knowledgeable guides.
These journeys are for travelers who want to savor the iconic scenery without rushing — unhurried, immersive, and richly narrated. In Alaska, even the simplest treks deliver epic, world-class landscapes within everyone’s reach.
Top 10 Alaska Shore Excursions
With so many Alaska shore excursions to choose from, which one will you pick? When it comes to the Great Land, great adventures await. Check out our picks for the 10 best Alaska cruise excursions and wildlife safaris below.
Wilderness Sea Kayaking Adventure
Ride the current where the sparkling sea meets the emerald forest. Soak in the rugged Alaska wilderness. Feel one with nature on this scenic excursion.
Best Of Sitka: Otters, Raptors & Bears
Watch massive brown and black bears living their best lives at Fortress of the Bear. Make new friends of a feather at the Alaska Raptor Center. See marine animals in their natural habitat. Every wild encounter will warm your heart.
White Pass Summit Scenic Railroad
Ride the rail over high trestles to uninterrupted views of pure Alaska wilderness. Pass Bridal Veil Falls, Inspiration Point and more as your guide regales captivating Gold Rush history.
White Pass Summit Rail, Gold Panning & Barbecue Lunch
Depart from the train depot for a thrilling 40-mile roundtrip train ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad. Visit Dredge Town, where you will enjoy an authentic barbecue lunch and join a colorful cast of characters to learn the art of gold panning.
Haines Eagle Preserve Float & Wildlife Quest
Raft a lazy river through the lush Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. Photograph eagles feasting on bountiful salmon. Bears, moose, and wolves also frequent these grounds.
Taku Lodge, Feast & Five Glacier Seaplane Discovery
Fly in a classic de Havilland seaplane over five breathtaking glaciers flowing from the Juneau Ice Field, deep blue crevasses, snow-capped mountains, and the lush Tongass National Forest.
Dog Sledding & Glacier Adventure By Helicopter
Helicopter onto a vast glacier ensconced by mountain peaks. Then carve through the snow with a team of sled dogs. Hike! Gee! Haw! This cruise excursion is as "Alaska" as it gets.
Alaska's Whales & Mendenhall Glacier Trail: Small-Group Experience
View Alaska's humpback whales and the vivid blue Mendenhall Glacier on a small-group excursion (capacity is limited to 20 travelers) tailored for sensational encounters with nature.
Bering Sea Crab Fishermen's Tour
Witness all that goes into harvesting crabs with experienced crab fishers, some you may have seen on the Deadliest Catch. You will never want this Alaska shore excursion to end.
Saxman Native Village, Dance, Totems & Lumberjack Show
Learn about Alaska culture and frontier spirit in Ketchikan. Gain exclusive access to a Tlingit carving center and watch traditional dances. Tour Saxman Totem Park and then get your heart racing at the action-packed lumberjack show.
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