Hurtigruten: MS Roald Amundsen

Vancouver is a thriving metropolis surrounded by natural beauty. With parks, beaches, gardens, museums, art galleries and the second-largest Chinatown in North America, Vancouver lives up to its promise of offering something for everyone. With modern buildings set against green, rolling hillsides, this city is breathtaking; no location offers a more spectacular view than Stanley Park - with a zoo, aquarium, totem poles and honking geese. A short walk from the park leads to Robson Street, which offers the town's best window-shopping. Stores with European flavor share the avenue with delicatessens and tea rooms ready to serve. As architectural heart of the city, Robson Square features a central plaza with a food fair and an old provincial courthouse, which now houses Vancouver Art Gallery. Be sure to stop at 8 Pender St. - "the narrowest building in the world." Other points of interest include the Museum of Anthropology; Japanese-style Nitobe Memorial Garden; and VanDusen Botanical Garden. Capilano Canyon is site of the world's longest and highest suspension footbridge.

Suggested Private Excursions

Vancouver: Private Vancouver's Ultimate City & Nature Tour - (6 hours)

Vancouver: Private Vancouver with the Kids - (6 hours)

Vancouver: Private Different faces of Vancouver (4-hours)

Vancouver: Private Day Tour to Victoria by Land & Sea - (12-hours)

Vancouver: Private Day Tour to Victoria by Floatplane & Private Vehicle - (9 hours)

Vancouver: Bowen Island by Land, Sea & Air - (4-hours)

Vancouver Highlights Private Tour - 4 hours

Vancouver Mountain Adventure - 8 Hours (with Step-On Guide, admissions included)

Vancouver Stanley Park Bicycle Tour - 3 hours

Best of Downtown Tour (Formerly Guilty Pleasures Gourmet Tour) - 3 hours

Granville Island Market Tour - 2 hours

No information currently available.

Ketchikan is known as "Alaska's First City" because it's the first major community travelers come to as they travel north. The city is built on steep hillsides and is billed as salmon capital of the world. A quaint village, the town is three miles long and three blocks wide. With fishing boats sailing in and float planes ascending from the water, this seaside town is bustling with activity. With the world's largest collection of totem poles, Totem Bight State Historical Park offers insight into various native cultures of the Pacific Northwest. These wood-carved creations tell colorful, intricate tales – often showing a family history or depicting a local legend. Ketchikan has many options for adventure of relaxation, including mountain bike tours, sea kayaking, seaplane riding, or strolling down the boardwalk of Creek Street, Ketchikan's most famous section with a historic cable car and quaint boutiques. Blessed with an abundance of hiking trails, Ketchikan offers many breathtaking vistas, including the panoramic, 360-degree view from the top of Deer Mountain.

Suggested Private Excursions

Ketchikan: Private Anan Creek Bear Tour - (4 hours)

Ketchikan: Private Alaskan Fishing and Wilderness Dining - (5 hours)

Ketchikan: Private Misty Fjords National Monument Adventure - (1.5 hours)

Ketchikan: Private Ketchikan & Saxman Walking Tour - (3 hours)

Ketchikan: Alaskan Fishing (6 hours)

Ketchikan: Private Crabbing by Cabin Cruiser

At 3,600 square miles, this least spoiled of all wilderness areas is the largest of all preserves. It is one of the most awe inspiring experiences of an Alaska vacation. Beginning near the British Columbia border, the Behm Canal winds around the Eastern side of Revillagigedo Island, becoming increasingly narrower as it heads northward, finally taking a left turn back into the Inside Passage near Ketchikan. Along its 900-foot deep chasm, 3,200-foot tall cliffs soar upwards and the dramatic spire of New Eddystone Rock is repeated in the spiky tops of spruce and fir trees which cast stalactite reflections in waters broken only by the wake of ships and the splashes of breaching humpback whales.

Wrangell, a hidden jewel in the heart of the Tongass National Forest, is the third oldest community in Alaska and the only community to be ruled by 4 nations: the indigenous Tlingit nation, Russia, Great Britain and the United States. The island is rich in native heritage as evidenced by the rock carvings at Petroglyph Beach as well as the totems seen around town. Walk in the steps of John Muir amidst historic buildings that will take you back to the unhurried pace of yesterday, and enjoy the beauty of the Stikine River and the surrounding wilderness.

Petersburg owes just about everything to the fishing industry. From its Tlingit origins as a fish camp, Petersburg has grown into one of the busiest Alaska seafood centers. It got its modern start when Peter Buschmann, a Norwegian immigrant, arrived in the 1890s and founded the Icy Strait Packing Co. cannery, a sawmill and a dock by 1900. He shipped halibut and salmon and ice from the handy LeConte Glacier -- the continent's southernmost tidewater glacier. Shrimping is also important to the Mitkof Island town of 3,200. The state's first shrimp processor was founded in 1916 as Alaska Glacier Seafoods and now is known as Petersburg Fisheries, a part of Icicle Seafoods. More than a thousand people are employed by the processing industry. To keep the salmon engine running, the state runs the Crystal Lake Hatchery. Scandinavian heritage is celebrated each May during Little Norway Festival. Petersburg is a town so picturesque it was used as the prototypical fishing town in the movie "Ice Palace".

Located about 45 miles south of Juneau, Tracy Arm, a classic fjord located in the heart of the Tracy Arm-Fjords Terror Wilderness, stands out as a "must see" for any Alaska vacation. The icebergs are framed by sheer mountain peaks reaching to 7,000 feet. Waterfalls flow from ice covered mountains to the jade colored inland sea. Tracy Arm is the summer home for pigeon guillemots, kittiwakes and arctic terns. Usually mountain goats are seen on the rocky slopes near Sawyer Glacier. They have been known to come down near the water. The best bear viewing is along the shores of Stephens Pass or Holkham Bay, and there are whales and seals.

Endicott Arm, a 20-mile long fjord, has been compared to Yosemite with sheer granite cliffs, waterfalls and breathtaking mountain peaks. Less travelled than Tracy Arm, but just as spectacular.

Alaska's heritage comes alive in the handcrafted artistry of the Tlingit Indians and in the lively performances of the Chilkat Dancers, with their brightly painted tribal masks. Get a glimpse of the town’s gold-rush history in local museums. Visit the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve—Haines boasts the world’s largest concentration of the magnificent birds, drawn to the area by the salmon-rich waters. Take a boat trip on Lake Chilkoot or a glacier country flightseeing trip.

Visit the waters of the Icy Strait area in the summer and there’s a good chance of seeing endangered humpback whales and other mammals gorging themselves on their annual northern feast of plankton. Each year in late spring to early summer, an extraordinary bloom of plant plankton occurs for about two weeks. Animal plankton, starfish, sea urchins, worms and clams feast on the plankton, and many of these species time their reproduction to occur at the height of the plankton concentration. Vast shoals of small fish, including herring and capelin, are drawn to the animal plankton, and salmon, birds, and marine mammals such as sea lions and seals join in the feast, feeding on the profusion of small fish. The terrestrial plant communities of the Icy Strait area are also an important component of the area’s biological diversity, and the site is one of the best places in the world to study how plants return to a landscape after glacial retreat.

No information currently available.

Seventy-five miles long and covering over 1,350 square miles in area, the Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in North America. It is also one of the most impressive, a 300-foot wall of ice rising sheer and jagged from the ocean. You may hear the rumble and see the monumental splash as the glacier breaks off in great ice chunks, known as "calves."

Glide into College Fjord where you will be completely surrounded by 16 ice-blue glaciers. Each was named for one of the Ivy League colleges by members of the expedition that discovered them.

Enjoy the peaceful tranquility of Prince William Sound before visiting the sixteen gleaming glaciers in College Fjord, each named for an Ivy League college.

Enjoy the peaceful tranquility of Prince William Sound before visiting the sixteen gleaming glaciers in College Fjord, each named for an Ivy League college.

Seward and its surroundings comprise a land of memorable beauty--saltwater bays, blue glaciers, majestic mountains and alpine valleys. Located on the Kenai Peninsula at the head of Resurrection Bay, the city is one of Alaska's oldest communities, and also one of the most scenic.

Located at the upper end of Cook Inlet in the Gulf of Alaska, Anchorage is Alaska's largest community. This popular tourist destination and crossroads for global air travel is only minutes away from the recreational areas bordering the Gulf of Alaska.

Suggested Private Excursions

Anchorage: Private Redoubt Bay Lodge Bear Viewing & Natural History Tour (10-hours)

Anchorage Scenic City Tour - 2 hours

Located at the upper end of Cook Inlet in the Gulf of Alaska, Anchorage is Alaska's largest community. This popular tourist destination and crossroads for global air travel is only minutes away from the recreational areas bordering the Gulf of Alaska.

Suggested Private Excursions

Anchorage: Private Redoubt Bay Lodge Bear Viewing & Natural History Tour (10-hours)

Anchorage Scenic City Tour - 2 hours