The Best Things to Do in Juneau

Get great views with some hands-on fun — com­bine a scenic flight­see­ing heli­copter tour with the exhil­a­ra­tion of dog mush­ing on a glac­i­er with a team of huskies! It’s easy to do — just go with North­Star Trekking on their Juneau Glac­i­er Dog Sled Adven­ture. You’ll fly over the Juneau Ice­field for about 35 min­utes and land in a sled camp on the snow-cov­ered mid­dle branch of the Nor­ris Glacier

If you’ve dreamed of see­ing brown bears in the wild — in one of Alaska’s best spots for brown bear view­ing — as well as expe­ri­enc­ing flight­see­ing and kayak­ing, this trip is for you. You’ll fly from Juneau to a remote wilder­ness loca­tion, then kayak to Pack Creek Bear Sanc­tu­ary on Admi­ral­ty Island, home to more than 1,600 brown bears.

A tour aboard a TEM­SCO heli­copter offers beau­ti­ful views of Alaska’s Cap­i­tal City, and up-close explo­ration of Menden­hall, one of the state’s most acces­si­ble glac­i­ers. Look out on alpine lakes, moraines, and crevass­es before you land and check out the Juneau Ice­field for yourself.

Juneau’s glac­i­ers pro­duce nutri­ent-dense waters mak­ing the waters a prime feed­ing ground for hump­back whales. Alas­ka Tales’ boats are inti­mate (49 pas­sen­gers max), and they’re super-fast, so you’ll get out to see the whales in no time. You also have the option of adding a stop at the Menden­hall Glac­i­er Vis­i­tor Cen­ter pri­or to your whale watch­ing tour.

Pack Creek Bear Tours offers ful­ly guid­ed adven­tures to Admi­ral­ty Island or Chichagof Island, each home to more than 1,500 brown bears! After a beau­ti­ful 20- or 25-minute float­plane ride, you’ll land on a remote beach. Take a short walk to the bear-view­ing area, where you can watch these mag­nif­i­cent crea­tures for hours in their nat­ur­al environment.

Tucked inside the lush Ton­gass Nation­al For­est, dis­cov­er an Alaskan botan­i­cal gar­den unlike any­where else in the world. A 2012 Read­er’s Digest poll chose Glac­i­er Gar­dens out of thou­sands of entries as the Most Inter­est­ing Land­mark in Amer­i­ca! Vibrant hang­ing gar­dens spill from 15-foot-tall upside down tree ​“Flower Tow­ers” and ele­gant­ly designed land­scapes com­pli­ment the nat­ur­al beau­ty of the rain­for­est. Explore these unique gar­dens on a guided  ...more

Go with Wings Air­ways and you’ll take off from Juneau in a 10-pas­sen­ger DeHav­il­land Otter float­plane and get a lush view of the city as well as the sur­round­ing moun­tains and ice fields. Opt for a 40-minute flight see­ing tour, or book the ​“Flight and Feast Tour,” which takes you to dine at a 1920’s lodge.

The focus of the 3.5‑hour Menden­hall Glac­i­er Float Trip is great views of the name­sake glac­i­er, which is 1.5 miles wide, 150 feet high, and the most famous part of the mas­sive Juneau Ice­field that even John Muir once raved about. Glide along the ice­berg-stud­ded lake and scope out the glac­i­er, get­ting up-close views of hang­ing glac­i­ers and tow­er­ing peaks. Keep an eye out for birds nest­ing in the rocky cliffs, as well as otters, seals, black  ...more

Hop on a TEM­SCO heli­copter for an Alaskan adven­ture com­bin­ing avi­a­tion, sled dogs and mas­sive glac­i­ers. Get an amaz­ing view of the gor­geous land­scape sur­round­ing Juneau, and then ride along as an ener­getic team of huskies tours you around the ancient, snow-packed Menden­hall glacier.

Feel the tru­ly unique thrill of walk­ing on an ancient glac­i­er. This unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence begins with a canoe trip to the glac­i­er, where you’ll don cram­pons and explore the gor­geous blue ice…no expe­ri­ence required!

Get a serv­ing of his­to­ry along with a clas­sic Alaskan feast. The Gold Creek Salmon Bake, a two-hour expe­ri­ence out of Juneau, has been run­ning for more than 30 years. It’s a great meal and an Alaskan tra­di­tion. You’re dis­patched from your hotel and brought to a cor­ner of the South­east Alas­ka rain­for­est, which saw lots of activ­i­ty dur­ing Alaska’s Gold Rush.

This South­east Alas­ka-based tour oper­a­tor will leave you with a new def­i­n­i­tion of what it means to have a once-in-a-life­time Alas­ka cruise: You sail on an inti­mate ves­sel — often get­ting to steer your­self, under the super­vi­sion of an expe­ri­enced licensed cap­tain — while explor­ing away from the crowds, and get­ting a won­der­ful­ly up-close view of the wildlife and scenery. Sail­ings from Juneau and Sitka. 

This muse­um sits on the site where Alas­ka offi­cial­ly became a state. View the exhibits and watch an award-win­ning doc­u­men­tary about the city. Plus, the City Muse­um doesn’t end at the building’s walls. From May to Sep­tem­ber, you can take walk­ing tours of his­toric down­town Juneau and the Alas­ka State Capitol.

Come on this 1 ½‑hour tour out­side Juneau, and you’ll get a big appre­ci­a­tion for prospec­tors who arrived here more than 100 years ago: This water is seri­ous­ly cold. But this quick stroll into Alaska’s gold-fever-influ­enced past offers a fun his­to­ry les­son, as well as a pleas­ant­ly short turn at pan­ning in that icy water your­self — with a guar­an­tee that you’ll score a lit­tle gold to take home. Alas­ka Trav­el Adven­tures’ His­toric Gold Mining &  ...more

Glac­i­erview Sea Kayak­ing with Alas­ka Trav­el Adven­tures offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to kayak through Auke Bay while enjoy­ing views of Menden­hall Glac­i­er. You’ll also have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to see wildlife like whales, sea lions, seals, and bald eagles. Kayak­ing offers a much more inti­mate and qui­et expe­ri­ence than oth­er boat tours; at the same time, it is per­fect for trav­el­ers who want an adven­ture. And even if you’ve nev­er pad­dled a kayak before, a  ...more

Take a scenic cruise and kayak through gor­geous sur­round­ings as mag­nif­i­cent whales pierce the sur­face of the water on this six-hour expe­di­tion from Juneau. Your des­ti­na­tion is the Chan­nel Islands, the whales’ annu­al feed­ing ground — and your guides will assess where the most whale activ­i­ty has been happening.

With a 1,620 ft. ver­ti­cal drop, 640 acres, and impres­sive back­coun­try access, Eagle­crest com­bines big moun­tain ter­rain with a local feel in Alaska’s cap­i­tal city. It’s one of the few com­mu­ni­ty-owned ski areas in the US, offer­ing afford­able prices, few­er crowds, and breath­tak­ing ocean views. You can’t dri­ve to Juneau— you have to fly, or fer­ry, which means short­er lift lines and untracked pow­der. Whether you are a begin­ner look­ing to play in the  ...more

Canoe across a lake to Menden­hall Glac­i­er glac­i­er, Keep­ing an eye out for arc­tic terns, moun­tain goats, and ice­bergs float­ing in the water. Then, land on the glac­i­er beach and walk about a mile along­side the glac­i­er, explor­ing as you go — there may even be ice caves to check out.

Explore Alaska’s hid­den gems with cus­tomized flight­see­ing and back­coun­try adven­tures for small groups to fit your time­line from Juneau, Sit­ka, or Glac­i­er Bay Nation­al Park. Some options include bear view­ing, glac­i­er tours or hot spring adventures!

Plen­ty of whale tours let you watch the orcas and hump­backs as they breach and spout from the water — but not many also let you eaves­drop on the big mam­mals’ con­ver­sa­tions. This 3.5‑hour tour out of Juneau is equipped with an ampli­fied hydrophone sys­tem; lis­ten to the whales under­wa­ter while enjoy­ing the lush rain­for­est views. Onboard the North Star — a 48-pas­sen­ger jet boat with large win­dows, an out­side view­ing deck, and a com­fort­able inside  ...more

North­star Trekking oper­ates out of Juneau and caters to all styles of explo­ration. The curi­ous glac­i­er observ­er can sim­ply fly to the glac­i­er and snap pho­tographs from flat or rolling ter­rain. You can also choose to hike on the glac­i­er itself. If you’re very adven­tur­ous, you can even learn how to climb on the ice walls. No mat­ter which option you choose, North­Star Trekking will guide you all the way, mak­ing sure you get the most out of this  ...more

Take a spin through Juneau on a fun bike tour. It’s a great way to explore Alaska’s cap­i­tal city, with lots of scenery and his­to­ry along the way. Choose from one of sev­er­al options. There’s a bike and brew tour, which includes see­ing the Menden­hall Glac­i­er as well as a tast­ing of Alaskan beers. Or ride your bike out to Dou­glas Island for a tram ride, 1,800 feet up Mt. Roberts for some spec­tac­u­lar views. Or cus­tom design your own great bike trip  ...more

Take a five-minute ride from the cruise ship pier to the Moun­tain House,1,800′ up Mount Roberts, where the Chilkat Moun­tains, the Gastineau Chan­nel, down­town Juneau, Dou­glas Island, and Admi­ral­ty Island spread out before you. Vis­it the gift shop, restau­rant, live bald eagle dis­play, and nature cen­ter. Check out the wildlife view­ing plat­forms and fol­low the self-guid­ed trail marked by Native totemic carv­ings for access to upper alpine hiking  ...more

Locat­ed in Menden­hall Wet­lands State Game Refuge, this trail is wheel­chair-acces­si­ble and close to the air­port. It has many oppor­tu­ni­ties for water­fowl and bird watch­ing. It is excel­lent­ly main­tained. This makes the trail a very easy hike. Many times you will see strollers, run­ners and bik­ers on this trail because it is paved. 

The lake and glac­i­er are the pre­mier des­ti­na­tion for the thou­sands of cruise-ship tourists who vis­it Juneau, but they don’t ven­ture much beyond the vis­i­tor cen­ter and the short trails just out­side it, leav­ing the moun­tains above the cen­ter very qui­et in comparison. 

The path to the Per­se­ver­ance trail­head, Basin Road, show­cas­es a dra­mat­ic change from urban to wilder­ness, lead­ing from down­town Juneau to a spec­tac­u­lar canyon. At the end of it is where Per­se­ver­ance Trail begins, and this for­mer rail line (named for the mine it once ser­viced) quick­ly climbs up above the Gold Creek val­ley. There’s plen­ty to see along the way, includ­ing old mine shafts that blow cool winds, and a stretch of trail where the  ...more

This is a wheel­chair-acces­si­ble trail that fol­lows the Menden­hall Riv­er green­belt area, start­ing at Broth­er­hood Bridge off Glac­i­er Hwy. The name is Tlin­git for ​“going back clear­wa­ter trail.” Expect a lot of traf­fic. The trail is 2‑miles long, paved, and pro­vides one of the great views of Menden­hall Glac­i­er, begin­ning at the Broth­er­hood Bridge trail­head. In mid-sum­mer, over a flat field of iris and fire­weed, the Menden­hall ris­es between…  ...more

With a 1,620 ft. ver­ti­cal drop, 640 acres, and impres­sive back­coun­try access, Eagle­crest com­bines big moun­tain ter­rain with a local feel in Alaska’s cap­i­tal city. It’s one of the few com­mu­ni­ty-owned ski areas in the US, offer­ing afford­able prices, few­er crowds, and breath­tak­ing ocean views. You can’t dri­ve to Juneau— you have to fly, or fer­ry, which means short­er lift lines and untracked pow­der. Whether you are a begin­ner look­ing to play in the  ...more

Once you reach the Moun­tain House at the 1,800-foot lev­el of Mount Roberts, step onto trails that begin in a sub-alpine ecosys­tem and climb anoth­er 300 feet into the true alpine. With six­ty stair steps, a length of one-half mile and an ele­va­tion gain of just 150ft, the main trail will take you to open vis­tas, moun­tain val­leys, snow gul­lies, rocky ridges and stun­ning views of moun­tains in Glac­i­er Bay, British Colum­bia, the South­east Alaskan…  ...more