Alaska.com: Alaska's Travel Website

The Inside Passage is Alaska's biggest cruise destination, but popular cruises also visit Prince William Sound, the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea.

Passengers are treated to heroic, historic and romantic scenery, plus sightings of Alaska's most majestic wildlife: whales, bald eagles and bears.

Round trip or one way?

Round-trip passengers on one-week Alaska cruises embark at Seattle, Wash., or in Vancouver, British Columbia. The routes usually run the length of the Inside Passage and back.

One-way passengers often board at Seattle or Vancouver and travel as far as Seward or Whittier, Alaska. Once they're back on land, they board a bus, train or car for their further travel and usually fly home from Anchorage or Fairbanks. The trip is also made in reverse for south-bound travelers.

Where the ships go

The Inside Passage is also known as the Panhandle and as simply "Southeast."

The main ports of call are Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau and Skagway, along with Glacier Bay National Park and Hubbard Glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Prince William Sound, tucked into the underbelly of Alaska, holds abundant wildlife and glaciers, including Columbia Glacier. Cruises heading to Whittier travel through part of the Sound.

Cruises in the Gulf of Alaska visit Seward and Kodiak.

Bering Sea cruises call at Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, Nome and the Pribilof Islands.

Day cruises

In addition to these weeklong cruises, there are local day cruises, especially in Juneau, Whittier and Seward. These visit glaciers and search for whales and other wildlife such as eagles, bears, sea lions and sea otters.