Port Guide: Ketchikan, Alaska - What We Think You Should Know Before You Go! - ParoDeeJay

hi everybody I'm Dee and I'm Jane and we are perio DJ welcome to another episode of parodj's Port guides we're in Alaska again that's right we are focusing on catch again Ketchikan is going to be found on most of your Alaskan itinerary it's the southernmost town that you're usually going to find on your itineraries so it's usually at the very beginning or the very end it's usually a shorter day too for whatever reason yeah I don't know why a cat you can get shorted a lot of times but there's a lot of good stuff going on in Ketchikan it's a pretty easily walkable town but we'll get into all that here in a hot minute so let's jump to navigating the port now this is a little bit of an interesting one yeah so the main Port area really has four main births which are numbered one two three and four pretty easy I know one and two are kind of the closest to what I would call the main downtown area uh really one two and three pretty much plop you right out in the main shopping district where you can walk around and find lots of restaurants Lots food things like that birth four is a little bit further away there's a handful of shops over there and it's a little walk to downtown it's on the other side of the tunnel kind of over by Burger Queen if you've been there before yeah yeah and then there's a whole other section which is Norwegian Cruise Line typically docks at Ward Cove we have never gone in on Norwegian Ward Cove is a good number of miles 20 minutes or something yeah it's pretty far I'll put it in my note okay it's eight miles oh eight miles outside of town it's 20 minutes but you do have to take like I guess Norwegian provides the shuttle bus that will get you over to town and back but you have to allow a little extra travel time in your day well you have to wait for a bus to be available yeah that's true let us jump to ship excursions so I went on Carnival's website being that they are our most cruised line and pulled six suggestions for Ketchikan let's look at them check them out up first I've got one of the main attractions of Ketchikan which is the Great Alaskan lumberjack show that's what we did the first time we ever went to catch a can it's always a good day if you've seen The Lumberjack competitions on TV it's a lot like that super family friendly um fun activity the whole everybody can get involved and it's like super authentic yeah as well you know and it's kind of been like an outdoor theater but they've got the heaters blankets sometimes and yeah it's pretty cool but no filming oh that's right now we did get special permission when we went uh to be able to video parts of it but in general that's right you're not supposed to be able to record it just a small note oh yeah and it can be booked independently or through the ship and it's probably there's lots of space though yeah next up I have totem bite and City Tour so you get to roll around see some sights and catch a can and they take you to a totem Park this particular one totem bite my understanding is it's a lot of replica totem poles okay so pretty cool though yeah absolutely a lot of history up next is the duck tour a historic City and harbor tour we have done this tour uh amphibious vehicle you go on land you go on the water it's pretty unique um they do some sightseeing in town first and then all of a sudden you drive into the water and you float around you look at stuff and then you drive out and come back it's cool yeah I've also got the Saxman native Village Tour on here this place has a tribal Clan house and it is billed as having the largest collection of authentic totem poles in the world my next pick is the tatush island sea kayaking and not just because I wanted to say tattoos in a video apparently it is a boat ride out to the tatush islands and then you kayak very cool yeah let's move on before this goes too far more children really my last one I picked of course Ketchikan is a great spot for people to go fishing I just chose the Knudsen Cove I don't know if I said that right sport fishing but there are a lot of fishing excursions like a lot of times they'll bring them back and don't they they let you like either cook what you caught or they'll clean it for you there's something where you eat yeah I know Princess Cruises has an Excursion when you go out and fish and then like you cook and you learn all about it um and some of the other ships do too so it's like very Hands-On fishing the sport fishing is a very big in Ketchikan so I was gonna say if you're planning some fishing catch again is probably the spot for it up next is a section called exploring on your own so let's um explore on your own yeah so down near birth one let's start there on the map there's a whole lot of shopping obviously you've got the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show in that zone which we talked about there is the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center that was cool I know a nice big Museum that's technically going to be my rainy day adventure because we have been including that because we did it on a very rainy day and it was actually really fun in there yeah they have tons of brochures it's very informative lots of displays to play with yeah wasn't there a small ticket they were we had to get a ticket I think it was like five bucks not free part of the National Park Service it was Frugal definitely fruit yeah you do have the big Ketchikan sign on Mission Street of course that's a great spot you got to get that photo you know how it is uh lots of little restaurants coffee shops in particular Annabelle's Chowder House we went there had a good get some chowder there's also another little coffee shop we've been trying to go to Forever and they're always closed there's also the Eagle Park where there's a giant you guessed it Eagle statue uh and the Water Street tunnel which is kind of what separates births one through three from birth four it's cool to walk through actually yeah so let's jump back down to Mission Street you've got whale Park which is a nice little flowery totem Parky area that's totally free to just walk through it's really pretty heading down toward Creek Street of course yes let's see before we get get there let's mention the tongas Historical Museum which we have not visited but seems awesome uh Creek Street area is known of course for the salmon ladder which we've been to a few times but we've seen very few salmon we saw a few yeah we've been there the wrong time of year but one of these days we're gonna make it there when they are a jumping yeah I think it'll be awesome you might see Bears then too you never know so Creek Street obviously has lots of shopping there used to be a tram that would take you up to the lodge up at the top but I don't know that the tram is um operational or coming back every time we've been yeah it's not open poor thing yeah there's a coffee shop up there in a hotel yeah I wanted to check that out but you can walk around I've just been lazy but we've walked Creek Street many times lots of shopping in there of course you've got it's the Dolly's House Museum I think right and that carries you back out to Steadman Street where you can then walk back to downtown so a really fun little Loop to do yeah so much to see and do so on the map let's jump down to birth four there is a little bit of shopping out there we found some really good um deals in the little shops remember that was where they had all those coats oh gosh the Coats were like 12 15 and they're like authentically Alaska warm coats like really good I don't know if Ashley says we were either early or late in the season yeah but Burger Queen is down there of course and Jellyfish donuts and other places that we have stopped in to check out and have some really good bites yeah and you're also pretty close to the Water Street tunnel when you're down there at Birth four one section I've been trying to include in this series especially is hiking now I don't really know if I've plotted out any specific like easy to get to hiking from Ketchikan I think there is some but we obviously did that via an Excursion which we'll talk about here in a minute but just walking around town that's a bit of a well it's it's a nice Leisure it just steps in for sure I've definitely heard of some trails that are a little more on the um steep side and but they do have some flat Trails we just haven't done them yet and then of course my rain today fun like I said is going to be the Discovery Center or like the shopping down at the I think it's like salmon Landing the big shopping area yeah so many shops really good deals coffee shop in there too yeah so now let's get into some tour vendors because as we always say sometimes you like to explore on your own while not fully being on your own right I think one of the favorite excursions that uh we've done at least for me in Ketchikan was with kawanti Adventures which was the bear to oh my gosh so highly recommend this to her we did it in the pouring rain and it did not matter it was still great lots of birds lots of nature we were told that the rain makes the Bears more come out more they were right sentences work oh my gosh catch can duck boat we touched on them earlier but we did actually book that I forget if that was independent I think we booked that through the ship actually but you can book it in yeah either way my point in having this action you of course have the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show which we touched on before can be booked independently and the last one on my list for now is wild wolf tours which we did the hiking tour they have multiple options actually there's a shorter Loop a longer Loop that was just so good it was good we also went to the totem park it was beautiful and she knew her stuff all about the flora and fauna and could tell you all of it she's lived in her whole life and I'm not sure if she'll be your tour guide but um yeah she's the owner of the company so she probably Tracy will probably figure it was very good let's do it it's free and Frugal fun time one of my favorites so Ketchikan again ends up being one of my favorites because there is a lot to walk around and see it really is totem poles Creek Street salmon ladder all of these things you can just go in and do for no cost a lot of shopping um a lot of restaurants Ketchikan you kind of got my vote for free and Frugal fun and I'm giving catch a can of seven I will give it a seven also yeah definitely lots to do in a small radius which is nice yeah so I guess that's it for our Ketchikan guide if you've done fun things in Ketchikan let us know and we'll probably add it I'm doing all the links and everything down in the description as always but we can always add to that description with things that we forgot for sure in here because we do forget things and we're always looking for new ideas that's also true but yeah hopefully you enjoyed we have lots of these Port guide episodes Caribbean Alaska all over the place be sure to check those out links in the description and I guess if you have not already be sure to subscribe to the channel become a pyromaniac today socialize all our media Facebook Instagram and Twitter yep and until next time [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: ParoDeeJay

Views: 66,161

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Id: DANTGkP233g

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 15 2023