Ultimate Guide To Icy Strait Point: What To Do In Port

Is Icy Strait Point one of your cruise ports? This is little slice of Alaska is actually in the city of Hoonah. I highly recommend doing some research for this port day and splurging on an excursion! Read on to find out why.

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Icy Strait Point, Alaska

Located just southwest of Juneau, Icy Strait Point is situated in the town of Hoonah, Alaska. You may see both of these names used interchangeably on cruise itineraries. Just like Juneau, the town is not accessible by car, making it all the more interesting place to visit! For more details about Hoonah, check out this post on roadtravelamerica.com.

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Reaching Icy Strait Point by Cruise Ship

Your ship will dock in port and upon debarking, you will either need to hike down to the Point or take the gondola. The gondola is free and we did not need to wait at all for the ride down the hill in the morning.

The hike is about .7 miles through a fairly easy trail. If you are considering the hike, I would save it for the afternoon when coming back to the cruise ship. The line for the gondola gets quite long and we waited for close to 30 minutes in the rain for our return ride.

What to do in Icy Strait Point

This is one of the rare times that I suggest booking an excursion ahead of time on your Alaskan cruise. Icy Strait Point is seemingly an area built just for cruise passengers. If you do not have an excursion booked ahead of time, it will
a) be difficult to find one that is available on the day of your port stop and
b) be a pretty boring stop for you

Excursions

Your cruise line should have excursions available for you to book online between a year and 6 months ahead of your trip. I recommend booking as soon as you can so your excursion doesn’t sell out. Most cruise lines also have sales, especially for Black Friday. Pay attention to your e-mails or pop onto the app from time to time to see what their offerings are.

You can also look at Icy Strait Point’s website to see what tours are available in the port. You will still need to book them through your cruise ship.

Icy Strait Point Zip Line

The zip line here is the world’s largest zip line! It takes you from up in the forest down to the rocky beach below. It will sell out!!! You must book this ahead or as soon as you reach the port.

Book through Expedia

Some people do not like to book excursions through the cruise line as it is generally more expensive then booking something on your own. *Remember that the only way to 100% guarantee the ship will wait for you if something doesn’t go to plan is if you are on a ship-booked excursion!

If you would like to see what the other choices for this cruise port are outside of the cruise line, Expedia has several to choose from. Be sure to double check their fine print when booking. Do they allow you to get your money back if the cruise ship has to skip the port for some reason? Do they guarantee they will get you back to the ship on time? What is the weather policy?

Check out the excursions offered through Expedia here!

Whale Watching

Whale watching is one of the best things to do in Icy Strait Point. My family took a two and a half hour whale watching excursion booked through NCL. It began at 7:30 AM, which also allowed us to get off the ship first thing and avoid the long lines for the gondola. We walked down to the dock from the gondola station and boarded our boat.

The boat had seats on the inside and plenty of space on the bow and stern for people to watch for wildlife on the outside. While the inside of the boat was heated, it remained chilly with the doors being opened and closed often. We wore our ‘Alaskan Uniforms’ of water-resistant layers. See all of my recommendations on my post about Sitka.

Once we got further out in the water, we saw all sorts of wildlife, including whales, eagles and otters. The boat had an audio system that allowed one of the crew to announce when they saw a whale. They told us all about the area and would direct our attention to where to look when a whale was breaching. I recommend bringing binoculars and making sure you have a camera with a good zoom and quick shutter.

While I was highly entertained by the whale sightings, younger kids may get bored after a while. Standing outside of the boat was a fun distraction, but hang on to your kids! We took our eyes off of ours for half a millisecond and he was trying to climb the railing (face palm).

This tour was one of the big splurges we had on our cruise. We felt like it was well worth the money for an experience we may not have again!

Icy Strait Beach

The beach was a wonderful place to explore and kept my kids occupied for quite a while. We walked along the rocky shore and the kids practiced rock skipping. We also spied quite a few sea creatures that were in tide pools or washed up from the ocean.

Rain Forest Nature Trail

This trail is the .7 mile in and out trail I mentioned at the top of this post. It is well worth the walk as long as you can handle slightly uneven terrain. The path was well maintained and my 5 year old had no problems handling the hike. You can access the trail from near the gondola station at the bottom of the hill or near the cruise ships.

While the trail warns of bears, we did not see any. We hiked later in the morning and the trail was quite full of other people.

We did see gigantic trees, some uprooted, and an eagle’s nest.

Shopping

If hiking or water excursions aren’t for you, there are some shops down the mountain of Icy Strait Point as well. Dried salmon, tableware, apparel and more are available for purchase.

Dining

If you are tired of the cruise ship food , Icy Strait Point offers three dining options.

• The Crabhouse
• The Cookhouse
• Duckpoint Smokehouse

More information about the restaurants is available on Icy Strait Point’s website here.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day on Icy Strait Point. After our whale watching excursion, time on the beach and hike we returned via gondola to the cruise ship. We enjoyed lunch near the windows where we could continue watching whales breach the surface of the water.

If you’re interested in more about our Alaskan cruise, check out all of my other posts!

The NCL Bliss with kids
A Deck-by-Deck Tour of the NCL Bliss
The Complimentary Restaurants of the NCL Bliss
Specialty Restaurants onboard the NCL Bliss
An afternoon in Sitka, Alaska
A low-spend day in Ketchikan, Alaska
Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls