Ketchikan was the stop that we were all most excited about visiting on our Alaska Inside Passage Cruise. Sarah had lived there for a couple years and still had friends in the area. Other than meeting her friends, we were going to wait and see what we wanted to do for the day. When we woke up and saw the beautiful sunshine we knew that we HAD to try and go flightseeing, and I’m so glad that we were able to make it work.

Alaska Inside Passage Cruise – Ketchikan

We started the day wandering around town and meeting up with Sarah’s friends. It was fun seeing Ketchikan through the local’s eyes as Sarah and her friends pointed out various things about the town. We picked up some delicious chocolate from KetchiCandies (seriously, they are amazing) and had some lunch in town.

After lunch we were headed off to the Misty Fjords on a float plane! We had talked about doing this before the trip; however, we weren’t sure what the weather was going to be like so we decided to see what Ketchikan had for us before booking anything. When we woke up and saw the perfectly clear skies, we knew that we had to make flightseeing happen so Sarah got us booked on Alaska Seaplane Tours for an afternoon flight.

Of course I couldn’t get through the flight without a Seaplane selfie! We had headsets so that we could chat with each other as we flew, apparently we were a super quiet bunch (which is surprising if you saw us throughout the cruise) because we barely talked because all of us were just staring out the windows.

The views out to the Misty Fjords were absolutely stunning! We had perfectly clear skies which made for super smooth flying as well which was nice.

Once we got out to the Misty Fjords we landed on a lake so that we could walk around for a few minutes, take some photos, and immerse ourselves in the serene environment. Throughout the flight we were keeping our eyes out for wildlife – we saw Mountain Goats clinging to the sides of the cliff (seriously, how do they not fall off!) but the bears still alluded us.

On our way back into Ketchikan we flew over our home away from home – the Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam!

After the flight, we headed back to town for a couple last minute purchases and then got back on the boat to start our voyage back through the Alaska Inside Passage on our way to Vancouver.

We wished that we had more time in Ketchikan since we didn’t quite have enough time to see everything in the downtown area. Ketchikan was our shortest day in port and could have definitely used a couple more hours.

Ketchikan was an amazing stop on our Alaska Inside Passage Cruise. If it is on your itinerary, make sure to add some flightseeing to your excursion list (and I definitely recommend Alaska Seaplane Tours – they were absolutely wonderful).

Make sure you check out my other posts for our other stops on our Alaska Inside Passage Cruise – Juneau, Skagway, and Glacier Bay. Plus make sure to read our Packing Tips for Your Alaska Inside Passage Cruise to get some ideas on what should definitely be in your suitcase.