Sitka, Alaska Port Reviews

A nice walkable city but we had to cut it short because our excursion left from the cruise port and not the center of town where the shuttle brings you. It was scheduled for the middle of our visit so we had to spend a couple hours in town and then shuttle back to the cruise dock to catch another bus to our excursion, The Fortress of the Bears. They did give us the choice of dropping us off in town or taking us back to the cruise port which we did.

This was my favorite port. Lovely city.

Best king crab from a tent between stores.

Port was ok. Took free bus 6 miles to town. Small town and walked around shopping. Went to Fortress of the Bears, Raptor Center and a totem pole

We were fortunate to be the only cruise ship in Sitka that day. My cousin had been to Sitka the prior month on a Celebrity ship and said that a Norwegian ship arrived after they did and Sitka was uncomfortably jammed with tourists. Sitka residents are becoming more and more frustrated with the fact that 6000+ tourists can arrive on any one day. We were lucky to be in a group of slightly over 300. We explored on our own, rather than take the free excursion. It was to a raptor center. We'd been to one before and our 8:20 scheduled departure was a bit too early for us. We walked to the National Park Visitor Center and museum with its walk through the woods and later to the Russian Bishops House.

Easy off. Had buses for us. (Our bus driver was cute he joked and told us many stories about sitka Cute little town enjoyed even with rain

St Michael's Russian Orthodox Church was great. The Native Alaska Tour was low budget but sweet. Good shops in town with unique souvenirs.

We liked seeing Stika. Met a man from Louisiana selling gumbo it was delicious.

We didn't have an excursion planned at this port, so we did our best to get outside the port shopping area by taking a hike along the Totem Path through the Tongas National Forest. That was cool! Also, having learned a bit about Sitka from Natalie, Westerdam's onboard naturalist, before arriving in port, we knew to seek out the spawning (jumping) salmon. That was also a special experience at this port.

I like Sitka and I liked the Fortress of the Bears excursion. There was a courtesy cart to transport people like myself with mobility issues from the ship to the excursion terminal. We had an hour and a half on this excursion with one hour driving to and from the dock to the excursion site.