21-Day Alaska In-Depth Exploration & Summer Solstice

Cosmopolitan Vancouver is a city that rewards exploration, an eminently liveable place and an easy gateway to the natural beauty of British Columbia. The culinary scene here is a particular draw, with seafood galore and some fantastic Asian restaurants, and the city has also been at the forefront of the craft beer movement. Verdant Stanley Park is a favourite of locals and visitors alike, while Kitsilano's beaches and wooden houses are wonderfully picturesque. Cultural attractions tend to be on a smaller scale than you'd expect from a city of this size, but the thrill of stumbling across one of Vancouver's quirky little galleries is all part of the city's appeal.

Ketchikan is a great introduction to Alaska’s natural attractions, situated at the foot of towering Deer Mountain and within easy reach of the Misty Fjords. The colourful wooden buildings of Creek Street, the old red light district, are a reminder of Ketchikan’s former status as a rough and ready frontier town; these days, things are rather more civilised!

Sitka was founded by Russian fur traders in 1799 as the city of New Archangel, and there is still a discernible Russian influence here, including the distinctive St Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral. The town also enjoys spectacular natural surroundings, facing the Pacific Ocean and dramatic Mount Edgecumbe.

Founded by a Norwegian in the 1800s, the fishing town of Petersburg still wears its Scandinavian heritage with pride, and is known as ‘Little Norway’. Out in Frederick Sound you can often see icebergs that have broken off the LeConte Glacier, and the waters are an important summer feeding ground for humpback whales.

Beautifully located next to the longest fjord in North America, Haines is one of the most attractive cruise ports in Alaska, surrounded by mountains, forests and glaciers. It’s also home to the world’s largest concentration of bald eagles, and a great place to spot grizzly bears.

The remote Inian Islands, at the northern edge of the Inside Passage, create a natural pinch point where the waters of the Pacific Ocean are forced through a narrow strait, providing rich pickings for marine predators including humpback whales, Steller sea lions and puffins.

The Hubbard Glacier, which straddles the border between Alaska and Canada, is the largest tidewater glacier in North America, six miles wide where it reaches the sea, and the glacier’s rapid advance means that giant icebergs regularly calve into the waters of Disenchantment Bay.

The craggy cliffs and sea caves of the uninhabited Chiswell Islands provide a home for millions of marine birds, including tufted puffins, black-legged kittiwakes and pelagic cormorants, as well as a small rookery of endangered Steller sea lions.

Holgate Glacier is one of the most spectacular sights in Kenai Fjords National Park, a blue-tinged river of ice that crackles and pops as it calves into the waters of Holgate Arm. As you approach you’ll see icebergs floating across the bay, and you may also spot harbour seals hunting for fish.

The 1899 Harriman Expedition that first charted this spectacular fjord carried several noted university professors on board, and they named the fjord’s glaciers after prestigious East Coast colleges such as Harvard and Yale.

The Alaskan city of Whittier is home to just 200 people; remarkably, nearly all of them live in a single building, the Begich Towers. You can hike in the Chugach National Forest, try sea kayaking amongst the glaciers of Prince William Sound, and look for wildlife including bald eagles, whales and sea otters.

The Hubbard Glacier, which straddles the border between Alaska and Canada, is the largest tidewater glacier in North America, six miles wide where it reaches the sea, and the glacier’s rapid advance means that giant icebergs regularly calve into the waters of Disenchantment Bay.

Alaska's state capital is isolated and remote, accessible only by plane or by boat thanks to its dramatic hillside location. The wild hinterland is thick with forest, sculpted by the glaciers of the Juneau Ice Field, while down at the water's edge the harbour bustles with fishing boats and seaplanes.

The spectacular Tracy Arm Fjord, south of Juneau, is one of Alaska’s most awe-inspiring sights, where waterfalls tumble down the sides of the twin Sawyer Glaciers and huge chunks of ice break off and float out across the water. It’s also a wildlife hotspot, with the chance to spot whales, dolphins, eagles, sea lions and bears.

Back in its 19th century heyday Wrangell was a lawless gold rush town, and it's still a little rough around the edges, but it's also a very welcoming place, ideal for exploring the surrounding Alaskan wilderness. Take a trip to the nearby Anan Wildlife Observatory for the chance to see black and brown bears at close proximity.

The breathtaking Misty Fjords National Monument is a 3,570-square-mile swathe of virgin forest and plunging fjords, just to the east of Ketchikan. As the name suggests, the fjords are often cloaked in a fine mist, and the wilderness is home to bears, bald eagles, whales and more.

Arriving by ship in the misty port city of Prince Rupert, on the coast of British Columbia, is a memorable experience. This is an important cultural site for the Tsimshian people, one of Canada’s aboriginal First Nations, and it’s also a wildlife hotspot, home to a grizzly bear sanctuary and the highest concentration of humpback whales in North America.

Alert Bay, named after the Royal Navy ship HMS Alert in 1860, is a village on tiny Cormorant Island, just off the coast of the much larger Vancouver Island and part of the ancestral lands of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation. Look out for humpback, orca and gray whales in the surrounding seas, along with white-sided dolphins and sea lions.

Cosmopolitan Vancouver is a city that rewards exploration, an eminently liveable place and an easy gateway to the natural beauty of British Columbia. The culinary scene here is a particular draw, with seafood galore and some fantastic Asian restaurants.