Your complete guide to the Ketchikan cruise port in Alaska

If Alaska had a greatest-hits album, Ketchikan would be the opening track. Totem poles rising above the rainforest, salmon churning through crystal creeks, floatplanes buzzing over granite cliffs — it's all here, and it's all waiting just steps from your ship. Cruise to Ketchikan and you'll quickly understand why people fall so hard for this little city perched on the edge of the Tongass rainforest.

This guide covers where ships dock, what to explore, how to dress for the weather and why the excursions here are genuinely some of the best in Alaska.

Ketchikan earns its nickname — the "First City of Alaska" — partly because it's often the first port on a southbound Inside Passage route, and partly because it makes one heck of a first impression. Alaska cruises are a great way to see the state, and Ketchikan gives you a concentrated dose of everything that makes this corner of the world so special: Indigenous art, wild salmon, old-growth forest and scenery that makes you stop mid-sentence.

The city sits on Revillagigedo Island, tucked between steep mountains and the Tongass Narrows. Everything moves at a pleasantly unhurried pace, but there's no shortage of things to do once you step off the gangway.

Four Panamax berths line the downtown waterfront, numbered one through four from south to north. A fifth berth at Ward Cove handles select peak-season sailings, with a quick shuttle ride into town. Princess sailings typically use the downtown berths, which means you'll step off the ship directly onto Front Street — no transportation required.

From there, the visitor center, totem displays and the entrance to Creek Street are all a short, flat walk away. It's one of the most conveniently located ports in Alaska, which means more time exploring and less time figuring out logistics.

The things to do in Ketchikan, Alaska range from floating above wilderness in a floatplane to watching salmon leap at your feet from a wooden boardwalk. Here's how to make the most of your time ashore.

Creek Street is Ketchikan in miniature: quirky, beautiful, and full of stories. Built on pilings above Ketchikan Creek, this wooden boardwalk was famously home to the city's red-light district in the early 1900s. These days the restored buildings house Native art studios, small galleries and cozy gift shops, but the vibe is still wonderfully offbeat.

In late summer, the creek itself becomes the attraction. Salmon surge upstream in the water below your feet, so thick you can practically count them. It's free, it's stunning and it's the kind of moment that makes Alaska feel almost unreal.

Pair a Creek Street stroll with the Totem Bight State Park & Ketchikan Highlights excursion for a broader look at the city's landmarks in one easy trip.

If you do one thing in Ketchikan, make it this. Misty Fjords National Monument sprawls across 2.3 million acres east of the city — a wilderness of glacial cliffs, thundering waterfalls and saltwater fjords with granite walls rising more than 3,000 feet straight up from the water. It's the kind of landscape that rewires your sense of scale.

The best way to see it is by floatplane. You'll bank over those soaring rock faces at eye level, then drift down for a quiet water landing inside a remote fjord. Sitting on still water, surrounded by ancient forest and silence, with no roads in or out — it's an experience that people talk about for decades.

Princess offers two great ways to go: the Misty Fjords National Monument by Seaplane excursion for that iconic aerial perspective, or the Misty Fjords & Wilderness Explorer Cruise if you'd rather take in the scenery from the water level. Both are spectacular — it just depends whether you prefer a bird's-eye view or a bow wave.

Ketchikan is home to one of the world's largest collections of standing totem poles, carved by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian artists whose traditions stretch back thousands of years. These aren't decorations. Each pole is a layered visual story, encoding family histories, clan crests and important events.

Saxman Native Village, about two miles south of downtown, offers carving demonstrations where you can watch master carvers at work, traditional dance performances and a clan house that explains the deep cultural significance behind each design. Totem Bight State Historical Park, a few miles north, preserves a stunning collection of restored poles in a rainforest setting that feels genuinely removed from the world.

The Saxman Native Village, Dance Performance & Totem Park excursion brings both the art and the living culture together in a single meaningful visit. It's one of the more enriching things you can do on any Alaska cruise.

Ketchikan earned the title "Salmon Capital of the World" for a reason. All five species of Pacific salmon return here each summer and watching a salmon run in person — the water practically boiling with fish — is something you won't see anywhere else on earth. Creek-side viewing platforms, hatchery tours and sportfishing charters all offer different ways to get close to the action.

Keep your eyes open for other wildlife too: bald eagles perch on virtually every tall spruce, seals and sea lions work the narrows, and in late season, black bears sometimes show up near salmon streams.

For something truly unique, the Local Connections: Deadliest Catch Crab Fishermen's Tour Created by Captain David Lethin gets you out on the water with a real working fisherman for an inside look at Alaska's legendary crab fishing industry. It's part history lesson, part adventure and completely one-of-a-kind.