The Green Family Blog: Skagway

Friday, June 29

Booking excursions via the cruise is the most expensive way to do it. I had found www.viator.com as an alternative way of booking tours. Tours are about 50% cheaper this way. Another approach is to just take a chance by getting off the ship and finding whatever is available and it's even less. Well on Viator we found a tour of the Yukon with a dog sled ride.

We got off the ship and we had to find our guide. While waiting, everyone else made a quick stop at the bathroom and I found our tour guide. His name was Mike and we started chatting right away. I could tell immediately he had a great sense of humor. I asked him if was Alaskan or Canadian. Turns out he was from New Hampshire. We all boarded the van and said the bathroom stop was a good idea since the next bathroom stop would be in the "Tormented Vally" and it had a tormented bathroom. hmmm...

On the tour it was all 9 of us, plus another 3 from the cruise. He said we had to make a quick pit stop to pick up another group of 4 and then we were on our way. It was a quick tour of the town. He showed us the Red Onion Saloon which was Skagway’s most exclusive bordello before 1900. The Arctic BrotherHood Hall Historic Building, where the facade of the building has a false front made out of nearly 9,000 pieces of driftwood and flotsam collected from the beaches. The financial district, which was just a Wells Fargo bank, the radio shack which also serves as a video rental store and a tanning salon. And the brand new medical building that has no doctor. He says should you get really sick, then you are airlifted to Juneau, which will cost you about $30K and if you are even sicker, they will fly you to Seattle, which will run you about $100K. Guess you do not want to get sick in Skagway.