Alaska Marine Highway

The state-run Alaska Marine Highway System (tel. 800/642-0066 or 907/465-3941, TDD 800/764-3779; www.ferryalaska.com), is a subsidized fleet of big, blue-hulled ferries connecting many of Alaska's roadless coastal towns. Call for a free schedule or download it from the website.

Pros & Cons

The ferry system's strengths are its low cost, frequent summer sailings, inexpensive stopovers, exceptional safety, and the fact that kids love it. In the summer, Forest Service guides offer interpretive talks onboard in Southeast's Inside Passage and in Prince William Sound. The system's weaknesses are crowding during the July peak season, the fact that if they're late they can be many hours late (although they're usually on time), and a shortage of cabins, which means that most people have to camp on deck or in chairs during overnight passages.

Routes

The system mostly serves Southeast Alaska, though it does cover most of coastal Alaska, with two sailings a month (the Kennicott) connecting Southeast Alaska with the Southcentral region nearer Anchorage. The smaller Southcentral ferries link communities all the way out the Aleutian chain.

In the Southeast, five large, mainline ferries serve the Inside Passage. Two begin their run in British Columbia's Prince Rupert and travel about 30 hours north to Haines and Skagway. Two more start in Bellingham, Washington, travel 37 hours nonstop to Ketchikan, then continue up to Skagway and Haines. Each of these four towns is connected to the rest of the world by roads, but none of the towns in between are. In the summer, the large ships stop at least daily (although sometimes in the middle of the night) in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, and Skagway. Some make a side trip to Sitka on the way. Juneau is the hub, with many extra sailings north from Juneau on the Lynn Canal to Haines and Skagway. These are offered by a newer fast ferry, the Fairweather, which travels at up to 45 mph. It cuts travel times in half, connecting Juneau with Haines and Skagway several times a week and Sitka twice a week.

Smaller ferries connect the larger towns to tiny villages up and down the coast. They mostly take local residents back and forth to their villages, so they're rarely crowded. Those routes are definitely off the beaten track, offering the cheapest and easiest way to absorb the real wilderness of the Alaska Bush. The feeder ferries and fast ferry have food service but no cabins.

Connecting to the Ferry

From the south: The appeal of taking the Alaskan Marine Highway ferry to Alaska from Bellingham, Washington, is obvious, but it is not cheaper than flying and it takes 2 days just to get to Ketchikan. The popular alternative is to board the ferry in Prince Rupert, B.C. You can get to Prince Rupert by rail or road. Another option is to get to Prince Rupert by riding the BC Ferries system, 1112 Fort St., Victoria, B.C., Canada V8V 4V2 (tel. 888/223-3779 or 250/386-3431; www.bcferries.bc.ca). This is quite a trek and requires you have a car. First you have to take a ferry to the southern end of British Columbia's Vancouver Island, then drive the island's length to its northern end, then take another ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert. That ferry docks next to the Alaska ferry. You can get to Vancouver Island's southern end from the mainland from two directions. BC Ferries goes to Nanaimo from near the city of Vancouver. Black Ball Transport (tel. 360/457-4491; www.cohoferry.com) operates a ferry from Port Angeles, Washington, to Victoria.

To the north: The northern end of the Inside Passage Alaska ferry system rejoins the road system in Skagway and Haines. Haines is a bit closer to the rest of the state but is short on car rental options; Skagway has an Avis car rental outlet and an RV rental business. At times it is also possible to take a bus from Skagway to Whitehouse and there catch another bus to travel onward on the Alaska Highway. At the moment, these arrangements are up in the air, and it's never been a great way to spend a vacation.

By air: By flying to your starting point, you can save time and reduce the chance of having to spend the night sleeping in a chair onboard. Long hauls on the ferry can be uncomfortable and don't save you much money over flying, but the ferry is much less expensive and more appealing for connecting nearby towns within the Southeast region. Fly into Juneau, Sitka, or another sizable town and plan a ferry trip from there, stopping at various places before catching a plane home.

Stopping Over

Buying ahead or booking round-trip tickets saves you nothing on the ferry, and stopovers of any length add little to the cost of your passage. Use the ferry system to explore the towns along the way, grabbing the next ferry through to continue your journey. If you travel without a vehicle, you generally don't need reservations (with the possible exceptions of the Bellingham sailings and passages across the Gulf of Alaska). Bring along a bike, or even a sea kayak, to have total freedom in exploring Southeast. Port calls usually are not long enough to see the towns; if the boat is running late, they may not let you off at all.

Walk-On Fares

Fares change every year so don't count on these, but they may help for planning. The adult walk-on fare from Prince Rupert to Skagway is $184. Bellingham to Ketchikan is $239, Bellingham to Skagway $363. Juneau to Sitka is $45. All fares for children 6 to 11 and under are roughly half price and children 5 and under ride free. Off season only, October through April, the driver of a vehicle does not need a separate walk-on ticket and other fare sales sometimes go in effect.

Bringing a Vehicle

In the summer, you often need a reservation for any chance of taking your vehicle on the ferry, and reserving 3 to 6 months early is wise. The vehicle spots on the ferries from Bellingham and Prince Rupert are particularly coveted. Fares vary according to the size of the car as well as your destination; a passage from Prince Rupert to Haines for a typical 15-foot car is $395, the passage from Bellingham to Haines is $797. You also have to buy a separate ticket for each person on the ferry, including, in summer, the driver. Renting a car at your destination will probably save money and enhance your trip because you will have more flexibility in your stopovers. You can carry a kayak, canoe, or bike on the ferry (without a car) quite inexpensively.

Cabin Reservations

Sometimes you can snag a cabin from the standby list when you sail (board quickly and approach the purser immediately), but generally you must reserve ahead for the summer season. Cabins from Bellingham book many months ahead. A two-berth outside cabin (one with a window) with a bathroom is under $75 on most town-to-town hops, $178 from Prince Rupert to Haines, and $393 from Bellingham to Haines, plus the cost of your ticket. The great majority of the cabins are small and spartan, coming in two- and four-bunk configurations, but for a premium you can reserve a more comfortable sitting-room unit on some vessels. Most cabins have tiny private bathrooms with showers. Try to get an outside cabin so that you can watch the world go by. Cabins can be stuffy, and the windowless units can be claustrophobic as well.

Do You Need a Cabin?

If you do a lot of layovers in Southeast's towns, you can arrange to do most of your ferry travel during the day, but you'll probably have to sleep onboard at least once (unless you make that hop by air). You can't sleep in your vehicle. One of the adventures of ferry travel is finding a chair to sleep in or setting up a tent on deck with everyone else. The patio-furniture lounge chairs on the covered outdoor solarium, on the top deck, are the best public sleeping spot onboard, in part because the noise of the ship covers other sounds. A camping pad will make it much more comfortable. If you're tenting, the best place is behind the solarium, where it's not too windy. On the Columbia that space is small, so grab it early. The Kennicott has very little outdoor deck space at all. Bring duct tape to secure your tent to the deck in case you can't find a sheltered spot, as the wind over the deck of a ship in motion blows like an endless gale. The recliner lounges are comfortable, too, but can be stuffy. Bring a pillow. If the ship looks crowded, grab your spot fast to get a choice location. Showers are available, although there may be lines. Lock any valuables and luggage you don't need in the coin-operated lockers. If all that sounds too rugged, or if you have small children and no tent, reserve a cabin. It offers a safe and private home base and a good night's rest, and there's a certain romance to having your own compartment on a public conveyance.

Ferry Food

If you can, bring at least some of your own food on the ferry. Ferry food can get boring after several meals in a row and, during peak season, lines are sometimes unreasonably long. We usually bring a cooler or picnic basket. Even if you're traveling light, you can pick up some bagels and deli sandwiches on a stopover or long port call.

The Best Runs

Going to Sitka through Peril Straits, the ferry fits through extraordinarily narrow passages where no other vessel of its size ventures; the smooth, reflective water is lovely, and you may see deer along the shore. The Wrangell Narrows, between Petersburg and Wrangell, is also an incredible ride, day or night, as the ship accomplishes a slalom between shores that seem so close you could touch them, in water so shallow the schedules must be timed for high tide. Frederick Sound, between the Narrows and Wrangell, is prime for whale sightings. Approaching Skagway through the towering mountains of the Lynn Canal fjord also is impressive.

Ferry System Booking

The Alaska Marine Highway (www.ferryalaska.com) has an online booking system that makes figuring out a trip far easier than using its inscrutable timetables. Just be sure to make vehicle and cabin reservations as early as possible. If you need to talk to a real person for advice or to change reservations, the system has a toll-free number (tel. 800/642-0066), but it can be understaffed, with waits for an operator. One way around the state's reservation system is to call Viking Travel, in Petersburg (tel. 800/327-2571 or 907/772-3818; www.alaskaferry.com), which will accept your booking before the official reservation system opens, then reserve it the first day the system becomes available. They can also take care of all your air and tour connections, lodgings, activities, travel insurance, and so on.

You can sometimes avoid crowds on the boats with careful scheduling. Ferries are crowded northbound in June and southbound in August and both ways in July. If you're planning to fly one way and take the ferry the other, go against the flow.