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Ketchikan Alaska Tours › Ketchikan in One Port Day: Itineraries for 4, 6 and 9 HoursUpdated 2026-09-17

Ketchikan in One Port Day: Itineraries for 4, 6 and 9 Hours

Hours, prices and access verified by the Ketchikan Alaska Tours team — last checked 2026-09-17.

The Creek Street sign over the footbridge at dusk, the boardwalk shops lit behind it

The short answer. With four hours, walk the town. With six, book one tour in the morning and walk Creek Street after it. With nine, fly over Misty Fjords and add the totems. From Ward Cove, take away the shuttle time or book tours that collect you.

Your ship decides the length of your day and your berth decides where it starts. Everything else is a choice. Each plan below is built from the real meeting points and tour lengths, with room left at the end. If you would rather follow a guide than a plan, a Ketchikan walking tour covers the same streets in company.

How long is a Ketchikan port day?

As long as your ship stays, less the time it takes to get off and back on. Your ship's daily planner prints two times that matter: when you can go ashore and the all-aboard time. Work backwards from all-aboard, not forwards from arrival.

Take away an hour for getting ashore and a margin at the end. A ship in for eight hours gives you about six usable ones. The plans below assume four, six and nine usable hours.

Which berth are you at, and why does it matter?

Downtown has four cruise berths, Berths 1 to 4, numbered south to north along Front Street. Berth 2 sits opposite the Visitors Bureau at 131 Front Street, beside The Rock, where most tours meet. Berth 3 is by the Water Street docks, where the crab boat and fishing charters leave.

Ward Cove is different. The Mill at Ward Cove lies about seven miles north, and a free shuttle runs to Berth 4 in about 20 minutes. From there, every downtown plan works the same, only shorter. The berths are mapped in detail on the cruise port page.

Four hours: the town on foot

Start at the Visitors Bureau on Berth 2 and walk to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center at 50 Main Street. From May to September it opens daily from 8am to 4pm, and adult entry is $5; youth 15 and under go free. Allow an hour for its exhibits.

Next, Creek Street: the boardwalk on pilings over Ketchikan Creek that was the town's red-light district from 1903 to 1954. Cross the bridges and watch the salmon ladder, busiest in July and August. Walk up the creek past the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery, which runs daily tours in summer, to the Totem Heritage Center at 601 Deermount Street. It is open 8am to 5pm daily from May to September and keeps original 19th-century poles indoors.

Come back by Thomas Basin, the working harbour, and you are near the berths again. Every stop is described in the downtown walking route.

Want company? The Tongass Trolley at $85 covers Creek Street, the salmon ladder and the Totem Heritage Center in two and a half hours, adds Herring Cove, and pays both admissions.

Six hours: one tour plus Creek Street

Book a tour for the morning and give the afternoon to the town. The morning tour takes you somewhere you cannot walk. The afternoon is Creek Street, the salmon ladder and the Discovery Center at your own pace.

Good morning tours for this plan: the whale quest ($178, two and a half hours from Berth 2), the photo safari ($134, three hours, nine guests), or the Clover Pass kayaks ($100, four hours, collected at the dock). The kayaks fill most of the morning, so pair them with a short afternoon.

Keep the tour and the walk in that order. A tour has a start time; the town does not.

Nine hours: a flight and the totems

A long day is the one to spend on Misty Fjords. Fly in the morning, while you still have spare hours if weather delays the flight. The flight with a water landing ($470, non-refundable) picks you up at the downtown docks 30 minutes before you fly, and gives you 1.5 hours in the air plus 20 minutes on a lake or inlet.

In the afternoon, add totems. The Totem Bight walk ($95, two hours) collects you at the ship for the clan house and poles at Totem Bight, then 45 minutes on a forest trail. Or take the photo safari for Creek Street and Potlatch Totem Park. Finish on Creek Street if you still have an hour.

If the fare is too steep, the flight without a landing costs $349 and refunds in full up to 24 hours ahead.

From Ward Cove: the same day, seven miles out

Take the shuttle time out first: about 20 minutes each way, plus the wait. Then choose tours that start where you are. The kayak and e-bike trips collect you at Ward Cove, the ropes and zipline park sits there, and the lodge trip and the Neets Bay trip meet at the Ward Cove Welcome Center.

For those last two, stay at Ward Cove: riding downtown means missing the tour. For downtown tours, allow at least 45 minutes to reach a Berth 3 meeting point, the margin the crab boat asks for. The Mill itself has a Welcome Center with a museum and shops for a spare hour.

Should you book a morning or an afternoon departure?

Morning, if you can. A morning tour leaves the afternoon as your margin: if the tour runs long or the weather moves a flight, you have hours in hand. It also puts the walk at the end, when you can cut it short without losing money.

Book an afternoon tour when your ship arrives late or sails late. Some flights run morning departures from 7am to noon and afternoon ones from noon to 7pm, so ask for the slot that fits. The photo safari lets you ask for your departure time by email when you book.

What is the rain version of the day?

Expect some. The airport averages 149.54 inches of rain a year, and even July has 16 rainy days on average. Plan for rain rather than around it.

Swap open-air plans for covered ones. The whale quest has indoor seats, the Clover Pass boats are enclosed and the crab boat stays in the sheltered Inside Passage. In town, the Discovery Center and the Totem Heritage Center are indoors. Over-21s can add the distillery tour, inside a former fire station on Main Street. Month by month figures are on Ketchikan weather.

Can you fit more than one tour into a port day?

Yes, if both are short and start close together. A two-hour road tour and a two-and-a-half-hour boat fit a long day with room to spare. The small van leaves from Berth 2 and runs 2 hours 15 minutes. The whale quest checks in at booth 16 in the Berth 2 Visitors Center, 30 minutes before it sails. You walk between them in minutes.

Leave an hour between the two for a late finish, and another at the end before all-aboard. The long trips never pair up: the Neets Bay bear trip alone takes 4 hours 45 minutes, and the kayaks four hours. If a tour confirms within 48 hours rather than at booking, book it first and fit the second around it.

From Ward Cove, one tour that collects you usually makes a better day than a pair that needs the shuttle.

How much margin do you keep before all-aboard?

An hour, as a rule, and more from Ward Cove, where the shuttle adds its own queue at the end of the day.

The Misty Fjords flights remove the worry in writing: each carries an all-aboard guarantee. For everything else, pick a tour that ends at least an hour before all-aboard and treat any time left as walking time.

The tours that collect you from the cruise docks, or promise you back for all-aboard, are grouped on Ketchikan shore tours.

What does each plan cost?

The four-hour walk costs the Discovery Center's $5 plus the Totem Heritage Center's door fee, or $85 if you ride the trolley instead. The six-hour plan costs one tour: $178 for the whale quest or $134 for the photo safari. The nine-hour plan with the landing flight and the Totem Bight walk costs $565 a person.

The three plans side by side

Hours ashoreThe planTours that fitFares
4Discovery Center, Creek Street, the hatchery, the Totem Heritage CenterTongass Trolley$5 on foot, or $85
6A morning tour, then Creek Street on footWhale quest, photo safari, Clover Pass kayaks$100 to $178
9Misty Fjords by floatplane, then the totemsWater-landing flight, Totem Bight walk$470 and $95
Ward CoveTours that collect you, or the shuttle and a downtown planKayaks, e-bike, ropes park, lodge trip$100 and up

Check availability from $85

Frequently asked questions

How much time do you need in Ketchikan?
Four hours covers downtown on foot. Six fits one tour and Creek Street. Nine fits a Misty Fjords flight and a totem park.
Can I do Misty Fjords and Creek Street in one day?
Yes, with six hours or more. Fly first, then walk Creek Street, which is a short walk from the downtown berths.
How far is Ward Cove from downtown Ketchikan?
About seven miles north. A free shuttle runs to Berth 4 in about 20 minutes each way.
What should I do in Ketchikan if it rains?
Take a covered boat or the crab boat, and spend the rest of the day in the Discovery Center and the Totem Heritage Center. The Discovery Center charges $5 in summer.
Should I book Ketchikan tours before my cruise?
For small groups and flights, yes: they cap their numbers and fill first in summer. Most refund in full up to 24 hours ahead.
When should I be back at the ship?
At least an hour before all-aboard, and earlier from Ward Cove, where the shuttle adds a queue. Tours with an all-aboard guarantee, like the Misty Fjords flights, take that worry off you.

Next: what to see alone in Ketchikan on your own, and the picks by goal in the best tours by goal. Every tour sits side by side on Ketchikan Alaska Tours.

Tours that fit a Ketchikan port day