18 nights, Los Angeles to Vancouver

The itinerary, port by port

13 calls over 18 nights, Los Angeles to Vancouver. Open any port for my full day-ashore guide, what to see, when to go, and how the day actually runs.

Getting there: Flights to Los Angeles (LAX) are already bookable for these dates. I watch the fare for booked clients so you book at the right moment. When to book your flights →

1. Embark
   Los Angeles

   Los Angeles cruises dock at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro, the harbor district at the south end of the city rather than near Hollywood or the beaches most people picture. Port guide →

2. 2
   San Diego

   San Diego hands you a flat, walkable bay front the moment you step off the gangway, with a retired aircraft carrier, a 160-year-old sailing ship, and the Gaslamp Quarter all within a few blocks.

3. 3
   San Francisco

   San Francisco docks you at Pier 27 on the Embarcadero, dropping you onto one of the most DIY-friendly waterfronts in North America.

4. 4
   Victoria

   Victoria is the small, walkable capital of British Columbia on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, an unhurried city of heritage stone, gardens, and a working Inner Harbour. Port guide →

5. 5
   Vancouver

   Vancouver is the embarkation city for most Alaska sailings, a coastal Canadian metropolis pinned between the harbor and the Coast Mountains, with a forested 1,000-acre park at its tip. Port guide →

6. 6
   Wrangell

   Wrangell is a working Southeast Alaska town of about 2,500 people, with no chain jewelry rows or built-for-tourists waterfront. Port guide →

7. 7
   Juneau

   Juneau is Alaska's state capital, wedged between the Gastineau Channel and steep forested peaks and reachable only by water or air. Port guide →

8. 8
   Sailing the Endicott Arm (Dawes Glacier)

   Endicott Arm is a fjord more than 30 miles long that branches south off Holkham Bay, about 45 miles south of Juneau within the Tongass National Forest.

9. 9
   Sailing the Tracy Arm Fjord

   Tracy Arm is a classic glacier-carved fjord about 30 miles long, roughly 45 to 60 miles south of Juneau, that narrows to barely 300 yards between granite walls rising as much as 4,000 feet from milky…

10. 10
    Skagway

    Skagway is a four-block gold-rush boomtown at the head of the Lynn Canal, frozen at its 1898 peak as the gateway to the Klondike. Port guide →

11. 11
    Sitka (Baranof Island)

    Sitka sits on the outer coast of Baranof Island, the only Southeast Alaska town that faces the open Pacific rather than the Inside Passage, and it was the capital of Russian America before the 1867 Alaska… Port guide →

12. 12
    Ward Cove (Ketchikan)

    Ward Cove is a cruise berth built on a former pulp mill site about 20 minutes north of downtown Ketchikan, used to spread ships out beyond the crowded downtown docks. Port guide →

13. Disembark
    Prince Rupert (Kaien Island)

    Prince Rupert is a small fishing and First Nations port on Kaien Island, the last Canadian stop before the Alaska panhandle, set in the Great Bear Rainforest. Port guide →