Ketchikan is served by the ferries of the Alaska Marine Highway System. The Alaska Marine Highway System ferries, as well as the ferries of the Inter-Island Ferry Authority (which serves Ketchikan, Metlakatla, and several communities on Prince of Wales Island), arrive at a ferry terminal approximately 2 miles north of downtown. The ferry terminal is is served by local bus service (however, ferry arrivals and departures may occur at any hour, while bus service hours are limited) and has pay phones available to call for taxi or shuttle service. Walk-on ferry passengers who don't have a vehicle available in Ketchikan can find food and lodging directly across the street from the AMHS ferry terminal.
Most visitors, however, see Ketchikan as a port of call, arriving and leaving on the same day via the cruise ships that ply Alaska's famous Inside Passage from early May through late September. The large cruise ships call at one of the four cruise ship berths; berths 1-3 are located in downtown Ketchikan, while berth 4 is further north at Newtown. If there are more than four ships visiting Ketchikan at the same time, the additional ships will anchor in the Ketchikan Creek and passengers will take a short tender trip to the downtown pier. A free Salmon Run Shuttle operates a 20-minute downtown loop 7am-7pm serving all cruise ship berths. When a ship is docked in berth 4, an additional free Bear Shuttle operates a 10-minute waterfront loop serving all cruise ship berths.
Several smaller harbors offer transient moorage to private vessels cruising the Inside Passage.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Ketchikan
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Ketchikan - updated Apr 2024
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Ketchikan Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
