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Great Alaskan Adventure

Aboard Seven Seas Explorer with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Departure Date

21 May 2025

Duration

7 Nights

Fly Cruise From

£6,249pp

Cruise Reference

ART-7GRRE11

Cruise Overview

It is hard to believe that a place as beautiful as Seward exists.

Surrounded on all sides by Kenai Fjords National Park, Chugach National Forest, and Resurrection Bay, Seward offers all the quaint realities of a small railroad town with the bonus of jaw-dropping scenery.

This little town of about 2,750 citizens was founded in 1903, when survey crews arrived at the ice-free port and began planning a railroad to the Interior.

Since its inception, Seward has relied heavily on tourism and commercial fishing.

It is also the launching point for excursions into Kenai Fjords National Park, where it is quite common to see marine life and calving glaciers.
It's hard not to like Sitka, with its eclectic blend of Alaska Native, Russian, and American history and its dramatic and beautiful open-ocean setting.

This is one of the best Inside Passage towns to explore on foot, with St.

Michael's Cathedral, Sheldon Jackson Museum, Castle Hill, Sitka National Historical Park, and the Alaska Raptor Center topping the must-see list.Sitka was home to the Kiksádi clan of the Tlingit people for centuries prior to the 18th-century arrival of the Russians under the direction of territorial governor Alexander Baranof, who believed the region was ideal for the fur trade.

The governor also coveted the Sitka site for its beauty, mild climate, and economic potential; in the island's massive timber forests he saw raw materials for shipbuilding.

Its location offered trading routes as far west as Asia and as far south as California and Hawaii.

In 1799 Baranof built St.

Michael Archangel—a wooden fort and trading post 6 miles north of the present town.Strong disagreements arose shortly after the settlement.

The Tlingits attacked the settlers and burned their buildings in 1802.

Baranof, however, was away in Kodiak at the time.

He returned in 1804 with a formidable force—including shipboard cannons—and attacked the Tlingits at their fort near Indian River, site of the present-day 105-acre Sitka National Historical Park, forcing many of them north to Chichagof Island.By 1821 the Tlingits had reached an accord with the Russians, who were happy to benefit from the tribe's hunting skills.

Under Baranof and succeeding managers, the Russian-American Company and the town prospered, becoming known as the Paris of the Pacific.

The community built a major shipbuilding and repair facility, sawmills, and forges, and even initiated an ice industry, shipping blocks of ice from nearby Swan Lake to the booming San Francisco market.

The settlement that was the site of the 1802 conflict is now called Old Sitka.

It is a state park and listed as a National Historic Landmark.The town declined after its 1867 transfer from Russia to the United States, but it became prosperous again during World War II, when it served as a base for the U.S.

Effort to drive the Japanese from the Aleutian Islands.

Today its most important industries are fishing, government, and tourism.
Located at the northern terminus of the Inside Passage, Skagway is a one-hour ferry ride from Haines.

By road, however, the distance is 359 miles, as you have to take the Haines Highway up to Haines Junction, Yukon, then take the Alaska Highway 100 miles south to Whitehorse, and then drive a final 100 miles south on the Klondike Highway to Skagway.

North-country folk call this sightseeing route the Golden Horseshoe or Golden Circle tour, because it passes a lot of gold-rush country in addition to spectacular lake, forest, and mountain scenery.The town is an amazingly preserved artifact from North America's biggest, most-storied gold rush.

Most of the downtown district forms part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, a unit of the National Park System dedicated to commemorating and interpreting the frenzied stampede of 1897 that extended to Dawson City in Canada's Yukon.Nearly all the historic sights are within a few blocks of the cruise-ship and ferry dock, allowing visitors to meander through the town's attractions at whatever pace they choose.

Whether you're disembarking from a cruise ship, a ferry, or a dusty automobile fresh from the Golden Circle, you'll quickly discover that tourism is the lifeblood of this town.

Unless you're visiting in winter or hiking into the backcountry on the Chilkoot Trail, you aren't likely to find a quiet Alaska experience around Skagway.

Cruise Itinerary

Aboard Seven Seas Explorer

Launch Year: 2016 Length: 224 Width: 31 Currency: USD Capacity: 732 Crew Count: 567 Deck Count: 10 Cabin Count: 366

Seven Seas Explorer® is something of a snowbird, often spending the summer in cooler Northern European destinations and winters in warmer climates. The ship also cruises the picturesque Mediterranean coastlines.

Seven Seas Explorer® is stunning, with art by Pablo Picasso on the walls and a vivid cobalt-blue glass installation on the ceiling in the elegant restaurant Compass Rose. See for yourself how every space is designed to impress.

You could take a cooking class, get a seaweed wrap, lounge by the pool, eat a gourmet meal and play some blackjack all in one day aboard Seven Seas Explorer®. Explore the deck plans to plan your perfect day.

Seven Seas Explorer Facilities

Seven Seas Explorer Includes

Cabin Details

Experience a new level of comfort in your new home away from home. Our suites bring you the best in sumptuous living, from 28 to over 412 square meters, adorned with the finest décor and best-in-class amenities

Regent Seven Sea Cruises® offers an in-suite experience like no other at sea. Every suite has spacious closets, high-end finishes, relaxing Elite Slumber™ beds and private balconies. Sizes range from 307 to 4,443 square feet (93.6 to 1,354.2 meters).

Our luxurious ships feature all-suite accommodations that range from 28 to 412 square meter and are complemented by private, furnished balconies aboard Seven Seas Grandeur™, Seven Seas Splendor®, Seven Seas Explorer®, Seven Seas Voyager®, Seven Seas Mariner®, and 90% of suites aboard Seven Seas Navigator®. Marble appointments accent the bath, featuring a tub or walk-in shower and the majority of suites feature a walk-in wardrobe. A spacious sitting area is enhanced by soothing colours and rich textures with plenty of room to stretch out and watch a movie, read a best seller, or simply enjoy ever-changing vistas that stretch to the horizon's edge.

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