Things you must do!

Granted, I only had a short visit to this little town, barely enough time to scratch the surface, so take this like you would grain of salt. The early September day we were here it was raining and we did not have much more than an umbrella and light windbreaker. We walked from the northern most cruise ship dock into the main downtown area and took in the Historic Museum, Creek Street, and Ketchikan Creek up through Park Street and the Salmon Ladder. That doesn’t give a clue to what is truly available here.
The local inhabitants have taken full advantage of the cruise ships that have made this one of the stops on their Alaskan cruises. You can find many tours, both land and sea based, and by sea planes or kayaks. Besides Totem Bights State Historical Park, and Saxman Native Totem Village, you can do several motorcoach, jetboat, and even zip-line through the forest canopy. Of course salmon fishing is available and even sea plane tours of Misty Fjords. If you are there longer than just a few hours, you will find plenty to do. Yes, this town has more than its fair share of Jewelry and souvenir shops but that is to be expected. This small town, even if nudged by the cruise industry, has done a good job in maintaining the culture of Alaska.

I worked on an Alaskan cruise ship and went to Ketchikan, every week and the best things in Ketchikan are not on the waterfront, which is mostly owned by Princess Cruise Lines and are really tourist traps. You need to go back into the town, there is an area known as the boardwalk and there are canals that you can kayak on and a lot of the buildings are old houses for "women of ill repute". One of them, on the second floor is one of the craziest bookstores I have ever been in (and I go in one everywhere I go). It is a mix of new books and used books, with winding little staircases up to like indoor balconies of books inside the store. Also, at the end of the boardwalk kind of almost in an alley is this great music store/head shop with vinyl and crazy t-shirts. And by far if you are looking for cheesy, inexpensive things to take home to your friends you should hit the 5 and dime in town, which is also where I bought my very first set of knitting needles.

A must for anyone who stops in Ketchikan is a stop into KetchiCandies for homemade candies and a cup of AMAZING coffee from the Ravens Brew Coffee company, and they have a coffee cart right where the boats dock!