United States · Alaska
Juneau
The only US state capital with no road in - a rainforest town with the Mendenhall Glacier at the edge of its suburbs.
Alaska's capital is squeezed onto a narrow shelf between a deepwater channel and a wall of mountains, with an icefield spilling glaciers down the valleys behind it and no road connecting it to anywhere. It is a working government town wrapped in temperate rainforest: humpbacks feed in the channels offshore, black bears work the salmon streams at the edge of the suburbs, and a cable car lifts you from the waterfront into alpine meadows in minutes. Cruise ships fill the historic downtown through the summer, but the trails start at the back of the street grid and the crowds evaporate the moment you step onto one.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
English
Currency
USD
Timezone
UTC-8
Why you'll love Juneau
The glacier a river of ice off the icefield ends in a lake on the edge of the residential valley, close enough that you can walk to a thundering waterfall beside its face in an afternoon
The whales humpbacks spend the whole summer in the channels just offshore, and this is one of the few places on earth where they regularly bubble-net feed as a coordinated group
No road out getting here at all takes a plane or a ship, which keeps the place small, self-contained and oddly intimate for a capital city
Trails from the front door the mountains rise straight off the back of downtown, so alpine ridges, mining-era wagon roads and rainforest boardwalks all begin within walking distance of the Capitol
Best time to visit
May-Jun
14-17° days
58.302° N, 134.420° W
UTC-8 · America/Juneau
whenywhere contains ads and partner links that we think are helpful and that earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Weather & when to go to Juneau
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best May-Jun
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Juneau
Nov-Mar is the hard season here: daylight shrinks towards six hours at midwinter, rain turns to sleet and snow, most visitor operations close down for the year, and low cloud regularly cancels flights on the only routes in or out. Even in the good half of the year this is temperate rainforest, and Sep and Oct are as beautiful as they are wet, so waterproofs are never optional.
Top things to do in Juneau
-
Mendenhall Glacier - walk the lakeshore to Nugget Falls
scenic nature wildlife 👍 PopularA long tongue of ice off the Juneau Icefield ends in a milky, iceberg-dotted lake a short drive from downtown. The flat lakeshore path puts the glacier face and a thundering side waterfall in one view, while the West Glacier Trail climbs the flank through rainforest for a look down onto the ice. Sockeye run up Steep Creek beside the visitor centre in summer, and black bears follow them.
-
Mount Roberts Tramway - from the cruise dock into the alpine in five minutes
scenic hiking 👍 PopularThe cable car lifts straight off the downtown waterfront to a treeline station where muskeg meadows, a Tlingit cultural centre and a rescued bald eagle sit at the top. Trails carry on up the ridge towards the summit of Mount Roberts, and the whole Gastineau Channel lies directly below. It runs seasonally, roughly with the ships.
-
Auke Bay - whale watching in Stephens Passage
nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedBoats leave the harbour north of town for the humpbacks that summer in these waters, and sightings are close to a formality from May into September. The prize is bubble-net feeding, where a pod blows a curtain of bubbles to trap herring and then surfaces through it mouths-open, all together. Orcas, Steller sea lions and eagles fill in around it.
-
Juneau Icefield - helicopter onto the ice for a glacier walk or dog sledding
adventure scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedThe icefield behind the city is a vast frozen plateau feeding dozens of glaciers, and the only practical way onto it is a short flight. Helicopters set parties down on the ice for crampon walks past blue crevasses and meltwater channels, and a summer camp on the snow runs sled dog teams. Everything here is weather-dependent to the last hour.
-
Perseverance Trail - the old mine road into Silverbow Basin
hiking historyJuneau's classic walk starts at the top of Basin Road, minutes from the Capitol, and follows a nineteenth-century mining route up a steep-walled valley past waterfalls, avalanche chutes and tramway ruins. Spurs branch off to the summit of Mount Juneau and up Granite Creek to a hanging basin. Snow lingers on the high ground long after the town is green.
-
Last Chance Mining Museum - the Alaska-Juneau mine at the end of the road
historyWhere Basin Road stops, the surviving buildings of the Alaska-Juneau gold operation stand in the rainforest: the compressor house with its machinery still in place, ore cars, blacksmith gear and a glass relief map of the tunnel network honeycombing the mountain the town is built against. Small, volunteer-run and the best short course in why Juneau exists.
-
Sealaska Heritage Institute - Northwest Coast art in the Walter Soboleff Building
culture arts historyThe clan house at the centre of this downtown building is lined with contemporary formline carving and weaving, and the galleries treat Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian art as a living practice rather than a museum relic. Monumental panels and totem poles stand on the surrounding streets, and the shop is the place to buy work by named Alaska Native artists rather than imported souvenirs.
-
Alaska State Museum - the whole state's collection, plus the archives
culture arts historyPurpose-built galleries run from Tlingit, Haida, Yup'ik and Alutiiq material culture through Russian America and the gold rushes to statehood and the pipeline, with a spiral ramp winding past large canoes and a lighthouse lens. The same building holds the state library and archives, which makes it the natural rainy-day stop, and it rains here often.
-
Treadwell ruins, Douglas Island - a drowned gold town in the forest
history hikingFrom Sandy Beach a network of easy trails threads through concrete foundations, pump houses and rusting ironwork being slowly eaten by spruce and moss. This was once one of the largest gold mines in the world until the sea broke into the workings in 1917; the flooded cave-in is still visible at high tide. Quiet, strange and a five-minute drive from downtown.
-
Red Dog Saloon - the gold-rush bar act on South Franklin
nightlife music history 👍 PopularSawdust on the floor, swinging doors, a piano player working the room and a pistol on the wall said to have been left behind by Wyatt Earp. It is aimed squarely at the cruise trade and makes no secret of it, which is exactly why it works; go in the evening once the ships have sailed and it settles into something closer to a real bar.
-
Tracy's King Crab Shack - Alaskan crab on the waterfront
foodA shack beside the cruise berths that built a reputation on one thing: enormous red king crab legs and crab bisque, eaten at picnic tables in the drizzle. Juneau's wider food scene runs to fresh halibut and salmon, reindeer sausage and the local brewery out at Lemon Creek, which put Alaskan Amber on the mainland map.
-
Shrine of St Therese - a stone chapel on its own tidal island
scenic historyOut the road north of town, a causeway crosses to a small forested island holding a chapel built of beach cobbles in the 1930s, with a labyrinth, a stations-of-the-cross walk and Lynn Canal spread out in front. Whales pass close enough to watch from the shore, and it is the calmest thing on the road system.
-
Eaglecrest Ski Area - the city's own mountain on Douglas Island
adventureOne of the few community-owned ski areas in the country, run by the borough on the back of Douglas Island with runs dropping towards the channel and heavy, wet coastal snow. It is a locals' hill rather than a destination resort, open in the depths of winter when almost nothing else here is, and it doubles as a nordic and backcountry access point.
Best areas to stay in Juneau
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Downtown Juneau
First-time visitors $$Steep historic grid above the docks
Explore hotels in Downtown Juneau →
Douglas and West Juneau
Quiet with a car $$Quiet residential side of the channel
Explore hotels in Douglas and West Juneau →
Mendenhall Valley
Glacier and airport $Suburban flats beneath the glacier
Explore hotels in Mendenhall Valley →
Auke Bay
Boat trip starts $$Working harbour north of the city
Explore hotels in Auke Bay →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Juneau
Getting to & around Juneau
Getting there
Fly into Juneau (JNU) from Seattle or Anchorage, about 20 min by road from downtown; no highway reaches the city
Flight
Juneau International Airport (JNU)
The airport sits out in the Mendenhall Valley, roughly 14 km northwest of downtown and about 20-25 min by taxi, hotel shuttle or rental car. Every major rental desk is on site, most downtown hotels run a meet-and-greet van, and the city bus works the same corridor rather more slowly with a walk at the terminal end.
Ferry
Auke Bay Ferry Terminal
Alaska Marine Highway ships call from Bellingham, Prince Rupert, Sitka, Haines and Skagway, and carry vehicles; the terminal is about 22 km north of downtown, so arrange a ride at both ends
Cruise
South Franklin cruise berths
Ships tie up on the downtown waterfront and you step off into the historic centre; several are usually in port at once through the summer, which is what the crowding is about
Drive
There is no highway to Juneau. The road system runs roughly 65 km up the coast and simply stops at a dead end, so cars arrive on the ferry or not at all
Getting around
Rental car
The flexible option and the only easy way to reach the far trailheads, the shrine and the end of Douglas Island; the summer fleet is small and sells out well ahead
TBC
Capital Transit bus
City buses link downtown, Douglas, Lemon Creek, the valley and Auke Bay on a workable weekday timetable, thinner on Sundays, and stop short of the glacier visitor centre door
TBC
Glacier shuttle
Seasonal shuttle vans run downtown to the Mendenhall Glacier visitor centre through the summer, filling the gap the city bus leaves
TBC
Taxi and rideshare
Taxis are easy to raise downtown and at the airport; rideshare exists but the driver pool is small, so do not count on it late at night
TBC
Walking
Downtown is compact but built on a mountainside, and several blocks are literally public staircases, so allow for the gradient and for rain
Free
Day trips from Juneau
Tracy Arm Fjord
Full dayGlacier fjord
A long, narrow fjord walled by polished granite and hung with waterfalls, ending at the twin Sawyer Glaciers. Boats thread between icebergs with harbour seals hauled out on them, mountain goats work the cliffs, and how close you get depends entirely on how much ice the glaciers have shed that week.
Getting there
tour | ferry
About 8-9 hr round trip by fast catamaran from the downtown waterfront
Taku Inlet and Taku Glacier
Half dayFlightseeing and salmon bake
A low flight over the icefield and down Taku Inlet, landing at a wilderness lodge on the river flats for fire-grilled salmon, with bears often working the shoreline nearby. The classic Juneau half day, and the first thing to be cancelled when the cloud comes down.
Getting there
flight
Floatplane from the downtown seaplane base, about 3 hr all in
Pack Creek, Admiralty Island
Full dayBrown bear viewing
Admiralty carries one of the densest brown bear populations anywhere, and the Pack Creek sanctuary puts you on a gravel spit and a viewing tower while bears fish the stream below. Permits are limited and dated through the peak season, so this is the one that has to be arranged long before you arrive.
Getting there
flight | tour | walk
About 25 min by floatplane, or a boat crossing plus a short walk
Glacier Bay National Park
1-2 daysTidewater glaciers
The park boat runs deep into a bay that was buried under ice barely two centuries ago, past tidewater glacier faces that calve while you watch, puffin colonies and brown bears on the beaches. From Juneau it really needs a night in Gustavus or at Bartlett Cove rather than a same-day turnaround.
Getting there
flight | tour
About 30 min by small plane to Gustavus, then a full day on the park boat
Skagway and Lynn Canal
1-2 daysGold rush town
The head of the Inside Passage, where the Klondike stampede came ashore and started walking. A preserved boardwalk main street, the Chilkoot trailhead and a narrow-gauge railway grinding up to White Pass. Far enough by water that most people fly one leg or stay the night.
Getting there
ferry | flight
About 6 hr each way by state ferry up Lynn Canal, or 45 min by small plane
Herbert Glacier and the end of the road
Half dayRainforest trail walk
An easy, mostly level trail through mossy spruce and hemlock along the Herbert River to a glacier face and its outwash plain, with almost nobody on it. The drive out to the road's end past the shrine and Echo Cove is worth doing on its own.
Getting there
car | walk
About 40 min drive north, then a flat 9 km walk each way
A little history of Juneau
The Gastineau Channel has been Auke and Taku Tlingit country far longer than there has been a town on it, and the clan names, place names and formline art in the modern city are continuous with that rather than a revival of it. The settlement itself dates only to 1880, when Joe Juneau and Richard Harris, guided to the ground by the Tlingit chief Kowee, found gold in what became Silverbow Basin. A camp went up on the beach beneath the mountain and, within a couple of years, a second and larger operation opened across the water on Douglas Island.
For sixty years this was a hard-rock mining town rather than a scenic one. The Treadwell and Alaska-Juneau mines tunnelled the mountains on both sides of the channel and ranked among the largest gold producers in the world, until the sea broke into the Treadwell workings and, decades later, the war closed the last of it. Government took over from gold: the capital moved here from Sitka in 1906, statehood in 1959 fixed the legislature in place, and Alaskans have voted more than once since on shifting the capital somewhere you can drive to, then declined every time to pay for the move.
Joe Juneau and Richard Harris, led by Chief Kowee, find gold in Silverbow Basin and a mining camp forms on the channel beach
The Treadwell mine opens on Douglas Island and grows into one of the largest gold operations in the world
The capital of the district is transferred from Sitka to Juneau, giving the mining town a second industry
The sea breaks into the Treadwell workings in a cave-in that ends most of the Douglas Island operation almost overnight
The Alaska-Juneau mine closes as a wartime non-essential industry and never reopens
Alaska becomes the 49th state and Juneau its capital
Juneau, Douglas and the surrounding country merge into a single city and borough covering thousands of square miles
Voters pick Willow, north of Anchorage, as a new capital site; the funding to actually build it is rejected twice over the following decade and the plan dies
Admiralty Island, across the channel, is proclaimed a national monument, later confirmed as wilderness
Know before you go
Payment
Cards everywhere
English
Everywhere
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type A / B
120 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+1
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A United States eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Juneau
▸ When is the best time to visit Juneau?
Late spring into early summer. May and June are the driest and brightest months of the year here, the humpbacks are back in the channels, the trails are opening up and the light runs late into the evening. July and August are warmer and greener but wetter and much busier with ships, September and October are gorgeous and genuinely soaking, and November through March is dark, stormy and largely shut.
▸ Can you drive to Juneau?
No. There is no highway connection to the rest of North America, which makes it the only US state capital you cannot reach by road. The local road system runs a short way up the coast and dead-ends. Everyone arrives by plane or by ship, and cars come in on the state ferry.
▸ How many days do you need in Juneau?
Three covers the glacier, a boat day for whales and one proper hike. Five lets you add a fjord trip or bear viewing and, more importantly, absorb a weather day, because flightseeing and small-plane excursions here cancel often and reschedule into whatever gap appears.
▸ Do you need a car in Juneau?
Not if you are staying downtown and using tours and shuttles, which cover the glacier and the boat departures. A car is what unlocks the far trailheads, the end of Douglas Island and the quiet miles out the road north of town. The summer rental fleet is small and books out early, so decide before you lock in flights.
▸ Is Juneau expensive?
Yes, well above the mainland. Everything arrives by barge or plane, hotel stock is limited and summer demand from the ships is intense, so lodging and eating out both bite. Self-catering from the supermarket in the valley, using the city bus and spending your days on trails that cost nothing is how residents and repeat visitors handle it.
▸ Will I see bears?
Quite likely, and not always where you planned. Black bears are common on the road system and around the glacier once the salmon are running; brown bears are on the islands rather than in town, and the reliable viewing is at a permitted sanctuary reached by floatplane. Store food properly, make noise in thick brush and give any bear on a trail a very wide berth.
▸ Is Juneau worth it if my ship is only in port for a day?
Yes, but pick one thing and commit. The glacier plus the lakeshore walk, or a whale-watch boat, or a flightseeing trip onto the icefield will each fill the window comfortably. Trying to stack all three against a sailing deadline in a place where weather rearranges schedules is how people end up watching the clock instead of the view.
More in United States
Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor)
New England's only national park, where granite mountains drop straight into the North Atlantic above forty-five miles of car-free carriage roads.
✓ best May-Jun, SepAdirondacks (Lake Placid)
The largest protected area in the contiguous United States, with no gate, no entry booth and towns living inside the line.
✓ best May, Sep-OctAnaheim
The town Disneyland built, with a citrus-warehouse downtown and Orange County's beaches half an hour away.
✓ best all year