Ferries in Alaska

Alaska starts on this site with the state's own ferry system, and with the route that explains why it exists. Juneau, the capital, has no road to the rest of the continent, so anyone driving north out of it puts the car on an Alaska Marine Highway ship at Auke Bay and sails up Lynn Canal to Haines, where the highway towards Canada begins. The run is about 90 nautical miles, and on the day boat it takes around four and three-quarter hours.

Nothing about it repeats week to week. AMHS publishes sailings by date, mixing a day boat with mainline ships that call on their way along the coast, so the route page lists the actual dates rather than a weekly pattern. Fares are not printed in a table either: they are quoted per booking in the system's own search, and vehicles are asked to check in two hours before departure at both ends.

Beyond Haines, the hop to Skagway is 13 nautical miles by water against about 350 by road. A private fast catamaran works it from May to September; from October to April only Marine Highway sailings on set dates remain. Far to the south, the Ketchikan–Hollis boat is not a state service at all: the Inter-Island Ferry Authority runs one sailing each way every day, about three hours across, with published fares from $60 for an adult.

Across Prince William Sound, the Whittier–Cordova run on the MV Aurora takes about seven hours and stops altogether from November to February, coming back on 7 March 2027. In Ketchikan the borough keeps a shuttle across Tongass Narrows to the airport every 30 minutes, $6 for an adult with the same-day return free.

Lynn Canal, Prince William Sound and Ketchikan