Experience the best of Skagway

Skagway lies at the northern end of the Inside Passage, in a narrow valley of steep mountains at the head of Lynn Canal. In 1897 and 1898 it was the main entry point for tens of thousands of gold seekers heading to the Klondike, who struggled over the mountains to the goldfields of the Yukon. Its historic main street, preserved as part of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, keeps its wooden false-front buildings and boardwalks.

A narrow-gauge railway, built in the gold rush years, climbs steeply from the town to White Pass and the Canadian border, and the Chilkoot Trail, a historic hiking route over the mountains, begins near the ghost town of Dyea. The Gold Rush Cemetery holds the grave of the con man Soapy Smith, shot in 1898. Across the canal, the town of Haines is a short ferry ride away, and the Klondike Highway leads north into Yukon.

Fresh salmon and halibut, bowls of chowder and sourdough bread, a staple of the old prospectors, are local meals. Skagway sits in a rain shadow and is drier than most of south-east Alaska. Summers are cool and bright with long days, and winters are cold, with wind funnelling down the valley from the canal.