We will be in Vancouver next year and would like to cruise the Inside Passage. Having received different advice regarding ship size, time to go and how long, what are your thoughts?
B. Pierce, Birchgrove.
There are many different options for cruising this route and plenty of conflicting opinions, and the choices can be baffling. The dividing line between small and big vessels lies at around the 100-passenger mark, although typically the larger vessels will carry several thousand. Big ships offer good value, heaps of on-board facilities, luxurious staterooms and multiple dining choices but they lack the intimacy that only a small ship can bring to the experience. For nature lovers who want to get to grips with the raw majesty of this chilly wilderness, get mud on their boots and maybe paddle a sea kayak around melting sea ice, a small vessel is the only way to go. Smaller vessels will also take you into bays and even some ports that cannot accommodate larger vessels, and strolling around Juneau when several cruise ships are berthed is not much fun.
The cruise season runs from May to September. Few would want to cruise outside those months. Mid-June to late August is the busiest time, and my pick would be early September, when the crowds have gone and by coincidence, so have most of the mosquitoes.
Cruises are typically seven or 14 days, but the longer cruises are for hardcore wilderness aficionados looking to commune with bears.
The Small Boat Company theboatcompany.org and Un-Cruise Adventures un-cruise.com are two small-ship cruise operators in this region that get good reviews.
