Pacific Passage: Golden Week To Glacier Bay

Tokyo's port is a vibrant gateway to both cultural and culinary experiences, uniquely blending traditional Japanese heritage with modern innovation. Must-do experiences include savoring fresh sushi at Tsukiji Outer Market and exploring the natural beauty of Fuji Hakone Izu National Park. The best season to visit is spring, when cherry blossoms bloom, transforming the city into a picturesque landscape.

Miyako is a resilient Pacific coast city in Japan's Tōhoku region, gateway to the dramatic Sanriku ria coastline and the ethereal Jōdogahama "Pure Land Beach" of white rock formations and turquoise water. Must-dos include boat tours through Jōdogahama's volcanic rock formations, visiting the 2011 tsunami memorial, and tasting the region's exceptional seafood including fresh uni and wakame. April through November offers varied seasonal beauty from cherry blossoms to autumn foliage.

Hakodate, Japan, offers an immersion in a culture where aesthetic refinement and daily life are inseparable. Essential experiences include exploring local food markets, tasting regional specialties at intimate eateries, and visiting the surrounding temples and gardens. The port is most rewarding May through October, when the climate is at its most welcoming for outdoor exploration. Cruise lines including Hapag-Lloyd Cruises feature this port on their most compelling itineraries. Whether you have a few hours or a full day, the port rewards exploration at every pace and in every direction.

Kushiro, on Hokkaido's wild eastern coast, is Japan's gateway to pristine marshlands, volcanic lakes, and the sacred red-crowned crane. The city's legendary Washo Market offers build-your-own sashimi bowls, while nearby Kushiro Shitsugen National Park protects the country's largest wetland. Silversea brings expedition travelers to this unhurried port where Ainu heritage and untamed nature converge.

Iona is a tiny, luminous island in Scotland's Inner Hebrides, revered as the birthplace of Celtic Christianity where Saint Columba founded his monastery in 563 AD. Visitors should walk the restored Benedictine abbey and Reilig Odhráin royal burial ground, then seek out the island's pristine white shell-sand beaches at Traigh Bàn. The sailing season from May through September offers the longest daylight hours and mildest weather, with June and July providing up to eighteen hours of light that bathes the island in the ethereal glow for which it has captivated artists and pilgrims for centuries.

Kodiak, Alaska's oldest European settlement and one of America's largest fishing ports, sits on an island home to 3,500 giant Kodiak brown bears—the densest concentration on Earth. Must-dos include floatplane bear-viewing at remote salmon streams, the Alutiiq Museum of indigenous culture, and sampling king crab fresh from the harbor. July and August offer the warmest weather and peak bear-viewing season.

Ketchikan clings to the forested shore of Revillagigedo Island in Alaska's southeastern panhandle — a town so narrow that locals joke it is three miles long and three blocks wide. Revered by the Tlingit people for millennia as a place of abundant salmon, it is today celebrated as the Totem Pole Capital of the World: the collections at Saxman Native Village and Totem Bight State Historical Park preserve the most significant concentration of these monumental artworks anywhere. Creek Street, a boardwalk of colorful historic houses built over Ketchikan Creek, should not be missed. Summer (May–September) brings the best weather, with salmon running in the creeks below.

Pressed between the Pacific and the Coast Mountains, Vancouver is the natural gateway to Alaska's Inside Passage — a city where temperate rainforest meets glass towers and where Dungeness crab and wild sockeye salmon define a Pacific Rim cuisine that rivals any in North America. Walk the 22-kilometre Stanley Park seawall, lose yourself in the Granville Island market, then ferry across to Victoria's Edwardian splendour. Alaska cruise season peaks from May through September, making Vancouver an ideal starting point for one of the world's great ocean journeys.

Ketchikan clings to the forested shore of Revillagigedo Island in Alaska's southeastern panhandle — a town so narrow that locals joke it is three miles long and three blocks wide. Revered by the Tlingit people for millennia as a place of abundant salmon, it is today celebrated as the Totem Pole Capital of the World: the collections at Saxman Native Village and Totem Bight State Historical Park preserve the most significant concentration of these monumental artworks anywhere. Creek Street, a boardwalk of colorful historic houses built over Ketchikan Creek, should not be missed. Summer (May–September) brings the best weather, with salmon running in the creeks below.

Klawock is one of Alaska's oldest Tlingit settlements on Prince of Wales Island, where twenty-one totem poles in a community park narrate clan histories predating European contact by centuries. Visit May through September via Regent Seven Seas or Silversea for genuine Tlingit cultural encounters, Alaska's longest cave system, and the intimate experience of a remote island community where wilderness is neighbor, not commodity.

Sitka, set on the wild west coast of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska, is one of the Pacific Northwest's most historically resonant ports — a place where Russian Orthodox onion domes rise above totem poles and the great temperate rainforest presses down to the water's edge. The Sitka National Historical Park preserves the site of the 1804 battle between Tlingit warriors and Russian colonisers alongside a magnificent collection of monumental poles. Whale-watching, sea kayaking among sea otters, and brown bear spotting in the surrounding wilderness define the outdoor experience. May through September offers the most accessible and luminous conditions.

Glacier Bay National Park is one of the most profound landscapes of active glaciation on Earth — 3.3 million acres of southeastern Alaska where tidewater glaciers calve cathedral-sized icebergs into fjords of luminous blue water, and where the land itself is still rising, liberated from the weight of ice that buried this entire region just two centuries ago. The park, reachable only by ship or small aircraft, rewards visitors with wildlife encounters — humpback whales, brown bears, sea otters, and mountain goats — set against scenery of almost overwhelming grandeur. The season runs May through September; late June and July offer the longest days and most reliable wildlife activity.

Icy Strait Point is a stunning Alaskan port known for its breathtaking natural beauty and rich Native Tlingit culture. Must-do experiences include savoring fresh local seafood and embarking on wildlife excursions in Glacier Bay National Park. The best season to visit is during the summer months, when the weather is mild and wildlife is abundant.

The Inian Islands are a wild, uninhabited cluster at the entrance to Alaska's Cross Sound, renowned for extraordinary wildlife encounters including humpback whale bubble-net feeding and massive Steller sea lion colonies. Must-dos include Zodiac excursions along the islands' rocky shores, watching cooperative whale feeding, and exploring tide pools teeming with marine life. Visit July–August for peak whale activity and the best sea conditions.

Haines is an authentic Alaskan town on North America's deepest fjord, home to the world's largest bald eagle congregation — up to four thousand birds along the Chilkat River — and a thriving arts community preserving Tlingit cultural traditions. Visit June through August via Cunard or Lindblad for glacier helicopter landings and coastal hikes, or October through February for the extraordinary eagle spectacle that makes Haines Alaska's best-kept secret.