Skagway, AK

The town brewery occupies a three-story building on 4th Avenue with a rooftop beer garden, tasting room, and a full food menu that goes well beyond typical pub fare. The kitchen does bison burgers, salmon burgers, and beer-battered halibut alongside pizzas — all with the option to sub Alaskan proteins for whatever you'd normally order. The house ales are brewed on-site and rotate seasonally.

A small, focused seafood spot near the cruise dock doing exactly what the name suggests — fresh king crab, halibut, and fish and chips using local product. The fish and chips are particularly noted for texture and freshness, with fluffy batter and fish that hasn't spent time in a freezer. Seating is limited; most people take their order outside.

A straightforward Alaskan diner at 3rd and Spring that functions as the closest thing Skagway has to a year-round neighborhood restaurant. The menu is broad — burgers, sandwiches, breakfast all day — and the kitchen does it all competently without pretension. Popular with locals and seasonal workers who need a reliable, affordable meal that isn't aimed at cruise visitors.

Set inside the historic Skagway Inn on upper Broadway, Olivia's is Skagway's most polished dining option — a small bistro serving seafood and seasonal Alaskan ingredients in a restored Victorian building from 1897. The menu changes with availability, leaning on whatever's freshest from the local water. Best for a slower dinner rather than a quick lunch.

A year-round pub on 4th Avenue doing above-average clam chowder, reliable fish and chips, and a solid pizza menu alongside a full bar. The kitchen is consistent and serves late by Skagway standards, making it useful when other places have closed for the evening. The chowder in particular draws repeat visitors.

A Skagway institution for fresh Alaska seafood — halibut, salmon, king crab — with casual counter service and a loyal local following. Small, unpretentious, and consistently some of the freshest seafood in Southeast Alaska.

A cozy cafe hidden off the main drag doing strong specialty espresso drinks, paninis, seafood chowder, and gourmet hot dogs. The kind of hidden-gem spot that regulars guard jealously.

The most popular short hike from downtown Skagway climbs 500 feet in under a mile to Lower Dewey Lake, a small alpine lake surrounded by mountains. The trail continues around the lake perimeter for a 3.6-mile total loop, with views back down over the Skagway River valley. Accessible directly from town without a car.

The more demanding extension past Lower Dewey Lake climbs 3,100 feet over six miles round trip to Upper Dewey Lake and its surrounding alpine ridge. The views from the upper basin — across the Lynn Canal, the Skagway valley, and the Boundary Range — are among the most dramatic you can reach on a day hike in Southeast Alaska. Strenuous but highly rewarding.

The original gold rush stampede route — 33 miles from Dyea on the Alaska coast to Lake Bennett in British Columbia, crossing the 3,525-foot Chilkoot Pass. Gold rush artifacts litter the trail so densely it's been called 'the world's longest outdoor museum.' Most hikers take three to five days; a Parks Canada permit is required for the Canadian section. One of the great classic long-distance trails in North America.

A challenging 5,000-foot climb from near the Skagway waterfront to the ridge above AB Mountain, with extraordinary views down over the Skagway valley, the Lynn Canal, and across into British Columbia. The upper ridge is exposed alpine tundra — when you break out of treeline the landscape shifts dramatically. Not as well-trafficked as the Dewey Lake trails; more solitude at the top.

Skagway's long-running theatrical show dramatizes the gold rush era through the story of con man Soapy Smith and his criminal empire — a story that plays out like a western opera, complete with can-can dancers and a mock gambling parlor where the audience participates. The show has run in various forms since 1927 and is campy in exactly the right way for the setting.

A former farm turned artisan garden and glass-blowing studio on the edge of town, Jewell Gardens features a working hot glass shop where you can watch glass artists at work, a demonstration garden with produce, and a small on-site restaurant. The glassblowing demonstrations are interactive and genuinely skilled — not just a tourist attraction.

A gold rush-era saloon on Broadway that's been in continuous operation since 1898, the Red Onion is both a working bar and a living piece of Skagway's history. The building served as a brothel on the upper floor during the gold rush; guided tours of the upstairs — led by staff in period costume — run regularly and cover that history with candor and humor.

The National Park Service runs free programs throughout the day at the historic district visitor center — walking tours, film screenings, and evening talks that cover different aspects of the 1897-98 stampede. The rangers here are unusually good historians and storytellers; the walking tours in particular cover details of Broadway's buildings that you'd never find on your own. All free, no reservation needed.

A narrated tour of Skagway in a replica 1920s street car, driven by costumed conductors playing characters from the gold rush era. The route covers downtown historic sites, the Gold Rush Cemetery, and viewpoints around town — a good orientation for first-time visitors who want context before walking on their own. The storytelling is specific and entertains adults, not just cruise day-trippers.

The park encompasses Skagway's entire six-block historic downtown — 23 preserved buildings from the 1897-98 gold rush era, anchored by the visitor center inside the original 1898 White Pass & Yukon Route train depot. Free ranger programs run throughout the day covering the boomtown era, Soapy Smith's con operations, and the tens of thousands of stampeders who passed through this exact corridor on the way to the Klondike. One of the best-preserved gold rush streetscapes in North America.

Built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, the White Pass & Yukon Route climbs 3,000 feet from sea level to the summit in just 20 miles — through tunnels, over trestles above sheer drops, and past the rusted machinery of the original stampede route. The summit excursion takes about 2.5 hours round-trip; longer routes continue to Lake Bennett in British Columbia. Designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark alongside the Eiffel Tower and Panama Canal.

Nine miles from Skagway down a gravel road, Dyea was the boom-and-bust rival town that briefly housed 8,000 gold rush stampeders in 1897-98, then emptied out almost overnight when the railroad made the Chilkoot route obsolete. Today it's quiet forest and meadow with scattered foundations, collapsed buildings, and a poignant cemetery — one of the most atmospheric ghost towns in Alaska. The Chilkoot Trail begins at the Dyea trailhead.

A short walk north of downtown along the Skagway River, this small cemetery holds the graves of Soapy Smith — Skagway's most notorious con man, shot in 1898 — and Frank Reid, the city engineer who killed him in a duel and died days later from his wounds. The cemetery is set in spruce forest above the river with interpretive markers telling one of the most dramatic stories of the gold rush era.