Juneau does not offer much variety in the way of public transport, but if you arrive in the city by air and need transportation there are still several options available:

By Air
Air travel is the primary link between Southeast’s towns and the rest of the world. Several towns without road access have jet service, provided by Alaska Airlines (tel. 800/252-7522; www.alaskaair.com), the region’s only major airline. Juneau is Southeast Alaska’s travel hub. Ketchikan and Sitka each have a few flights a day, while Wrangell, Petersburg, and Yakutat each have one flight going each direction daily.

Gustavus is served from Juneau once daily during the summer. Some of these “milk runs” never get very far off the ground on hops between small towns: On the 31-mile Wrangell-to-Petersburg flight, the cabin attendants never have time to unbuckle. Haines and Skagway, which have highway connections, don’t receive visits from jets, but all the towns and even the tiny villages have scheduled prop service.

Like the ferries, the planes can be quite late. Each of the airports in Southeast has its own challenges caused by the steep, mountainous terrain and the water. In bad weather, even jet flights are delayed or they “overhead” — they can’t land at the intended destination and leave their passengers somewhere else. Your only protection against these contingencies is travel insurance, a schedule that allows plenty of slack in case you’re significantly delayed and low blood pressure.

By Road

Three Southeast Alaska communities are accessible by road: Haines, Skagway, and the village of Hyder, which lies on the British Columbia border east of Ketchikan and is accessible from the gravel Cassiar Highway through Canada. If you’re driving the Alaska Highway, passing through Haines and Skagway adds 160 miles of very scenic driving to the trip, as well as a 15-mile ferry ride between the two towns (they’re separated by 362 road miles).

This ferry route is not as heavily booked as the routes heading between either town or Juneau, but it’s still a good idea to reserve ahead. You also can rent a car from Haines or Skagway for travel to the rest of the state at the end of a ferry journey (Haines saves just 60 miles over Skagway). Buses serve Skagway; details are listed in the sections on each of those towns. If you’re driving the highway in winter, you should be prepared for weather as cold as 40°F below zero (-40°C).

Bikes make a lot of sense for getting around Southeast’s small towns, which tend to be compact. You can rent one almost anywhere you go, or bring your own on the ferry. The networks of abandoned or little-used logging roads on some islands offer limitless routes for mountain biking. Elsewhere, Forest Service hiking trails are often open for riding.