Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
We spent 11 nights on a small ship exploring the most spectacular coastline on the planet. This is Alaska to Vancouver — and we're doing it properly.
Forget the floating apartment blocks. We're on board Windstar Cruises' Star Breeze — an elegantly compact ship that gets into hidden fjords, sidles up to calving glaciers, and sneaks into tiny ports the mega-ships can only dream about. And in Part 1, things get wild. Fast.
We overnight in Anchorage — a city with more espresso stands per capita than anywhere in America, roughly 310 bears wandering the suburbs, and a neighbourhood so dense with craft breweries it's been officially dubbed the Beermuda Triangle. Then we board the legendary Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic to Seward — past bore tides, beluga whales, and an outdoor viewing platform that is genuinely the only one of its kind on any train in the world. Cold? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.
Then we're at sea. College Fjord delivers five tidewater glaciers, a calving Harvard Glacier, a close encounter with a very large, very committed iceberg, and — because why not — a hot tub on the bow of the ship with glaciers collapsing in the middle distance. The Hubbard Glacier, the largest calving glacier in North America, turns up next and reminds us all exactly how small we are. And then — humpback whales. Dozens of them. At Point Adolphus, arguably the best place on the planet to watch humpbacks do their thing. We get rather close.
This is Alaska by small ship. This is the right way to do it. And this is only Part 1.
🚢 Ship: Star Breeze — Windstar Cruises
🗺️ Route: Seward, Alaska → Vancouver, Canada (11 nights)
📍 Destinations covered in Part 1: Anchorage | Alaska Railroad | Seward | College Fjord | Valdez | Hubbard Glacier | Point Adolphus | Icy Strait Point
We spent 11 nights on a small ship exploring the most spectacular coastline on the planet. This is Alaska to Vancouver — and we're doing it properly.
Forget the floating apartment blocks. We're on board Windstar Cruises' Star Breeze — an elegantly compact ship that gets into hidden fjords, sidles up to calving glaciers, and sneaks into tiny ports the mega-ships can only dream about. And in Part 1, things get wild. Fast.
We overnight in Anchorage — a city with more espresso stands per capita than anywhere in America, roughly 310 bears wandering the suburbs, and a neighbourhood so dense with craft breweries it's been officially dubbed the Beermuda Triangle. Then we board the legendary Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic to Seward — past bore tides, beluga whales, and an outdoor viewing platform that is genuinely the only one of its kind on any train in the world. Cold? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.
Then we're at sea. College Fjord delivers five tidewater glaciers, a calving Harvard Glacier, a close encounter with a very large, very committed iceberg, and — because why not — a hot tub on the bow of the ship with glaciers collapsing in the middle distance. The Hubbard Glacier, the largest calving glacier in North America, turns up next and reminds us all exactly how small we are. And then — humpback whales. Dozens of them. At Point Adolphus, arguably the best place on the planet to watch humpbacks do their thing. We get rather close.
This is Alaska by small ship. This is the right way to do it. And this is only Part 1.
🚢 Ship: Star Breeze — Windstar Cruises
🗺️ Route: Seward, Alaska → Vancouver, Canada (11 nights)
📍 Destinations covered in Part 1: Anchorage | Alaska Railroad | Seward | College Fjord | Valdez | Hubbard Glacier | Point Adolphus | Icy Strait Point
