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Sitka is the town where the flags were exchanged when the USA took over ownership of Alaska from Russia. We even visited the fort where the handover ceremony took place.
Our ship dropped anchor in the scenic bay and guests traveled ashore via the ship’s tender boats, as there is no deep water pier for the cruise ships there. When we visited 28 years ago in 1993, we enjoyed the performance by the local women who make up the Russian folk dance troupe. I am sure that will be back performing at some point, but they were not performing the day we were in port. Instead, some others from our ship were able to travel just outside town to see the local native Tinglit tribe perform some of their dances.
Another popular excursion for the active set, is the kayaking tours. We saw those tours paddling the bay too. However, we once again took the self guided free walking tour of town. We enjoyed the views of the ship from the breakwater just past the small boat marina. There was a salmon operation going on there. We can’t be sure what exactly they were doing, but they seamed to be harvesting and sorting the salmon as they made their way up stream. They had an area where they caught them in a net and then two teenagers would pull the salmon out of a bin, one by one. Some got hoisted to another bin, from which I think they were transferred to spawning tanks, and others were hit in head with a club and sorted to the “dinner for humans” pile. I can’t be totally sure that was what was going on, but that is my suspicion.
The real star of this place is the bay and the beautiful scenery. We cut our day short as the rain was making us a little wetter than we had planned and I had business to take care of. There is so much more to see and do here, so when you visit be sure to check out your cruise line and 3rd party tour providers offerings for a more immersive experience.