@Matt- I think the eco-tourism wave is a good thing; if people are doing their research and finding sustainable tours and not just tours that are greenwashing their tours. However, because more people are interested govts have to be careful and cap the number of visitors into their parks.
I lived above that post office (there are apartments up there). and let me tell you from first hand, experience: Ketchikan sucks. it really sucks. it is a miserable stinking drunk tank filled with shattered hopes and dreams and a marked distaste for tourists. Tourists are tolerated because if they werent there, the town would just die.
I guess my experience of living in Ketchikan is a bit different. I find it to be a very nice place, actually. Sure, the downtown area is a tourist trap, because it caters mainly to cruise ship tourists. So do most of the day tours. If you are a different kind of traveler who has more than just a couple of hours to spend on the island before hopping back on those ghastly cruise ships, there are far more interesting things to see and places to go. You can plot a kayak tour around Revillagigedo (this will take over a week if done right) or hike the more interesting trails around the island, visit remote cabins and whatnot. Yep, there are quite a few people walking around here with blood alcohol levels that would kill a normal person three times over, but that is true for any place in Alaska, sadly I don’t hang out in bars, so I don’t run into them that often. As for Tall Tale Taxidermy, it is a locally owned and operated store that is open year round (which is rare in the downtown area). The prices are high during tourist season and I would not buy anything at those rates, but prices come down in fall/winter and are very reasonable indeed If you travel to Southeast Alaska in fall though, prepare to get WET. It is a temperate RAINforest out here, after all and there is a reason the horrid cruises don’t stop here that time of year. Many of State Parks are not open in fall & winter, because the weather gets too bad to get out there and for any maintenance to be done.
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Ketchikan was such a tourist trap of a town.
How do you feel about green tours (ie the whole eco tourism wave)?
@Matt- I think the eco-tourism wave is a good thing; if people are doing their research and finding sustainable tours and not just tours that are greenwashing their tours. However, because more people are interested govts have to be careful and cap the number of visitors into their parks.
I lived above that post office (there are apartments up there). and let me tell you from first hand, experience: Ketchikan sucks. it really sucks. it is a miserable stinking drunk tank filled with shattered hopes and dreams and a marked distaste for tourists. Tourists are tolerated because if they werent there, the town would just die.
I guess my experience of living in Ketchikan is a bit different. I find it to be a very nice place, actually. Sure, the downtown area is a tourist trap, because it caters mainly to cruise ship tourists. So do most of the day tours. If you are a different kind of traveler who has more than just a couple of hours to spend on the island before hopping back on those ghastly cruise ships, there are far more interesting things to see and places to go. You can plot a kayak tour around Revillagigedo (this will take over a week if done right) or hike the more interesting trails around the island, visit remote cabins and whatnot. Yep, there are quite a few people walking around here with blood alcohol levels that would kill a normal person three times over, but that is true for any place in Alaska, sadly
I don’t hang out in bars, so I don’t run into them that often.
If you travel to Southeast Alaska in fall though, prepare to get WET. It is a temperate RAINforest out here, after all and there is a reason the horrid cruises don’t stop here that time of year. Many of State Parks are not open in fall & winter, because the weather gets too bad to get out there and for any maintenance to be done.
As for Tall Tale Taxidermy, it is a locally owned and operated store that is open year round (which is rare in the downtown area). The prices are high during tourist season and I would not buy anything at those rates, but prices come down in fall/winter and are very reasonable indeed
I like what you said about Ketchikan. Your right it is a beautiful place with much to see and do.
Nicole