Alaska - Is July so much better than August?

[Donald & Daisy Duck]

We priced out 2018 Alaska for July 23 and August 13. The August 13th date will save us $1000 for the exact same room. Anyone have any experience with the weather in July vs August. If July weather is much better, it would be worth the $1000 to switch. Thanks.

 

[xlxo]

If you like dry weather.... I vote for July. I did two August trips.... my next trips will be July.

Check out this link...
http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/juneau/alaska/united-states/usak0116

• July averages 4 inches of rain in Skagway.
• August gets just under 6 inches of rain.
• September gets 8 inches of rain.

 

[Aby]

We've never gone in July, but we've done 3 DCL Alaska cruises in mid-August and were very happy with the weather! We had gorgeous Tracy Arm/Endicott arm days on all 3 cruises, and we only experienced one day (Juneau on our first cruise in 2011) that had truly bad weather that caused the cancellation of most excursions. Of course weather is always a mixed bag and you never know what will happen - you could hit a bad week any month.

Aby

 

[vgrandy]

We went to Alaska that same week in August a few years ago. We had beautiful weather every day except the day we were in Ketchikan. It rained that day but seems to always be raining in Ketchikan.

 

[snoopy5386]

I think it is so much luck of the draw. We cruised mid July last year and we had a beautiful sunny day in Seattle when we left and then did not see the sun again until our last day as we approached Victoria. It was extremely foggy the entire week, like the boat's foghorn was going off constantly level of fog. We could see barely any scenery at all at times, even in port. It was basically misty or raining as well maybe 50% of the time. We took a tour up to the Yukon in Skagway and could see nothing. At one point the tour guide pulled over at an overlook and everyone on the bus looked at each other like why are we stopping here? There was so much fog we couldn't see 50 feet out the windows. Save the $1000 and go in August.

 

[dani24]

We did a 10 day to Alaska from San Francisco several years ago. We left July 31st. The weather was fantastic our entire trip.

One other thought about the price in August is that many schools are back in session starting in August. There are school districts where I live (in CA) that start in the beginning of August. Our school district starts on August 14th this year. So you may have less demand as a result, which drives down the price.