Juneau glaciers

[AAAG]

Hi,
We are on the Aug 15th Alaskan cruise with my 2 sons, who will be 4 and 6. Just looking at options for Juneau for seeing glaciers.
The 5 Glacier Seaplane tours look fabulous, but pricey for a family of 4. I am wondering if one of the land tours to Mendenhall Glacier, which would be significantly cheaper, might just as nice and maybe be more interesting for my kids.
Can anyone comment on their experiences seeing glaciers in juneau with kids
TIA

 

[MUN]

Hi,
We are on the Aug 15th Alaskan cruise with my 2 sons, who will be 4 and 6. Just looking at options for Juneau for seeing glaciers.
The 5 Glacier Seaplane tours look fabulous, but pricey for a family of 4. I am wondering if one of the land tours to Mendenhall Glacier, which would be significantly cheaper, might just as nice and maybe be more interesting for my kids.
Can anyone comment on their experiences seeing glaciers in juneau with kids
TIA

We took a tour bus, which I believe was $20 roundtrip per person to get to the Mendenhal Glacier. From there we walked a trail to a waterfall which provided wonder views of the glacier. There is also a visitor center which is suppose to be very nice, but we didn't stop there. Juneau is a great port with many inexpensive options to do on your own. We also rode the Mt. Roberts tramway which is right at the port. That was a lot of fun.

MUN

 

[GatorMomInNC]

My DH is claustrophobic so we couldn't do any sort of sea plane tour. We did private whale watching excursion with Harv and Marv (had to be private because of the age of the kids) and it was the best excursion ever and one of the coolest things I've done! Afterwards they took us and some others to Mendenhall Glacier, but we only had about 20 or 30 minutes. But you are pretty close to the Glacier, and that was the only place on the whole cruise we saw a bear and it was VERY close. The park rangers had to come and tell my son to SLOWLY step back (he was across a small creek from us).

Here is a photo of the Glacier taken from a viewing platform in the park.

 

[Jestocost]

We did a Best of Juneau tour that included a stop at the Mendenhall Glacier visitors center. Be advised that at this point the glacier has retreated pretty far back from the center itself. It's still visible from there and from a couple of paths but the closest you can get involves a two-mile round-trip hike on the Nugget Falls Trail. It's pretty cool, however. There actually was an adolescent male black bear on the wooden path at the visitor center while we were there. One of the rangers chased him off and he went up a tree where we could watch him from one of the decks at the center.

 

[bcwife76]

We're on the same cruise! Also travelling with small kids (who will be 5&8) and we don't want to spend the money on the plane. Thanks for asking this question, looks like we've got some good options.

 

[xlxo]

Mendenhall is your best choice with a shuttle for a budget traveler.