We Skipped the Sitka Excursion (And Won the Day) | Harmony Horizon 360
Every single person getting off our ship in Sitka had a plan. Matching rain jackets. Lanyards. QR codes on their phones for a bus that was going to take them somewhere very official and very organized.
We had a shuttle ticket, one address, and a level of confidence that honestly wasn't earned yet.
Here's the thing about ship excursions: they are wonderful, and I will never talk anyone out of booking one. But every so often, my husband and I get off a ship with no plan whatsoever and just... go see. This was one of those days. We'd decided we wanted to see Fortress of the Bear, so we bought a shuttle ticket into town and left the rest completely blank.
Our shuttle driver turned out to be the best part of the morning before we'd even arrived anywhere. He had opinions on everything — bear behavior, the best coffee in Sitka, which cruise lines tip better, why the salmon run was running late that year — delivered with zero hesitation and total confidence, whether we'd asked or not. If you want the real texture of a place, skip the audio guide and just talk to whoever's driving.
And because we weren't on a scheduled ship excursion with forty other people and a very precise return time, we got to Fortress of the Bear before the actual excursion buses did. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves. No shuffling past the enclosure in a line. No craning around someone's selfie stick. Just us, the bears, and all the time we wanted to stand there.
I will fully admit this is the kind of thing that only sounds impressive after it works. If you'd asked me that morning whether "buy one shuttle ticket and hope" was a real plan, I would have laughed and said absolutely not. But that's kind of the whole point of Reset & Roam — you don't need every hour scheduled to have a good day. Sometimes the best excursion is the one nobody sold you.
We've written before about how we choose (or don't choose) excursions for Alaska, and about what Alaska did to our sense of time in general — Sitka was the day that made both of those posts make sense in hindsight.
We're Choosing Alaska Cruise Excursions (The Great Glacier Nap Debate) — Harmony Horizon 360 Travel
What Alaska Did to My Sense of Time — Harmony Horizon 360 — Harmony Horizon 360 Travel
If you want more of these — the real, unscheduled, occasionally lucky moments, before they turn into anything bigger — that's exactly what shows up in the Roam Newsletter first.
Join the Journey — Harmony Horizon 360 Travel
And if Sitka has you daydreaming about your own trip north, Upcoming Trips shows what's currently on the calendar — and Book Your Journey is there whenever you're ready to make it real. No pressure, just the door left open.
Upcoming Trips — Harmony Horizon 360 Travel
Book Your Journey — Harmony Horizon 360 Travel
Tracy Woods, Travel Advisor — Independent Agent of FST No. ST15578 and CST No. 2090937-50.