Whittier: Alaska's Most Remote Port — and a Glacier 15 Minutes Away

Whittier sits at the end of Prince William Sound, accessible only by the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel — a one-way shared road/rail tunnel 4 km long through the Chugach Mountains, with alternating traffic directions every 30 minutes. The town is very small: approximately 215 residents, most in the single 14-story Begich Towers building that also houses the post office, bed-and-breakfasts, and most town services. Cruise ships berth at the Whittier Small Boat Harbor dock. The scenery around Whittier — tidewater glaciers, forested mountains, Prince William Sound — is the draw, not the town. Most activities involve boats, kayaks, or the road to Portage and Anchorage.

From the pier, almost everything walkable in Whittier takes 10 minutes. For Portage Glacier: Portage Glacier Road, 16 km from Whittier — rent a bike or arrange a taxi ($20–30 one way). Portage Glacier Day Lodge at the end of the road (free to visit); Portage Glacier cruise boat tours (US$35–40) run from the lodge. For Prince William Sound glacier and wildlife tours: operators depart from the small boat harbor — 26 Glacier cruise (US$169–189, full day) covers Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and other tidewater glaciers. For Anchorage: Alaska Highway Tours and shared shuttles run (US$25–40 one way, 1.5 hours). The tunnel is toll-free for pedestrians and cyclists; car traffic pays $13.

Prince William Sound has more tidewater glaciers than any other location in North America outside Canada — the 26 Glacier cruise covers 6 hours and up to 26 named glaciers in the sound. Columbia Glacier calves house-sized icebergs; Harvard and Yale Glaciers at the end of College Fjord tower 100 metres above the waterline. Sea kayaking in the sound (half-day, US$75–95 per person with a guide) is the closest-contact glacier experience available from the pier. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, 20 minutes from the tunnel exit toward Anchorage, has bears, moose, elk, bison, wolves, and raptors in large naturalistic enclosures (US$22 adult) — a practical stop on the way to or from Anchorage.

US Dollars. Tipping: 18–20% at restaurants, 15% for tour guides, 10–15% for shuttle drivers. Alaska's service economy depends heavily on gratuities — tips are not optional. Most Whittier businesses accept cards; carry some cash for the smallest vendors. The tunnel is alternating-direction on a 30-minute schedule — check the current opening direction before driving in either direction.

Whittier is a tiny town of fewer than 300 year-round residents, and its dining options reflect that reality — there are a handful of small cafes and a restaurant or two near the harbor, but this is not a port where food is the main draw. What the town does offer is fresh Alaskan seafood served without pretense: king crab legs, Dungeness crab, and wild-caught salmon prepared simply and eaten with views of Prince William Sound that most restaurants in the world could not replicate. Most cruise excursions build lunch into their itinerary, which is the practical approach, but independent travelers who stay close to the harbor will find the Harbor Store and nearby small eateries adequate for a casual meal before returning to the ship. Anyone wanting a more substantial dining experience should consider the drive through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel to Anchorage, where a full range of Alaskan cuisine — from halibut fish and chips to reindeer sausage — is readily available.

Whittier sits at the head of Passage Canal — a deep glacially carved fjord where the water temperature runs 4–8°C year-round. There are no beaches for swimming in any conventional sense, and framing this as a beach stop would mislead any passenger expecting sand and warm water.

What the foreshore offers is a different kind of waterfront entirely. The small harbour is overlooked by the Chugach Mountains, with glaciers visible from the pier. The tidal flats at low water expose rocky shingle colonised by harbour seals and sea otters using the kelp as cover. Black bears are commonly seen on the vegetated slopes above the town.

**Blackstone Bay**, accessible by water taxi from Whittier (about 30 minutes each way), is the premier nearby wilderness experience: a fjord with two active tidewater glaciers (Blackstone and Beloit) calving directly into the sea, with dramatic iceberg-strewn water and a soundscape of groaning ice and waterfalls. Kayaking into the bay is possible on calm days.

The point of being in Whittier is the landscape — one of the most dramatic settings of any cruise departure port in the world. Glacier tours, kayak rentals, and wildlife-watching from the harbour all deliver. Sand and surf do not.

The Chugach people, one of the Pacific Yupik groups, used the passage through the Chugach Mountains to Prince William Sound for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. Their knowledge of this coastline — its tides, its salmon runs, its treacherous weather — was encyclopedic, and the route that would later become the location of Whittier was part of a seasonal movement network connecting the Gulf of Alaska with the interior.

Whittier's modern existence is entirely a product of the Second World War. The United States Army, searching in 1941 for an ice-free, fog-hidden port to supply Alaska in the event of Japanese attack, identified the head of Passage Canal as ideal. The port was connected to the Alaska Railroad via a pair of tunnels blasted through the mountains — Portage Tunnel and Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel — the latter more than four kilometres long. Construction proceeded with remarkable speed despite the brutal conditions, and Whittier became a significant military logistics hub within two years.

After the war, the Army retained Whittier and constructed two enormous concrete buildings to house its personnel in the permanent overcast and extreme snowfall of the canyon. Buckner Building, completed in 1953, was designed to allow soldiers to live, work, and recreate without ever going outside; at the time it was the largest building in Alaska. When the military departed in the 1960s, Whittier's civilian population inherited this peculiar infrastructure. Today nearly all of Whittier's approximately 220 year-round residents live in a single fourteen-story building: Begich Towers, the former Hodge Building, which contains apartments, a church, a police station, a health clinic, and a small store. The post office is connected by a covered walkway.

The 1964 Good Friday Earthquake — magnitude 9.2, the second-largest ever recorded — struck on 27 March and generated tsunamis that devastated Whittier's waterfront. Portions of the Buckner Building collapsed, and several people were killed. Reconstruction was modest; the Buckner Building was never reopened and stands today as a derelict concrete ruin on the hillside above town. Whittier is accessible by road through the Anton Anderson Tunnel, which doubles as a rail tunnel — vehicles and trains share the single bore on a schedule, making Whittier one of the only towns in North America where you book a time slot to drive in or out.

Whittier is a small, remote port at the head of a fjord in Prince William Sound, and its appeal is almost entirely about the natural world. For families with children old enough to appreciate glaciers, sea mammals, and dramatic scenery it can be memorable. For families seeking classic shore excursion activities, the port has limited offerings.

The most worthwhile excursion is a Prince William Sound glacier and wildlife cruise, operated by several outfitters from the small boat harbour. These half-day trips travel to Blackstone Bay or College Fjord and reliably encounter harbour seals, sea otters, puffins, and often Dall's porpoise riding the bow wake. Children who are patient on a boat find this genuinely spectacular. Dress warmly regardless of the forecast — it is consistently cold and often damp near the glaciers even in July.

Whittier town itself is nearly entirely housed in a single Soviet-era high-rise called Begich Towers, which children will find architecturally peculiar. There is a small marina, a few restaurants, and a harbour-front trail, but not much else. The connecting tunnel to Anchorage (1.5-hour drive) is the longest combined rail-vehicle tunnel in North America and a curiosity worth mentioning to older children.

**Safety note:** bears are occasionally seen near town, and the surrounding wilderness is wild territory. Stick to marked paths and organised tours. Weather can change abruptly — bring waterproof layers for every family member.

Whittier is a small Alaska gateway town of roughly 200 residents, and its shopping reflects that honestly. A handful of gift shops near the cruise terminal and inside the Begich Towers carry the essentials: Alaska wildlife art prints, hand-carved bear fetishes, smoked salmon in vacuum packs, and cold-weather gear. The selection is genuinely limited — Whittier's value is entirely in the scenery and glacier access, not retail. For serious Alaskan shopping, the cruise line's Anchorage excursion (65 miles away) is the right move: downtown Anchorage's Fourth Avenue has established Alaska Native art galleries, proper outdoor outfitters, and reputable smoked-fish vendors. The "Made in Alaska" blue paw-print label is the quality guarantee to look for wherever you shop in the state.

Whittier is a small, remote community at the head of Passage Canal in Prince William Sound, accessed through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel — one of the longest combination vehicle/rail tunnels in North America (4.1 km). The cruise dock is a commercial pier adjacent to the small town. Whittier itself is extremely compact (population approximately 200) — the Begich Towers residential complex and the town's amenities are within walking distance of the dock on flat ground. The immediate dock area is flat and paved, and the small boat harbour promenade is accessible. The primary excursion from Whittier is the Prince William Sound glacier cruise — vessels depart from Whittier's small boat harbour to view College Fjord, Harriman Fjord, and tidewater glaciers. Day-cruise and kayak-support vessels generally have flat boarding gangways from the dock; wildlife and glacier viewing is from accessible open decks. Portage Glacier (approximately 30 km via the tunnel, 30 minutes by road) has a modern, accessible visitor centre at the Begich Boggs Visitor Center with flat paths to the lakeside glacier view and a Ranger-guided accessible lake cruise in season. Portage Valley's Byron Glacier trail (short, flat walk to a glacier toe) is on packed gravel. Road access to and from Whittier requires passing through the tunnel — vehicles queue and pay a toll; confirm tunnel schedule with excursion operators.