To explore Seward on an Alaska cruise, select a cruisetour that includes overnight stays in this vibrant seaport. As a scenic gateway to the Kenai Fjords National Park and a laid-back burg steeped in history, there’s plenty of reason for to stop into Seward on an Alaska cruise adventure.
Seward is ground zero for the Klondike Gold Rush's Iditarod National Historic Trail, a dogsled route that connected the Kenai Peninsula’s ice-free port with Nome during frontier-era winters. Though the modern race makes a ceremonial start in Anchorage, it’s inspired by the famous run of 1925, which dashed along parts of this older path. It allowed 20 mushers to carry urgently needed diphtheria vaccine more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) in just over 127 hours.
Native Alaskans and explorers from Russia, Britain and the United States frequented this area before Seward’s official founding in 1903. The early settlement included a colorful neighborhood known as Homebrew Alley which was erased by a 9.2-magnitude megathrust earthquake. Known as the Good Friday earthquake, it was the second most powerful ever recorded and dropped the shoreline nearly six feet in 1964.
Today this mellow town welcomes visitors to Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park, along with the impressive 204-kilometer (127-mile) Seward Highway—honored as an All-American Road—stretching north to Anchorage. On a Seward cruise tour, visit some of the town’s most popular sites such as the Alaska SeaLife Center, a research aquarium open to the public, and the steep, stony 920-meter (3,018-foot) Mount Marathon, which hosts one of America’s oldest footraces each Fourth of July.
