7 things to do in Seward Alaska without a car (before a cruise, or after!) free + easy walking + tour + in the rain

Hi there!

There are basically 2 main reasons to go to Seward.

You want to go to Seward so you can go to one of Alaska’s national parks, which would be Kenai Fjords National Park. There are ways you can see the national park in Seward without a car.

And the other reason to go to Seward is to start a 7-day Alaska cruise! 😁 In 2025, the major cruise lines that have cruises from Seward are Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.

There are also cruises to Seward so that you can end your cruise in Seward too.

If your cruise starts in Seward, then you can do 1 or 2 of these things before your cruise on the day you get on the cruise ship. (Or maybe more, depending on what you choose!)

Similarly, if your cruise ends in Seward, you can do these things after your cruise on the day you get off the cruise ship.

Spend a night in Seward, and you can experience the best of Seward in 2 days.

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I was in Seward in September when things were starting to shut down for the season. If you’re going to Seward in September, it’s important to see if the things you want to do are actually available. On the flip side, the hotels prices do come down quite a bit, especially starting in the second week of September (ish).

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I stayed at the Swan Nest Inn in Seward, which is a bed and breakfast with a community kitchen and luggage storage available.

The Harbor 360 waterfront hotel and the Windsong Lodge near the national park are among the most popular places to stay in Seward, but they are expensive.

“Cheaper” stays (it’s all relative!) that I was also looking at that had good reviews but weren’t nearly as expensive at the Harbor 360 or Windsong Lodge were: the Taildragger Inn, the Sea Treasures Inn, the Trailhead Lodging, the and the Seward Adventure Lodge.

Now, here are the things in Seward you need to know about!

1. Exit Glacier (shuttle or taxi)

Exit Glacier is the glacier you can see in Kenai Fjords National Park from land on your own.

The cheapest way to go to Kenai Fjords National Park without a tour is by taking the Exit Glacier shuttle.

All Alaska national parks have free national park entry, so the cost of the shuttle will be your only expense for this. In 2024, it was $20 round trip to go to Exit Glacier.

You can also arrange a taxi to Exit Glacier, which will be more expensive. The cost of a Seward taxi to Exit Glacier is around $80 round trip.

The shuttle or taxi will drop you off at the Exit Glacier Nature Center, and from there you can hike to the Exit Glacier overlook, which is the easier trail. Then you can also hike to the outwash plain for different view of the glacier.

If you want a solid day hike (and you are properly prepared for hiking it!), then the Harding Icefield Trail is THE hike to do in Kenai Fjords National Park on your own.

Plenty of people do the Harding Icefield Trail on their own, but you can also do it as a guided icefield hike in Kenai Fjords National Park.

👆 Exit Glacier is an easy glacier to see from land by taking a shuttle or taxi. This is a view of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park from the outwash plain.
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There is some uphill on the Exit Glacier overlook trail, but the trail itself is not that long.

On the shuttle ride back, I was with a group. One person in the group said to her friends something like, “You barely broke a sweat on that hike, right?” One of her friends responded, “Oh I did.” 🤣

So basically it can go both ways.

You will be hiking uphill for a little bit of it, which is the “difficult” part. But this doesn’t continue for too long, so in that sense, it’s not too hard of a trail. So overall, you might feel it’s a relatively easy hike.

👆 You’ll hike through a forest to get to the Exit Glacier overlook.

👆 The Exit Glacier overlook trail opens up so you can see the glacier!

👆 After you’ve seen the glacier from the overlook, you can follow the signs back to the parking lot and the outwash plain. Heed all warning signs! They are there for a reason!

You’ll book your shuttle through the Exit Glacier shuttle website.

You will need to choose a pick-up time in both directions if you want to book a round trip shuttle. Their recommended time frame if you’ll be doing the glacier overlook trail is 2 hours.

The 2 hours worked out for me. In the 2 hours, I was able to hike to the Exit Glacier overlook, and then walk out onto the Exit Glacier Outwash Plain to get a glacier view from there too. (Recommend!) I ended up with enough time that I would have been able to also spend at least 10-15 minutes in the Exit Glacier Nature Center if it was open.

I didn’t get to go to the Exit Glacier Nature Center since it was closed. Overall I did feel like maybe 3 hours would have been nice just in case, and that would have also given me more time to walk around the outwash plain without feeling like I need to leave soon to make it back.

The nature center was closed after Labor Day in 2024. The Kenai Fjords National Park visitor center in town was still open to get national park brochures and a national park passport stamp!

In 2024, the last day of the Exit Glacier shuttle was Sunday, September 8.

For a more adventurous time at Exit Glacier, you must consider glacier ice hiking in Kenai Fjords National Park!

2. Waterfront Park (free easy walking on your own)

The Waterfront Park has a walking trail along the Seward shoreline, and this makes it one of the best easy walks to do when you are in Seward!

There are many access points for the waterfront trail, and you can walk along the beach too. This is a rocky beach. It can be helpful to have shoes with thicker soles (like hiking shoes for Alaska!) so you won’t feel the roughness on your feet as much.

👆 There’s an easy waterfront walking trail in Seward.

👆 You can walk to Obihiro Park along the waterfront trail.

If you’ll have a chance to be in the area again in a few hours, then be sure to make note of the water level!

Seward has a big and noticeable tidal swing. Depending on low tide or high tide, you’ll see a lot of the beach, or not at all! It’s interesting to see the difference. At high tide, you may not see the earthquake ruins of Seward, but at low tide, you can see it much better!

Sometimes, you might see some marine critters, although I did not during my walk along the beach. It’s something you may want to look out for though.

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I did see fun things at the beach in Icy Strait Point cruise port and even a beach in Juneau on one of the easy Juneau walks that I did! And ever since then, I try to look out for things!

👆 There is a free shuttle in Seward that goes around town on a 30 minute loop. There is also a shuttle stop near the cruise port. You can walk to the waterfront trail from the cruise port, or you can take a shuttle to it!

👆 Walking around downtown Seward!
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3. Kenai Fjords National Park tour (popular excursion)

Another one of the best ways to see the national park in Seward is to do a Kenai Fjords National Park tour by boat!

You will get to see at least one glacier by doing a tour that’s at least 6 hours long, which I highly recommend.

There is a 4 hour tour that is cheaper, but you won’t get to see a glacier. If you know you want to do a boat tour, then be sure to do one that includes a glacier viewing!

The 4 hour Resurrection Bay tour is mostly seen as a wildlife tour. You’ll likely get to see wildlife on any boat tour you do in Kenai Fjords National Park, since there’s a lot of wildlife in the national park waters. (Although, wildlife is wild, and it’s never guaranteed!)

The most popular glacier tour is the the 6 hour Kenai Fjords National Park tour. You will have time to do this tour immediately before your cruise from Seward or immediately after your cruise to Seward.

This tour is also timed to work with the train schedule between Anchorage and Seward in both directions.

The train between Seward and Anchorage is one of the best train trips to do in Alaska!

👆 If you’re going to do a Kenai Fjords boat tour, do a tour that’s at minimum 6 hours long so that you can see a glacier!

👆 One of the glaciers you might see during a 6 hour Kenai Fjords National Park tour is the Holgate Glacier.

The tour companies that offer the 6 hour national park tour are Major Marine and Alaska Collection.

Major Marine lists a luggage storage option during the tour under the FAQ, and I would expect the same from the Alaska Collection, although you’ll want to confirm.

If you will be in Seward early enough, then Major Marine offers a 7.5 hour Kenai Fjords National Park tour. I did this one because it goes to 2 glaciers! This tour starts at 9:30am, which is before the train from Anchorage arrives.

👆 Another one of the glaciers you might see during a 6 hour Kenai Fjords National Park tour is the Aialik Glacier. If you do the 7.5 hours Kenai Fjords tour with Major Marine, you will see both Holgate Glacier and Aialik Glacier!

👆 You can get beautiful views in Kenai Fjords National Park waters even if it’s overcast!
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4. Two Lakes Park (in the rain + free easy walking to waterfalls)

If you want to see waterfalls in Seward, then it’s an easy walk to see waterfalls in Two Lakes Park!

On the southern end of the park, it’s just a short walk to the waterfalls. (map)

👆 There is an easy hiking trail to see waterfalls in Seward.

And then after you’ve seen the waterfalls, you can continue on the Two Lakes Trail to do a walk through the forest. From the waterfalls, I walked on the eastern side of the park.

Two Lakes Trail can be a good activity to do even if it’s raining in Seward.

👆 Two Lakes Trail is a good activity to do if you’re looking for things to do in Seward in the rain.

👆 Two Lakes Trail is an easy hike through the forest.

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What I was originally thinking about doing was walking to Lowell Point and Miller’s Landing. But I asked the host at the bed and breakfast I was staying at to see if it would be fine to do that in the rain, and… she basically indicated it wouldn’t be a very good idea because the road to get there was questionable. There was actually a landslide along Lowell Point Road a couple years ago. So instead, I did Two Lakes Trail, and went to the Mount Marathon trailhead along the way.

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5. Gold Rush Bistro (Alaska food)

Even coming from Anchorage, I had a bit of sticker shock in looking at the restaurant prices!

I figured it would be like $50 at a “regular” restaurant for what I’d order with tip.

After reading the reviews on google maps, my restaurant of choice would have been Gold Rush Bistro in downtown Seward to have halibut fish tacos. (reviews)

But when I went, I discovered it was closed for the season. I guess I saved some money. 🤣

I ended up just getting some easy to prepare food (aka heat up) at the health food store called the Frontier Trading Post (reviews) in downtown Seward a few minutes walk from where I was staying.

There is also a Subway in Seward for cheaper food. This is on the harbor/cruise port side of town.

6. Iditarod National Historic Trail

The Iditarod is the 1,000 mile route with a sled dog race history that connects communities throughout Alaska from Seward to the city of Nome.

You can see signs and statues along the waterfront trail in Seward about the history of the iditarod. This is part of the Iditarod National Historic Trail.

👆 You can see mile marker 0 of the 1910 Seward to Nome route on the Iditarod National Historic Trail in Alaska.

👆 The Iditarod National Historic Trail is a part of the Kenai Mountains Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area heritage site. You can read about the history as you walk the waterfront trail in Seward.

👆 There is a national historic trail in Seward.

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You can get more of a hands on experience with dog sledding in Alaska by doing a wilderness dog sled ride in Seward.

For the ultimate Alaska dog sledding experience in the summer, you need to do dog sledding on a glacier! Since it’s summer, it means you have to fly to the glacier so you can go dog sledding on snow! This means you will also get a scenic flight of the mountains of Alaska. (And thus the higher cost.)

7. Coastal Classic train

The train between Anchorage and Seward is one of the best train trips in Alaska to do!

The Coastal Classic is the name of the train on the Alaska Railroad that goes between Anchorage and Seward.

👆 The Coastal Classic train that goes between Seward and Anchorage is a scenic ride!
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👆 If you want to take tons of pictures during the train ride from Anchorage to Seward, then you will love the observation deck of the gold star service! It also comes with a meal. Otherwise, the adventure class is the basic and cheaper ticket.

The train timing works out so that you can take the train from Anchorage to Seward on the day your cruise starts.

Similarly, you can take the train to Anchorage from Seward on the day your cruise ends.

The train timings also work out to be able to do the 6-hour Kenai Fjords National Park tour whether or not you will be doing an Alaska cruise!

In 2024, the last day of the train between Anchorage and Seward was September 15. You can check the Coastal Classic train schedule.

An alternative way to get between Anchorage and Seward without a car is by shuttle bus. The 2 biggest companies that offer a Seward shuttle are ACT and Park Connection. These shuttles cater to cruise ship passengers, but anyone can book them.

If you are on the last NCL cruise from Seward of the 2024 Alaska cruise season, I understand that NCL is offering a shuttle from Anchorage to Seward on the day of.

For 2025, you can also get a Seward to Anchorage cruise transfer after your cruise to Seward that includes stops with highlights.

Similarly for a cruise from Seward, you can get an Anchorage to Seward cruise transfer with highlights.

I went from Anchorage to Seward by train. Since I wasn’t staying at a hotel that included luggage delivery straight from the train, I used Dighton luggage storage. He was at the train station when the train arrived, and I handed off my luggage. Just a short while later, I received a phone call saying my bags were at the bed and breakfast I was staying at! In the meantime, I was on my way to the Exit Glacier shuttle!

I used ACT to get from Seward to Girdwood. (I emailed them to ask if they would make a stop in Girdwood on their Seward to Anchorage shuttle.)

HAPPY PLANNING YOUR TRAVEL TO SEWARD!