Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Glacier Bay is one of America's great wild frontiers: a vast, roadless expanse of tidewater glaciers, fjords, rainforest and open water in the panhandle of southeast Alaska. Just 250 years ago this whole bay was buried under a single immense glacier; that ice has retreated dramatically, revealing a landscape so young that plants are still colonising the newly bared rock. It is a living lesson in how land recovers after ice.

A park you meet from the water

There are no roads into the park's interior and almost no trails; Glacier Bay is experienced from the deck of a boat. Many visitors arrive by cruise ship, gliding past blue-white glacier faces that occasionally calve into the sea with a crack like thunder. Others base themselves at Bartlett Cove, the park's only developed corner, and take a day boat deeper into the bay. Humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, seals, sea lions and brown bears all thrive here. For a UK family, it is a genuine bucket-list encounter with Alaska at its wildest, best appreciated slowly, from the water, with binoculars in hand.

You come to Glacier Bay to watch a glacier calve into the sea and to feel the sheer, humbling scale of wild Alaska. This is not a park you hike; it is one you drift through, and that unhurried pace is exactly the point. Teenagers who have never seen a whale tend to fall silent when a humpback breaches beside the boat, or when a wall of ancient blue ice cracks and crashes into the water. The wildlife here is extraordinary, and the sense of remoteness is total; there are no crowds, no roads, no phone signal to distract from it. For a family flying the long way from London, it rewards the effort with a landscape that feels genuinely untouched, and memories that no theme park could ever manufacture.

Glacier Bay has virtually no roads and almost no trails, so getting around means getting on the water. The park's interior, its glaciers and fjords, can only be reached by boat: either a cruise ship passing through, or the day boat tour that departs from Bartlett Cove and heads deep into the bay to the tidewater glaciers. On land, activity is confined to the small developed area around Bartlett Cove, where a handful of gentle forest and shore trails connect the lodge, campground and visitor centre. There is a short road between Gustavus and Bartlett Cove, but no driving route into the park proper. Kayaking is popular for the adventurous, often with a drop-off from the day boat. In short, plan your visit around boat schedules rather than a car.

There is no meaningful road-based public transport at Glacier Bay, and no need for a hire car in the usual sense, because the park is water-based. Getting there relies on scheduled flights and ferries into Gustavus, or on a cruise-ship itinerary. Once at Bartlett Cove, everything centres on the lodge and the day boat, all within walking distance, so a car is largely unnecessary. A local shuttle or taxi may cover the short hop from Gustavus airport to Bartlett Cove. For a UK family, the practical model is fly-and-boat, not drive.

• Most people see Glacier Bay from a cruise ship; if that is your plan, choose an itinerary that actually enters the bay, as not all Alaska cruises do.
• To go independently, base at Bartlett Cove and take the day boat tour deep into the bay for the best glacier and wildlife viewing.
• Pack binoculars and a decent zoom lens; wildlife is often at a distance across the water.
• Dress in warm waterproof layers even in summer; boat decks are cold and often wet.
• Book the lodge or campground at Bartlett Cove well ahead, as options are extremely limited.
• Ranger-led boat programmes are excellent for families; the naturalists spot wildlife you would miss.
• The forest trails around Bartlett Cove are gentle and good for stretching legs between boat trips.

Glacier Bay sits in a cool, wet coastal rainforest climate, so pack for rain whatever the season. Summers (June to August) are the mildest and driest window, though temperatures rarely climb much beyond the mid-teens Celsius, and rain is common; think warm waterproof layers, a fleece, a woolly hat and gloves for exposed boat decks. Spring and autumn are cooler and wetter still. Winters are dark, cold and largely inaccessible for visitors. Even on a bright summer day, the wind off the glaciers is bitter, so layer up, keep a waterproof to hand and bring binoculars protected from the spray.

Glacier Bay is one of the harder US parks to reach independently, which keeps it wonderfully uncrowded. From the UK there are no direct options; most families connect through Seattle to Juneau (JNU), the regional hub of southeast Alaska. From Juneau you take a short scenic flight or a ferry across to the small community of Gustavus (GST), which sits right beside the park entrance at Bartlett Cove. The simplest route of all is to visit by cruise ship: many Inside Passage sailings enter Glacier Bay for a day of glacier viewing, requiring no separate logistics at all. If you are going independently, arrange your Gustavus flights, lodging and boat tour well in advance, as capacity is tiny. There are no roads connecting the park to the wider Alaskan road network.