Ketchikan Pub Crawl — Attraction in Ketchikan

What a blast! This was our favorite tour of the entire cruise.

We met Cullen at The Mill in Ward Cove. He transported our small group to Downtown Ketchikan while giving us a rundown of the facts and colorful history of the area. As we were passing McDonald's, we just had to ask if there was a dollar menu. Nope. However, they do have a value meal for $18. All of it was surprising to me. Even traveling around Alaska by air can be challenging.

We were introduced to Hamish when arriving at our first pub stop in front of The Asylum. We couldn't have asked for a better tour guide. He was awesome! He gave us such great details about the pubs we were visiting as well as the history of Ketchikan. All while enjoying our drinks. We even had a few shots along the way. This tour led us to 3 historical (and very popular) bars: The Asylum, Artic Bar, and Sourdough Bar. I liked them all, but my absolute favorite was The Asylum. The owner is very upbeat & passionate about his bar. That's truly what makes it unique. Although, I will say that the Bear Scat at the Sourdough is right up there with the Duck Fart. Haha!!

We also learned a little more about Hamish at the Arctic Bar. He's a popular guy, and an Alaskan native (born & raised). His roots may be Scottish, but he had some really great local stories to tell. I won't ruin it for you. Just take the tour. You...

PUB CRAWL: 7/13/24

Cullen and Savannah were awesome! Get that girl a drink!

Cullen was personable and informative on the drive to the first bar. He even had a little step stool for us shorties to use to get into and out of the van. I’m disabled and was concerned about the walk from pub #2 to #3 (not far at all but I didn’t have my wheelchair). Right away Cullen let me know that he’d be available and to call if I needed him to pick me up at any point. It ended up being fine but I did notice that Cullen snuck into the 2nd bar while we were hanging out and was just quietly available if needed.

The locals were kind and welcoming at each of the bars and would greet us with “HELLO pub crawlers!” The local beer I tried was super tasty, as were the specialty mixed drinks offered.

Savannah was friendly and knowledgeable. Her tidbits of info about each stop were interesting (especially the firebug Fire Chief in women’s clothes!) and she kept things going at a good pace. I loved seeing her art and think it should definitely be featured on some sort of merch.

That’s the only thing that was maybe missing: an opportunity to support your business in some other way that could maybe be a souvenir (coasters, commemorative glass, T-shirt, etc).

You were my first pub crawl ever and I’d gladly go back again and recommend to anyone...

We went on the 9am tour from the NCL Bliss. Nothing like starting the morning with some drinks. The start of the tour was very organized at the Paper Mill. Austin was our driver of Pub Force 1. 😉 It was a short drive into town where we met up with our guide, PJ. PJ was a blast! He was very knowledgeable about the bars we were visiting and included some visual aids of historical pics. PJ was fun to have lead us around and very patient with such a large group (17 - his largest ever). The bars we went to were the Sourdough Cocktail Bar, the Temple Bar, and the Artic Bar (aka Happy Bear). I loved that they gave us 3 drink options at every bar (1 cocktail, 1 lighter beer, 1 stronger beer). I enjoyed the cocktails, but my partner did the beers. The cocktails were a Tequila mule with sugar straw, Vodka Lemonade with Eddy's Sweet Tea Vodka and a Vodka Arnold Palmer type cocktail. We also appreciated that the beer options were local beers. Support Craft Brewing! The tour itself was just the right amount of drinking, culture and seeing a bit of Ketchikan. We definitely would have been up for a longer tour with more bars included. Maybe next time?! Perfect tour for the non-adventurous...