The Most Scenic Ferry Rides in the U.S.

By Laura MacNeil
April 23, 2009
The Seattle to Bainbridge Island ferry
Courtesy Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau
From Alaska to Maine, these remarkable trips bring you within gawking distance of some of America's greatest natural and man-made treasures.

Alaska Marine Highway System
Leaves from: Juneau's Auke Bay Terminal
Alaska's ferries cover 3,500 miles of coastline, but the 150-mile voyage across the Inside Passage from Juneau to Sitka is extraordinary. The 10-hour trip takes you past humpback whales, sea otters, black bears, pristine spruce and hemlock forests, and the sprawling, blue-tinged Mendenhall Glacier. In clear weather you can see the spectacular peaks of the Coast Mountains. The ship's outdoor heated solarium lets you bask in the views while fending off cold winds; indoors, the ship's cafeteria serves local salmon and beer brewed in Alaska.
Can I bring a car? Yes
Cost: Adults $45 one way, kids $23, cars $79
More info: dot.state.ak.us
Photos: 1 of 3

Seattle to Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Leaves from: Seattle Main Terminal, Pier 52
Glide past sailboats and cruise liners on this quick hop across Puget Sound, with views of Seattle's skyline and the snow-covered flanks of the Cascade Range. Weather permitting, you can even make out the 14,410-foot peak of Mount Rainier, about 100 miles away. Disembark on Bainbridge and spend the day exploring the island's hiking trails and downtown cafés (try the caramel pecan French toast at Café Nola), then time your return trip to watch the dusk settle over Puget Sound, and the city itself.
Can I bring a car? Yes. And to get to Bainbridge's hiking trails, you'll need one. You can also pick up a cab at the dock, but you might have a hard time getting back.
Cost: Adults $6.75 one way, kids $5.50, cars, $11.50, bikes $1
More info: wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/
Photos: 1 of 4

Staten Island Ferry, New York City
Leaves from: Whitehall Terminal
See classic views of the city's skyline and the Statue of Liberty from the decks of this massive, bright-orange passenger ferry. Depart from Manhattan about an hour before sunset, grab a soft pretzel and a beer from the snack bar, find your sweet spot on the multi-decked vessel, and enjoy the show. Then hitch a ride on the next ferry back as darkness falls and the city's skyscrapers light up, and do it all over again.
Can I bring a car? No
Cost: Free
More info: nyc.gov
Photos: 1 of 3

Bar Harbor to Winter Harbor, Maine
Leaves from: Bar Harbor Inn Pier
On this short excursion to Winter Harbor, a picturesque fishing village on Maine's remote Schoodic Peninsula, a 40-seat powerboat winds through clusters of lighthouse-topped rocky islets in Frenchman Bay. Free up space on your digital camera, because you might also catch glimpses of seals, porpoises, and bald eagles—and fabulous photos of Acadia National Park's spruce forests and granite shores are virtually guaranteed.
Can I bring a car? No
Cost: Adults $30 round trip, kids $19.50, bikes $6
When: June 23–Aug. 31
More info: downeastwindjammer.com
Photos: 1 of 2

San Francisco to Sausalito, Calif.
Leaves from: San Francisco Ferry Terminal
It's about 30 minutes one-way on this ferry from San Francisco to Sausalito. The ferry sells wine and beer, so you can toast good times with friends as you skirt past Alcatraz Island and take in the views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Get off the ferry at Sausalito and walk among the town's cute art galleries and shops or stop for fresh seafood at the many waterfront restaurants. Cyclists can bring bikes (yes, the ferry has bike racks) and tour Sausalito's colorful hillside homes before pedaling back across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Can I bring a car? No
Cost: Adult $7.50 one way, kids 6–18 and seniors $3.75, bikes free
More info: goldengateferry.org
Photos: 1 of 3

Halls Crossing, Lake Powell, Utah
Leaves from: Halls Crossing
This 25-minute run in a simple, flat-bottom ferry to Bullfrog Marina links the northern and southern sections of Utah's State Highway 276. On this serene stretch of Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world, watch the extraordinary glass-like reflections of orange Navajo sandstone formations and Utah's prevailing clear-blue skies.
Can I bring a car? Yes
Cost: Adults $5, kids under 5 and seniors free, cars $20 one way
More Info: udot.utah.gov
Photos: 1 of 1

Boston to Harbor Islands, Mass.
Leaves from: Boston's Long Wharf
The ferry to Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area might just be the best way to see Boston's skyline. The passenger-only catamaran has a snack bar serving beer—act fast if you're thirsty, because it's only 15 minutes to the first stop. Spectacle Island is a former landfill turned ecological park with five miles of walking trails and supervised swimming off a restored beach. The second stop, Georges Island, is home to Civil War-era Fort Warren. The scenic highlight of the route is a view of the last manned lighthouse (and oldest continually used lighthouse site) in the country: Boston Light on Little Brewster Island.
Can I bring a car? No
Cost: Adults $14 round trip, kids $8
When: May 9–Oct. 12
More info: harborexpress.com
Photos: 1 of 3

Plan Your Next Getaway
Keep reading

Chicago Booking Strategies

The newest option for affordable lodging is Roomorama, a Web marketplace for short-term rentals in Chicago and a few other cities. Any resident can list a share, an apartment, or a house for rent, and a rating system reveals what past guests thought of each rental. Guests secure their reservation by sending a credit card or PayPal payment to Roomorama. When a guest arrives on the scheduled date, he or she evaluates the lodging and gives the host a code supplied by Roomorama. The host plugs this code into Roomorama's website, and the company transfers the guest's payment to the host's account. If you would rather book a standard hotel, the blind-booking websites Hotwire and Priceline have proven themselves to be promising sources for discounted rooms in Chicago (and elsewhere). These two sites won't name the hotel (or airline or car-rental company) you're working with until your credit card has been charged. For Priceline, try a lowball bid, using BiddingForTravel.com as a guide. For Hotwire, be aware that the deepest discounts are generally for hotels that it rates "four stars." You'll find the most eye-catching deals by clicking on the "Deals" tab on the site's homepage. Of course, you face some uncertainty about where you're going to stay if you opt for either short-term rentals or blind-booking sites. You may want to instead go for a sure thing. Consider Budget Travel's picks for affordable, independently owned lodging with some personality, with doubles starting at $99 a night.

Three Affordable Mini Chains

YOTEL Where: Inside terminals at London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports (in Terminal 4), and Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The concept: Catering to those with a long layover, these glossy, no-nonsense capsule hotels are small but convenient for business travelers—or someone just looking for a nap and a shower. What you get: A windowless room (about 75 square feet) that looks like a cruise ship cabin—there's a shower, a TV, a fold-out work desk, and an overhead storage rack; Wi-Fi is free. Bonus: a 24-hour room-service menu of snacks and drinks delivered within 15 minutes. What it'll cost: There's a four-hour minimum, which costs about $36 for a standard cabin in the London locations. After that, pay by the hour (about $10). Premium cabins are probably better for shares—those start at $57 for four hours. yotel.com. QBIC Where: Antwerp, Belgium; Maastricht and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The concept: A completely self-service hotel. You check yourself in at the kiosk and buy everything with your hotel key card. What you get: In the center of each room is a Cubi, a 75-square-foot enclosed platform for the bed, a bar-like work-and-dine space, and the bathroom. The lighting is at your discretion—Mellow Yellow, Deep Purple Love—it's all pretty club-like. There's a vending machine in the lobby filled with drinks, locally made snacks such as organic bread, drinks, and things you may have forgotten—like neckties. What it'll cost: From $91. qbichotels.com. CITIZENM Where: Near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport and in central Amsterdam's posh Zuid neighborhood, which started taking guests this April. The concept: Keeping prices down by using prefabricated everything—the 150-square-foot rooms are built in a factory, stacked up, and then shot through with plumbing and electrical wiring. We wrote about citizenM in our February 2009 story on Boutique Hostels. What you get: Only single-bed rooms are offered, each with an ultramodern cylindrical shower. Use a control panel (called a moodpad) to manage the room temperature, blinds, alarm clock, stereo, and lighting—there are clever choices like "I'm here to party," with intense colored lighting and dance music. There's also a 24-hour self-service cafeteria; if you're craving a martini, a bartender is on duty in the evenings. What it'll cost: From $109. citizenm.com.

Are Carbon Offsets Worth It?

What's an offset?More than 20 organizations have online calculators that estimate your personal share of the heat-trapping gases tied to global warming. Once they give you a ballpark figure, the organizations tell you how much you'd need to donate to ecofriendly projects to prevent or stop companies from emitting a comparable amount. How harmful is air travel?No one knows for sure. Aviation may account for 2 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions. But most climate scientists believe that air travel has added warming effects because of jet contrails and nitrogen oxide emissions. And when considered by energy use per mile covered, planes eat up far more energy than buses and trains. Are offsets affordable?For the typical domestic trip, an offset costs less than $20 per person. For example, to offset a ½-ton of carbon dioxide, which is approximately what would be produced by a round-trip flight between Chicago and Miami, you could buy an offset for $6 from TerraPass. Do some organizations charge more than others to offset the same amount of greenhouse gases?Yes, prices to offset one ton of emissions vary from $3 to $33, according to a survey of 24 organizations. The reason: Some ecofriendly projects cost more than others. For instance, a landfill project that captures and destroys methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas, may be cheaper than one that replaces soot-producing stoves in a developing nation. How much does an offset accomplish?Scientists can only estimate the emissions that will be prevented if an energy source like a wind farm is used as an alternative to fossil fuels. So if an offset provider says that a project will make a specific number of pounds of greenhouse gases vanish, be skeptical. No one knows the benefit of an eco-project that precisely. If the uncertainty bothers you, you might feel more confident investing instead in home improvement, such as installing energy-efficient windows in your house. Who keeps these organizations honest?There's no governmental oversight of carbon offsets. But roughly a dozen organizations make evaluations. The best watchdog groups verify that an offset exists for no other reason than to reduce carbon dioxide levels, that it's verifiable and measurable, and that the benefit to the Earth is long lasting. As one step, many organizations keep registries to ensure that offsets are not sold multiple times, says Anja Kollmuss, a staff scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute and author of several carbon-offset studies. Which watchdog groups are the most trustworthy?Many are well regarded, but we'll single out two for special mention. The Gold Standard is backed by 60 nongovernmental organizations and was started in part by the World Wildlife Fund. It only approves energy-efficient projects, such as distributing power-saving appliances in developing nations, and renewable energy projects, such as building water power plants. It does not give its seal of approval to tree-planting projects out of concerns that reforestation may not directly reduce carbon dioxide concentrations. Offset providers Atmosfair, ClimateCare, and myclimate are among the companies with Gold Standard projects. Another helpful resource is the Carbon Offset List. Unlike the Gold Standard, this is a website created by a single organization, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and vetted with the help of independent experts. The Carbon Offset List highlights a dozen projects it deems trustworthy, from providers like Carbonfund.org, e-BlueHorizons, and TerraPass. Are offsets a way to justify a wasteful lifestyle?Like most things, an offset is what you make of it. An offset may serve as a last resort for reducing your carbon footprint after you've already made your trips as environmentally friendly as possible by taking direct flights, packing lighter, and renting a fuel-efficient car. How can I buy a reliable offset?Though offset companies may not let you put money toward a specific project, you can usually pick the type of program to subsidize, such as renewable energy creation, says Tom Murray, the managing director of corporate partnerships for the EDF. Some offset sellers, like myclimate, allow you to donate to only to projects certified by the Gold Standard.