My wife and I have booked a cruise holiday with Princess Cruises to Alaska, calling in at Ketchikan, Juneau & Skagway. We haven’t been on a cruise before, and there are so many shore excursions to choose from, and we don't know which are best. Can you help? Ram Kannan, by email

Sunday Times travel expert, Richard Green, responds: You’ve certainly picked a wonderfully spectacular setting for your first voyage. Now the trick is to make sure you get the most from the three ports of call as well. You’ll be at anchor for between eight and twelve hours, and with 40 possible shore excursions at each, it’s a bewildering choice.

Your first port is Ketchikan, the southernmost in Alaska, and a pretty frontier town. You should book an excursion to the Totem Bight State Park here, which has the largest collection of totem poles in the world. After, you can see the results of mixing timber with testosterone at a lumberjack demonstration, with fierce competition at log sawing, axe throwing and tree climbing. The tour is called Totems & Lumberjack Combo.

With its spectacular mountain backdrop, Juneau is the handsome state capitol of Alaska. The Mendenhall Glacier is part of the 1,500 square mile Juneau ice field and a visit is a highlight of the cruise. The Glacier Explorer tour takes you on walking trails by Lake Mendenhall, where you’ll see the vast snout inching into water. Or you could take the helicopter tour and walk on the high altitude ice shelf. Either way you’ll have time to ride the cable car that leaves from the port to the almost 4,000ft summit of Mount Roberts.

Skagway is a gold rush town, and if you can squeeze in one more shot of scenery, book a ride on the White Pass Railroad. It was built in 1898 to transport men and machinery to the Klondike Gold Rush, and the views from the parlour style carriages are breathtaking.

To book, or for more information, contact Princess Cruises on 0845 3555 800, or visit www.princesscruises.co.uk

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