BC Ferries operate the MV Queen of Prince Rupert A  to Skidegate on the Queen Charlotte Islands daily except Tuesday from July to September at 11am (except Mon 9pm), four times a week the rest of the year (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri), a crossing that takes between 6hr 30min and 8hr (depending on weather) and costs $25 ($20 low season: late Sept to early June) one-way for foot passengers (plus $93 high/$76 low season for cars and $6 for bikes). Return ferries from Skidegate operate daily except Sunday, leaving at 11pm and arriving at 7.30am except on some summer Fridays and Saturdays, when the boat docks earlier to provide a connection with the Inside Passage boat to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island . For reservations or timetable information, contact Prince Rupert's infocentre or BC Ferries direct on tel 386-3431 (or 1-888/223-3779 anywhere in BC).

Ferries to Port Hardy leave every other day in summer at 7.30am (even-numbered days in June, July, Sept and first half of Oct, odd-numbered days in Aug) and once a week in winter for a stunning fifteen-hour cruise that costs $106 one-way for drivers or walk-on passengers (shoulder mid-March to mid-May $75, low season mid-Jan to mid-March $56). Bikes cost $6.50. To take on a car ($218/$154/$116; all excluding driver or passengers) you'll need to have booked at least two months in advance .

The Alaska Marine Highway (tel 627-1744 or 1-800/642-0066) ferries run to Skagway (via some or all of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Hyder, Stewart, Juneau, Haines and Hollis) almost daily in July and August, four times a week for the rest of the summer and in spring and autumn, and twice a week in winter (to Ketchikan, passengers US$38, vehicles US$75; to Juneau, passengers US$104, vehicles US$240; to Haines, passengers US$122, vehicles US$276; to Skagway, passengers US$130, vehicles US$285). Two- or four-berth cabins can also be booked: current prices for a two-berth cabin from Prince Rupert are as follows: Bellingham (US$142), Juneau (US$83), Haines (US$105), Skagway (US$105). Boats stop frequently en route, with the chance to go ashore for a short time, though longer stopovers must be arranged when buying a through-ticket. For all Alaskan sailings turn up at least an hour before departure to go through US customs and immigration procedures if you're a foot passenger, and three hours if you have a car, and note that though the journey takes two days there are various restrictions on the fresh food you can take on board. You may find you can't make telephone or credit-card bookings, and have to pay in person for tickets at the terminal ticket office (May-Sept daily 9am-4pm and 2hr either side of sailings; on days of sailings the rest of the year). Fares are 25 percent lower between October and April.