A more thoughtful way to experience Alaska
About The Alaska Edit
The Alaska Edit is a curated travel resource for people who want to experience Alaska with more clarity, confidence, and depth.
The Alaska Edit is a curated Alaska travel resource by Mary Jacquel, created to help travelers plan Alaska trips with more clarity, confidence, and local perspective. Here you’ll find thoughtful destination guides, cruise port advice, and practical planning insight shaped by firsthand experience living in Alaska year-round.
Why I created The Alaska Edit
I created The Alaska Edit because I wanted there to be a more refined, trustworthy, and experience-led way to plan Alaska travel.
Not louder. Not more content for content’s sake. Just better guidance.
The goal here is not to overwhelm you with every possible option. It is to help you make smarter decisions, find places that fit the kind of trip you actually want, and understand Alaska with more nuance before you arrive.
You’ll find destination guides, practical planning advice, and articles designed to answer the questions real travelers have — from what to book in advance to how to think about cruise ports, itineraries, timing, logistics, and the differences between places that can all blur together from afar.
What makes this different
The Alaska Edit is not built to be a generic travel blog.
It is built on firsthand experience, original perspective, and an editorial point of view.
Since I live here year round, my perspective is a little different than the generic information sites.
That means:
I write from lived familiarity, not just research
I focus on helping you make decisions, not just consume inspiration (although, I hope my photos and stories inspire you!)
I care about what is true on the ground, not just what sounds good in a headline
I believe Alaska deserves more than copy-and-paste travel advice
My aim is to create something more human: a resource with judgment, taste, and context.
Not everything here is about seeing more. Some of it is about seeing more clearly.
Who this is for
The Alaska Edit is for travelers who want more than a quick list of tourist stops.
It is for people who want to understand the differences between destinations, make better choices with limited time, and experience Alaska in a way that feels informed, memorable, and well considered.
You may be here because you are:
planning your first trip to Alaska
arriving on a cruise and trying to use your port time well
deciding between destinations like Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, or Denali
looking for practical guidance that still feels personal and well curated
trying to avoid wasting time on generic advice that could apply anywhere
If that sounds like you, you are in the right place.
My perspective on Alaska
Alaska is not one thing.
It is not just glaciers, or wildlife, or cruise ports, or wilderness, or mountains, though it is all of those too. It is a place of contrast and scale. A place where logistics matter, weather changes plans, and one decision can shape the entire feel of a trip.
That is part of why I care so much about helping people plan well.
A trip to Alaska often carries real weight. For many travelers, it is expensive, long anticipated, and not something they will do again anytime soon. I take that seriously. My goal is to help you spend your time here in a way that feels informed and worthwhile — with fewer generic recommendations and more grounded guidance on what fits your priorities.
What you’ll find here
On The Alaska Edit, you’ll find:
destination guides to places like Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, and Denali
practical planning articles on topics like timing, transportation, packing, and booking strategy
perspective-driven pieces to help you understand how different Alaska experiences compare
original photography and visual storytelling that bring more specificity to the planning process
Over time, my goal is for this to become one of the most trusted and useful editorial resources for Alaska travel online.
Start here
Hi, I’m Mary
I live in Alaska and created The Alaska Edit to help travelers move beyond the usual broad-strokes advice and into something more grounded, beautiful, and genuinely helpful.
I’ve spent years experiencing Alaska not just as a destination, but as my home. I live in Juneau, Alaska year-round and throughout my time here, I’ve found this state to be a place with texture, rhythm, tradeoffs, and extraordinary variety.
I’ve photographed it, traveled through it, and built a body of work around seeing it closely. I also bring a perspective shaped by professional experience in Alaska travel and commercial strategy, which means I think not only about what is inspiring, but also about how people actually plan, book, move through, and experience this state.
That combination matters to me.
Because Alaska is not a place best understood through generic lists alone. It helps to know what a place feels like, what kind of traveler it suits, what is worth booking ahead, what can wait, what is overhyped, and what might quietly become the part you remember most
If you are new here, consider starting with destination guides, my latest journal entries or what to pack. If you’re in the early planning stage of your Alaska trip, sign up for my emails below and I’ll send thoughtful pieces to help along your planning process.
Alaska is extraordinary, but it is even better when you understand it a little before you arrive.
That’s what The Alaska Edit is here to help you do.