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Sitka
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Photo by Cullen328, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Sitka

United States · North America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Sitka

Tap a month for its page

  1. Sitka in January: avoid
  2. Sitka in February: avoid
  3. Sitka in March: avoid
  4. Sitka in April: avoid
  5. Sitka in May: sweet spot
  6. Sitka in June: sweet spot
  7. Sitka in July: sweet spot, busy
  8. Sitka in August: avoid
  9. Sitka in September: avoid
  10. Sitka in October: avoid
  11. Sitka in November: avoid
  12. Sitka in December: avoid
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in May–Jul — these months score within a whisker of each other; 14C max, 16 rainy days.

Things to do in Sitka

  • Mt. Edgecumbe A dormant volcano that looks like Mt. Fuji, looms in the background and dominates views to the west.
  • Castle Hill Baranof Castle State Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark.
  • Sitka National Historical Park There is no food service or lodging in this park.
  • Fortress of the Bear A non-profit bear refuge and education center in Sitka, Alaska
  • Alaska Raptor Center Bald eagles and other raptors from all over the Western United States are treated at this 17-acre facility.
  • Blue Lake A 3-mile-long reservoir six miles east of Sitka.
  • Saint Lazaria Wilderness Can be seen by boat tour.

Tours and tickets in Sitka

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Sitka), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 3° 20d 83% 2.2h avoid monsoon: 20 rainy days, 351mm
Feb 2° 16d 81% 4.2h avoid monsoon: 16 rainy days, 270mm
Mar 4° 17d 80% 6.1h avoid monsoon: 17 rainy days, 227mm
Apr 7° 17d 81% 7.6h avoid monsoon: 17 rainy days, 211mm
May 11° 17d 85% 8.4h sweet spot 11C max, 17 rainy days
Jun 14° 16d 87% 8.7h sweet spot 14C max, 16 rainy days
Jul 16° 16d 90% 8.7h sweet spot busy busier than usual
Aug 17° 17d 89% 8.1h avoid monsoon: 17 rainy days, 230mm
Sep 14° 18d 86% 6.5h avoid monsoon: 18 rainy days, 330mm
Oct 10° 21d 86% 4.2h avoid monsoon: 21 rainy days, 436mm
Nov 5° 20d 84% 2.5h avoid monsoon: 20 rainy days, 366mm
Dec 3° 20d 84% 1.9h avoid monsoon: 20 rainy days, 392mm

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the town, on the harbour: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in January, July and August; quietest in April, October and December.

Then and now

Sitka's November days now average 5.4°C, 2.2°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 1 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–902.2°1.8°4.3°6.7°10.7°14.1°16.1°16.2°13.8°8.9°3.2°2.0°
2017–263.2°2.4°3.8°6.9°10.7°14.2°16.2°16.8°14.4°9.7°5.4°3.2°
Change+1.0°+0.6°-0.5°+0.2°+0.1°+0.0°+0.1°+0.6°+0.6°+0.8°+2.2°+1.2°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Sitka is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the United states dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for United States: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay work almost everywhere, though a few small places take cash only. Keep some $1 and $5 notes for tips; Venmo and PayPal are for locals.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Expected: 15–20% in sit-down restaurants (18–20% is standard in New York) and 10–20% for taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers. Large groups may find it already on the bill.

Getting around Sitka

  • Apps — Rides: Lyft, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp. In San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and some other cities you can also book a driverless Waymo in its own app.

The downtown area of Sitka can be explored by foot. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Sitka, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (50)

Sitka in pictures

Sitka 84 Elev 135
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Gillfoto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Sitka is like

Sitka is a city of about 9,000 on the Pacific Ocean coast of Baranof Island in Alaska. First settled by Tlingit Aboriginal people, Sitka also has history as a Russian settlement, established in 1799 by Alexander Baranoff of the Russian American Company, which became the Russian capital of Alaska. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
Sitka National Historical Park, 106 Metlakatla St. Open year-round: mid-May through September daily 8AM–5PM; October through mid-May: Mon–Sat 8AM–5PM; closed on Federal holidays during the winter months. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
Tongass Troll, Tours & Taxi LLC, 617 Katlian St. Go saltwater sport fishing with a friendly local instead of with an over-priced 'monster' lodge. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
On the outer waters of Alaska's Inside Passage, on Baranof Island, Sitka is accessible only by air and by sea. Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (SIT IATA), 605 Airport Rd. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Sitka, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Sitka

Also in United States

Nearby

Kind of place

Sitka is in United States, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and holiday data before any link is built.