The Port of Valdez is located on Prince William Sound about 25 nautical miles from the Gulf of Alaska in the far northwestern United States. About 490 kilometers east of Anchorage and 27 kilometers southeast of the Columbia Glacier, the Port of Valdez is North America's most northern port that is open all year. In 2000, over four thousand people called the Port of Valdez home.

In one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the Port of Valdez has been called the "Switzerland of Alaska." It is a tourism center for the glaciers, marine life, deep-sea fishing, and heli-skiing. It is also a commercial fishing and freight port serving interior Alaska. Ships load oil from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline at the Port of Valdez oil terminal.

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez grounded at Bligh Reef, about 40 kilometers from the port, as it left the Port of Valdez, spilling over 40 thousand cubic meters of oil. While it did not reach the Port of Valdez, the oil spill killed much marine life in the area and bankrupted the nearby Chugach tribe that depended on the sea for their livelihood.

Explorer Don Salvador Fidalgo named the Port of Valdez in 1790 when he claimed the territory for Spain. A scam brought settlers to the area in the late 19th Century. Gold prospectors were lured there, having been told the Valdez Glacier Trail would be a better route to interior Alaska. This was a lie, and many people died trying to make the crossing.

The Port of Valdez did not really begin to grow until the summer-only Richardson Highway reached town in 1899, connecting the Port of Valdez to Fairbanks. Already having an ice-free port, the Port of Valdez became the first land supply route into Alaska. In 1950, the highway became a year-round route.

In 1964, the Port of Valdez was shaken by a massive earthquake when the glacial silt beneath the town liquefied, causing part of the shoreline to break off and sink into the ocean. The slide caused a 9.1-meter tsunami that killed 32 people on the Port of Valdez' main freight dock when it collapsed. A new town was built about six kilometers to the east on more stable ground.

The completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 1977, to move oil from Prudhoe Bay to the ice-free Valdez oil terminal, was a boon to the Port of Valdez economy.

The City of Valdez Ports Department is the port authority for the Port of Valdez. The City of Valdez owns and operates the Port of Valdez' container terminal, grain terminal, city dock, and the airport terminal building.

As the northern most ice-free port in the United States, the Port of Valdez is the best access point to the interior of Alaska and to much of the US Pacific Northwest, northwestern Canada, and the trade routes of the Pacific Rim.

It is also the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Every day, super-tankers pass through the Prince William Sound carrying over 5.6 thousand cubic meters of crude oil.

The Port of Valdez Container Terminal contains a 213.36 meter long floating concrete dock with an eight-hectare marshalling yard. The floating dock extends to 365.8 meters with two dolphins, and water depth is 15.24 meters at mean low tide. The dock is equipped with phone, lights, water, and garbage disposal services. North Star Terminal and Stevedore Company LLC provides stevedoring services. Two 200-foot ramps connect the dock with the marshalling yard, and the multi-purpose berth can handle containers, roll-on/roll-off, and lift-on/lift-off cargoes. The terminal has storage capacity for 560 40-foot vans, and it includes 360 reefer outlets.

The Port of Valdez also has a 182.9-meter long wharf and a grain terminal. Located near the container terminal, the grain terminal contains nine concrete silos with capacity for over 840 cubic meters of cargo. Each silo is 34.1 meters tall and 10 meters in diameter.

Access to the Port of Valdez is provided through the Richardson Highway and the State of Alaska Marine Highway System Ferry Service.

The Foreign Trade Zone is the first in Alaska that is considered outside the USA for customs purposes, reducing processing time and overhead costs for exporters and importers.

The Port of Valdez city dock, called the John Thomas Kelsey Municipal Dock, is 182.9 meters long with alongside depth of 10.7 meters. It is equipped with phone, lights, water, and garbage services. Private services offer fueling and wastewater disposal.

Blueberry Hill, the northernmost point of the coastal Pacific temperate rainforest, is located in the City of Valdez. The Port of Valdez is located on a deep fjord on Prince William Sound, and the heavily-glaciated Chugach Mountains surround it. Temperatures vary from a high of about 17ºC (62ºF) in July to a low of -8.2ºC (17.2ºF) in January. Visitors to the Port of Valdez have a wide variety of opportunities to enjoy the unique landscape of this area.

Among the popular outdoor activities are deep-sea fishing, glacier watching, skiing, ice-climbing, whitewater rafting, and hiking. There are a couple of places in the Port of Valdez that visitors will want to check out.

The Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum gathers indigenous art and artifacts to make one of the biggest collections around. Arriving in Alaska in 1947, the Whitneys traveled to Native villages throughout the area and bought items from the artists for their gift shop. Maxine continued to collect items until the middle 1980s, and she donated the collection to Prince William Sound Community College in 1998. The collection is now housed in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled museum near the college where everyone can come enjoy these fascinating items.

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a busy place where residents come to share stories of the community's history. In two locations, the museum downtown and an exhibit on the waterfront, the exhibits tell the story of Valdez from the time when the indigenous peoples occupied the area until today, including the 1964 earthquake.

Travelers who want to visit the Port of Valdez or see the Columbia Glacier up close and personal can find a list of scheduled cruises by searching for "Valdez" on the Cruise Compete website.