But there's amazing kayaking throughout coastal Alaska. The panhandle has the inside passage, with miles of relatively protected waters. You can kayak in Glacier Bay, or up near Homer, or the Aleutians if you're badass.
If you go with a tour, be careful who you book with. There are operations that take care to bring people to places that are good for beginners to kayak. For example one company here brings their clients to a secluded cove where people won't face big swells or wind or boat wakes. But another company launches people right from downtown, where they immediately face big boat wakes, and the wind can pick up uncomfortably for beginners.
Gotta say that it worked.
I personally have more experience with packrafting, which I highly recommend. High quality lightweight packrafts can easily be carried on/in a day pack. A recent packrafting trip I did: drive 1 hour south of Anchorage to Portage railroad stop, take the train 20 minutes south to the Spencer Glacier stop, paddle around the lagoon adjacent to the glacier (don't get too close, it calves frequently and can be quite dangerous), then paddle all the way back to the car on the Placer River (not a technical river)... about 8 hours total trip time.
When they first arrive in the spring you can see their vertebrae as they arch their back for a dive. After eating all summer, you can see how much they've filled out by the time they pass through on their way south in the fall. When they arch for a dive they've fattened up enough that you can't see individual vertebrae anymore.
It's an amazing experience to paddle a kayak out into a calm bay and sit for an hour surrounded by a dozen humpbacks, or to sit in a calm stretch of ocean with whales surfacing as far as you can see in every direction. They'll come within ten feet of a kayak, and you know they'll never bother you. They just seem curious about what's out in the water with them.
They engage in bubble-net feeding. A group of humpbacks circle underwater beneath a school of herring. They let out bubbles and build a wall of bubbles around the herring. The whales then swim up inside the bubbles and break the surface with their mouths open, feasting on the trapped herring. It's wild to see a ring of bubbles appear near you on the surface, and then see half a dozen whales rise up out of the water with their mouths open.
My favorite part of being close to whales is listening to them breathe. You can hear the size of their lungs from the sound of their breaths.
If you've never been close to whales, try to get on a whale watching tour. They're just incredible to see in person.