Is alcohol the best solution?

Sadly, there is no easy fix after you get your device wet with anything.

Time and heat are both big factors after you get your device wet. As quickly as you can shake out as much water as possible place it into a refrigerator to keep it cool (don't freeze it!). If you can place it into a bag of Rice to help pull the moisture out.

If you have the needed tools to open the device do so and disconnect the battery and try to remove as much water you see until you can get it to someone who can go deeper. Just be careful here as you don't want to damage anything.

Depending on what it was you may need to address chemical reactive issues as well. As an example if you had drop your phone into a a stream or a lake how clean the water is also can effect what you need to neutralize. Also other spills like a soda have sugars and acids which both need to be removed besides the water.

I prefer to start the cleaning process with distilled water as it can address the chemical reaction issues and can remove any sugars. I use a good grade of Isopropyl alcohol (85% or better) to address the oils that maybe present and leverage the ability of alcohol as a dryer to help remove the remaining distilled water.