It’s a simple fact that Alaska is big and mythic and iconic. Even if you’ve never been there, you’ve seen images of its massive snowfields, huge glaciers, smoldering volcanoes, mega wildlife, monumental mountains and even quaint mining towns. In such a wide-ranging landscape—that includes no less than eight national parks—you can engage in some serious climbing, fishing, hiking, kayaking, rafting or flight-seeing. It would take a lifetime to discover it all—and then some.
That’s why we’ve put together several small-group, guided Alaska adventure tours that will get you to the most beautiful, wild and well-loved spots.
On a trip we call “Absolute Alaska!,” for example, you’ll go deep into the Interior, beginning and ending your travels in Fairbanks. You’ll stay in Denali National Park, a six-million-acre, Arctic wonderland, where caribou, grizzlies, moose and wolves find enough territory to … well, be caribou, grizzlies, moose and wolves. And although we can’t guarantee that the peak of The High One, Denali, will reveal itself above the clouds, certainly the forests and Kodachrome-colored mountains and valleys will make their presence known. From the Interior, you’ll work your way out to the coast to explore the waters, wildlife, and well-known and often-photographed glaciers of Kenai Fjords National Park.
If your inner frontiersman is more drawn to the water, our guided Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage adventure, which begins and ends in Juneau, will take you to the narrows, sounds, straits, canals, channels and charming towns of Southeast Alaska. You’ll travel by ferry up the remarkable and full-of-history Inside Passage. In Glacier Bay National Park, you’ll cruise to the face of waterfalls, the fronts of glaciers and the scenes of spouting humpback whales.
If you're curious to experience Alaska in the winter, we can send you off on a custom trip in March (when there's more daylight but it's still snowbound) to experience all the quintessential Northern activities, like dog sledding, downhill and cross-country skiing, ice-skating, northern lights watching, snowshoeing and soaking in hot springs. On this extraordinary wintertime expedition, you’ll get to know the gold-rush-fervor and aptly nicknamed “Golden Heart City” of Fairbanks, where bewitching, rippling ribbons of fluorescent blues, greens and reds shimmer in the night sky. Then hit the well-marked ski trails near Chena Hot Springs before settling in for a soak in the warming waters. Swoosh down Mount Alyeska on fresh powder and snowshoe at the base of the Chugach Mountains. Outside Seward, master the basics of dog mushing under the tutelage of a renowned Iditarod-winning family. Afterward, drive your own team on a 16-mile, round-trip run beside Exit Glacier—and perhaps a moose or two. Helicopter flight-see over the pristine waters of Prince William Sound and step out onto an icy plain for a 360-degree view of the mountains.
If spending more time in Alaska’s great national parks—or in famed wilderness lodges, such as Ultima Thule or Tutka Bay—appeals to you, we can help you craft a custom tour with wilderness flair. In Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest park in the national park system, you could go river rafting, wilderness hiking, fly-in fishing, mountain climbing or glacier skiing. Kayak into the surreal blue of an ice cave; or go flight-seeing in a small, propeller plane, soaring over massive snowfields and glittering glaciers.
For a truly epic Alaska adventure, visit all eight of The Last Frontier’s national parks in an Alaska National Parks Grand Slam. Get an up close look at humpback whales on a naturalist-led boat excursion in Glacier Bay National Park and watch grizzly bears fishing for salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. In Kenai Fjords National Park, take a full-day boat ride into bays teeming with seabird rookeries and marine mammals. Water-ski or go fishing in Lake Clark National Park; and in Wrangell-St. Elias, strap on crampons for a walk on a glacier. Hike with a naturalist in Denali National Park and explore Gates of the Arctic by floatplane. See the unusual sand dunes and caribou migration route in Kobuk Valley National Park.
Alaska is a big, mythic and iconic place; let us help you manage its magnitude.
