ANCHORAGE · ALASKA
Where the city ends and Alaska begins.
Drive-up glaciers and 26-glacier cruises, beluga whales along Turnagain Arm, day trips to Seward and Denali, and northern lights over the Chugach. The tours worth booking, all in one place.
Only in Alaska
Three things you can only do up here.
Plenty of places have mountains, water and wildlife. Only here can you crampon across a glacier you drove to, watch the sky catch fire after midnight, and mush a team of huskies in the country that invented the Iditarod.
On the ice
Walk On the Matanuska
The Matanuska is the largest glacier in the United States you can reach by car, and the only one most visitors ever set foot on. Guides strap you into crampons and lead you out onto blue ice riddled with meltwater pools and crevasses, four miles wide and still slowly moving downhill.
- 1 Glacier Hike on Matanuska Glacier – Best Vacation Value
- 2 Matanuska Glacier Hike Day Tour
- 3 Full-Day Matanuska Glacier Hike And Tour
After midnight
Chase the Northern Lights
From late August into April, Anchorage sits close under the auroral oval. Guides drive you clear of the city glow into the Chugach foothills or up toward Hatcher Pass and wait for the sky to turn green. On the strong nights it ripples violet and red overhead for hours.
- 1 Anchorage Aurora Tour and Northern Lights Photo
- 2 Anchorage Northern Lights Tour
- 3 Northern Lights Adventure of a Liftetime from Anchorage
Mush
Drive a Dog Team
Anchorage is the ceremonial start of the Iditarod, and the mushing tradition runs deep. Ride behind a team of huskies on a winter trail, or fly up to a glacier camp and drive them across the snow in July. The dogs are louder and far happier about it than you expect.
- 1 Dog Sledding Adventure in Willow, Alaska
- 2 Anchorage Helicopter Glacier Dogsledding Tour
- 3 Anchorage’s Authentic Dog Sledding Experience
Start here
The trip everyone books first.
If you have a single day out of Anchorage, start here. The glacier-and-wildlife run the whole region is built around.
The classics
Anchorage's Most Popular Tours
Matanuska glacier hikes, Kenai Fjords cruises, wildlife drives along Turnagain Arm. The trips most visitors come to Alaska for.
Plan the ice
How to see a glacier.
Anchorage is ringed by ice, and there are three ways to reach it: drive to one, cruise to one, or fly to one. Here is how to choose.
By place
Pick which way to drive.
Matanuska for glacier ice. Turnagain Arm for the belugas. Seward for the fjords. Whittier for the 26-glacier cruise. Each one is its own day out of the city.
By tour type
Or pick what kind of day you want.
Boots on a glacier. A boat out to the calving faces. A floatplane over the icefield. Bear viewing, dog sledding, salmon fishing, northern lights after dark, and the rest.
The main event
Get out on the ice.
Cruise to the calving faces, hike out in crampons, or fly to a glacier landing. Three of the best ways to stand next to a few thousand years of ice.
Eyes on the treeline
Find the wildlife.
Moose in the marshes, beluga whales in Turnagain Arm, bears at the salmon streams, Dall sheep on the cliffs. Three trips built around what moves.
Into the Chugach
Walk into the mountains.
Half a million acres of state park start at the edge of town. Flattop, the Crow Pass trail, alpine ridges above the inlet. Three hikes that put the city behind you fast.
Beyond the city
Day trips out of Anchorage.
Kenai Fjords from Seward, the 26-glacier cruise from Whittier, the long road north to Denali. The big days that are worth an early start.
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