When getting a panoramic view of Alaska Adventure, no experience can match flightseeing outings across the state. From window seats in small planes or helicopters, passengers can experience Alaska’s untouched grandeur and its most popular attractions from a mile-high perspective in the air. Imagine soaring over Alaska’s towering mountains and ranges, massive, ancient glaciers, fields of colorful tundra, the wild and wonderous fjords, endless wilderness and even an occasional bear or moose – flightseeing in Alaska is unforgettable.
Flightseeing is thrilling yet also safe. Alaska Tours works with trusted companies and experienced pilots who are highly skilled and deeply knowledgeable about the regions they explore. All are passionate about sharing insights about the incredible sights and make these flying adventures unforgettable for their passengers.
Get ready to snap some fantastic photos and get chills from the thrill of flying! Here are a few of our favorite flightseeing adventures around some of Alaska’s most iconic locations:
Denali Flightseeing from Talkeetna
Alaska’s biggest attraction is Denali National Park, with its namesake mountain – which is also its most popular, making it a flightseeing must-see. The Denali Experience Flightseeing Tour offers up-close, eye-level views of North America’s highest peak and the surrounding park filled with rolling tundra, winding rivers, and dramatic mountain ranges. Circling the snowcapped peak of Denali is an experience of a lifetime, and seeing features like the Sheldon Amphitheater, Ruth Glacier, and Great Gorge are breathtaking bonuses. These trips pack a significant wow factor while maximizing travel time by departing from the quaint, nearby community of Talkeetna, also known as the gateway to Denali. The highlight of any Denali flightseeing trip? Landing on a glacier near the park’s peak for a snowy, icy walk to remember! If your itinerary already takes you to the park, you may consider a Denali helicopter flightseeing tour and glacier landing, which conveniently takes off from the park’s entry. Many more flightseeing adventures are available – ask an Alaska Tours specialist for the Denali flight that’s just right for you!
Group in front of K2 Aviation plane on a glacier (© K2 Aviation)
Lake Clark and Katmai National Park Flights
Flightseeing fun and iconic Alaska experiences are doubled with wildlife-focused day trips to Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks. Passengers on the Anchorage Bear Viewing Tour to Lake Clark and Redoubt Lodge take an exciting seaplane ride to a thrilling destination: Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, where enormous brown bears feast on salmon all summer. This trip also includes a lake landing, a boat ride to bear viewing, and more than six hours of watching the bruins with naturalist guides. The Anchorage Bear Viewing Day Tour to Katmai National Park is packed with similar sights and hours of bear viewing at the world-famous Brooks Falls, where you are so close you can hear the bears chewing and crunching fresh salmon. The flights themselves are incredible as you pass and weave through an area of volcanoes, peaks, glaciers, and wildlife. Tight on time? The Homer Bear & Wildlife Viewing Flight Safari offers a shorter flight to all Lake Clark or Katmai National Park activities. The beach landing is a hoot and gets passengers close views of Alaska’s brown bears feeding and foraging.
Southeast Alaska Flightseeing
In Southeast Alaska, a trip to Alaska’s capital city, Juneau, offers an array of adventures, and a Juneau Helicopter Glacier Walk arguably ranks at the top. This tour combines flightseeing with, yes, a grand glacier landing. Along the way, this helicopter ride takes travelers over the vast Juneau Icefield, an ocean of ice and mountains, before descending onto a glacier for a guided walk and hands-on adventures. Exploring this surreal setting of sparkling blue ice gives chills that match the entertaining helicopter ride back to Juneau.
Guest walking Mendenhall Glacier on a Guided Walk on helicopter tour (Temsco Helicopters)
Prince William Sound Flight Tours
Prince William Sound is a majestic marine-and-mountain gem in Southcentral Alaska and is packed with snow-covered peaks, glacier-fed inlets, breathtaking fjords, dense forests, and marine wildlife. It’s easy to see it all on the Prince William Sound Glacier Flightseeing Tour out of Anchorage, where passengers fly over the expansive Columbia Glacier and experience the excitement of a floatplane landing in a secluded cove. You can watch for seals, otters, whales and black bears in the water and along the coastline. With your feet on the ground, you can also see one of Alaska’s most vibrant ecosystems up close, rich with marine life and surrounded by tidewater glaciers and mountains.
Arctic Air Tours
Alaska’s Arctic is remote, rugged, mysterious, and fascinating, and visiting the Arctic Circle is among the rarest of Alaska adventures. An Arctic Circle Flightseeing day trip out of Fairbanks takes travelers on a winter tour that includes sightings of the Yukon River, the Brooks Range, and the Gates of the Arctic National Park. The big payoff is landing near the Arctic Circle and making a ceremonial visit to that unique Alaska spot for pictures and even a certificate!
Arctic Circle Winter Air Adventure
Anchorage & Southcentral Alaska Flight Options
Southcentral’s Chugach Mountains and wildly varied landscapes are easily accessible via flightseeing out of Anchorage, Alaska’s travel hub. Seek more glacier goodness? Check out the Girdwood Glacier Flight, which also has glacier landing! Or experience Southcentral Alaska’s best sights on the Glacier & Wildlife Flightseeing trip, which includes a lake landing.
Alaska’s vast landscapes and untouched wilderness are breathtaking from almost every perspective but seeing them from a bird’s eye view on a flightseeing trip is an experience like no other. Each tour offers unique access and views of Alaska’s natural wonders. Contact Alaska Tours today to book the flight-seeing adventure perfect for you and your Alaska ambitions.