What it costs
Alaska glacier cruise price: what fifteen departures actually cost
Prices in this niche look close together until you divide them by the hours. A four-hour wildlife cruise and a six-hour national park cruise are eighty dollars apart and are not the same purchase at all. Here is every departure by price, by price per hour, and by what the money is actually buying.
Quick answer
An Alaska glacier cruise costs from $116 for four hours in Resurrection Bay to $272 for eight hours at Northwestern Fjord, with the standard six-hour Kenai Fjords cruise at $250. Anything that reaches a tidewater glacier starts around $196. Above that sit three ways to reach the ice without a boat, from $376 to $1,334.
Alaska glacier cruise prices, at a glance
- Cheapest on this page
- $116four hours, spring wildlife cruise
- Cheapest that reaches ice
- $196three and a half hours, small boat
- The one most people book
- $250six hours, Kenai Fjords, lunch included
- The longest boat day
- $272eight hours, Northwestern Fjord
- Twenty-six glaciers
- $245five and a half hours from Whittier
- By air
- $376thirty minutes over Bear Glacier lagoon
- The ceiling
- $1,334helicopter and ice climbing, four hours
- Lunch included on
- 5 of 12 cruisescheck the listing; it is not universal
- Cancellation
- Free to 24 hon all fifteen departures
- Season
- Mid-May to mid-Sepprices are lowest at each end of it
Every trip, current fare
Every departure by price and by price per hour
Sorted cheapest first. The cost-per-hour column is the honest comparison: it is what makes a thirty-minute flight look like what it is next to a six-hour boat.
| Cruise | Length | Price | Tidewater glacier | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Wildlife CruiseThe cheapest way onto the water, early season | 4 h | $116 | No | $29.00 | 5.0 · 44 |
| Half-Day Resurrection Bay CruiseHalf a day of wildlife in sheltered water | 4 h | $156 | No | $39.00 | 4.7 · 302 |
| Whittier–Anchorage Scenic TransferThe road back from Whittier, turned into a wildlife day | 6 h | $187 | No | $31.17 | 5.0 · 7 |
| Blackstone Glacier Small GroupA small boat and a beach nobody else is on | 3.5 h | $196 | Yes, Blackstone | $56.00 | New |
| Kenai Fjords Glacier & Wildlife CruiseSix hours to the ice, with lunch | 6 h | $218 | Yes | $36.33 | 4.8 · 185 |
| Captain's Choice Kenai Fjords TourThe captain picks the fjord on the morning | 7 h | $241 | Yes | $34.43 | 5.0 · 33 |
| Glacier & Wildlife Discovery TourThe glacier day that starts in Anchorage | 7 h | $244 | Yes | $34.86 | 4.8 · 23 |
| Prince William Sound 26 Glacier CruiseTwenty-six glaciers on sheltered water | 5.5 h | $245 | Twenty-six, from the water | $44.55 | 4.8 · 189 |
| Kenai Fjords Glacier Cruise with LunchThe full-day Kenai Fjords cruise, most booked here | 6 h | $250 | Yes | $41.67 | 4.9 · 921 |
| Wilderness, Wildlife & Glacier DayBears and moose, with ice as the backdrop | 6 h | $269 | From the shore | $44.83 | 4.8 · 107 |
| Northwestern Fjord Full-Day TourEight hours, and the most time at the ice | 8 h | $272 | Yes, Northwestern | $34.00 | 4.9 · 36 |
| Turnagain Arm Glacier & Tram DayCruise, wildlife centre and the aerial tram | 8 h | $366 | Yes | $45.75 | 4.8 · 4 |
| Bear Glacier Scenic FlightThirty minutes over a lagoon no boat reaches | 30 min | $376 | From the air | $752.00 | New |
| Helicopter Glacier Dog SleddingA dog team on the snow at the top of a glacier | 1.5 h | $593 | You land on it | $395.33 | 5.0 · 21 |
| Knik Glacier Helicopter & Ice ClimbingA rope on a blue ice wall inside a crevasse | 4 h | $1,334 | You climb it | $333.50 | New |
Reading the price
What the eighty dollars between four hours and six actually buys
The hours are the product. Per hour, almost every boat here charges roughly the same.
The gap that matters on this page is between a four-hour trip at around $156 and a six-hour trip at around $250. It looks like a modest upgrade. It is not an upgrade at all; it is a different product.
The four-hour boat stays inside Resurrection Bay. That is sheltered water with sea lion rookeries, otters, puffins off the cliffs and, when they are in, humpbacks. It is good and it is the cheapest way onto the water here. What it does not have is a tidewater glacier, because there is not one in the bay.
The six-hour boat rounds the headland, runs an hour of open ocean, and reaches a face. That single hour of extra running each way is most of the price difference, and it is the whole reason people come to Alaska.
Then there is lunch, which is included on five of the twelve cruises and is not a trivial line item. On a six-hour sailing there is nowhere to buy anything, and a boat that feeds you is not really the same price as one that does not.
Per hour, the numbers flatten out: most of the full-day boats land between forty and forty five dollars an hour, and the four-hour trips are not far off. The outliers are the three non-boat options, where you are paying for a helicopter or an aircraft rather than for time.
Where the money goes
Six things that move the price
None of these is padding. Each one is a real cost the operator carries.
- Distance to the ice
Every tidewater face in Kenai Fjords is at least an hour of open-water running from Seward, each way. Fuel and crew time for those two hours are the biggest single line in the difference between a bay cruise and a park cruise.
- Whether they feed you
Five of the twelve cruises include a meal. That is galley staff, food and the licence to serve it, on a boat that cannot restock mid-trip.
- The size of the vessel
A hundred-passenger catamaran spreads its costs across a hundred people. A small boat carrying twelve cannot, which is why the three-and-a-half-hour Blackstone trip costs more per hour than a six-hour catamaran.
- A naturalist on board
Most of these carry one, and some carry a National Park Service ranger in season. That is a salary, and it is the difference between looking at a glacier and understanding it.
- The season is four months long
Every operator here earns a full year of revenue between the middle of May and the middle of September. Boats, dock fees and insurance run all twelve months.
- Transport, on the trips that include it
The Anchorage departures include a coach each way, and the Whittier one includes the run through the tunnel. That is two to five hours of road time built into the ticket.
Booking from Anchorage adds five hours of road to a six-hour cruise. Some tickets include the coach, and on those the price gap is smaller than it looks.
Doing it from Anchorage→What is not in the price
Four costs that appear after you have booked
The ticket is most of the cost, but not all of it. The drive and the fleece are real.
Getting to the port. Seward is two and a half hours from Anchorage. A rental car, a shuttle seat or a ticket on the Alaska Railroad is a real cost, and the train in particular is not cheap — though it is worth doing for its own sake.
Parking. The public lot by the Seward harbour is paid, and in July it fills. Budget for it and arrive earlier than the check-in time suggests.
Warm clothing you did not bring. This is the quiet one. People arrive in Alaska in August dressed for August and discover that the deck in front of a glacier is a different climate. Buying a fleece in Seward costs more than buying one at home.
Food, on the boats that do not include it. Seven of the twelve cruises here do not feed you, and there is no shop on board on most of them. A six-hour trip without lunch is a long six hours.
Common questions
Alaska glacier cruise prices, answered
How much does an Alaska glacier cruise cost?
From $116 for four hours in Resurrection Bay to $272 for eight hours at Northwestern Fjord. The standard six-hour Kenai Fjords cruise with lunch is $250.
Why is the six-hour cruise so much more than the four-hour one?
Because the four-hour trip never leaves Resurrection Bay, and there is no tidewater glacier in the bay. The extra money buys two hours of open-water running to reach a face and back, and on five of the cruises it also buys lunch.
Is lunch included?
On five of the twelve cruises on this page. It is not universal, there is nowhere to buy anything once the boat leaves the dock, and it explains part of the price difference between otherwise similar sailings.
What is the cheapest Alaska glacier cruise?
The cheapest departure here is $116, but it is a spring wildlife cruise in the bay rather than a glacier trip. The cheapest thing that actually reaches a tidewater glacier is the small-boat Blackstone trip at $196.
Do prices change through the season?
They are generally lowest in the middle of May and early September and highest in July. The bigger seasonal effect is availability: the full-day sailings sell out first in high summer.
Can I cancel?
Yes. Every departure on this page is free to cancel up to 24 hours before, which is why booking early and watching the forecast costs you nothing.
Go deeper
More on cruising to a glacier in Alaska
The Kenai Fjords glacier cruise
Aialik, Holgate and Northwestern — which boat reaches which face, and for how long.
VerdictThe best Alaska glacier cruise
Fifteen departures ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
WhalesWhale watching on an Alaska cruise
Humpbacks feed here rather than pass through — what that means for your odds.
SewardGlacier cruises from Seward
Every sailing out of the small boat harbour, and how to get there from Anchorage.
WhittierThe 26 Glacier Cruise
Prince William Sound, twenty-six named glaciers, and the tunnel you have to time.
Boat toursKenai Fjords boat tours
The park is reachable only by water or air. This is what the boats actually do.
