Best Wildlife Tours
Top day tours for viewing Alaska’s iconic wildlife by land or by sea.
Best Wildlife Tours
Top day tours for viewing Alaska’s iconic wildlife by land or by sea.
Best Wildlife Tours
Top day tours for viewing Alaska’s iconic wildlife by land or by sea.
Best Wildlife Tours
Top day tours for viewing Alaska’s iconic wildlife by land or by sea.
Best Wildlife Tours
Top day tours for viewing Alaska’s iconic wildlife by land or by sea.
Best Wildlife Tours
Alaska's vast expanses of land and sea make it a perfect location to spy animals, birds, and marine life many visitors won't see anywhere else. But Alaska's wilderness environment doesn't always make observing wildlife easy. Tours can often provide better opportunities to encounter wildlife like moose, bears, whales, or puffins in their natural habitat.
Bear viewing tours are extremely popular among Alaska visitors as these coastal bruins can be counted on to spend the summer months feasting heavily on salmon and grasses. Choose from fly-in excursions that involve short hikes to observation areas or ones that go out by boat. Either way, expect remote, rugged conditions and variable weather. Many bear viewing tours begin and end in Anchorage at the Lake Hood Seaplane Base.
Denali Park bus tours can provide many opportunities for observing a variety of wildlife from the comfort of a vehicle. Besides bears, visitors often spot moose, caribou, foxes, and even wolves that reside in the beautiful backcountry of Denali National Park.
Day cruising gives you a chance to combine glaciers and wildlife in one amazing trip. From towns like Seward, Whittier, or Valdez, catch a ride to view tidewater glaciers and equally impressive animals like humpback whales, gray whales, orcas, and sea lions. For birdwatchers, nothing beats the chance to spy a tufted puffin or cormorant as they streak by the boat deck on their way to a cliffside nest site. Year after year, Kenai Fjords cruises from Seward remain our most popular glacier and wildlife cruises, often called out by our guests as their top experience in Alaska. Close runners up for day cruises include the 26 Glacier cruise in Prince William Sound from Whittier and the Columbia Glacier cruise from Valdez.
Viewing Alaska's wildlife requires patience, with most tours taking at least a few hours to maximize opportunities for guests. That said, there is no guarantee the creatures of land or sea will cooperate, so relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery in the meantime. Most wildlife tours will also provide a healthy dose of local history and culture as well, particularly in places like Kenai Fjords National Park and Denali National Park.
Be prepared for your wildlife excursion by dressing appropriately for variable weather, with non-slip shoes for boats and boots for bear viewing. Don't forget a camera, either. Alaska's wildlife are photo-worthy indeed.
