Fairbanks Points of Interest

In Sum­mer (May — Sep­tem­ber), The Denali Star Train ser­vices Anchor­age, Wasil­la, Tal­keet­na, Denali and Fair­banks. In Win­ter (Octo­ber — April) the Auro­ra Win­ter Train oper­ates as a flag top train between Anchor­age and Fair­banks. It stops here head­ing North on Sat­ur­day, and South on Sunday.

It’s Christ­mas year-round in North Pole, Alas­ka at the San­ta Claus House, just 20 min­utes from Fair­banks. The San­ta Claus House is a fron­tier gen­er­al store and post office turned hol­i­day shop. The postal tra­di­tion lives on — offi­cial let­ters from San­ta are post­marked from the North Pole and stamped with an offi­cial San­ta seal. The store also has live rein­deer, a cof­fee shop, hol­i­day gift items, the world’s largest San­ta stat­ue and, in summer  ...more

Get a close-up look at one of the world’s engi­neer­ing mar­vels. Here you will find infor­ma­tion­al dis­plays about the pipeline and an exam­ple of a pig, the device used to clean and inspect the inside of the pipeline.

The Chena River­walk makes for a relax­ing self-paced stroll along the Chena Riv­er and through the most scenic parks and plazas of his­toric down­town. It’s best when flow­ers are in full bloom (July-August). The path stretch­es approx­i­mate­ly 3.5 miles between Pio­neer Park and Air­port Way, with longer options avail­able. Or — park at Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion Church or in the Down­town Trans­porta­tion Cen­ter for a short­er jaunt.

Ursa Major was one of the first dis­til­leries in Alas­ka and the first legal dis­tillery in Fair­banks. Today they’re ded­i­cat­ed to the fine craft of small-batch spir­its, and you can enjoy their akav­it, rum, vod­ka, gin, canned cock­tails, and sea­son­al releas­es of whiskey. Vis­it the tast­ing room, join a tour, or take a mixol­o­gy class!

Bob­by Wilken, Own­er and Brew­mas­ter, walks vis­i­tors behind the counter and through the process from raw grains (stacked in the back cor­ner) to fin­ished beer, which takes three weeks from start to com­ple­tion. Vis­i­tors get a close-up view of the mill, pro­duc­tion ves­sels, and stain­less steel stor­age and fer­men­ta­tion tanks through which the beer must pass. Bob­by, an approach­able and pas­sion­ate busi­ness­man, breaks down the sig­nif­i­cance of each step  ...more

This is the site of the orig­i­nal air­field in Fair­banks, from which the first air­plane to leave the ground in Alas­ka took flight in 1913. Today, res­i­dents often use the grassy open areas to fly kites, exer­cise their dogs, or have a pic­nic. School chil­dren walk between the library and ele­men­tary school that bor­der the park to the east and west. Wildlife sight­ings are always a pos­si­bil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly for birds and moose.

Once a month, res­i­dents turn out for city-wide gallery open­ings fea­tur­ing work by local artists in water­col­or, acrylic, oil, sculp­ture, pen and ink, pho­tog­ra­phy, and mixed media. The art scene in Fair­banks is rich rel­a­tive to the city’s size, and at no point does it shine through more vivid­ly than on First Fridays.

When you’re dri­ving Chena Hot Springs Road, keep in mind that it’s best not to rush. This jour­ney defines ​“scenic route” as a one-day road trip primed for spot­ting wildlife, explor­ing a new trail­head, and pulling over to cast a line.