Alaska Flightseeing Tours
There is something humbling about drifting on the wind hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement, soaring above the shifting patterns of nature while in the seat of a plane hardly bigger than a car. In Alaska, this may be a common experience, as one in every forty residents is equipped with an aircraft license, but even "common" experiences in Alaska can give grand perspectives.
In a state one-fifth the size of the Lower 48 with less than 10,000 miles of road, flying is a way of life. Air taxis are to Alaska what yellow cabs are to New York and water taxis are to Venice. So much of Alaska is remote, that taking a flight tour, or flightseeing, provides a view of the state that is impossible to get while still on the ground. Anchorage, the nerve center of Alaska with its quarter-million residents, quickly disappears into a sea of wilderness just minutes after take off, and what at first seem like big mountains fast become gargantuan pyramids of rock and snow. The adage, "Fly an hour or walk a week" is never truer than when, minutes out of town, you soar above the massive buttresses of Mt. McKinley or glide over the iceberg-choked waters of Columbia Glacier.
Experience the natural history below you as you watch rivers run from valleys filled with melting glaciers, and fly over young birch and aspen forests which fade into ancient spruce bogs or endless rolling tundra. Beauty takes on a new scale in the air, as you travel not just to get from here to there, but to see every living thing in between. Civilization fades into distant memory as you float over jagged peaks that have never felt the press of a human footprint or spot a bear foraging in the wild.
Some small planes are equipped with floats to land on mountain lakes, remote rivers, or ocean bays. Others deploy skis to land on snowy glaciers. Most flights offer all window seats, pilot narration, and individual headsets. Operators offer set prices for seats on flightseeing trips to popular destinations. You can also charter by the hour for trips to remote wilderness destinations.
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Flightseeing Tours
Girdwood View All
Glacier dog sled tours • Prince William Sound • Columbia Glacier
There are few things more spectacular than lifting off in a helicopter and soaring over Alaska’s glacier-filled terrain or out across its shimmering waters. Get a taste for helicopter flightseeing on a 30-minute trip or choose a longer tour with a glacier landing. Shuttle available from Anchorage.
Kodiak
Fly over Kodiak Island, see waterfalls, and scan the water for whales
Seward View All
Glacier landings • Fjords • Glacier dog sledding
With Scenic Mountain Air and you’ll be flying over one of Alaska’s most beautiful areas from Moose Pass. Set on the Kenai Peninsula, 25 miles north of Seward, this central location makes it easy to explore iconic natural features — like glaciers, ice fields, and mountain lakes. Or, use their expertise to fly to remote public use cabins or lakes for fishing.
Start with a dramatic flightseeing trip in either a helicopter or ski plane and then get out onto an ancient river of ice for a thrilling glacier exploration either hiking or climbing.
The area around Seward abounds in glaciers, making it the perfect place to go heli-flightseeing. Fly above town and Resurrection Bay, opt for a glacier landing, or longer flights over Kenai Fjords National Park. They can even drop you off on top of Seward’s famous Mt. Marathon to enjoy the amazing views.
Get a bird’s‑eye view of one of Alaska’s most dramatic landscapes — Kenai Fjords National Park — on an unforgettable scenic flight out of Seward. Experience the extremely rare opportunity of a Glacier Landing on the Harding Icefield on this small group, intimate adventure.
Glennallen
Jumping off point for flightseeing tours into Wrangell St. Elias National Park
Year-round air service from Glennallen, Alaska. Short on time? Check Alaska’s largest national park off your list with a flightseeing tour that includes a landing in the wilderness of the park. Traveling to McCarthy / Kennicott? Travel like the locals and hop on a mail plane flight. See how backcountry mail is delivered and enjoy speedy transportation to McCarthy. Or, opt for their scheduled air service. Both have departures from Anchorage and ...more
Kenai / Soldotna View All
Glaciers • Volcanoes • Cook Inlet
Natron Air’s owner and only pilot, Tim, can take you flightseeing to some of Alaska’s most beautiful places: the Harding Icefield and Mt. Redoubt Volcano. You can also opt for a bear-viewing tour that includes a beach landing, where you can photograph bears in their natural environment.
Glacier Bay National Park View All
See Glacier Bay from above, watching the glacier spill out from the mountains
Tok View All
Glacier landings • Wrangell St. Elias National Park • Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve
Ketchikan View All
Visit Misty Fjords National Monument
Homer View All
Icefields & glaciers • Volcanoes
Touring Alaska by helicopter gets you to unimaginably wild and remote places. Some of the most amazing have been scouted by Alaska Ultimate Safaris. Explore a glacier surrounded by snow-capped mountains, or climb to the steaming summit of an island volcano. In either case, the views are unparalleled and the experience is surreal.
Get a spectacular bird’s‑eye view of the stunning area around homer. Take off from Homer with Alaska Helicopter Tours to explore the area’s volcanoes, glaciers, and waterfalls — or even go bear-viewing!
Family-owned and operated, Destination Alaska Adventure Company, has a passion for showing people Alaska. Whether your must-see list includes national parks, glaciers, volcanoes, great fishing, bear viewing, or more, Homer is not only a great base for flightseeing but also a great home base for your trip. Browse available tours, dream up an adventure of your own, or let the pros at Destination Alaska help you create one!
Valdez View All
Explore glaciers, waterfalls, and wildlife
Discover the Alaska of your imagination from up above — a helicopter tour out of Valdez with VS Helicopter Tours takes you to explore the area’s treasure trove of glaciers, waterfalls, and wildlife. Their most popular tour includes a glacier landing so you can walk around on the ancient ice and explore its features like moulins and deep blue melt pools.
Delta Junction View All
Fly over the Alaska Range
Experience the thrill of flightseeing in areas that most tours can’t reach. Go with Golden Eagle Outfitters and enjoy fully customized flightseeing tours from Kotzebue or Delta Junction — or take advantage of their air-taxi drop-off and pickup service to access some of the most beautiful and remote parts of Alaska.
Juneau View All
Glacier dog sled tours • Fly to a secluded lodge • Glacier landings
Northstar Helicopters operates out of Juneau and caters to all styles of exploration. The curious glacier observer can simply fly to the glacier and snap photographs from flat or rolling terrain. You can also choose to hike on the glacier itself. If you’re very adventurous, you can even learn how to climb on the ice walls. No matter which option you choose, NorthStar Helicopters will guide you all the way, making sure you get the most out of this ...more
A tour aboard a TEMSCO helicopter offers beautiful views of Alaska’s Capital City, and up-close exploration of Mendenhall, one of the state’s most accessible glaciers. Look out on alpine lakes, moraines, and crevasses before you land and check out the Juneau Icefield for yourself.
Go with Wings Airways and you’ll take off from Juneau in a 10-passenger DeHavilland Otter floatplane and get a lush view of the city as well as the surrounding mountains and ice fields. Opt for a 40-minute flight seeing tour, or book the “Flight and Feast Tour,” which takes you to dine at a 1920’s lodge.
Enjoy a thrilling trio of iconic Alaskan activities — heli-flightseeing, airboating, and a glacier landing — all in a compact 3 hours. You’ll also take in some amazing views on this unforgettable excursion out of Juneau with NorthStar Helicopters.
McCarthy-Kennicott View All
Impressive peaks over 16,000 ft • See up to 13 glaciers
If you want to get a true sense of the 13 million acres within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — which has a mere 100 miles of roadways — start with an aerial view. Since 1992, Wrangell Mountain Air has been offering safe and fascinating tours of this remote kingdom, which boasts North America’s largest assemblage of glaciers as well as its largest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet. Choose from three main tours.
Palmer / Wasilla View All
Experience glacier landings and breathtaking sights 40 minutes north of Anchorage
Glacier trekking, kayaking, ice climbing, and other activities are even more special when combined with a spectacular helicopter ride through Alaska’s dramatic scenery. Thanks to key partnerships with other experienced Alaskan tour operators, Palmer based Outbound Heli Adventures is able to coordinate seamless outings of a lifetime! And, they pride themselves on offering the most amount of flight time with their excursions.
Experience the thrill of heli-flightseeing year-round by flying with the experienced pilots from Heli Alaska, out of Wasilla. Just 40-minutes north of Anchorage, you’ll take off from a dock and be on your way to see Alaska from the air, looking down on glaciers, tundra, and wildlife. Many tours even include a glacier landing to explore these ancient rivers of ice on foot.
For outstanding viewing and incredible access to remote places, there’s nothing like flightseeing by helicopter. Join Alaska Helicopter Tours – a locally-owned, highly-respected helicopter tour and charter company – for excursions that reveal hidden sites just minutes from Anchorage. Spot wildlife from the air, stand on a glacier or land on a remote airstrip.
Denali National Park View All
Denali • Land on a glacier • Summit tours
A lot of people swear to it: the best way to see Alaska is from an airplane, and there may indeed be no better way to get close to the face of Denali. This one-of-a-kind flightseeing operator makes it easy to see up close to the Great One without spending a great deal of time.
Denali Air flights see the majestic mountain a whopping 90% of the time, thanks to the company’s highly experienced pilots and its unique ability to access both the south and north approaches to Denali. Passengers appreciate the private airstrip, the longstanding reputation of Denali Air as the original flight company in Denali, and the fact that 99.9% of the tour is within Denali National Park boundaries.
Go flightseeing over Denali National Park in a very unique way: via helicopter. Lift off on a 50-minute flight —landing the helicopter on a glacier, putting on special boots, and going for a walk on the frozen landscape to get an up-close look at it. Or, visit Bus 142, made famous by adventurer Christopher McCandless. Flightseeing in a helicopter is much different from in a plane — learn all the benefits of this great way of checking out the ...more
Kotzebue View All
Fly into the most remote parks in Alaska
Experience the thrill of flightseeing in areas that most tours can’t reach. Go with Golden Eagle Outfitters and enjoy fully customized flightseeing tours from Kotzebue or Delta Junction — or take advantage of their air-taxi drop-off and pickup service to access some of the most beautiful and remote parts of Alaska.
Anchorage View All
Prince William Sound • Knik Glacier • Denali (Mt McKinley) • Floatplane tours • Land on a glacier
Explore Alaska from above with this family-owned company that operates out of Anchorage. Options include flying above Denali, Knik and Colony Glacier, the Chugach Mountains, and more!
Enjoy a bird’s eye view of Alaska’s scenic highlights on a flightseeing tour with Rust’s Flying Service, where every passenger gets a window seat. Tour options include a short 30-minute Anchorage Flightseeing Safari, a flight to Denali, Denali plus a glacier landing, and more. Tours begin at Anchorage’s Lake Hood, the world’s busiest seaplane airport.
For outstanding viewing and incredible access to remote places, there’s nothing like flightseeing by helicopter. Join Alaska Helicopter Tours – a locally-owned, highly-respected helicopter tour and charter company – for excursions that reveal hidden sites just minutes from Anchorage. Spot wildlife from the air, stand on a glacier or land on a remote airstrip.
There are few things more spectacular than lifting off in a helicopter and soaring over Alaska’s glacier-filled terrain or out across its shimmering waters. Get a taste for helicopter flightseeing on a 30-minute trip or choose a longer tour with a glacier landing. Shuttle available from Anchorage.
Trail Ridge Air offers an on-demand perspective of Alaska’s wilderness, with personable and knowledgeable pilots. Watch for wildlife, check out massive glaciers, alpine lakes, Denali, or even Lake Clark National Park. Trail Ridge accommodates for the busiest of schedules, with flights ranging from one hour to a full day.
Glacier trekking, kayaking, ice climbing, and other activities are even more special when combined with a spectacular helicopter ride through Alaska’s dramatic scenery. Thanks to key partnerships with other experienced Alaskan tour operators, Palmer based Outbound Heli Adventures is able to coordinate seamless outings of a lifetime! And, they pride themselves on offering the most amount of flight time with their excursions.
You’ll take off from Anchorage, and Alaska will open up for you as you appreciate its vastness from the air. Where will you go? That’s up to you! Choose from a variety of tours. Take one of the classics, like flightseeing to Denali, or opt to explore one of the state’s hidden gems. You can also fly to see glaciers, go bear viewing in Lake Clark National Park, or work with the pros at Alaska Air Service to create your own custom itinerary.
Sitka View All
Witness the dramatic volcanic coastline of the North Pacific, or fly to remote hot springs
Skagway View All
Chilkat Glacier • Towering mountain peaks
Taking a TEMSCO helicopter tour shows off the Gold Rush lands around Skagway in a new light, revealing gorgeous, glacier-filled valleys, tumbling waterfalls and peak after icy peak at the north end of the Juneau Icefield. Then land on a remote glacier for an exciting guided journey on ice that was formed thousands of years ago!
Talkeetna View All
Denali (Mt. McKinley) • Land on a glacier
Locally known as “The Glacier Landing Company,” TAT has been flying climbers and sightseers to the Alaska Range and Denali since 1947. Talkeetna Air Taxi features a custom-designed fleet of planes, a dedicated customer service team, and a variety of tours for every budget.
While you may never join the ranks of climbers who have summited Denali, an up-close view of North America’s tallest peak can still be yours. K2 Aviation offers once-in-a-lifetime flightseeing tours among and above the Alaska Range. Add a glacier landing to get a sense of how immense these peaks really are.