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Savor a dinner of fresh salmon before a roaring fireplace, while you watch the sun dip below a snowcapped mountain. Dip your toes into the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. Put all your strength into your paddle, as you navigate the rushing water of a mountain stream. Feel the fresh air on your face, as you hike across a glacier.
Alaskan Explorer tours consist of a number of wide-ranging tours; most are designed for the adventurous visitor. Some include far away destinations and adventures that few people ever see or experience. All are designed to make your vacation to Alaska the most unforgettable of your life.
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Which cruise lines offer Alaskan Explorer cruise tours:
• Holland America
• Princess |
Where the land portion of your cruise tour begins:
• Fairbanks or Anchorage, depending on the tour selected |
Where the land portion of your cruise tour ends:
• Fairbanks or Anchorage, depending on the tour selected |
Length of your cruise tour:
• Cruise: 7-nights/8-days
• Land: 1-3-nights/2-4-days tour extensions, depending on the tour selected.
Note: Alaskan Explorer tours may only be purchased as “add-ons” (extensions) to Denali National Park or Alaska & Yukon cruise tours. |
Highlights of your cruise tour may include:
• 7-Night Gulf of Alaska cruise (all cruise tours)
• Panning for gold
• Dogsled mushing demonstration in Nome
• Inuit village visit in Kotzebue
• “Blanket toss” demonstration in Kotzebue (you gotta see it!)
• Nature hikes along the Tundra
• A visit to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and Alaskan oilfields
• Wetting your toes in the chilly Arctic Ocean!
• Kenai Fjords National Park |
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Check the oil, please…
It takes five to six days for oil to travel the length of the Trans Alaska Pipeline to Valdez. From there, it’s pumped aboard oceangoing oil tankers
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Optional Activities on your cruise tour:
• Kayaking
• Sportfishing (catch that salmon!)
• Whitewater rafting
• Glacier hiking
• Flightseeing tours
• Horseback riding
• Mountain biking |
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Cruise tour destinations and attractions:
While each tour succeeds in offering a well-rounded list of sights and attractions, no tour can do it all. Alaskan Explorer cruise tours are variable and distinct; some travel far above the Arctic Circle to Pruhoe Bay, some venture west to the Bering Sea, and some include the wilderness of the Kenai Peninsula or Copper River. All are offered only as tour extensions to Denali National Park or Alaska & Yukon cruise tours. |
| The following is an alphabetical list of destinations and attractions available in the various Alaskan Explorer cruise tours and serves only as an introduction to those tours... |
| Anchorage: Alaska’s biggest city is big on attractions. Stand inside a bubble or touch exotic reptiles at the Imaginarium (great fun for kids), visit the Earthquake Museum (the city “hosted” a massive earthquake in 1964), or spend time at any of the big-city attractions found nowhere else in Alaska, including the zoo and the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Because of the city’s hotel and restaurant offerings, Anchorage is a popular stop on route to or from Denali tours. |
 Coldfoot: No one asks how this town got its name. Somehow, they all seem to know. No one stays long in this town, either, but not because of the cold weather. It’s a popular (read: the only) pit stop between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, the northern terminus for the Alaskan Pipeline. If you’re going to Prudhoe Bay, you’re most likely going to Coldfoot, too.
Coldfoot’s attractions are understandably few: a hotel (yours), a restaurant (yours), a gas station (your cruise-tour coach’s), a post office (your postcard’s), and a campground (thankfully, not yours). In fact, nearly half of the people who travel through Coldfoot in the summer are on bus tours heading to or from the pipeline terminus.
Close your hotel room drapes tightly. Located 260 miles north of Fairbanks on the Dalton Highway, little Coldfoot sits above the Arctic Circle. For several weeks each summer, the sun never sets. (No one asks what it’s like living in Coldfoot during the winter. Somehow, they all seem to know.) |
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 Kantishna: Just past Wonder Lake, on the banks of Moose Creek, you’ll find some of Denali National Park’s prettiest scenery. Several mining camps were established in this small, Denali backcountry town following the discovery of gold in Glacier Creek in 1905. The town’s population hit over 2000 during that first summer, but as the gold played out, the miners checked out. The following year, only 50 were left, and they were itching to move on, too.
Today, visitors to the area will discover glimpses of this gold rush history at the Kantishna Roadhouse. Although the government ended commercial mining in the area in 1985, visitors can try their hand at gold panning at Recorder’s Cabin.
The real gold, however, is in those spectacular views of nearby Mt. McKinley. |
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Kenai Peninsula: One of the Kenai Peninsula’s main draws is its convenience; it’s only a two-hour drive from Anchorage. In fact, Seward – the region’s main cruise port – is on the Kenai Peninsula, making it a natural attraction for cruise tour passengers. Sportfishing, kayaking, canoeing, ice climbing, rock climbing, rafting, gold panning, “bear viewing,” and hiking are all popular activities. Kenai Peninsula cruise tours usually include a night or two at a wilderness lodge, and a day for tour participants to get into whatever activity suits their fancy, whether it’s a hike to the restaurant or a hike over the face of a glacier. |
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| Kotzebue: Inuits account for over 80% of the population of this remote town. Located high above the Arctic Circle in northwestern Alaska, Kotzebue is closer to Russia (200 miles away) than Fairbanks (over 400 miles distant). |
| Kotzebue (pronounced kotz-eh-biew) is one of the largest and oldest Inupiat villages in Alaska. Native traditions and culture have not been forgotten. The NANA Museum provides visitors with native dancing presentations, slide shows, native arts and crafts and interesting survival skill demonstrations. This is where the “blanket toss” demonstrations take place; care to volunteer? The Sea Bird Rookerie, the Northern Lights Dancers, and a variety of art shows make for some surprising attractions in this far corner of the world. |
 Nome: Here are some interesting facts about Nome. The town was discovered by accident. Residents hold an annual bathtub race each Labor Day. The main street is the finish line for the famed Iditarod Dog Sled Race. Nome got its name from a typo (a mapmaker saw an unfinished map with the word “Name” marking the spot but transferred it on his new map as “Nome”). That’s Nome in a nutshell.
A prospector, left behind by his group due to an injury, set up his tent over what proved to be gold dust. Word spread quickly, and the gold dust brought other prospectors. Eventually, millions of dollars in gold was mined from the ground in and around Nome. Gold panning remains a popular cruise tour activity, as does dog sledding. The Iditarod Dog Sled Race, held each March, begins 1150 miles away in Anchorage. Depending on the weather, each team of 12 to 16 dogs, their musher, and their sled all arrive in Nome 10 to 17 days later. It’s often called the “Last Great Race on Earth,” due its toughness and hazards. Accordingly, your cruise tour is sure to include a dogsled demonstration here in Nome. |
 Prudhoe Bay: Those who visit Prudhoe Bay come for two reasons: to see the Prudhoe Bay Oilfields and the Trans Alaska Pipeline; and to experience the Artic eco-system firsthand.
Prudhoe Bay (population: about 50) was the first oil field on the North Slope of Alaska to produce oil. Commercial oil production began in 1977 when the Trans Alaska Pipeline was completed. Since then, well over 12 billion of barrels of oil have pumped from the North Slope oilfields – much of it refined into gasoline (some of that gas may be waiting in your car’s gas tank as you read this). Visitors to Prudhoe Bay get a chance to tour the oilfields and learn all the facts and figures, which seem to intrigue even the most jaded cruise tour passengers.
Long before mankind knew what to do with that black, sludgy stuff called oil, there was the vast tundra. It’s still here, extending north from the Arctic Circle to the usually frozen, distant shores of the Arctic Ocean. Sharing tundra space with the pipeline are caribou, Dall sheep, moose, and bears -- and now you! |
It’s big. It’s beautiful. And it’s in your backyard.
Alaska & Canada!
Find the best tour price by calling one of our Cruise Specialists at: (800) 242-1781 |
PRINCESS CRUISES 10-night “Alaska Wilderness/Copper River” – an Alaskan Explorer cruise tour featuring the beautiful Ocean Princess – starts at only $1,399 (Inside Cabin). Balcony cabins begin at just $1,799! Ask for Princess’ Tour 32!
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PRINCESS CRUISES 12-night “Alaska Wilderness/Copper River” – an Alaskan Explore cruise tour aboard the Ocean Princess – can be reserved for as little as $1,599 (Inside Cabin). Balcony cabins are offered at just $1,999! Ask for Princess’ Tour 36!
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PRINCESS CRUISES 14-night “Alaska Wilderness Explorer” – an Alaskan Explorer cruise tour on the Sun Princess – is yours for just $2,349 (Inside Cabin). Outside Cabins begin at only $3,729! Ask for Princess’ Tour 40!
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