Fairbanks Travel Guides (Updated September 2026)

Ben is a terrific captain. He adjusted the location twice in the week before we launched to avoid poor or dangerous conditions. His gear was great and he was so patient with us newbies. Five stars all the way!

Gina stepped in when our tour companies booked with didn’t show up. We were a bit hostile as we waited an hour for our guide. Gina quickly out us at ease with her sweet personality. We had a great time at the hot springs. Toured the ice museum with her and got our wonderful appletinis! Then plenty of time to soak in the hot springs after an amazing dinner. Gina gave us recommendations on the menu so we had the scallops. Although we didn’t see northern lights she explained how she looks for activity and tried hard to find some. We loved her knoweledge for the area and were excited that she was going to be our guide the next day for the North Pole trip.

This was a great adventure! Ron picked us up at our hotel in his new raised roof all wheel 13 passenger van. The difference from other tours is that even though his van holds 13 passengers he only takes a max of six which makes for a more roomy and comfortable experience on this long ride. He also offered snacks, water, gator aid, and hot beverages complimentary.. Ron is a wealth of information which he shares during the trip. We stopped at the Alaska Pipeline, the Yukon River, a trading post/restaurant, and the artic circle. He was also always on the lookout for wildlife. We chased the aurara but cloud cover prevented us from seeing it. The scenery was amazing! We loved this tour!

Gina was a fantastic tour guide. She was extremely knowledgeable and helpful and went above and beyond to make sure we had an excellent experience.

Ben made my birthday trip such a memorable experience! Rain couldn’t stop us and with a switched location (which was probably even better than the original planned location) we were off! Great instructions by Ben, he helped each of us on the boat, answered my many questions and even allowed for some zen time. I even Learned a few things along the way. I plan to get one for trip in before it gets too cold and will for sure be signing up for the next round of ice fishing! Thank you so much Ben!

Had a great Arctic Circle tour! We were unlucky with the weather and couldn't see the Northern Lights, but our guide Ron was amazing. He is incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, and took great care of everyone throughout the long drive. His safe driving and excellent commentary made the whole trip fantastic. Highly recommend Ron to anyone visiting Fairbanks！

Kevin was absolutely wonderful. He was very knowledgeable and friendly. The tour wasn't rushed and he was very patient. I told him we cancelled our northern lights tour the night before, due to weather, and he said tonight was going to be better. We ended up booking a tour that night also. He was prompt at pick up time for both tours. He took us to a few locations. He provided hot chocolate and cider as well as reindeer sausage! All were delicious. We were able to see the northern lights in all there splendor. We were absolutely in awe!!! Kevin was determined to find the lights that night and they were eventually located. Just be patient and trust in Kevin to find them for you. Kevin took pics and gave them to us on a Google drive! So much easier than trying to take them on your own. I would definitely recommend Kevin and his tours!!!

The River Boat Excursion was an exceptional opportunity to meet not only nature as raw and beautiful as it is, but our guide, Rob. He showed us the equally raw virtue in human nature. As good as it gets.

Gina our tour guide was amazing. She's very informative and helpful throughout the whole tour. Gina Brayden and Chris treated my mom and I with extra care from taking photos to adding some background story or a certain exhibit in the ice museum. She even reserved us seats for dinner and hold us seats inside the ice museum. It was an unforgettable experience , too bad we couldn't see the aurora borealis but we will plan better next time.

Fun activity exploring areas in Alaska ordinary citizens are unable to access especially in the winter. Highly recommended

We went on the Fire and Ice tour to the Chena Hot Springs Resort with Gina. We enjoyed hercso much, we booked her Heart of Fairbanks tour fir the next day! It was a pleasure to spend our time with her. Gina was very quick to respond to our questions pre-tour. During she was pleasant, prompt, and attended to all details so we didn't have to. She even told our dinner restaurant it was my birthday. Her knowledge was amazing and on the rare questions she didn't know the answer, she said she didn't know but found the answers. She went above and beyond trying to show us a glimpse of the Northern Lights. She asked us a number of times to see if we wanted to see anything in particular, or if we'd like her to stop anywhere before being dropped off, etc. We saw and learned so much during our time with her. It us with high confidence we can absolutely recommend AK Bucket List Tours with Gina.

We had a great experience with Yas. He was punctual. He shared great stories about the aurora. He was very knowledgeable about the subject. And based on the dynamic data he was using, he can predict when the aurora would be prominent in the sky.It was rainy and cloudy on the day of activity. We drove 2.5 hours for sky clearance. We really didn’t see much , meaning without the iPhone camera, you couldn’t see the aurora.He offered to take us out again the next night. We accepted and had great views of the aurora.

We were in Fairbanks a day before our land journey as part of our cruise and had decided to rent a car and head towards the Chenna Hot Springs. We had seen a couple places advertising for seeing reindeer and this one was right along the way to the hot springs, so we stopped despite the website not showing any availability (the reservation system won't show anything for the same day FYI). They indicated they had an opening in about 40 minutes once the current tour completed, so we stepped next door to the cafe and grabbed a coffee and a cookie. We started off in their hut/office with Ryne learning about caribou and reindeer, what the differences were, and lots of other fun/interesting facts for maybe 10-15 minutes (legit it was interesting). Then we made our way down towards where they kept their reindeer. We knew the experience was called a "forest walk" but I think we were all a little surprised still when Ryne hooked leads to each of the 4 reindeer and handed them to us and lead us off into their woods! Yes, we were walking reindeer through the woods, as Ryne described it, kinda like walking really big lazy dogs. They were mostly interested in eating whatever fresh vegetation they could find along the way, but were pretty easy going and would come along when you coaxed them to move along. Since this was a "private" experience it really was just the 4 of us in our party, which was very nice.10/10 experience. We all kind of had the same thought, like "this is the first day of our trip and we just did THAT, not sure how the rest of our trip will compare to this. It's definitely one of our top highlights of our 12 days in Alaska.

SO FUN! We went 40mph and only had 2 people in our group. Just the best time ever and will definitely do it again

Even though I have had dogs all my life, I had never experienced how sled dogs are trained and raised. I was allowed to help harness the dogs to prepare them for a ride around the area. The dogs were happy to go for a run and loved all the extra attention that they get from visitors. A must do for any kind of animal lover.

Had an amazing experience. It was our first time getting into hot springs and glad that it was through this tour. Hot springs experience was beautiful with dark skies and stars above us while we were soaking in warm water and decent amount of lighting. It was not too crowded or not loud and was a pleasant experience. The changing rooms were not too bad, but i think that’s normal as I haven’t been to many swimming pools so not sure what to expect. We also visited the Ice museum which was really interesting and enjoyed my experience there. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the northern lights due to cloud coverage that night though the guide made a few stops to make it happen. The guide kept the party size small which was a good idea.The guide shared valuable insights into Alaskan culture and lifestyle and was very fun to talk to and easy to coordinate during the entire trip. He gave clear instructions and detailed description of what to expect at every stop. If not for the guide, we wouldn’t have enjoyed those long drives into wilderness after sunset during the trip. We were so happy with the experience that, for months afterward, we found ourselves sharing the stories our guide told us with everyone we knew