RSFA04 Alaska by Land and Sea | Rail & Drive Tour from Fairbanks

RSFA04 Alaska by Land and Sea | Rail & Drive Tour from Fairbanks

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This popular one way railroad and driving combo tour from Fairbanks via Anchorage to Haines takes you further than most itineraries and includes the cultural and scenic attractions of Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Board in Fairbanks the last full-service railroad in North America and choose between the “Adventure Class” seating in the one-storey railway car or the “Deluxe Dome Railcar” on board the Alaska Railroad or with one of the privately operated trains. All train cars feature large panorama windows ensuring unobstructed views around every bend of the majestic beauty of the glaciers, mountains and Alaskan wildlife. Spend two days at Denali National Park which is the natural habitat for many types of wildlife including caribou, moose, wolves, Dall sheep, bald eagles, and the mighty grizzly bears. The leisure train ride to Anchorage provides many spectacular vistas of the Alaska Range. Pick up your rental car and visit the port town of Seward, where you’ll join a spectacular cruise deep into Kenai Fjords National Park with actively "calving" glaciers, abundant wildlife and magnificent scenery. The Alaska Ferry takes you across the Prince William Sound to Valdez. Admire the vast untamed wilderness and majestic mountain scenery as you travel on the Top of the World Highway to the gold-rush town Dawson City. Explore Yukon’s capital town Whitehorse, including the basalt cliffs of Miles Canyon, site of a former gold rush town. Your holiday comes to an end in Haines. Travelers have the option to extend the driving tour and take the ferry to the gold rush town of Skagway. With a population of just over 1100, Skagway is located at the northernmost point of the Inside Passage in Southeast Alaska. The streets are lined with wooden boardwalks and restored buildings, looking much as they did 100 years ago. Take a ride on the wild-side with the historic White Pass & Yukon Railroad steam train along the famous Chilkoot & White Pass trail. This vacation is ideal to be combined with an Inside Passage cruise by the Alaska Ferry or cruise ship. Please read our itinerary to have more detailed day-to-day experience. On request, this trip can be customized and can be organized in reverse order.

  • Itinerary

  • Prices & Dates

  • Attractions & Add-ons

  • Accommodation

  • Rental Car

  • Map

  • Information

  • Reviews

Fairbanks ( Overnight: Fairbanks )

Welcome to Fairbanks, the "Golden Heart City" - tucked into miles of unexplored wilderness only 120 miles from the Arctic Circle and enjoying almost 24 hours of daylight during summer. You are invited to explore the local gold rush history, its vibrant traditional native cultures as well as fantastic scenery. You may visit the renown Alaska University Museum featuring Alaska's natural history best collection or take an authentic sternwheeler on a scenic cruise down the Chena and Tanana Rivers. Guided van tour along the Dalton Highway or flightseeing tour to the Arctic Circle is super popular choice for experiencing the Arctic Circle and Yukon River. Enjoy a flightseeing trip to Fort Yukon to understand as well as experience how the Gwich'in Athabascan Natives live in "Bush" Alaska.

Fairbanks – Denali National Park | Rail Tour ( Overnight: Denali Village )

Enjoy the scenic ride onboard the Alaska Railroad to Denali National Park. Choose between the standard rail car or the glass-dome compartments with large panorama windows ensuring unobstructed views of snowcapped mountain ranges, pristine scenery and abundant wildlife. The train passes through the small community of Nenana, known for the Nenana Ice Classic Lottery. Just north of the Denali park, the train winds along Healy Canyon, following the curves of the Nenana River below. Arrive at Denali Village at noon. Transfer to your hotel and check into your room. Once you settled take a stroll through Denali Village, join a flightseeing tour, wildwater rafting trip or visit Jeff King’s Husky Homestead Kennel for a personal tour with four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King and his sled dogs.

Denali National Park ( Overnight: Denali Village )

Denali National Park offers excellent wildlife viewing and spectacular sceneries. Pick up your tickets, board the bus and watch out for grizzly bears, moose, caribou, wolf and fox moving along the ridges and river beds. Your driver informs about the history of Denali National Park, its diverse wildlife and flora. Once an animal has been spotted the bus will stop that everyone can watch and take pictures. The bus turns around at Eielson Visitor Center - 66 miles one way/8 hours round trip. You can get off the bus anytime to go for a hike. Return to the Denali Park entrance anytime during the day. Optional: We can extend the transit bus tour to Wonder Lake or exchange to the Tundra Wilderness Tour, Kantishna Wilderness Trails or Backcountry Lodge Tour. Included: Denali Transit Bus to Eielson Center

Denali National Park – Anchorage | Rail Tour ( Overnight: Anchorage )

Board the Alaska Railroad and relax in your comfortable reclining seats, have a delicious lunch onboard or listen to the commentaries from an onboard interpreter. Just south of Denali you'll enter Broad Pass, offering majestic views of the Alaska Range in all directions. Your rail tour continues via Wasilla and crosses the Knik River with the Chugach Mountains as a backdrop before arriving in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. Nestled along the Chugach Mountains, the coastal city is brimming with activities for the outdoorsy and adventurous, as well as the more relaxed. Visit the Log Cabin Visitor Center and its Crossroad, Ship Creek Viewpoint overlooking Cook Inlet and the Resolution Park with its Captain Cook Monument. Try out one of the popular seafood restaurants this evening.

Anchorage – Seward | Start Self Drive Tour ( Driving Distance: 130 miles | Overnight: Seward )

Arrive in Anchorage during the day and pick up your rental car. The drive on the scenic Seward Highway offers incomparable vistas of fjords, glaciers and mountains as you follow the Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm. Arrive in Seward, a small fishing town at the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park. Kenai Fjords is named for the numerous fjords carved by glaciers moving down the mountains from the ice field. The field is the source of at least 38 glaciers, the largest of which is Bear Glacier. This afternoon you have time to visit Exit Glacier. Short trails lead to the edge of the glacier where you can get a good photo in front of glacier ice. You may spend some time at the Alaska SeaLife Center – the world’s first cold water marine search institute. Enjoy a delicious seafood dinner at the harbor.

Seward ( Overnight: Seward )

This morning board the stable catamaran for a spectacular cruise deep into Kenai Fjords National Park with actively "calving" glaciers and magnificent scenery. Covering 110-miles, the trip is narrated by a National Park Ranger, who is highly adept at spotting wildlife and pointing out the many sights. Kenai Fjords showcase the best of Alaska’s marine world in a compact package. Kittiwakes, puffins and other seabirds nest along cliff faces just above the swells. Sea otters float belly-up eating mussels while Harbor seals haul out on icebergs off Aialik and Northwestern Glacier. Look out for Steller sea lions on Chiswell Island as well as Humpback and killer whales. After reaching the tidewater glacier, guests witness "glacier calving" a process by which glaciers shed giant slabs of ancient ice.Included: Kenai Fjords Glacier & Wildlife Cruise

Seward – Alaska Ferry Whittier to Valdez ( Driving Distance: 90 miles | Overnight: Valdez )

Depart Seward and drive to Whittier via Portage Glacier. Enjoy the scenic cruise to Valdez onboard the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry. Prince William Sound encompasses 3,800 miles of coastline, bounded to the east and north by the Chugach Mountains and to the west by the Kenai Peninsula. Commercially important for the fishing and oil industries, the sound is also prized for its abundance of marine and coastal life, its rain forest of Sitka spruce and western hemlock, and its glacier-studded landscape. The sound contains 150 glaciers including 17 tidewater glaciers, known for dramatically calving huge ice chunks into the sea. The main attraction of Prince William Sound is Columbia Glacier, one of the largest and most magnificent of the tidewater glaciers along the Alaska coast.

Valdez - Tok ( Driving Distance: 250 miles | Overnight: Tok )

Valdez - also known as “the Switzerland of Alaska” - is the gateway for salmon fishing trips and narrated cruises to magnificent Columbia Glacier. Leave Valdez and drive through Keystone Canyon, taking pictures at the "Bridal Veil Falls". Stopover at Worthington Glacier and take a short walk along the interpretive boardwalk to the face of the glacier. Your journey continues on the Glen Highway, offering an impressive view of the Wrangell Mountains - Mt. Deborah, Mt. Sanford and Mt. Drum. Arrive in Tok, often referred to as the "Dog Mushing Capital of Alaska". Tok was born as a construction station on the highway. With its location at the intersection of the Alaska - and Glenn Highway, the town has built an economy of gas stations, gift stores, cafes, and hotels to serve highway travelers.

Tok – Dawson City ( Driving Distance: 190 miles | Overnight: Dawson City )

The Yukoners call it the 60 mile. To Alaskans it is the Taylor Highway, but to everyone who has driven this beautiful road, it is known as the "Top of the World Highway". The name fits as much of its route meanders along the tops of mountains and ridges with endless views of alpine valleys. During the summer months the sun sets forever and you'll have hours of light to set-up that special sunset photograph. Arrive in Dawson City: It all began with Robert Henderson, who, in 1894, found gold in Rabbit Creek (later renamed Bonanza) not far from where the Klondike River empties into the Yukon. By 1904, an estimated $100 million in gold had been shipped from the Klondike. At its height, Dawson City had a population of 35,000, but the "stampede" of `98 died out almost as quickly as it began.

Dawson City ( Overnight: Dawson City )

A full day to explore the goldrush town Dawson City and the gold fields: Visit the historical buildings, Jack London and Robert Service cabins and old stores that were the pulse of the gold rush capital in its hey-days. As you walk through the heart of Dawson City, your imagination will run to the likes of Klondike Kate, Arizona Charlie Meadows and Diamond Tooth Gertie strolling down Dawson's boardwalks. Their spirit is as alive today as it was in 1898. From the one-time capital of the Yukon you'll follow history up Bonanza Creek (pan for gold) to Discovery Claim and Grand Forks once boasted a population of 10,000 where the Eldorado Creek and Upper Bonanza come together. Take a guided tour of the Gold Dredge #4 and visit the Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall for evening entertainment.

Dawson City - Whitehorse ( Driving Distance: 330 miles | Overnight: Whitehorse )

The Klondike Highway often parallels the Yukon River as it winds its way to Whitehorse. Water in the Yukon River travels more than 3,000 km from headwaters near the Chilkoot Pass to the mouth at the Bering Sea. Stop at the Five Finger Rapids and hike down to the shore of the Yukon River. Continue to Carmacks, home of the Little Salmon/ Carmacks First Nation at the junction of the Yukon and Nordenskiold rivers. The Tagé Cho Hudän Cultural Centre has many exhibits depicting the lifestyle of the Northern Tutchone-speaking people of this region. Stop at Montague Roadhouse, a monument to the trials of travelling in an open stage during the cold Yukon winters. There were roadhouses every 20 miles to rest the horse and refresh the passengers. Arrive in Whitehorse, Yukon's capital city.

Whitehorse - Haines Junction - Haines ( Driving Distance: 250 miles| Overnight: Haines )

Time to explore the sights of Whitehorse: The McBride Museum, SS Klondike and the Yukon Beringia Center. Leave Whitehorse and drive towards Kluane National Park. Explore the park that have been home to Southern Tutchone people for thousands of years and discover the heart of their traditional culture and way of life. Continue along Haines Highway, built in 1943 and is now one of Alaska's best and most scenic highways. It winds from Haines Junction over the Chilkat Pass - the highest summit on this highway. You pass Klukshu, a native summer fishing camp offering great photo opportunities. Drive through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve before arriving in Haines. The town is situated at the upper end of the Inside Passage, is surrounded by snowcapped mountains, lush meadows and forests.

Haines | End of Self Drive Tour

Your driving tour ends in Haines where it is time to drop off your rental car. Explore the area of the Chilkat River and the start of the Dalton Trail — one of the routes to the gold fields of the Klondike. This trail was developed by the Chilkat Indians for the purpose of trading in the interior. The Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve can be found below Klukwan on the Chilkat River flats (mile 18 to 24 on the Haines Highway). The preserve was established to protect and perpetuate the world's largest concentration of Bald Eagles and their critical habitat. Fort William H. Seward with its old officers' headquarters and barracks buildings has been designated as a National Historic Site. You may extend your tour by taking the Alaska Ferry to Skagway, Juneau or along the Inside Passage to Bellingham / Seattle.

Rates in US $ / per Person
Comfort Hotel Category Single Double Triple Quad Child
May 18 - May 31 $4995 $2712 $2038 $1693 $423
June 1 - August 31 $5946 $3219 $2387 $1969 $429
September 1 - September 13 $5072 $2781 $2104 $1758 $423
First Class Hotel Category Single Double Triple Quad Child
May 18 - May 31 $5905 $3298 $2531 $2142 $544
June 1 - August 31 $6910 $3842 $2917 $2454 $584
September 1 - September 13 $5905 $3298 $2531 $2142 $544

What’s included

12 Nights Comfort OR First-Class Accommodation

Hotel and State Taxes

09 Days Midsize Rental Car (For additional Upgrades and Extras Click Here)

Unlimited Free Mileage

Rental Car Licensing Fees

CFC, State & City Rental Car Sales Taxes

Car Rental One Way Fee

Denali Transit Bus Ticket to Eielson Visitor Center

Alaska Ferry Transfer from Whittier - Valdez / Car

Alaska Ferry Transfer from Whittier - Valdez / Passengers

Denali & Fairbanks Railroad Station and Airport Transfers

Tour Documentation

Sightseeing Information

Railroad Transportation Fairbanks - Denali National Park

Railroad Transportation Denali National Park – Anchorage

Comfort Hotel Category includes Reserved Seats in Standard Adventure Class Train
( upgrade to Dome Car Train is available for $280.00 per person )

First Class Hotel Category includes Reserved Seats in Upper Level Panorama Dome Car Train,
Priority Check-in & Boarding, Use of Private Outdoor Viewing Platform,
Priority Dining Room Seating, Enhanced Reclining Seats

Tour Departures

Daily  from  May  18th  –  September  13th

Fairbanks: Arctic Circle Flightseeing Tour to Fort Yukon & the Yukon River

Experience a breathtaking tour of Fort Yukon by plane. Enjoy the 50 minute flight to For Yukon. Fly north over the Yukon River, across the Arctic Circle, thru the Brooks Mountain Range, and over the Gates of the Arctic National Park. Upon landing you will meet a local host who will take you around Fort Yukon by bus and share their home with you enlighten with facts about the area. The tour does make a stop at the Yukon River for a chance to get out and take pictures. Once the tour is over, you will have a return flight to Fairbanks where you'll receive an official certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle!

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Fairbanks: Riverboat Discovery Sternwheeler Cruise

If you've ever read Mark Twain you know of his days as a riverboat captain. Did you know that Jack London was a riverboat pilot as well? Here's your chance to experience the adventure these renowned writers enjoyed as you cruise aboard the authentic sternwheeler riverboat Discovery II, rated the number one boat tour in North America. Enjoy a lively narration as you view a trapper's cabin, log homes, and a bush pilot performance. Visit the home of four time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher, as you pass Trail Breaker Kennels along the Chena River. Learn first hand about kennel life and the challenges that go into making a champion dogsled team. You'll make a stop at the historic site of a Chena Indian village to see native crafters in action and to learn abut Native Alaskan hunting and fishing at an Athabascan Fish Camp.

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Denali: Exchange Transit Bus Tour to Denali Tundra Wilderness Tour

The fully narrated 62-mile Tundra Wilderness Tour into Denali National Park is led by a certified naturalist driver/guide who will also provide historical and geographical background of the area. The tour will last approximately eight to nine hours and includes ample photo and rest stops. When your tour driver is able, he/she will take video footage of animals along Park Road and project these images onto drop-down video screens, featured only our specially designed tour buses. This way you can get a close-up look at the roadside action. At the end of the tour, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase a “Tundra Wilderness Tour” DVD, which will feature some of the video footage shot from your tour! Guests cannot switch buses throughout the day (only the Denali Transit Bus allows this).

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Denali: Exchange Transit Bus Tour to Kantishna Wilderness Trails Tour

The Kantishna Wilderness Trails tour is the premier Denali Park wilderness bus excursion. Spend the entire day in Denali National Park and discover a piece of Alaska's gold rush history and warm hospitality at the historic Kantishna Roadhouse, located just past Wonder Lake on the banks of Moose Creek. Your 12 to 13-hour fully-narrated excursion to Kantishna travels via a custom motorcoach through 95 miles of Denali National Park's prime wildlife habitat. The last 30 miles allow for full viewing of Mt. Denali, weather permitting. The wilderness backcountry of Denali Park provides diverse habitats which support big-game species such as black bear, grizzly, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, wolf, and wolverine. Hot beverages and refreshments are included en route to the Kantishna Roadhouse. After a hearty deli style lunch in the dining room at the Roadhouse, relax and visit the Historical Recorder's Cabin and enjoy a dog sled demonstration or gold panning. Guests cannot switch buses throughout the day (only the Denali Transit Bus allows this).

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Seward: Extend Kenai Fjords Cruise to Northwestern Fjords Cruise

The premium 8 1/2 hrs Kenai Fjords Cruise covers magnificent Northwestern Fjord - the home to three amazing tidewater glacier, hanging alpine glacier, abundant wildlife such as Orca Whales, Steller Sea Lions, playful Sea Otters, Bald Eagles, Puffins and of course the magnificent scenery. On this tour we travel futher into Kenai Fjords National Park than most other daily cruise tour operators. In addition we visit the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and Chiswell Island's seabird rookeries within Resurrection Bay. Make sure you bring your camera to photograph the abundant marine and coastal wildlife, many types of sea birds and the untouched beauty of Alaska's shorelines. Tour includes a light breakfast and hot lunch. Total 150 miles round trip.

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Seward: Extend Kenai Fjords Cruise and include a dinner on Fox Island

Spend your day aboard the most popular wildlife and glacier cruise in Alaska. Explore the wildlife and glaciers of Kenai Fjords National Park. Then, dock at the magical Fox Island for an all-you-can-eat prime rib and Alaska salmon buffet. What a day!

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Nelson, CO: We're back from our big Alaska tour ! Everything went as we or you had planned it. Car pick-up and return without any problems as well as the Alaska train journey. The accommodations were good to very good, especially at Denali National Park. The weather was unexpectedly good. Rain jacket, anorak and jeans could stay in the suitcase, shorts and T-shirt were in demand. We had not quite two rainy days, once in Seward, where it always rains, once in Skagway. During the Prince William Sound ferry ride, it was partly sunny, partly cloudy with good visibility. I will create a review on Tripadvisor for you and will then send you the link so you can provide it to your next customers to read or add their own!