Valdez Sightseeing Tours and Activities

Surrounded by magnificent mountains, Valdez is a picturesque coastal town located on Prince William Sound - also known as “the Switzerland of Alaska. Join a cruise to Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound and learn about the mining, oil spill, earthquake, and fishing history and you will hear stories about the native people. Valdez’s darkest moment was the Good Friday Earthquake in 1964. The tsunami that followed the earthquake destroyed the entire historic town site of Valdez.

Description

SVA1001 Columbia Glacier Cruise

Join our scenic 7-hour Columbia Glacier Cruise. The journey throughout Prince William Sound will feature a visit at the Columbia Glacier area where you have a chance to view history in the making as Columbia Glacier retreats back into the Chugach Mountains. In addition to the amazing ancient ice pack of the Columbia Bay you have the opportunity for wildlife along the way that calls the Sound home and to learn about the mining, oil shipping, earthquake, and fishing history of the area.
Price $135.00

SVA1002 Meares Glacier Cruise

This 9-hour tour is perfect to discover all of what Prince William Sound has to offer - amazing glaciers, exciting wildlife and a rich history. Cruise the majestic water of Prince William Sound from Valdez to Meares Glacier. In route our captains will travel the shorelines looking for the critters that call the Sound home. This tour has the time to travel the locations where we typically spot sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, Humpback or Orca Whales, porpoise, eagles, puffins, cormorants and more. Our captain will share with you stories about the history of the Sound from early explorers, gold and copper mining, oil shipping, commercial fishing and the 1964 earthquake. Lunch and afternoon soup snack is served.
Price: $170.00

SVA1003 Columbia Glacier Sea Kayaking Tour

The largest tidewater glacier in Prince William Sound and the second largest in the entire state of Alaska, Columbia Glacier is 25 miles from Valdez and covers more than 400 square miles. The face is more than 3 miles wide and is rapidly moving backward at a rate of 4 feet per day in the summer! Enjoy an hour boat ride to the glacier, then kayak amid towering icebergs, gliding through bays that are completely inaccessible by motorized boats, and observe sea otters and harbor seals hauled out on the ice floes. Keep a close lookout for sea lions, bears and, quite often, whales! Hike on recently uncovered landscape and in the adjacent old growth forest.
Duration: 10 hours | Price:$225.00

Reviews

Ann, UK: We took the Columbia Glacier cruise to see this glacier and it was excellent. Although the day we went was pretty cool, very overcast with some light rain off and on it was well worth it. We had to go through a fair amount of ice in the water to get to within about 3/4 of a mile (according to Amanda, the Glacier Spirit boat captain). We did see eagles, sea otters and sea lions on the way to the glacier but no whales. Also, the commentary offered by the boat captain on the cruise was very informative.