7 epic ways to see a glacier in Alaska! (cruise ship + glacier tours + cruise excursions + on your own)

Hi there!

If you are going for your once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska, you MUST see a glacier!

A glacier is literally moving ice, which means that it’s always changing.

According to the National Park Service, there are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska, and 95% of them are currently “thinning, stagnating, or retreating.”

This means that you should go NOW to see them while they are the most visible!

There are some glaciers that appear to keep getting further and further back, which means the glacier views get more distant. The most obvious famous one is the popular glacier in Juneau.

That said, there are lots of epic glacier experiences to be had in Alaska!

There are many different ways to see glaciers in Alaska, and I will tell you about the things to consider! This includes seeing a glacier from a cruise ship, from a small boat, from land, and from the sky!

 

 

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Now, here are some of the best ways to see glaciers in Alaska!

This will include epic glacier experiences you can have from Juneau, Skagway, Anchorage… and a cruise ship!

 

 

1. Glacier Bay National Park (scenic cruising day on a cruise ship!)

For the most epic Alaska cruise, you need to choose an Alaska cruise itinerary that includes Glacier Bay National Park!

If you see Glacier Bay on the itinerary, this is a “scenic cruising day,” which is just as it sounds. It’s a sea day!

You will sail through Glacier Bay and pass by glaciers for epic glacier viewing from a cruise ship!

In most cases, the “grand finale” and your “final destination” is to see Margerie Glacier.

This is also the best chance to see ice fall off the face of the glacier and make a big loud splash into the water. (This is called calving.)

A cruise ship will typically spend around an hour here to increase your chances of seeing ice fall off! You’ll also pass by more glaciers.

 

 

For a Glacier Bay National Park sea day, park rangers from the national park actually get on the cruise ship, so you have a whole day of learning about Alaska and its glaciers from people who live and breathe wild Alaska!

You can get an Alaska national park stamp too!

 

How to go to Glacier Bay National Park

The mainstream cruise lines that go to Glacier Bay are Princess, Holland America, and NCL (Norwegian).

Other mainstream cruise lines of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, and Disney do not go to Glacier Bay.

Read more from the National Park Service about what a cruise ship day is like in Glacier Bay!

See my post about Glacier Bay National Park glaciers to look for!

 

 

2. Hubbard Glacier (scenic cruising day on a cruise ship!)

Another epic scenic cruising day you can have during an Alaska cruise that you can look for on a cruise itinerary is Hubbard Glacier. This is a scenic cruising day through Yakutat Bay and Disenchantment Bay, arriving in front of Hubbard Glacier!

You will be looking at Wrangell-St Elias National Park. Since the bay is not a part of the national park, you won’t be physically in the national park, but you will SEE an Alaska national park! You will be looking at the largest national park in the United States.

You will also be looking at the largest tidewater glacier in North America! That’s Hubbard Glacier. (A tidewater glacier is a glacier that touches the water.)

 

 

If you don’t have the chance to do another boat tour that gets up close to glaciers (suggestions coming up!), then I think you need to HIGHLY consider doing the Hubbard Glacier wilderness excursion.

Every cruise line that goes to Hubbard Glacier offers this excursion, although if you are too early in the season (like mid-May or earlier) or too late (mid-September or later), the wilderness excursion may not be offered.

If this is your one and only chance to get closer to a glacier for your once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska… then it’s something to HIGHLY consider.

This is an expensive cruise excursion, but it’s an epic glacier excursion!

Will you think it’s an amazing glacier experience if you “only” see it from the cruise ship? Yes.

Will you be even more WOWed by the glacier views if you do the small boat wilderness excursion to get closer to the glacier? YES!

 

How to go to Hubbard Glacier

Most cruise lines have cruises that go to Hubbard Glacier. (But not all cruises go to Hubbard Glacier!)

Princess and Holland America have Alaska cruise itineraries that go to both Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier in one cruise!

Look for one-way cruises between Vancouver and Anchorage. (In this case “Anchorage” is actually the small town of Whittier.) You can go northbound or southbound, but the southbound cruise is typically the one that goes to both Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay.

You can also make it a round-trip 14-day cruise from Vancouver! (You’ll go to some ports twice, but don’t worry you will find things to do with 2 days in some cruise ports! See more about the best Alaska cruise ports.)

 

More glacier sea days (“scenic cruising day”)

Other scenic cruising days you can find on cruise itineraries include Endicott Arm (Dawes Glacier) and Tracy Arm Fjord (Sawyer Glacier).

I haven’t been to these 2, but from what I read, I feel that Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier are the 2 best glacier sea days you can have.

College Fjord is another scenic cruising day for glacier viewing that you can find on some cruise itineraries. This is near the Alaskan town of Whittier, so you’ll only find it on some itineraries that go there. College Fjord is a part of Prince William Sound, which I will talk about below as another glacier destination!

 

 

3. Mendenhall Glacier (Juneau)

Mendenhall Glacier is the most popular glacier to see from land during an Alaska cruise. This is also a glacier that appears to keep getting further and further back. So see it while you can!

By going to see the Mendenhall Glacier, you will be going to Tongass National Forest. This means that you will be in the largest national forest in the United States!

This is an Alaska glacier that you can see reasonably easily on your own without a tour. Well, if you don’t mind walking. If walking is okay, then you can take a cheap bus to get a mile from the visitor center.

Otherwise, there are tours to get you there, like the Mendenhall Glacier trolley tour.

Juneau is also one of the best places in Alaska for whale watching tours, and there are combo tours that do Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching in one tour.

But I think the best way to see the Mendenhall Glacier is through the Mendenhall Glacier ice adventure tour. (I did this!) It’s a canoe ride with a shore landing to get you closer to the glacier.

There is also a Mendenhall Glacier canoe-only tour without a shore landing.

If you want a solid day hike (and you have all day in port), then the West Glacier Trail is for you!

 

👆 The best way to see the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau is through a tour! You’ll get a much closer glacier view than most people do, since most people only go to the visitor center and that’s a view across the lake.

 

👆 The Mendenhall Glacier adventure tour will get you closer to the glacier than the visitor center! You’ll paddle the lake, do a shore landing, and then hike to get closer!

 

👆 You can do a Mendenhall Glacier canoe tour to get a better glacier view compared to the visitor center!

 

 

How to go to Juneau

All cruise lines have cruises that go to Juneau. (Although not all cruise itineraries may not include Juneau! A ton do, though.)

So if you want to go to Mendenhall Glacier, choose a cruise itinerary with Juneau!

See more about planning your time for the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

 

 

 

 

4. Kenai Fjords National Park (Seward / Anchorage)

Kenai Fjords National Park is in Seward, and it’s a place you can go to see a glacier without a tour.

And you should totally do it that way, but you should also highly consider doing a tour to see the glaciers of Kenai Fjords National Park!

Exit Glacier is the glacier you can see on your own. If you don’t have a car, then you’ll want to take the Exit Glacier shuttle.

You can hike the shorter trail to the Exit Glacier overlook and/or the basin.

 

👆 You can go and see a glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park without a tour.

 

 

If you’re prepared for a solid day hike, then there’s the Harding Icefield Trail. You can also do it as a guided Harding Icefield hike.

Aside from that, the must-do in Kenai Fjords is a boat tour!

There’s a 6-hour boat tour that will take you to one glacier up-close, which will be an amazing experience.

If you do the 7.5-hour boat tour, then you get to see 2 glaciers up-close!

I say the more glaciers the better, so I did the 7.5 hour tour!

The only downside was… if you’re prone to motion sickness, there is a section of the boat ride that can get rough.

 

 

There are more epic glacier tours that you can do in Kenai Fjords, like the Exit Glacier ice hiking and kayaking through icebergs.

There is also the 8.5 hour boat tour that will take you to the remote Northwestern Fjord.

 

 

How to go to Seward

You can go to Seward as a long day trip from Anchorage if you want to keep your base in Anchorage.

Otherwise, you can also opt to spend the night in the small town of Seward. See more about things to do in Seward Alaska for that.

There is a train route between Anchorage and Seward. See more about the best Alaska train trips you can do!

If you want to make Seward a part of your Alaska cruise, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity do one-way cruises between Vancouver and Seward. (NCL used to, but for 2025 they are not. I’m not sure if that’s a permanent change.)

 

 

 

5. Prince William Sound (Whittier / Anchorage)

Whittier is another small Alaskan town you can go to do an amazing glacier boat tour.

You will sail through Chugach National Forest in Prince William Sound.

It’s an amazing boat ride with amazing scenery, and along with seeing glaciers, you have a good chance of seeing wildlife too.

For glaciers, the Glacier Quest boat tour will take you to one glacier up-close in Blackstone Bay, and the 26-glacier tour will take you to 2 glaciers up-close in Blackstone Bay and College Fjord.

So which should you do?! Yes of course the one that goes to 2 glaciers!

And, I guess you will pass by a total of 26 glaciers if you do the 26-glacier tour! You can follow along on the map you’re given and count how many you can spot!

You don’t really have to worry about motion sickness in Prince William Sound, as the waters tend to be calm.

See more about the best tours to do in Whittier.

 

 

How to go to Whittier

Most people who are staying in Anchorage will do a day trip to Whittier from Anchorage. You can do this route by train too!

You can make Whittier a part of your Alaska cruise. Princess, Holland America, and NCL do one-way cruises between Vancouver and Whittier.

You can take the train before a cruise from Whittier, and you can take the train after a cruise to Whittier! You can do the 26-glacier tour to go along with it! I’ve done the train + glacier tour both ways, before a cruise and after a cruise.

You may also find College Fjord as a scenic cruising day on some cruises that include Whittier.

I have seen College Fjord from a cruise ship and from a small boat (26-glacier tour), and I do think they are 2 very different experiences! That is to say, even if you have a College Fjord scenic cruising day on a cruise ship, I think the 26-glacier tour is worth doing!

 

 

6. Matanuska Glacier (Anchorage)

The Matanuska Glacier one of the most popular glacier tours to do from Anchorage.

It’s around 2 hours from Anchorage, and many tours will also offer transportation. (You’ll want to check that the meeting point is in Anchorage if you won’t have a car!)

 

 

 

 

7. Glacier flightseeing tour (Skagway, Juneau, Anchorage, Seward, Denali/Talkeetna)

One of the most epic ways to see a glacier is from above!

Depending on the town, there are helicopter tours and seaplane tours so you can get a glimpse of how expansive glaciers are and how much area is covered by ice!

For a glacier flightseeing tour during your Alaska cruise, you can do a glacier excursion in Skagway or Juneau.

If you’ll be spending nights in Alaska on land, you can look for glacier flightseeing tours in Anchorage, Seward, and Talkeetna.

 

I’ve done 2 helicopter glacier tours in Skagway.

One was to do a glacier walk, and the other was to go to a dog sledding camp on a glacier.

The Alaskan mountain views on the way to the glacier were incredible.

You can also see the vast remote wilderness that is Alaska from Skagway too.

Well, you can see Alaska’s wild side really on a flightseeing excursion from any Alaskan town! Which is why a flightseeing tour in Alaska should be on your bucket list! And, flying to get to places is a way of life in Alaska so you will be experiencing local!

See the best Skagway excursions that I did.

 

I did a glacier flightseeing tour in Juneau.

The 5-glacier seaplane exploration was a part of the Taku Lodge salmon bake excursion that I did.

It was an amazing way to experience the Alaskan wilderness: the glacier and ice side of Alaska and the vast expansive forest side of things too!

 

👆 Dog sledding on a glacier means a helicopter flightseeing tour to get to the glacier!

 

👆 Walking on a glacier from Skagway means a flightseeing tour to get to the glacier!

 

👆 Water flowing on the glacier!

 

👆 You can do a glacier flightseeing tour in Juneau.

 

 

In Anchorage, one of the most popular glacier flightseeing tours is the Grand Knik tour.

 

If you’ll have a car, you can do dog sledding on a glacier from Girdwood, which is about an hour drive from Anchorage.

There are also more glacier flightseeing tours in Girdwood.

You might opt to stay in Girdwood if you want to stay in a small Alaskan town! You can take the Girdwood Express to get to Girdwood from Anchorage if you won’t be renting a car in Alaska.

The Alyeska Resort is the main place to stay in town, although there are other places too.

There is a free Girdwood town shuttle, and as long as you have patience, it works! (I’ve taken it! There’s an app that will show you the live location of the bus so it’s super helpful!)

 

If you’ll be going to Denali National Park by car, you can stop by Talkeetna to do a Denali glacier flightseeing tour! See more about the best flightseeing tours in Alaska.

 

 

HAPPY SEEING GLACIERS IN ALASKA!