When is the Best Time to Visit Alaska for Vacation

Interested in a trip to Alaska. You have come to a great place to help you plan your trip.  In this post, we will highlight a number of the best places to visit starting in Fairbanks, Alaska, the best season to travel, and the best choices to take a cruise up the inside passage from either Vancouver or Seattle to Seward and Anchorage.  

When is the Best Time to Visit Alaska? Well it Depends

One of the best ways to see Alaska is by Cruise ship. The first time we visited in early June of 2018, we flew to Fairbanks and took the train to Denali and another to Anchorage. We then were transported by bus down to Seward, where we took a cruise on the Celebrity Millennium through the inside passage to Vancouver. On our second trip a few years later in late August and early September of 2022, we flew to Anchorage, really explored the area, then took the train South to Seward. We boarded the smaller Windstar Star Breeze, with much better exposure to the glaciers and sights of the inside passage. Hard to believe, but the southern train route (Anchorage to Seward) was actually much more spectacular than the northern route through Denali. Nevertheless, Denali is certainly a place you will want to visit. Another alternative is to fly into one of the cities along the Alaskan coast. Sitka and Juneau are both options. A good friend of Cos's and his wife are doing such a trip in June of 2023. They will be flying into one of the cities and taking one of the small ship cruises, the MV Liseron, that hosts twenty passengers to the other city. Looks like a wonderful way to get up and close to much of the wildlife in the area.

When is the Best Time to Visit Alaska: Denali

Denali, formerly Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America. For good weather, you probably want to visit between late spring and the end of August. However, if you want to go skiing, snowshoeing, sledging, or hot springs, you may want to visit Denali in the winter months (November-February). This is the off-season for visitors, as the weather is harsh, the park is mostly closed, and the days are short.  Not our recommendation. Generally, Denali is a fabulous place to visit, although the mountain tends to gather clouds and is not always visible. The roads in the park are not open to normal vehicle traffic. You actually board a bus (a school bus) and take a day trip out to the end of the park. The road gets pretty narrow in a few places, and since you are often high on a cliff, hold your breath. There is a lot of wildlife in the park; best to have a long-distance telephoto lens to get pictures as they are usually off in the distance. However, we did get up close with a big-horned sheep.  

Train Travel in Alaska

Train travel is by far the best way to get from Fairbanks or Anchorage to Denali and from Anchorage to Seward.  While there are buses available that will also make these trips, and connect you to your cruise ship in either Seward or Whittier, we prefer the train as it travel thru some spectacular sites. 

Fairbanks Alaska in July to Anchorage

The Alaska Railroad has two main runs: Fairbanks, through Denali, to Anchorage and return, and Anchorage to Seward and return. Visiting Fairbanks Alaska in July is a great time to go, as the days are long, and the weather is warm.  In 2018 Robin and Cos did the Fairbanks to Anchorage trip with a two-night stay in Denali. It was a fun trip, as shown below, but the scenery was nowhere near as brilliant as on the Anchorage to Seward run that they did in 2022.

Anchorage to Seward

The train from Anchorage down to Seward leaves early in the morning, in order to get to Seward before noon, and in time to drop off cruise passengers. It goes past the airport and follows the Turnagain Arm of the Chickaloon Bay. At Girdwood, it takes a turn inward and begins the most magnificent climb through the mountains. Two days before our train ride through Girdwood, we also arrived in Girdwood on a guided tour of the area. The tour guide who took us on the tour was with PicTours Alaska. He taught us some great tips to use when taking pictures and got us really up close to take the photos. If you get to Anchorage, we would make sure you have a free day to take this tour. If you want more information about this or other tours, please see Our Favorite DIY Travel Tours post. We learned how to use our iPhone cameras to take better. wildlife photos. This was a photo learning experience, as our tour guide was teaching us some interesting photo tricks. We found the tour through Get Your Guide. We got some really close-up photos of the wildlife, well at least of the salmon spawning, and of animals in the area at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The Bear on the poster looks like he is ready to get the salmon. The red salmon have already spawned and are in the final stages of their life.

 

If you're hoping to catch humpback whales in action, the sweet spot is the summer season, June through August. This is when thousands of humpbacks migrate to Alaska’s nutrient-rich waters to feed, making sightings frequent and dramatic.

Why Summer Is Ideal:

• Warmer weather makes boat tours more enjoyable (and less layered).• Long daylight hours give you more time to explore and spot whales.• Peak feeding season means humpbacks are active—breaching, tail-slapping, and bubble-net feeding.

Best Locations to Spot The Whales

• Juneau and Seward are top-tier whale-watching hubs with reliable sightings.• Prince William Sound also draws humpbacks, especially near Whittier and Valdez. If you’re planning a trip, aim for a mid-summer window and consider a guided cruise for the best chance to see these giants up close.

When is the Best Time to Visit Alaska to See Salmon Swimming Back Home?

One of the great things about Alaska are the salmon and how they make their final act by swimming back home to where they were born in order to lay their eggs. Once they have accomplished their goal to spawn, they turn a bright red and will die. It is quite sad, but a marvelous act to witness, a miracle in navigation. We were lucky to be there in August. The five species of salmon spawn at different times of the year.

• King salmon: May to July
• Sockeye salmon: July to August
• Coho salmon: August to October
• Pink salmon: July to August (even-numbered years only)
• Chum salmon: July to September

Kenai Fjords, Alaska

The first day out on our Windstar cruise from Seward we visited the Kenai Fjords. Windstar is a much smaller ship. We were able to get really close to get some great pictures of the glacier. We had an option to get out of the cruise ship and get into a zodiac. That would take us real close, but given the bad weather that day we decided to stay on the ship. Those that took the zodiac were rewarded with the memories of the breathtaking sound and sight of the calving of the glacier.

When is the Best Time to Visit Alaska to see the Aurora Borealis?

The prime time to see the northern lights in Alaska is from mid-August to mid-April — especially in February, during the spring equinox in March, and during the fall equinox in September or October, when a combination of clear night skies and electromagnetic activity makes spotting auroras relatively easy.

Since Alaska is so far north, with parts of it in the Arctic Circle, aurora visibility is high across most of the state. For optimal viewing, head north and get as far from cities and major towns as you can to avoid light pollution. Dozens of guided tours out of Fairbanks take guests into the backcountry, so the only light they see is from the sky above. If you're flexible on your travel dates, use the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center website to time your visit around the northern lights. While you may not be able to see the Aurora Borealis at all times of the year, we were successful in seeing it from our Cruise ship in late August, 2022. How lucky were we. Since we were already south of Anchorage, we were very fortunate not only because of the time, but also because of our location. Normally you must be further north, closer to the Artic circle and later in the year.

A trip from Seward to Vancouver or Seattle is best when you travel in the inside passage. You can only make these trips from the late Spring to the early Fall. We prefer the Summer. The Inside Passage route takes you to interesting places such as Glacier Bay, Skagway (where a large part of the Gold Rush started), Juneau, (the Capital of Alaska), Hoonah (a great Native American city), and Wrangell (a true Hidden Gem). While in Skagway, we booked a jet boat adventure through Get Your Guide. We saw a large number of bald eagles as well as getting up very close with a young grizzly bear. We were reminded that bears do swim, so we left quickly.

Best Way to See Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier is one of Alaska’s most accessible and awe-inspiring natural wonders, located just 12 miles from downtown Juneau. Whether you're arriving by cruise or exploring independently, here is the best way to see the Mendenhall Glacier:

 By Land: Visitor Center & Trails

• Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center: Offers panoramic views, interactive exhibits, and a short film about the glacier’s dynamics.• Nugget Falls Trail: A flat, scenic 1-mile walk to a roaring waterfall right next to the glacier.• Photo Point Trail: A paved .6-mile trail with a head-on view of the glacier across the lake.• East Glacier Trail: A 3.5-mile loop with elevated views and interpretive signs.

 By Air: Helicopter Tour

• Flightseeing & Glacier Trekking: Helicopter tours with glacier landings let you walk on the ice, explore crevasses, and even try dog sledding on the glacier itself.• Operators like TEMSCO and NorthStar Helicopters offer these unforgettable experiences. We wisely booked a helicopter ride to the glacier while in Juneau. Wisely, because the ship's tour was cancelled while ours continued. While there is often a risk in taking a non-cruise excursion, in this case it was a bonus. Plus, it was significantly less in price. For other information about taking excursions, please see our Travel Tours Post. It is also nice to get out of the passage and visit Sitka. Sitka, a town west of the passage has a strong Russian heritage. You can visit these towns by plane and stay a while. But, it is much easier to visit by cruise ship. Remember, the smaller the better, as you will get to locations that the big ships can't go. You can see from wonderful wildlife, up close in the wild, when you go up rivers and other Hidden Gem locations.