The Best Helicopter Tours in Alaska

1. Glacier Landing Helicopter Tour — Best Overall

If you’ve never taken a helicopter tour in Alaska before, this is where we’d start.

A glacier landing helicopter tour combines the two things most people actually want: seeing Alaska’s mountains and glaciers from the air, and stepping onto a glacier. The flight gives you the scale — how the ice stretches through entire valleys, where it meets the surrounding mountains, how meltwater rivers flow away from it. Then the helicopter lands, and the landscape you were looking down on becomes something you’re standing inside.

What usually happens?

A typical experience includes a safety briefing, a scenic flight toward the glacier, views over mountains and glacial valleys, a landing on or near the ice, time outside the aircraft, and a return scenic flight. It isn’t normally a strenuous hike — you stay relatively close to the helicopter and follow the pilot or guide’s instructions, which makes a basic glacier landing accessible to a much wider range of travellers than trekking or ice climbing.

Who should choose it?

Particularly good if it’s your first Alaska helicopter tour, you have limited time, you want to actually stand on a glacier, you don’t want a physically demanding activity, or you want a strong balance between flying and exploring.

Potential downside

Part of the advertised tour duration goes to the glacier stop rather than the air. If your priority is seeing as much of Alaska from the air as possible, a longer scenic flight may suit you better.

Our pick

Near Anchorage, the Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landing is the strongest all-round version of this: $522, a one-hour round trip, thirty minutes on the ice, and rated 5.0 from 90 guests — the best review record of any tour on this site. Book it via Anchorage: Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landing. If ice time matters more to you than review count, the From Palmer tour is $2 cheaper and gives forty-five minutes on the glacier instead of thirty — book via From Palmer: Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour.

Verdict

Best choice for most first-time visitors.

2. Multi-Glacier Scenic Helicopter Tour — Best for the Views

Some people don’t particularly care about walking around on the ice. They want to fly.

If that’s you, look for a longer, multi-landing helicopter tour. Instead of concentrating on a single glacier stop, these flights use more of the available time to explore the landscape from above and put you down in more than one spot. Depending on the route, you may pass multiple glacier faces, mountain ridges, icefields, waterfalls, glacier-fed rivers and remote sections of the Chugach Mountains. The important thing is to compare actual flight time, not simply total tour duration.

Who should choose it?

Makes sense if aerial photography is a priority, you’ve already walked on a glacier elsewhere, you want to cover a larger area, or you’d rather see several landscapes than spend most of the tour standing in one location.

Our pick

The Grand Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landings is the version of this near Anchorage: two hours, three separate touchdowns — including a remote peak looking down the length of Knik Glacier — and a guided walk among the meltwater pools, for $762 and rated 5.0 from 26 guests. Book via Anchorage: Grand Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landings. If you’d rather fly out of Girdwood, the 90-min Flight with 2 Landings covers the Chugach south of the city with a glacier landing and a second stop on an alpine ridge, for $844.

Verdict

Best choice if your priority is the helicopter flight itself rather than standing on one glacier.

3. Helicopter + Glacier Dog Sledding — Best Bucket-List Experience

This is one of the most distinctive ways to combine two classic Alaska experiences. You fly by helicopter into snow-covered glacier terrain and meet a working sled-dog team before heading out onto the snow — a single combined experience rather than two unrelated activities booked separately.

Why is the helicopter important?

Because of altitude. The helicopter can reach glacier terrain where snow conditions stay suitable even when the valleys below are green, which is why summer dog sledding on real snow is possible at all near Anchorage.

Who should choose it?

Particularly appealing for families, first-time Alaska visitors, couples, people celebrating an occasion, or travellers with a big bucket list who would otherwise book both activities separately.

The downside

It’s significantly more expensive than straightforward flightseeing. If dog sledding itself isn’t important to you, a normal glacier landing tour gives you the core helicopter-and-glacier experience for less.

Our pick

The Helicopter and Glacier Dogsled Tour near Palmer gives a full hour with the dog team on the snowfield — three to four times the sled time most glacier dogsled products in Alaska allocate — plus thirty minutes of flightseeing over the Chugach, Knik Glacier and Lake George. $816, rated 4.9 from 64 guests. Book via Anchorage Area: Helicopter and Glacier Dogsled Tour. Travelling with children, or want a shorter drive from Anchorage? The Girdwood dogsledding tour lands on Punchbowl Glacier with Mitch Seavey’s IdidaRide kennel — $769, rated 5.0 from 7 guests. Book via Anchorage: Helicopter Glacier Dogsledding Tour.

Verdict

Best “only in Alaska” style upgrade if dog sledding is already on your wish list.

4. Heli-Hiking or Glacier Trekking — Best for Active Travellers

A standard glacier landing lets you stand on the ice. A heli-hiking or trekking tour lets you actually explore it. The helicopter provides access to terrain that would otherwise be difficult or time-consuming to reach on foot, and the guided portion becomes the main activity — glacier features, ridges, meltwater channels, blue ice and moraines, viewed with a guide rather than photographed from a fixed spot near the aircraft.

Glacier landing vs. heli-hiking

A standard landing puts you down, gives you time near the helicopter to look around and photograph, and flies you back. Heli-hiking makes the landing the beginning rather than the whole experience — a guide takes you farther through the terrain, and glacier exploration becomes a substantial part of the tour.

Near Anchorage

Near Anchorage there is currently no heli-hiking tour you can book through GetYourGuide: the four-hour Knik hiking adventure that used to be listed there has been withdrawn. Alaska Helicopter Tours sells a guided glacier trek directly, combined with a swim in a meltwater pool, as its Glacier Swim & Hike (from $1,049, May 15 to September 15, ages 13 and up). If you would rather keep to bookable tours with free cancellation, the closest thing on this site is the Grand Knik tour, whose three landings include a guided walk among the melt pools.

Verdict

Best for travellers who want the helicopter to take them somewhere they can genuinely explore, not just photograph.

5. Helicopter Ice Climbing — Best Adventure Experience

If heli-hiking sounds too tame, Alaska also offers helicopter-accessed ice climbing. You fly into glacier terrain, land, receive equipment and instruction, and spend the activity portion of the tour learning to climb glacier ice — a considerably more specialised product than sightseeing.

Before booking, check the minimum age, fitness expectations, mobility requirements, clothing requirements (the ice-climbing tour near Anchorage explicitly excludes warm and waterproof clothing while providing all technical gear — see our what-to-wear guide), equipment provided, and activity duration.

Our pick

The Knik Glacier Helicopter and Ice Climbing Tour is the one product of this type near Anchorage — four hours, $1,416, and it adds ice cave exploration in winter, one of the few things on this site that’s genuinely better in the cold months. It doesn’t yet carry a public rating or review count on GetYourGuide, so we’re not linking it as a featured pick here the way we do the others; read the full tour comparison and weigh that gap in review history before you book.

Verdict

Choose it because you want to ice climb — not simply because it sounds like the “premium” helicopter tour.

6. Winter Glacier Helicopter Tour — Best for an Off-Season Alaska Trip

Alaska helicopter sightseeing isn’t exclusively a summer activity. Winter creates an entirely different landscape: snow-covered mountains, frozen valleys, white glacier surfaces, lower light and dramatic shadows across the Chugach.

Advantages of winter: distinctive snow-covered scenery, fewer summer tourists, a different atmosphere from peak-season Alaska, and — near Anchorage specifically — the chance to add ice cave exploration to the ice-climbing tour, only possible once meltwater channels have frozen solid.

Downsides: shorter daylight hours, colder conditions, fewer tourist activities overall, tour availability varying by operator, and weather disrupting plans more readily than in summer.

No single tour on this site is sold specifically as a “winter” product — winter changes what a handful of the existing tours look like rather than adding a new one. Our best-time guide goes through what actually changes month by month.

Verdict

A strong option for winter visitors — and proof that glacier helicopter sightseeing doesn’t have to be a summer-only experience.

7. Private Helicopter Tour — Best for Couples and Special Occasions

A private helicopter experience sounds appealing, but check carefully what “private” actually means. Booking two seats on a helicopter tour doesn’t automatically mean the aircraft is reserved exclusively for you — many sightseeing flights combine passengers from different bookings.

If privacy matters — an anniversary, proposal, wedding or other occasion — check whether you’re booking two seats on a shared departure or the entire helicopter.

Worth paying for if: privacy is central to the experience, you’re planning a proposal, you’re travelling as a small group, or photography is particularly important to you.

None of the nine tours near Anchorage on this site is explicitly sold as a dedicated private charter — several, including the Grand Knik tour and the four-hour activity tours, cap groups at a small number of seats, which narrows the odds of sharing with strangers without guaranteeing exclusivity. If a genuinely private flight matters to you, call the operator directly before booking to confirm. Our full guide to booking for two goes through exactly what “two tickets” does and doesn’t buy, real prices for a couple on every tour here, and when paying for privacy is actually worth it.

Verdict

Worth considering for a genuine special occasion; unnecessary for most couples simply sightseeing together.

Where Are the Best Places for Helicopter Tours in Alaska?

For most visitors, four regions stand out.

Anchorage & Knik Glacier

Best for: easy glacier access from an Anchorage-based trip.

The Anchorage region is one of the easiest places to add a glacier helicopter tour without reorganising your whole itinerary. The Chugach Mountains surround the city, and Knik Glacier — around 25 miles long and over five miles across — is one of the major helicopter destinations in southcentral Alaska. See every Knik Glacier tour on this site.

Girdwood & the Chugach Mountains

Best for: combining helicopter sightseeing with a scenic day south of Anchorage.

Girdwood lies 40 miles south and is surrounded by dramatic Chugach scenery, fitting well into an itinerary that also includes Turnagain Arm, Alyeska, Portage and onward travel toward the Kenai Peninsula. See the Girdwood glacier landing tours.

Juneau & the Juneau Icefield

Best for: cruise passengers and guided glacier activities.

Juneau is another major centre for helicopter glacier experiences. The Juneau Icefield provides direct access to enormous glacier terrain, and current offerings there include glacier walks, trekking, ice climbing and dog sledding — none of which are sold through this site, which focuses specifically on the Anchorage-area operators above.

Denali & Talkeetna

Best for: huge mountain scenery and Denali flightseeing.

Denali is a different kind of aerial experience, focused less on a short flight to a nearby glacier and more on the sheer scale of the Alaska Range. Many of the best-known Denali flightseeing tours use fixed-wing aircraft rather than helicopters.

Which Alaska Helicopter Tour Gives You the Best Value?

The cheapest tour isn’t necessarily the best value. Neither is the longest. Ask yourself what you’re actually trying to experience.

If you mainly want to ride in a helicopter: book the shortest, cheapest landing tour rather than a longer activity tour — the flagship or Palmer flights, both around $520.

If you mainly want to experience a glacier: book a glacier landing — the Palmer tour gives the most ice time on this site at forty-five minutes.

If you mainly want aerial scenery: pay for more flight time, not more time on the ground — the Grand Knik tour or the 90-minute Girdwood flight.

If dog sledding is already on your bucket list: a combined helicopter + dog sledding tour can make sense despite the higher price.

If you enjoy active adventures: choose heli-hiking or ice climbing.

If you’re celebrating something special: consider a smaller-group flight, but confirm with the operator whether you’re genuinely getting exclusive use of the helicopter.

Glacier Landing vs. Dog Sledding: Which Should You Choose?

Choose the glacier landing if: budget matters, you mainly want the helicopter experience, standing on a glacier is enough, you want a shorter tour, or you’re already doing dog sledding elsewhere.

Choose dog sledding if: it’s a major Alaska bucket-list item, you want a longer experience, you’re travelling with children who would love it, or you’re comfortable spending significantly more — $769 to $816 near Anchorage, against $520 to $522 for a straight landing.

Glacier Landing vs. Heli-Hiking

Standard glacier landing: “Take me somewhere extraordinary and let me experience it.”

Heli-hiking: “Take me somewhere extraordinary and let me explore it.”

Short Helicopter Tour vs. Longer Flight

A longer flight sounds automatically better. It isn’t always.

Longer flights become worthwhile when they genuinely add another glacier system, dramatically different terrain, an additional landing, or more time deep within the mountains — which is exactly what the Grand Knik tour’s three touchdowns deliver over the flagship tour’s one. Before upgrading, ask: what exactly do I see on the longer tour that I don’t see on the shorter one?

What to Look for Before Booking

1. Actual flight time — probably the most overlooked detail.
2. Glacier landing — never assume the word “glacier” means the helicopter lands.
3. Number of landings — longer tours may include more than one.
4. Departure location — an “Anchorage tour” doesn’t mean a downtown Anchorage departure; every tour near Anchorage lifts off from Palmer or Girdwood.
5. Transfers — if the heliport is outside Anchorage, check whether hotel pickup or a shuttle is available; most tours here don’t include one.
6. Total duration vs. activity duration — especially important for dog sledding, hiking and ice climbing.
7. Weight policy — helicopters operate under strict weight-and-balance requirements; see our cost guide for the actual published limits and surcharges.
8. Cancellation policy — Alaska weather matters, and windows vary between 24 hours and 7 days depending on the operator.

Our Recommendation: Which Alaska Helicopter Tour Should You Choose?

For most first-time visitors, we’d choose a helicopter tour with a glacier landing. It gives you both sides of the experience: Alaska from above, and Alaska beneath your feet.

If you’ve already done a glacier landing elsewhere, choose a longer, multi-landing scenic flight instead. If dog sledding is one of the main reasons you’re visiting Alaska, choose the helicopter + dogsled combination. If you’re an active traveller, choose heli-hiking. And if what really interests you is Denali rather than helicopters near Anchorage specifically, compare fixed-wing Denali flightseeing as well.

The “best” helicopter tour is therefore not necessarily the most expensive option. It’s the one where you’re paying for the part of the experience you actually care about — and our full tour-by-tour comparison works through exactly which one that is for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best helicopter tour in Alaska?

For most first-time visitors, a helicopter tour with a glacier landing offers the best combination of aerial scenery and time on the ice. Near Anchorage, the Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landing has the strongest review record of any tour on this site at 5.0 from 90 guests.

Where is the best place for a glacier helicopter tour in Alaska?

Popular areas include the Anchorage/Knik Glacier region, Girdwood and the Chugach Mountains, the Juneau Icefield, and the Denali/Talkeetna area. This site covers the Anchorage-area operators specifically — see our full tour comparison.

Are there glacier helicopter tours near Anchorage?

Yes, though none lift off from the city itself. Every tour on this site departs from the Knik River valley near Palmer, about an hour north, or from Girdwood, 40 miles south.

Is a helicopter glacier landing worth it?

For someone who has never stood on a glacier, usually yes — see our full “is it worth it” breakdown.

Is dog sledding by helicopter worth it?

It can be if dog sledding is already high on your Alaska bucket list. Near Anchorage it adds roughly $250-300 over a straight landing tour for a full hour with a working sled team.

How long should an Alaska helicopter tour be?

You don’t necessarily need the longest tour. Around an hour provides a substantial flightseeing and glacier experience near Anchorage, while tours combined with dog sledding, hiking or ice climbing run three to four hours.

Can you take helicopter tours in Alaska in winter?

Yes — flightseeing around Anchorage isn’t purely a summer activity, though individual tours and combined activities are seasonal. Check availability for your specific dates.

Are Alaska helicopter tours private?

Usually not automatically. Many sightseeing flights combine passengers from different bookings; call the operator directly if exclusive use of the aircraft matters to you.

Are helicopter tours better than plane flightseeing?

It depends on the experience. Helicopters are particularly good for glacier landings and close-up mountain terrain. Fixed-wing aircraft can be better for covering much greater distances, such as reaching Denali.

Which helicopter tour is best from Anchorage?

Start by comparing the Knik Glacier landing tours and the longer Chugach scenic flights — our full comparison guide ranks all nine by traveller type.