Northern Lights and Chena Hot Springs Tour from Fairbanks in Fairbanks booking from $195.00

Northern Lights and Chena Hot Springs Tour from Fairbanks

Overview

Discover the ethereal beauty of Alaska’s famous celestial display, impressive ice sculptures and the state’s ancient healing waters on an evening trip from Fairbanks. Throughout the night, admire the artwork inside Aurora Ice Museum and a dip into Chena Hot Spring Resort’s outdoor mineral water baths before chasing the lights. Your guide will lead your small group out to ideal northern lights viewing locations, where you’ll wait with warm beverages for a chance at glimpsing the multicolored display in the sky. Round-trip transport from Fairbanks or North Pole hotels is included.

City: Fairbanks

Wed 25 Dec

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Starting at $195.00

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Wed 25 Dec

Starting at $195.00

Make a reservation

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What's Included

Hotel pickup and drop-off

Local Guide

Access to Chena Hot Springs Resort's hot springs, hot tubs and swimming area

Additional Info

Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Operates in cold weather conditions; please dress appropriately
Please don't forget to bring bathing suits, bath towels, at least 2 quarter for each locker and a photo id for the cocktail in the ice museum. (has to be purchased separately)
The outside rock pool is only allowed for Adults 18 years and up. However, children are allowed in the inside pool.
Pregnant travelers are not allowed in the outside rock pool.
We have enough room for a foldable wheelchair. The hot springs are wheelchair accessible.
We can only pick up from inside the city limits of Fairbanks or North Pole. For other locations, you will need to go to an agreed location (eg Walmart), please contact our office to discuss if you are staying outside the city limits.
Face masks provided for travellers
Hand sanitiser available to travellers and staff
Regularly sanitised high-traffic areas
Gear/equipment sanitised between use
Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised
To be in compliance with the CDC and the State of Alaska: Guests are not required to wear face masks, but may if they wish. We also urge you to review the updated Health Advisory Number 2 at https://covid19.alaska.gov/health-advisories/ .

What To Expect

Chena Hot Springs Resort

After wandering through the cool museum, don your bathing suit and enjoy the resort’s legendary namesake. The revitalizing mineral water soothes muscles with its warm temperatures of 106 degrees F (41 degrees C) year-round. You can also soak under the stars in an outdoor hot tub, or indoors in the heated pool. In between, slip away to the Aurora Café or the historic Resort Restaurant, where you can purchase meals, snacks, or beverages. When ready, join your expert guide for a small-group outing to view the Aurora Borealis. Your guide will lead you through one of the best places on earth to witness the green and purple illuminations loop across the night sky. Wait and witness the celestial wonder with hot beverages in the late evening, when viewing opportunities are the highest. The lights are also visible inside the cafe's Aurora Room, which serves as a comfortable and warm location for viewings. Note: We can never guarantee the Northern lights sighting.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Traveler Photos

Reviews (460)

Jiahui_G

Mar 2017

Dave is our tour guide and he is awesome!! On our way to the hot springs we asked him if there would be a chance to see any wildlife. Thus, he did several u-turns just to show us the Moses on the way. Really wonderful experience.

Aleisa C M

Mar 2017

Frankly, this was an experience I would not repeat, but I'm darn sure glad I did it once and can tell about it. The northern lights part was a fizzle, rather than splendid fireworks. Some nights are just like that. There was a little activity outside the viewing area in the rec center or whatever it was called, but mostly nothing. The Ice Museum is splendid - highly recommend that, though I passed on the 'Apple-tini.' Ate dinner in the restaurant at Chena Hot Springs, and it was one of the worst meals I ever had. Very nice decor, and it was a blessing to be somewhere warm, but my 'salmon blt' was awful. I'm not reviewing a restaurant, so I won't say more. Just skip it, if you can. Now - for the BIG DEAL - Chena Hot Springs when it's the middle of the night and 40 below zero. It's chilly in the locker room, and you have to have change for the lockers. Also know that if you mess up, each time you open the thing, you have to pay again to put your stuff in. You need to walk quickly from that locker room down the freezing corridor to the springs, but you can't run, lest you fall and bust your butt. When you get to the end, you make a right-angle turn and your feet hit the hot water on a graduated ramp taking you into the springs. Get low as fast as you can! Whatever you do, don't touch the metal rail on the left, because your hand will freeze to it, and you can lose a little skin, if you're not smart. I was not smart... You can touch it when it's submerged, but not until. Because of the temps, looking up at the sky availed us nothing. There was nothing but ice fog / steam / whatever - cloudy stuff - above. It also limited visibility in the water - I couldn't see anything more than 6' ahead of me. I had to see pictures on the internet to understand what the place I was in actually looked like. You can't bring a phone or a towel, because there's nowhere to put anything. There are ledges in the water to sit on, but if you're short, it won't work out well. OK - it was horribly cold, and though you make sure as much of you is in the water as can be, your hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows literally freeze while they're sticking out of the water. You want to take a picture of this, and you laugh at your companions, but you cannot no camera. I found a photo in the internet and posted it, just so people I was explaining this to could see what I was talking about. I stayed in there as long as I could which was longer than my brother, but at some point, you do have to get out. This means running up that ramp again and through that corridor when you're soaking wet. Your body temp is warmer, though, so you live through it. Putting your clothes back on is a fast exercise, and then it's over. As I said, I'm glad I did it, but I don't expect to do it again, at least not in the middle of the winter. The main reason for less than 5 stars is that the food was awful and our guide was really no more than a driver. We were in the far-back seat of a van with about 10 other people. He had forgotten his microphone, and I didn't hear a single thing he said all the way up and back, despite asking him to talk louder. I'm sure it was fascinating, but I got nada. Because there were no lights to speak of, the whole thing dragged on. We wanted to go home and did get back to the hotel an hour or two early maybe 2:30 am, instead of 4 am. Because we couldn't hear anything, the ride up and back to Chena was boring, too. Under better circumstances, this could've been 'great.'

JEAN H

Mar 2017

I did enjoy this tour but felt it was overpriced. The ice museum was great fun and I would have enjoyed spending a little more time there, especially at the bar with the appletini. The hot springs were indeed hot and it was fun but there were a couple of really slimy places when my feet hit the bottom. We didn't see the lights but that was the weather nothing again the tour in that regard.

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Northern Lights and Chena Hot Springs Tour from Fairbanks

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