An introduction to Alaska cruisetours: What are they and why you should book one

If you're planning your first big trip to Alaska, you may already have heard of an Alaska cruisetour — an organized trip that combines a cruise with overland touring.

In Alaska, unlike in most destinations, cruisetours are a very common thing.

Of the 3 million or so vacationers who go to Alaska every year, roughly two-thirds go by cruise ship. And, of those, a significant percentage sign up for an extended trip that includes both cruising and land touring.

Those are much higher percentages than you'll find for cruises and cruisetour-type trips in almost any other part of the world.

This is not by accident.

For reasons I will explain in more detail below, a cruise — and particularly a cruisetour — is the best way to see a broad cross-section of Alaska's most famous attractions in a single, easy-to-arrange trip.

Even if you're not the sort of person who normally signs up for a cruise or a land tour when visiting most destinations, you just might want to make a cruisetour the way you see Alaska. At least for your first visit.

This guide will explain why a cruisetour of Alaska makes sense for many Alaska-bound vacationers and everything you need to know to plan and book one.

What is an Alaska cruisetour?

First, let's start with the basics. A cruisetour to Alaska is a trip that combines a cruise along the coast of Alaska with a multiday overland tour into the state's rugged interior. It is both a cruise and a land tour of Alaska — hence the name.

Typically, these are trips that combine a seven-night cruise along the southeastern coast of the state (often called Gulf of Alaska sailings) with three to 10 nights of overland touring.

The resulting cruisetours thus range in length from 10 to 17 nights.

A cruisetour isn't the only way to do a cruise-related vacation to Alaska. You also can sign up for a cruise-only trip to the state, and many cruise-loving vacationers interested in seeing Alaska do just that. All the major cruise lines that operate in Alaska offer cruise-only options, and as I've experienced firsthand over many years of writing about Alaska cruises, they are wonderful trips.

Related: The ultimate guide to cruising to Alaska

Still, for reasons I will explain below, a cruisetour is arguably the best way to get a broad Alaska experience in a single trip.

Why choose an Alaska cruisetour?

Alaska is a big place with relatively few people, limited infrastructure and lots of hard-to-reach wilderness — all factors that make it difficult to visit as an independent traveler, especially if you want to see a broad cross-section of its most famous sights in a single trip.

For instance, one of the most famous places to visit in the state, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, isn't reachable by car. You can't drive there. For most people, the only practical way to get deep into Glacier Bay (and see its stunning tidewater glaciers) is on a cruise vessel.

The mountain-backed city of Juneau, another top destination in Alaska —and a hub for whale-watching, glacier flights and other bucket-list Alaska experiences — is also inaccessible by car. You can fly there, but for most people, a cruise is the best way to reach it.

Other major Alaska destinations are reachable by car, but are so far-flung that arranging a road trip to see several of them in a single trip is impractical. For example, the driving distance between Denali National Park and Preserve, and the popular tourist town of Ketchikan is more than 1,100 miles. You'd need at least 40 hours to make the journey.

It is only through a cruisetour that combines travel by ship, rail cars and motorcoaches that seeing all of the above and more in a single trip becomes possible for most people. And it's not just possible — it's easy. On a cruisetour, somebody else has figured out all of the very complicated logistics of getting you around the vastness of Alaska. All you have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

Related: Best free things to do on an Alaska cruise

As mentioned above, even if you're the sort of person who generally stays away from group travel, a cruisetour is still your best bet if you want to see a lot of Alaska.

It will get you both to the popular destinations in the southeastern part of the state that are easily accessible by ship (such as Juneau, Ketchikan, the historic mining town Skagway and Glacier Bay) as well as to the iconic destinations in the interior of the state that are best seen via overland touring (such as Denali National Park, Anchorage and Fairbanks).

Which companies offer Alaska cruisetours?

Six cruise lines account for nearly all cruisetours in Alaska, with regular departures throughout the Alaska tourist season:

• American Cruise Lines
• Celebrity Cruises
• Holland America
• Norwegian Cruise Line
• Princess Cruises
• Royal Caribbean

Additionally, two small cruise lines known for small-ship sailings — Windstar Cruises and Azamara Cruises — offer cruisetours to Alaska on a more sporadic basis. Windstar, for instance, offered cruisetours in 2026 but has none on its schedule for 2027.

Of these, by far the biggest Alaska cruisetour operators are Princess and Holland America. The two brands (which are sister companies owned by cruise giant Carnival Corporation) were the pioneers in offering tours to Alaska that combined cruise travel and overland travel. They continue to dominate the market for such trips.

Princess, notably, offers a whopping 28 Alaska cruisetour itineraries, each a little different. The next biggest Alaska cruisetour operator, Holland America, offers 19 different cruisetour itineraries.

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Norwegian are smaller players in the Alaska cruisetour market, with a smaller range of cruisetour itineraries. But they still each have 12, 13 and 9 different cruisetour itineraries, respectively.

America Cruise Lines, a small-ship cruise specialist, has two cruisetour itineraries in Alaska.

This is all to say that you have a lot of different Alaska cruisetours from which to choose.

Finding the best cruisetour for you

The good news is that the huge amount of choice means you'll likely find a tour that aligns perfectly with your interests. There are trips where the land portion of the experience focuses almost solely around visiting Denali National Park, but then there are others that add lots of stops at other outdoorsy areas, including lesser-known Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — the biggest national park in the United States.

Some cruisetours will bring you to such off-the-beaten-path towns as Homer, Alaska, known as the world capital of halibut fishing. Others bring you to Fairbanks or Anchorage. Some of Holland America's cruisetours will even take you across the border into Canada to the wild and sparsely populated Yukon Territory and its capital, Whitehorse.

Booking can be confusing

The bad news is that, because of all these choices, the process of booking an Alaska cruisetour can be confusing for first-timers.

Depending on which itinerary you pick, the overall length of the trip, the places you'll visit and the things you'll see can vary greatly.

You'll also get a different experience depending on which cruisetour company you pick.

Princess, which is the leader in cruisetours to Alaska, for instance, has built up an array of exclusive company-owned infrastructure in the state that you will only experience by booking a Princess trip. These include:

• Two custom-built Princess wilderness lodges at Denali National Park that are among the best places to stay in the area
• Three more custom-built Princess lodges in other parts of Alaska
• A fleet of luxury glass-domed Princess rail cars that provide direct-to-the-wilderness service
• A fleet of luxury Princess Tours motorcoaches

Holland America also owns a wilderness lodge in Alaska — just one, at Denali National Park — as well as several hotels in other parts of Alaska and the Yukon Territory. It also owns its railcars and motorcoaches.

Through their parent company Carnival Corporation, Princess and Holland America even own part of the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad in Skagway — one of the biggest tourist attractions in the state — as well as part of Skagway's historic port and retail operations.

Additionally, both Princess and Holland America will help you book day tours out of their Alaska lodges to explore the Alaska wilderness. These excursions include everything from flightseeing tours and whitewater rafting outings to guided hikes, fishing trips and a visit to a copper mine.

By contrast, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian and American do not own their own lodging in Alaska. Instead, they contract with local hotels to arrange lodging for their cruisetour customers.

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian and American also don't own railcars or motorcoaches in Alaska; they contract out that portion of their cruisetours to local operators.

What's included in an Alaska cruisetour?

When you sign up for a cruisetour to Alaska, you're signing up for a vacation where your cruise line will arrange almost every aspect of your trip, both on land and at sea.

For starters, there is the cruise portion of the trip. As noted above, every cruisetour in Alaska includes a cruise that is typically a one-way, seven-night sailing along the southeastern coast of Alaska. These trips typically include day stops at popular southeastern Alaska towns such as Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan, along with one or more visits to a glacier area for glacier viewing.

Cruisetours also include nightly lodging during the land portion of the trip and overland transportation around the state, either on motorcoaches or rail cars.

Your cruise line can also usually arrange your flights to and from the trip (for an extra charge) and airport transfers.

Related: The 10 best Alaska cruises for every type of traveler

If you're traveling to or from Denali National Park by train as part of a cruisetour, the cost of the tour usually includes transfers to and from the rail depot near Denali and lodging.

In the case of cruisetours operated by Princess, the specific lodging included in the tour is often in one of the five custom-built Princess lodges mentioned above; these lodges play a big role in the land portion of most Princess cruisetours. Notably, they serve not just as lodging for the night but as a base for exploring some of the state's best-known attractions.

Meals during the land portion of the trip are not included with many cruisetours. That said, some higher-end cruisetours do include them.

Excursions while visiting ports on the cruise portion of the trip are typically not included in cruisetour fares. Excursions during the land portion of the trips, including while staying at cruise line-owned lodges, are included in some cruisetours but not all. (More on that below.)

Where do Alaska cruisetours begin?

Nearly all cruisetours begin in one of three places: Anchorage, Alaska; Fairbanks, Alaska; or Vancouver, British Columbia.

You'll also occasionally find cruisetours that start in Seattle —all of which are operated by Norwegian Cruise Line.

Cruisetours that begin in Anchorage or Fairbanks start with the overland touring portion of the trip first, followed by the cruise portion of the trip. Cruisetours that begin in Vancouver or Seattle start with the cruise portion first, followed by the overland touring.

In both cases, the cruise portion will typically be a one-way, seven-night sailing between either Whittier or Seward in Alaska and either Vancouver or Seattle.

That means that when you book flights for your cruisetour, you'll be booking an "open jaw" ticket that brings you into Alaska at the start of the trip and home from Vancouver or Seattle — or vice versa.

Note that you can book your own air for these trips (many TPG readers like to use points and miles) or let the cruise lines book flights for you through their add-on air programs.

If booking on your own, just be sure that you are booking through the right airport in Alaska. Trips that start in Fairbanks, for instance, are best reached with a flight to Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) versus a flight to Anchorage International Airport (ANC), even though Anchorage is a far bigger airport. This is because transfers between Anchorage and Fairbanks can be time-consuming and expensive.

Related: 15 Alaska cruise mistakes you never want to make

The big exception to all of the above in where the trips begin and end is with the cruisetours offered by American Cruise Lines. The small-ship brand begins all its cruisetours in Fairbanks and ends them all in Juneau, Alaska, where it bases its vessels during the Alaska tourist season.

What are the itinerary choices for Alaska cruisetours?

As noted above, Princess is the biggest Alaska cruisetour operator, and it offers 28 different cruisetour itineraries. The next five biggest Alaska cruisetour operators offer another 55 itineraries between them.

That's a lot of different cruisetour options to sift through when you are planning a trip. But choosing the perfect Alaska cruisetour for you doesn't have to be quite as difficult as it might seem.

Depending on how long you want to stay in Alaska and what sort of experience you are seeking, you can narrow down the choices pretty quickly.

For starters, is your main goal for the land portion of the trip is to see Denali National Park, Alaska's most famous attraction? For many people, seeing Denali is the main reason to add a few days of land touring to an Alaska cruise. Or, would you rather see a broader cross-section of the state, including places like Fairbanks or lesser-visited natural attractions like Wrangell-St. Elias National Park?

You'll also want to ask yourself whether you want a full-service, guided experience when on the land tour portion of the trip, with lots of inclusions (like meals) and excursions. Or would you prefer to do more of the exploring on your own?

Depending on your answers to these questions, you can narrow down the list of available cruisetours significantly.

Princess Alaska cruisetours

Princess, for instance, makes choosing from its array of 28 Alaska cruisetour easy by breaking them down into three broad categories that each appeal to a different type of traveler:

• Denali Essentials trips (10-12 days)
• Denali Explorer trips (10-15 days)
• Denali Escorted (12-17 days)

Of those three categories, The Denali Explorer trips are the ones most people take. In addition to a seven-night cruise, the Denali Explorer trips offer a visit to Denali as the core element of the land portion of the experience. But some of the longer ones also include a visit to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park or Kenai Fjords National Park (where you'll stay at Princess lodges).

If you're seeking a cruise to Alaska plus a visit to Denali and maybe a bit more, these are the tours for you.

The Denali Escorted trips are similar to the Denali Explorer trips but are much more full-service in their design.

On the land portion of the Denali Explorer tours, you are on your own for meals and don't have a full-time tour director accompanying you from place to place as your guide. On the land portion of the Denali Escorted trips, by contrast, most meals are included, and you are escorted by a tour director.

Related: The 6 best Alaska shore excursions

If you're the type of traveler who likes full-service tours where every little detail of your trip, including where you eat, is arranged by the tour company and there is an always-present tour leader, the Denali Escorted trips are going to be the right choice for you.

For travelers on the opposite side of the spectrum — those who like to be more on their own when vacationing — the Denali Essentials itineraries are the trips specifically designed for you.

Several of the other major companies with Alaska cruisetours offer a similar array of trips, though with fewer options. But each of them does the trips a little differently when it comes to specific stops, lodging options and transportation.

Each of the brands also appeals to a different audience (see chart below). Princess, for instance, often draws couples, retirees and multigenerational families.

Related: The ultimate guide to Princess Cruises

Holland America Alaska cruisetours

Holland America, in particular, offers something that no other Alaska cruisetour company does: the chance to cross the border into Canada to see the Yukon Territory.

Holland America breaks its Alaska cruisetours down into two groups:

• Alaska and Denali cruisetours
• Alaska, Denali and Yukon cruisetours

The land portion of the Alaska and Denali cruisetours involves two to seven nights of overland touring, including one to three nights at Holland America's lodge at Denali National Park (named, simply enough, the Holland America Denali Lodge).

The land portion of the Alaska, Denali and Yukon cruisetours involves six to ten days of overland travel, with two to three nights at Holland America's Denali Lodge and two to three nights in the Yukon Territory.

If seeing the Yukon Territory is of interest to you, the latter tours are the way to go.

One big piece of news related to Holland America's cruisetour program: The Holland America Denali Lodge just underwent a significant, $70 million renovation and expansion this year that brought 48 remodeled rooms, a new coffee shop and a revamped public house. It'll also be getting a whole new room complex with suites as well as a new restaurant concept for the 2027 season.

In addition, for 2027, Holland America has revamped dining offerings during the land portion of its cruisetours with new menus and dishes created in partnership with Ethan Stowell, a Seattle-based chef and restaurateur who serves as the line's culinary ambassador.

Passengers booking eligible cruisetours can also book a new inclusive dining package that covers breakfast and dinner at Holland America properties at Denali, Skagway and Dawson City, lunch aboard its glass-domed McKinley Explorer railcars, admission to the Music of Denali dinner theater, and lunch during the Tundra Wilderness Tour at Denali.

Royal Caribbean Alaska cruisetours

Royal Caribbean doesn't offer as broad a range of Alaska cruisetours as Princess and Holland America. But like both of those brands, its 12 Alaska cruisetour itineraries include shorter (nine-night) trips where the land portion is mostly focused on seeing Denali National Park, as well as some longer trips (up to 13 nights) that add on more sightseeing.

The land portion of Royal Caribbean cruisetours ranges from two to six nights, and all but one include a stay at Denali National Park.

Some of the trips include a stay in Anchorage, while five of the 12 itineraries add on a visit to Fairbanks.

Half of the trips include a stay in Talkeetna, which is several hours south of Denali National Park and a base for adventure-type outings such as float trips and jet boat rides.

Royal Caribbean also includes a stay at one of Alaska's finest resorts, the Alyeska Resort, with three of its cruisetours. Located south of Anchorage in the Chugach Mountains, Alyeska is a high-end retreat with a spa, fine dining, wooded paths and trails that start on the property's grounds; there's even an aerial tram that will take you up 2,300 feet to the summit of Mount Alyeska.

While Royal Caribbean doesn't own its own lodging in Alaska, it uses top properties in the state including the Alyeska Resort as well and the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, which is celebrated for its panoramic vistas and grand stone fireplace. Other lodging on Royal Caribbean cruisetours include the charmingly rustic Denali Park Village, where buildings are tucked into a forested site along the Nenana River.

Celebrity Cruises Alaska cruisetours

Celebrity's 13 cruisetour itineraries range from 9 to 13 nights, with all 13 including at least one night at Denali National Park.

As with the Alaska cruisetours that Royal Caribbean (a sister company) offers, most include a stay in Anchorage; some also add stays in Fairbanks, Talkeetna, Homer or at the Alyeska Resort.

Among the Celebrity cruisetours are two Premium Cruisetour packages that include select meals, upgraded accommodations, and beverages while traveling by rail.

Celebrity cruisetours include stays at a similar mix of properties as Royal Caribbean cruisetours.

Norwegian Cruise Line Alaska cruisetours

Norwegian's nine cruisetour itineraries range from 10 to 13 nights, and all include at least one, and sometimes two, nights at Denali National Park.

Like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, Norwegian's tours usually include stays at one or more of the following places, too: Anchorage, Fairbanks, Talkeetna and the Alyeska Resort.

In an unusual twist, some Norwegian cruisetours also include a two-night stay in fishing hub Homer, known for its world-leading halibut catch, to give tour-goers a chance to sign on for an all-day (extra charge) fishing excursion. If you've always dreamed of experiencing halibut fishing, this might be the Alaska cruisetour for you.

Another unusual offering from Norwegian is a "Denali Valdez Explorer" cruisetour, which includes a motorcoach journey south along the Richardson Highway to Valdez, the terminus of the Alyeska Pipeline. This trip also includes a day cruise across the pristine waters of glacier-lined Prince William Sound.

American Cruise Lines Alaska cruisetours

The small-ship cruise specialist offers two cruisetour itineraries in Alaska that are 15 nights and 18 nights, respectively.

Both of the itineraries start with six nights of land touring in the interior of Alaska with visits to Fairbanks, Denali National Park, Anchorage and Kenai Fjords National Park, followed by either nine or 12 nights of cruising down the southeast coast of Alaska.

The cruisetours that American Cruise Lines offers in Alaska are significantly different than the cruisetours offered by other cruise brands in that the cruise portion of the trips take place on very small vessels. American Cruise Lines specializes in cruises on vessels that have fewer than 100 cabins and are small enough to visit very small, off-the-beaten-path ports in Alaska and elsewhere.

Stops during the cruise portion of the line's Alaska cruisetours include the tiny towns of Haines, Petersburg and Wrangell in addition to Juneau as well as Glacier Bay National Park (with some departures including a rare overnight stay in Glacier Bay). The longer sailings add a visit to the town of Sitka.

As mentioned above, American Cruise Lines is an outlier among Alaska cruisetour operators in that it begins all of its cruisetours in Fairbanks and ends them all in Juneau, Alaska, which is where its ships are based for the Alaska season.

After completing the land portion of your American Cruise Lines cruisetour, you'll take a short flight from Anchorage to Juneau to begin the cruise portion of the trip, with that portion being a roundtrip sailing out of the Juneau. You'll then fly home from Juneau.

American Cruise Lines is expanded its presence in Alaska significantly in 2027 with the addition of a third vessel in the region, the 130-passenger American Ranger. It joins the 170-passenger American Constitution and 170-passenger American Constellation in sailing in Alaska from May through September.

Azamara Alaska cruisetours

Azamara offers four-night Alaska land tours that can be tacked onto any cruise the line offers that begins or ends in Alaska.

For the 2027 season, there are six such cruises.

For cruises that end in Alaska (either at the ports of Whittier or Seward), the four-night add-on land tour will take place after the cruise and bring one night in the Denali National Park area, one night in Talkeetna, Alaska, and two nights in Fairbanks, Alaska.

For cruises that begin in Alaska, the four-night add-on land tour will take place before the cruise and bring the same mix of overnights.

Azamara also offers five- and six-night land tours into the Canadian Rockies that can be tacked onto Alaska cruises that begin or end in Vancouver, B.C. The tours focus heavily on Canada's majestic Banff National Park and, in some cases, include a two-day train trip through the Canadian Rockies on the Rocky Mountaineer.

With some of Azamara's Alaska cruises, you can add both an Alaska land tour and a Canadian Rockies land tour to the trip by scheduling one before the cruise and one after the cruise.

When can I do an Alaska cruisetour?

The season for cruisetours in Alaska is a relatively short one, lasting from May to September.

For the 2027 season, the earliest cruisetours are operated by Celebrity and Princess, respectively, and begin May 7 and May 8. The first Holland America cruisetours start on May 10. Norwegian and Royal Caribbean kick off their cruisetour seasons on May 11 and May 14, respectively, with American Cruise Lines and Azamara getting late starts on June 2 and June 3, respectively.

The last cruisetours of the 2027 season begin almost exactly four months later on Sept. 10.

What do cruisetours cost?

The cost of a cruisetour to Alaska varies widely depending on the type of tour you choose and its length, as well as the type of cabin you want on the cruise portion.

For example, the least expensive Princess cruisetour available for 2027 at the time of this guide's publishing was a 10-day Denali Explorer cruisetour that started at $1,399 per person. That's about $140 per day. This is for a trip that includes a seven-night cruise and three nights of overland touring focused on Denali National Park.

At the high end of the price range for 2027 Princess cruisetours were the 17-day Denali Escorted tours mentioned above; they started at $4,999 per person or about $294 per day.

Note that these starting rates get you the least expensive cabin type for the cruise portion of the trip, which is an "inside cabin" with no windows. The cruisetour cost can be significantly more in some cases if you want a bigger and more amenity-filled cabin on the cruise portion of the trip.

For the 10-day Denali Explorer Princess cruisetour mentioned above, for instance, the starting rates for the trip rose to $1,473 per person — or about $147 per day — if you chose a cabin with a window (known as an "ocean-view cabin") on the cruise portion of the trip. The starting rates jumped to $2,024 per person if you chose a cabin with a balcony and $3,599 if you wanted a suite.

Generally, cruisetours with fewer inclusions are priced lower than cruisetours with more inclusions. At Princess, for example, the Denali Essentials cruisetours typically cost less than the Denali Explorer tours, as they have fewer inclusions.

Keep in mind that, as is typical for cruise-related trips, the pricing for all of these tours is "based on double occupancy." That is, you will only get the prices listed above if there are two people traveling together in the same room, each paying the stated fare.

Bottom line

Alaska can be a difficult place to tour, given its huge size and lack of infrastructure, including roads in some areas. But there's an easy way to arrange a trip to Alaska that will include stops at some of its most famous sights: an Alaska cruisetour.

Combining a seven-night cruise along the southeast coast of the state with a land tour into the state's rugged interior, a cruisetour can get you to such iconic Alaska attractions as Denali National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and the Juneau Icefields all in one trip.

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