Homer Day Tours & Attractions

Homer is the hal­ibut cap­i­tal of Alas­ka, and this long­time char­ter com­pa­ny offers a blue-chip way to get to the fish. They have high-qual­i­ty boats, expe­ri­enced cap­tains, and enthu­si­as­tic crews — as well as an inside line on find­ing hal­ibut, rock fish and sil­ver salmon. But they also offer a vari­ety of oth­er ways to enjoy the waters off Kachemak Bay, from wildlife cruis­ing to pad­dling a kayak or hik­ing in Kachemak Bay State Park. 

Go fish! Cast your line for icon­ic Alaskan salmon and hal­ibut — as well as oth­er species — as you explore the shim­mer­ing waters around Homer with the pas­sion­ate fish­ing pros of Mav­er­ick Char­ters. The stun­ning area is one that many trav­el­ers don’t get to explore, and all ages can enjoy this unfor­get­table out­ing — no expe­ri­ence necessary!

In the best way pos­si­ble. you’re out­num­bered by bears dur­ing your stay at this pri­vate fly-in wilder­ness camp. Fly by char­tered plane from Homer to Alas­ka Bear Camp on a 5‑night, 6‑day all-inclu­sive pack­age. This deluxe back­coun­try camp accom­mo­dates just 14 guests in some of the best bear habi­tat in the world. In con­trast to day trips cater­ing to dozens of vis­i­tors at a time, Bear Camp offers a rare and exclu­sive wilder­ness immersion.

Watch bears dig­ging for clams, wan­der­ing the sedge grass, or nurs­ing their young – all in a short flight from Homer to Kat­mai or Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Smokey Bay’s bear tours last about five hours total — includ­ing flights and about three hours on the ground. On any giv­en day there will always be a morn­ing out­ing (leav­ing at 8 a.m. at the lat­est) and pos­si­bly one that leaves around 2 p.m.

See Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears in the wild on a float­plane trip to Kat­mai Nation­al Park. Vis­it Brooks Falls or join a guid­ed tour to oth­er remote loca­tions with­in the park. Both trips pro­vide 5 hours on the ground with the bears. Found­ed in 1991, Emer­ald Air Service’s mis­sion is to increase the under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of the unique ecosys­tem that sup­ports bears.

For many Alaskan trav­el­ers, bears are the ulti­mate high­light. Pair a mag­nif­i­cent sight­ing with a gor­geous heli­copter flight­see­ing ride and you’ll have an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence. On this unique tour from Homer, you’ll take a heli­copter ride out into one of Alaska’s gor­geous nation­al parks to wit­ness these spec­tac­u­lar crea­tures in the wild.

Spend sev­er­al hours or a full day watch­ing bears in the wild on a quin­tes­sen­tial Alaskan adven­ture with a fam­i­ly-run com­pa­ny. Start with a scenic flight out of Homer over Kachemak Bay and into Kat­mai or Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Once you land, your pilot/​guide will take you to an opti­mal spot to watch and pho­to­graph these mag­nif­i­cent crea­tures in their nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, hunt­ing, play­ing, and relax­ing. Spend any­where from 1.5 to 9 hours on the  ...more

Enjoy remote Alas­ka at its best. Go with this small, fam­i­ly-owned com­pa­ny in Homer for a mag­i­cal kayak­ing expe­ri­ence and a gor­geous hike to an ice­berg-stud­ded glac­i­er lake! 

Tour­ing Alas­ka by heli­copter gets you to unimag­in­ably wild and remote places. Some of the most amaz­ing have been scout­ed by Alas­ka Ulti­mate Safaris. Explore a glac­i­er sur­round­ed by snow-capped moun­tains, or climb to the steam­ing sum­mit of an island vol­cano. In either case, the views are unpar­al­leled and the expe­ri­ence is surreal.

Whether you’d like to go on a per­son­al­ized boat tour of the Homer area or take a water taxi to the Alaskan back­coun­try, Homer is an ide­al place to launch from, and Cold­wa­ter has the boats and exper­tise to get you there. Explore places like Kachemak Bay State Park, the small town of Sel­dovia, and pic­turesque Hal­ibut Cove.

Homer is the hal­ibut cap­i­tal of Alas­ka, and this long­time char­ter com­pa­ny offers a blue-chip way to get to the fish. They have high-qual­i­ty boats, expe­ri­enced cap­tains, and enthu­si­as­tic crews — as well as an inside line on find­ing hal­ibut, rock fish and sil­ver salmon. But they also offer a vari­ety of oth­er ways to enjoy the waters off Kachemak Bay, from wildlife cruis­ing to pad­dling a kayak or hik­ing in Kachemak Bay State Park. 

Enjoy remote Alas­ka at its best. Go with this small, fam­i­ly-owned com­pa­ny in Homer for a mag­i­cal kayak­ing expe­ri­ence and a gor­geous hike to an ice­berg-stud­ded glac­i­er lake! 

Dri­ve through Alas­ka with an audio tour guid­ing you along icon­ic routes. Audio Tour Alas­ka gives you an insider’s take on every­thing from points of inter­est to his­to­ry, wildlife, and cul­ture, along with cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ries. Guides to pop­u­lar routes include Anchor­age to Tal­keet­na; Tal­keet­na to Denali Nation­al Park; Denali to Fair­banks; Anchor­age to Seward; Tern Lake to Homer; and the Denali Park Entrance area and the Denali Park road.

Vis­i­tors (and/​or locals) can trav­el aboard the Homer Trol­ley to vis­it high­lights in Old Town, down­town and the Spit from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. while enjoy­ing nar­ra­tive by their Homer sour­dough dri­ver, Berk­ly Davis. The tours start this Fri­day (June 14) and run through the sum­mer. Pas­sen­gers can hop off and on as many times as they wish to vis­it the Pratt Muse­um, down­town art gal­leries and restau­rants, Old Town (more art and fine din­ing and…  ...more

Set sail on a lux­u­ri­ous 70-ft yacht out of Homer for 3+ days of fish­ing, hik­ing, kayak­ing, and wildlife view­ing while indulging in mass amounts of seafood. Your itin­er­ary will depend on the inter­ests of the group, and the expe­ri­enced local crew can ful­fill those interests.

Char­ter their pri­vate, live-aboard, 60’ yacht. Wake up each day in the mid­dle of untouched wilder­ness and go sea kayak­ing, hike through bore­al forests, fish for tro­phy hal­ibut and salmon, or spend a qui­et day on the water pho­tograph­ing wildlife

Homer is the hal­ibut cap­i­tal of Alas­ka, and this long­time char­ter com­pa­ny offers a blue-chip way to get to the fish. They have high-qual­i­ty boats, expe­ri­enced cap­tains, and enthu­si­as­tic crews — as well as an inside line on find­ing hal­ibut, rock fish and sil­ver salmon. But they also offer a vari­ety of oth­er ways to enjoy the waters off Kachemak Bay, from wildlife cruis­ing to pad­dling a kayak or hik­ing in Kachemak Bay State Park. 

Whether you’d like to go on a per­son­al­ized boat tour of the Homer area or take a water taxi to the Alaskan back­coun­try, Homer is an ide­al place to launch from, and Cold­wa­ter has the boats and exper­tise to get you there. Explore places like Kachemak Bay State Park, the small town of Sel­dovia, and pic­turesque Hal­ibut Cove.

Homer’s Pratt Muse­um pre­serves the sto­ries of the Kachemak Bay region and pro­vides a gath­er­ing place for peo­ple to learn and to be inspired by this region and its place in the world. The museum’s exten­sive col­lec­tion offers an excel­lent way to learn more about the land­scape, com­mu­ni­ties and ecosys­tems of the area.

While you’re explor­ing Homer and it’s eco­log­i­cal-rich envi­rons, a stop at the Cen­ter for Alaskan Coastal Stud­ies adds to your appre­ci­a­tion of the his­to­ry and wildlife of the area.

Every Sep­tem­ber since 2004, an inter­est­ing tra­di­tion has tak­en place: locals cre­ate a giant woven bas­ket with birch, fire­weed, and grass, set it out on the beach, dec­o­rate it, throw notes into it, and then, at sun­down, burn it up in spec­tac­u­lar fash­ion. Artist Mavis Muller began this unique event, and today, it makes for a vibrant evening, filled with music and danc­ing, that show­cas­es a strong com­mu­ni­ty spir­it and respect for the local  ...more

The Kachemak Bay Wood­en Boat Soci­ety holds an annu­al fes­ti­val in Sep­tem­ber. Fea­tures include a tour of the waters includes a WWII era wood­en tug con­vert­ed for char­ter use, kids boat build­ing, marine demon­stra­tions (includ­ing knot tying, net mend­ing, and bronze cast­ing. For enter­tain­ment, lis­ten to tall tales and poets.

A beau­ti­ful 100k race on remote pis­ton bul­ly snow trails in the spec­tac­u­lar Cari­bou hills out­side of Homer. Rac­ers pick one mode: FAT­BIKE, SKI, or RUN and must fin­ish in one day or less. Start­ing point is McNeil Canyon Ele­men­tary School.

All races are on cours­es that make them easy to watch from the end of the Spit. Fre­quent­ly they race around the ​‘green can’ mark­er on a shoal west of the Spit, and Gull Island, a few miles across Kachemak Bay from end of the Spit. Some­times there are only four boats rac­ing and oth­er times up to 20. They are very open-mind­ed sailors and whether or not you have had any sail­ing expe­ri­ence they wel­come new crew. Cap­tains and Crews meet on P…  ...more

This unique fes­ti­val in Homer, Alas­ka is an art-lovers dream.

The Homer High­land Games are ded­i­cat­ed to the edu­ca­tion of the gen­er­al pub­lic about the Celtic Cul­ture through ath­let­ics, music and infor­ma­tion about one of the most ancient ath­let­ic events in his­to­ry start­ing back in 1057 A.D. when King Mal­colm Can­more, who called upon the Clans to send their best run­ners, for he need­ed mes­sen­gers, send their best fight­ers, for he need­ed a pri­vate army, and send the strongest, for he need­ed per­son­al guards.  ...more

The first Sun­day of August brings a spe­cial event to Homer: the oppor­tu­ni­ty to step into pri­vate gar­dens that show­case the unique­ness of Alaskan gar­den­ing and get some real insight into what it’s like to work the land in a place where the grow­ing sea­son is short and the days long. Some 400 peo­ple come to Homer from all over, some of them gar­den­ers from oth­er parts of Alas­ka, and oth­ers from out­side the state who sim­ply have an inter­est in  ...more

The Homer Jack­pot Hal­ibut Der­by is the longest run­ning der­by in Alas­ka and boasts the largest jack­pot, too.

The sum­mer out­door Farmer’s Mar­ket, on the right side of Ocean Dri­ve en route to the Spit, offers not only fresh pro­duce and art, but also per­form­ing artists on stage. It’s a very pleas­ant aspect of Homer life. The enter­tain­ment ranges from singer/​songwriter gui­tarists, quar­tets, elab­o­rate dance per­for­mances to marim­ba bands to men­tion a few. In a town so full of tal­ent, one can always expect an added treat at the Farmer’s Mar­ket, not only in  ...more

Locat­ed on the shores of Kachemak Bay, Homer is one of the most acces­si­ble and beau­ti­ful places for shore­bird view­ing in Alas­ka. Many vis­i­tors fly in (with the birds) while oth­ers dri­ve the scenic road, about four hours south from Anchor­age. Over 100,000 shore­birds migrate through this area, some stay­ing to make their homes here. Many trav­el thou­sands of miles rest­ing and feed­ing at a few crit­i­cal stop-over points such as the base of the Homer  ...more

Out on the tip of the Kenai Penin­su­la, at (lit­er­al­ly) the end of the road, sits the quirky town of Homer — the eco­tourism cap­i­tal of Alas­ka. Artists, adven­tur­ers, and food­ies all come to expe­ri­ence the town’s cre­ative ener­gy, great restau­rants, and gor­geous wilder­ness. And at the entrance to town, just off the Ster­ling High­way, you’ll find the Homer Cham­ber of Com­merce Vis­i­tor Center.

The Alas­ka Mar­itime Nation­al Wildlife Refuge Vis­i­tor Cen­ter is a com­pre­hen­sive estab­lish­ment on the Bypass that hous­es the Alas­ka Mar­itime Nation­al Wildlife Refuge, ded­i­cat­ed to under­stand­ing and con­serv­ing the marine envi­ron­ment. Their pro­grams include nat­u­ral­ist-guid­ed estu­ary and bird­ing walks and tide pool explo­rations just a lit­tle ways out­side the back door and down to the beach below the Center.

Quick: what’s the longest com­bined rail and high­way tun­nel in North Amer­i­ca? It’s the Ander­son Memo­r­i­al Tun­nel, and you’ll dri­ve through it on the scenic and his­toric dri­ve to Whit­ti­er. The Kenai Moun­tains-Tur­na­gain Arm Nation­al Her­itage Area is a place whose val­leys and moun­tains, com­mu­ni­ties and peo­ple tell the larg­er sto­ry of a wild place and a rugged fron­tier. This audio guide gives you the inside scoop on its fas­ci­nat­ing his­to­ry. You’ll…  ...more

When is a golf course more than a golf course? When it’s the 9‑hole, par‑3 golf course in Homer, Alas­ka. Sure, you can play a round on this scenic course— it’s the last golf course in Amer­i­ca at ​“the end of the road”, and the only golf course in Homer, Alas­ka —but it’s also a great spot to just relax with a beer or a glass of wine. Enjoy the breath­tak­ing views of Kachemak Bay and Grew­ingk Glac­i­er, all while enjoy­ing tem­per­a­tures that are  ...more

The Homer Spit is a long, nar­row fin­ger of land jut­ting 4.5 miles into Kachemak Bay. Dot­ted with busi­ness­es, the area caters to vis­i­tors and pro­vides numer­ous recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ties, from fish­ing and beach­comb­ing to shop­ping and boating.

The First Fri­day shows at the art gal­leries in Homer always present a great selec­tion of art. All of the in-town shops (there are some art shops on the Spit that don’t par­tic­i­pate in First Fri­day) also host artists’ recep­tions from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. with refresh­ments (usu­al­ly cook­ies, cof­fee, punch and tea) for vis­i­tors. Some of the artists also speak about their work. All of the gal­leries leave their fea­tured artist’s work up until the  ...more

An amaz­ing array of inver­te­brates (ani­mals with­out back­bones) live with­in Home­r’s inter­tidal zone-between the water’s reach at high tide and the water’s edge at low tide. All you need is a pair of rub­ber boots and a tide book to explore their world.

The Swiss Kilch­er fam­i­ly came to this coun­try on a boat in the 1940s escap­ing the hor­rors of World War II in Europe, bless­ing Homer with out­stand­ing tal­ents in the per­form­ing as well as visu­al arts. They home­stead­ed 600 acres at mile 12.5 East End Road, near the head of Kachemak Bay.

You don’t have to go into the art gal­leries (although that’s a good idea) to enjoy art in Homer. Many of the busi­ness­es, espe­cial­ly on Pio­neer Avenue, adorn their build­ings with out­stand­ing out­door art works.

Four qui­et and seclud­ed Russ­ian Old Believ­er com­mu­ni­ties have been devel­oped on the out­skirts of Homer. They left their home coun­try in search of free­dom to wor­ship in their own way. The first (and eas­i­est to vis­it) Russ­ian Old Believ­er com­mu­ni­ty on the Kenai Penin­su­la was Niko­laevsk, locat­ed 10 miles east of Anchor Point on the North Fork Road, near the North Fork of the Anchor Riv­er. Pri­va­cy and pre­serv­ing their lifestyle are impor­tant to  ...more

A facet of life in Homer that can be watched on tele­vi­sion is the ​“Dead­liest Catch” about com­mer­cial crab fish­ing in Alaska’s icy waters. Co-cap­tains Johathan and Andy Hill­strand have pro­duced a new book about their adven­tures, Time Ban­dit: Two Broth­ers, the Bering Sea and One of the World’s Dead­liest Jobs. Any­one who has fished Alaska’s waters, whether win­ter or sum­mer and for any species, know that it is a chal­leng­ing and risky profession.  ...more

A most spec­tac­u­lar view from the head of Kachemak Bay to Augus­tine vol­cano, this 180 degree panoram­ic view of ice, sea, moun­tains and sky makes a great back­drop for your sou­venir Alaskan pho­tos. The view changes sea­son to sea­son accord­ing to what wild­flow­ers are in bloom and depend­ing upon vary­ing cloud, sky, and snow conditions.

Vis­i­tors dri­ving down to Homer (south west from Anchor­age) find a per­fect pull out rest stop on the right side of the high­way on the hill above town. From this van­tage, they get a pre­view of the plea­sures to come. Fish­ing boats’ win­dows twin­kle out in Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay, the Spit stretch­es half way across Kachemak Bay, and the snowy moun­tains on far side of the bay, embrac­ing Kachemak Bay State Park, plus of course the the town itself.  ...more

The Nick Dudi­ak Fish­ing Lagoon (aka The Fish­ing Hole) is a pop­u­lar park with both locals and vis­i­tors. The lagoon is stocked with fry that grow up to pro­vide sport fish­ing. The fish­ing hole has a hand­i­capped acces­si­ble plat­form and ramp. King salmon return mid-May to ear­ly July fol­lowed by an ear­ly run of sil­vers mid-July to ear­ly August and a late run ear­ly August to mid-September.

Above Homer, up East Hill and right on Sky­line Dri­ve a mile and a half (a beau­ti­ful dri­ve along the bluffs over­look­ing Homer), watch for the Wynn Nature Cen­ter, man­aged by the Cen­ter for Alaskan Coastal Stud­ies. You can stroll in the wilder­ness among the beau­ti­ful flo­ra and watch for wildlife or take a tour guid­ed by a well-informed naturalist.

The 125-mile water trail is intend­ed to inspire explo­ration, under­stand­ing and stew­ard­ship of the nat­ur­al trea­sure that is Kachemak Bay. Peo­ple will take their own boats, kayaks, skiffs, or canoes on a mapped route which high­lights the stops and the views along the way. On the web­site, you will find sug­gest­ed itineraries.

As you head down the Homer Spit, you’ll see a col­lec­tion of ground­ed boats. Some are occu­pied, and oth­ers are aban­doned. All add to the charm of the Homer Spit. 

In an area known for out­stand­ing artists, Nor­man Low­ell, whose stu­dio is off in the wilder­ness north of town (near Anchor Point) sev­er­al miles, is one of the best known and least vis­it­ed because of his remote loca­tion. His work is exhib­it­ed in a very dif­fer­ent gallery set­ting and it is pre­sent­ed in a per­son­al way by the artist. Through his hang­ing arrange­ment, light­ing, and sequenc­ing of the work with thoughts on each paint­ing, the view­er is  ...more

Below the Bypass and accessed main­ly from Main Street, the dis­trict was once the heart of Homer. It is still a vibrant area that draws locals and vis­i­tors for beach walks, din­ing, enter­tain­ment and art as well as basic needs like help with computers.

Close to Anchor­age and endowed with abun­dant recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, cen­tral Kenai is Alaska’s play­ground. Two high­ways, numer­ous trails, and sev­er­al major rivers slice through the spine of the Kenai Moun­tains. World-class fish­ing, hik­ing, riv­er raft­ing, and canoe­ing – plus alpine lakes and gold his­to­ry – make for an ide­al day trip or week-long vacation. 

Homer is known through­out Alas­ka as the state’s pre­mier artist com­mu­ni­ty, home to dozens of gal­leries and artists. You’ll find a con­ve­nient clus­ter of gal­leries worth vis­it­ing along ​“Gallery Row,” the stretch of Pio­neer Avenue between Main Street and Lake Street. Here are three we like. Pic­ture Alas­ka Pic­ture Alas­ka (448 E. Pio­neer Ave.) fea­tures orig­i­nal paint­ings and fine art prints by notable local artists. This diverse gallery also…  ...more

The Salty Dawg Saloon was orig­i­nal­ly one of the first cab­ins built here in 1897, just after the town was estab­lished. Today, a vis­it to the his­toric Salty Dawg Saloon on the spit will enhance your vis­it and put you in touch with many locals. Much more than a saloon, the Dawg has reg­u­lar music per­for­mances and also serves light food.

A day trip across Kachemak Bay to the charm­ing vil­lage of Hal­ibut Cove offers you wildlife-view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, an up-close look at a bustling bird sanc­tu­ary, and time to explore a tiny island com­mu­ni­ty of artists, crafts­peo­ple, and anglers. Go there on the Dan­ny J, a clas­sic wood­en fish­ing boat that fer­ries both vis­i­tors and res­i­dents across the bay, twice a day between Memo­r­i­al Day and Labor Day. Dur­ing the noon cruise, enjoy a…  ...more

Jean Keene, wide­ly known as the Homer ​“Eagle Lady,” shared her love and knowl­edge of eagles with vis­i­tors before she passed away Jan­u­ary 13, 2009. She was 85. In 1977 Keene relo­cat­ed from Aitkin, Min­neso­ta to Homer, where she lived in a motorhome parked with­in a small enclo­sure, in the mid­dle of a camp­ground near the out­er end of the Spit.

Every­one wants to explore a tide­pool, don’t they? This is a must for the kids — even that lit­tle kid in those slight­ly more mature vis­i­tors. Here’s the per­fect spot. Bring a tow­el and let’s have an inter­tidal adventure.

Although this can be a busy spot, it is a lot less con­gest­ed than the Homer Spit. Things to do here include: tak­ing small day hikes, pad­dling in the lagoon, camp­ing, stay­ing at one of the three near­by pub­lic use cab­ins, and the most pop­u­lar, fish­ing for Kings dur­ing the month of June.

When is a golf course more than a golf course? When it’s the 9‑hole, par‑3 golf course in Homer, Alas­ka. Sure, you can play a round on this scenic course— it’s the last golf course in Amer­i­ca at ​“the end of the road”, and the only golf course in Homer, Alas­ka —but it’s also a great spot to just relax with a beer or a glass of wine. Enjoy the breath­tak­ing views of Kachemak Bay and Grew­ingk Glac­i­er, all while enjoy­ing tem­per­a­tures that are  ...more