Kenai / Soldotna Transportation

Explore Alas­ka from above with this fam­i­ly-owned com­pa­ny that oper­ates out of Anchor­age. Options include fly­ing above Denali, Knik and Colony Glac­i­er, the Chugach Moun­tains, and more!

This is your chance to trav­el like the locals! Many Alaskans ride this bus line that motors between Anchor­age, Glen­nallen, Fair­banks, and Tok, mak­ing stops along the way in off-the-beat­en-path des­ti­na­tions. Every Mon­day, Wednes­day, and Fri­day, you can board a van or a 20-pas­sen­ger bus to trav­el Inte­ri­or Alas­ka Bus Lines’ route.

Com­plete with rooftop tents that set up in min­utes, camp stove, and refrig­er­a­tor, Over­lan­ders are per­fect for explor­ing Alas­ka. Explore the Denali High­way, McCarthy Road, or Dal­ton High­way just as eas­i­ly as you can zip into towns like Homer, Tal­keet­na, or Fairbanks.

Win­ter in Alas­ka is a mag­i­cal time, with few­er vis­i­tors and a serene, snow-cov­ered land­scape. If you’re here from mid-Sep­tem­ber to mid-May, you can take it in from the com­fort of the Auro­ra Win­ter Train, which runs between Anchor­age and Fair­banks. It’s an easy and mem­o­rable way to trav­el north and expe­ri­ence the auro­ra bore­alis, or even do a week­end get­away to Talkeetna.

Hop on board the all-sea­son Miss­ing Lynx and Lost Lynx, the ves­sels bound for what­ev­er Seward Ocean Excur­sion suits your fan­cy. Want to whale watch, see glac­i­ers, go bird watch­ing or just check out hid­den coves? Cap­tains Bixler and Krystin McClure will help your small group plan an out­ing catered to your pref­er­ences. No mat­ter the sea­son, you can always catch some excite­ment in Res­ur­rec­tion Bay!

Expe­ri­ence Alas­ka at its most beau­ti­ful­ly remote on a ful­ly out­fit­ted float trip with Ani­ak Air Guides. Whether your pas­sion is raft­ing, fish­ing, hunt­ing, back­pack­ing, wildlife and out­door pho­tog­ra­phy, or gold pan­ning, Ani­ak Air Guides can set you up with every­thing you need, then fly you to the per­fect loca­tion to DIY the trip of a lifetime.

This train trav­els through the forest­ed areas north of Anchor­age into the bore­al for­est, and even­tu­al­ly into the tun­dra regions fur­ther north. On a clear day the train will slow down to allow you to see beau­ti­ful vis­tas of Denali. You may also spot wildlife along the way. Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na Day Trip from Fair­banks: Denali Mul­ti-Day Trip from Anchor­age: Tal­keet­na, Denali Nation­al Park, and / or Fair­banks Mul­ti-Day Trip  ...more

Oper­at­ing from May to Sep­tem­ber, this pri­vate fer­ry ser­vice is the eas­i­est and fastest way to trav­el between Haines and Skag­way. The 45-minute ride pass­es through Taiya Inlet, a steep-walled rocky fjord just out­side of Skag­way, and then opens up to the Lynn Canal near Haines. As you ride, look for seals and sea lions, as well as hump­back, minke, and orca whales. Don’t for­get to look up from the water from time to time to check out the  ...more

The train can be used as a mode of trans­porta­tion, how­ev­er it can also be a round-trip sight­see­ing excur­sion. This pri­ma­ry des­ti­na­tion is the town of Whit­ti­er, a major cruise ship and after­noon day cruise hub. Day Trips from Anchor­age: Whit­ti­er, Gird­wood, Spencer Glac­i­er, Grandview

The Coastal Clas­sic train runs between Anchor­age and the town of Seward — a four-hour trip that’s the most beau­ti­ful along the entire Alas­ka Rail­road. You’ll see Tur­na­gain Arm as the train departs Anchor­age, then a panora­ma of moun­tains, glac­i­ers, lakes, and streams. You may even see wildlife like Dall sheep, Bel­u­ga whales, moose, bear, and more! Day Trip from Anchor­age: Seward, Gird­wood Mul­ti-Day Trip from Anchor­age: Overnight Seward, or  ...more

For many Alaskans, trav­el by plane is essen­tial for work, get­ting to med­ical appoint­ments in the big city, or con­nect­ing with fam­i­ly in anoth­er part of the state. For vis­i­tors, plane trav­el helps max­i­mize their lim­it­ed time explor­ing the state, show­cas­es spec­tac­u­lar views of the land, and gives an authen­tic peek into Alaskans’ air-cen­tric lifestyle. Ravn Alaska’s net­work offers flights to major Alas­ka cities such as Anchor­age and Fairbanks,  ...more

When you want to explore Alas­ka on your own timetable, with a guar­an­teed bed and meals any time of day, con­sid­er a trip in a state-of-the-art motorhome rent­ed from Great Alaskan Hol­i­days, Sales & Ser­vice. They offer the largest selec­tion of spark­ly clean and well-main­tained motorhomes in Alas­ka, with great pric­ing and a no-fuss reser­va­tion and rental process. It’s the most con­ve­nient, flex­i­ble, and afford­able mode of inde­pen­dent trav­el in  ...more

Hop aboard one of Regal Air’s planes depart­ing from Anchor­age and after a short, scenic flight you can be watch­ing enor­mous brown bears swat salmon from Alaska’s rush­ing waters. Tours vis­it one of two des­ti­na­tions: Lake Clark Nation­al Park or Brooks Falls in Kat­mai Nation­al Park.

The Hur­ri­cane Turn Train oper­ates on Thurs­day through Sun­day between Tal­keet­na and Hur­ri­cane Gulch from mid May to mid Sep­tem­ber. You can either take a scenic jour­ney round trip, or you can ask to be let off at whichev­er mile mark­er you choose. This train is how many peo­ple who live in the back­coun­try gain access to their homes or cab­ins. It is also pop­u­lar for fish­er­men who gain access to some great fish­ing spots by train. Get back on the  ...more

Com­ing to Denali on the train or by motor­coach? Don’t sweat the trans­porta­tion once you’re here — just hop on the Sheep Shut­tle! As amaz­ing as Denali is, get­ting around the area can be tricky if you don’t arrive by car. With sheep shut­tle you can access local restau­rants, shops, and hotels beyond the imme­di­ate park entrance area.

The only same-day ser­vice between Seward and Denali Nation­al Park! Enjoy the ride aboard a deluxe motor­coach with com­fort­able seats, pic­ture win­dows, in-seat pow­er out­lets, and an onboard restroom. Offer­ing reg­u­lar sched­uled sum­mer ser­vice con­nect­ing Seward, Whit­ti­er, Anchor­age, Tal­keet­na, and Denali, plus spe­cial cruise con­nec­tions on ship days.

Fly Denali is the only com­pa­ny north of the Alas­ka Range with a per­mit to land on glac­i­ers inside Denali Nation­al Park. The result is a world-class flight-see­ing trip, with land­ings on Denali’s glaciers.

Need a car for your next Alaskan adven­ture? Find the wheels you need, plus great ser­vice and afford­able prices, at Thrifty, which has two con­ve­nient loca­tions: one at the Anchor­age air­port and a sec­ond just south of down­town on Spe­nard Road.

If you want to get a true sense of the 13 mil­lion acres with­in Wrangell-St. Elias Nation­al Park — which has a mere 100 miles of road­ways — start with an aer­i­al view. Since 1992, Wrangell Moun­tain Air has been offer­ing safe and fas­ci­nat­ing tours of this remote king­dom, which boasts North Amer­i­ca’s largest assem­blage of glac­i­ers as well as its largest col­lec­tion of peaks above 16,000 feet. Choose from three main tours. 

Fly from Fair­banks and trav­el 80 miles above the across the Arc­tic Cir­cle on a scenic and his­toric adven­ture. Depart­ing in the evening, you’ll pass over the stark ter­rain of north­ern Alas­ka and land at the Athabas­can vil­lage of Fort Yukon. Then, with your guide, you’ll spend an hour learn­ing all about this fas­ci­nat­ing area — the his­to­ry, how peo­ple take care of them­selves in a pun­ish­ing envi­ron­ment, and some of the char­ac­ters who have called this  ...more

Since 1963, Rust’s has been safe­ly car­ry­ing anglers far away from the crowds. Expe­ri­enced guides lead you to world-class fish­ing for kings, sil­vers, grayling, and trout in some of Alaska’s most beau­ti­ful and remote wilder­ness — and they’ll clean and pack­age your catch for the trip back to Anchor­age. On the way, enjoy a win­dow-seat view and pilot narration.

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.

Hire a pro­fes­sion­al dri­ver to take up to 4 pas­sen­gers (plus lug­gage) any­where with­in the Talkeetna/​Seward/​Soldotna/​Kenai cor­ri­dor — basi­cal­ly, any­where with­in a 2.5- to 3‑hour radius of Anchor­age. Use for day trips (they’ll wait while you do your tour), trans­fers to your cruise ship, a pri­vate dri­ver for your whole vaca­tion, and more.

Take in the scenic views from the domed win­dows in the pri­vate McKin­ley Explor­er rail­cars by Gray Line Alas­ka. Inde­pen­dent trav­el­ers can book a seat, but most opt for a mul­ti-day pack­age includ­ing hotel and trans­fers. Enjoy excel­lent ser­vice from your car man­ag­er, who will point out sights and scenery along the way. Dine in the restau­rant locat­ed just beneath you, and don’t miss a thing as you con­tin­ue to gaze out of large pic­ture windows.  ...more

Alas­ka Motorhomes Rentals from Alas­ka Trav­el Adven­tures offers one-way rental options. See­ing Alas­ka by motorhome is dif­fer­ent than see­ing it by train, for exam­ple – so why not expe­ri­ence them both? If the thought of a long, round-trip jour­ney on the Al-Can keeps you from set­ting out on that amaz­ing adven­ture, how about dri­ving one way and fly­ing back? You can con­sid­er all these options when you rent one of the com­fort­able, easy-maneu­ver­ing C  ...more

The team at Alas­ka Auto Rental offers rental cars for the most unique itin­er­ary: over grav­el high­ways, through win­ter weath­er, on one-way legs, or start­ing out from unusu­al loca­tions. It’s local­ly-owned, with employ­ees who know Alaska’s roads and their chal­lenges. You’ll get help­ful trav­el advice, a can-do atti­tude, and reli­able wheels.

Local­ly known as ​“The Glac­i­er Land­ing Com­pa­ny,” TAT has been fly­ing climbers and sight­seers to the Alas­ka Range and Denali since 1947. Tal­keet­na Air Taxi fea­tures a cus­tom-designed fleet of planes, a ded­i­cat­ed cus­tomer ser­vice team, and a vari­ety of tours for every budget.

There’s a sto­ry about a local pio­neer who in the 1950’s walked the entire way to McCarthy from Cor­do­va. Across the Cop­per Riv­er was a steel cable, the cur­rent bridge hav­ing not been built until 1973.

An iron bridge cross­es Moose Creek here. If you take a moment to observe the creek you’ll notice that the rush­ing waters are clear and full of grayling, quite the oppo­site of glacial fed water­ways that appear milky due to the high sed­i­ment content.

Phone: 907−789−9450 Address: 1873 Shell Sim­mons Dri­ve, Suite 5120, Juneau, AK Hours: Sun — Sat 6am — 10pm 

For many, cross­ing the Kusku­lana Bridge is the most nerve-rack­ing part of their dri­ve down McCarthy Road. Men­tal­ly pre­pare your­self to dri­ve across this old sin­gle-lane rail­road bridge 238 feet above the rag­ing Kusku­lana Riv­er! The Kusku­lana bridge was built dur­ing the win­ter of 1910. You will see for your­self what a remark­able achieve­ment this was. 

Phone: 907−766−2733 Address: 13 Ft Seward Dr, Haines, AK Hours: Sun — Sat 7am — 11am (Open 5÷1−10÷9÷13)

Phone: 907−966−2404 Address: 605 Air­port Dr. Sit­ka, AK Hours: Sun 9am — 11:30pm, Mon — Sat 8am — 11:30pm

Check out this salmon-friend­ly habi­tat and learn why so many salmon spawn here annually. 

The dri­ve to McCarthy and Ken­ni­cott isn’t your run-of-the-mill road trip. It’s 7 – 8 hours from Anchor­age, with the last 61 miles-between Chiti­na and the Ken­ni­cott Riv­er-on an his­toric, grav­el road. Not all rental vehi­cles are allowed on the McCarthy road, so check with your rental agency before you travel.

Estab­lished in 1964, Seward’s Small Boat Har­bor is locat­ed on the north­ern edge of Res­ur­rec­tion Bay, which mul­ti­ple pub­li­ca­tions have ranked as one of the top sail­ing des­ti­na­tions in the Unit­ed States. From the har­bor you’ll find easy access to Exit Glac­i­er, Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park, fish­ing, kayak­ing, camp­ing, flight-see­ing, and an assort­ment of oth­er activ­i­ties. Seward plays host to a vari­ety of ves­sels that make up the com­mer­cial fishing…  ...more

Phone: 907−440−2847 Address: Lot 8 Small Boat Hbr, Whit­ti­er, AK Hours: Sun 8am — 5pm, Mon 8am — 8pm, Tue-Fri 8am — 5pm, Sat 8am — 8pm (Open May 15 — Sep 20)

This sec­tioned bridge sits at an ele­va­tion of 2,655 feet. Park at the rest stop a few hun­dred meters before the east edge of the bridge for great views of the struc­ture and the sur­round­ing area.

This pedes­tri­an-bicy­cle bridge con­nects the north bank near Doy­on, Lim­it­ed to the south bank of the Chena Riv­er adja­cent to the Alas­ka State Court House as part of the Chena Riv­er Path­way system.

This 525-foot-long bridge was built in 1911 dur­ing the dead of win­ter (with tem­per­a­tures dip­ping to –60°F) as the rail­road pushed to com­plete the line by spring. Cop­per was pil­ing up in Ken­ni­cott and the pres­sure was on.

Con­struc­tion of this ear­ly-1900s bridge cost a whop­ping (at the time) $1.4 mil­lion, which earned it the nick­name Mil­lion Dol­lar Bridge. But the bridge quick­ly earned its keep, allow­ing the rail­road to haul cop­per from Ken­ni­cott to the port of Cordova.

The road may end here but the jour­ney isn’t over yet. Ken­necott Riv­er Pedes­tri­an Bridge cross­es the main chan­nel of the riv­er, pro­vid­ing access to the road lead­ing to the town of McCarthy and the old min­ing town of Ken­necott. You can walk or bicy­cle the .6 miles to the town of McCarthy or the 5 miles to the his­toric min­ing town of Ken­necott. Look for the old hand-pulled, open plat­form cable tram next to the pedes­tri­an bridge. Before the state  ...more

Phone: (907) 277‑4567 Address: 5000 West Int’l Air­port Rd, Anchor­age, AK Hours: Sun — Sat 5:30am — 1:30am

Giv­en its vast size and rugged ter­rain, it’s log­i­cal that Alas­ka has had a long love affair — and even depen­dence — on avi­a­tion. It was July 4, 1913, that the first flight took place in Alas­ka, and today there are more planes here, per per­son, than any­where else in the world.

Phone: 907−983−2247 Address: 2^nd Ave. & Spring St., Skag­way, AK Hours: Sat/​Sun 8am — 5pm, Mon-Fri 8am — 8pm 

Phone: 907−451−4360 Address: 6450 Air­port Way # 15, Fair­banks, AK Hours: Sat/​Sun/​Mon 12am — 1am, Tues — Fri 6:30am — 12am 

Here you’ll find infor­mal camp­sites and a boat launch. You may notice an abun­dance of drag­on­flies in this area; their main source of food is mos­qui­toes. The Four-Spot Skim­mer Drag­on­fly was adopt­ed as the Alas­ka state insect in 1995. 

This ½‑mile-long span is one of only four vehi­cle-car­ry­ing bridges across the mighty Yukon, the longest riv­er in Alas­ka and the Yukon Ter­ri­to­ry, and a pri­ma­ry means of trans­porta­tion dur­ing the Klondike Gold Rush.

Built in the 1920s, this bridge helped prospec­tors cross the Niz­ina Riv­er and reach the gold camps at Chi­ti­tu Creek and Dan Creek. The glac­i­er-dammed lake near here caused flood­ing with some reg­u­lar­i­ty — and as result, would wash out the bridge with some regularity.

This may be the most well-known bridge to have nev­er been built. The idea was to replace the fer­ry con­nect­ing Ketchikan with Grav­ina Island, where the Ketchikan Air­port is.

Come to this down­town har­bor to see salmon-fish­ing boats, long­lin­ers, and crab­bers, as well as guide-oper­at­ed sport-fish­ing boats and per­son­al sail­boats. There are 250 slips here, account­ing for rough­ly one-third of the boats in Kodi­ak. Walk the docks and see if you can iden­ti­fy a trawler, sein­er, or crab­ber. The fish­er­men will have already ​“pitched” their catch, but you can still watch them chop­ping bait, mend­ing nets, or shov­ing off for…  ...more

From the boat ramp park­ing lot, walk along the dri­ve­way to Sen­a­tor Gruening’s home. The path ends where Peter­son creek cas­cades down into Lynn Canal. It’s an amaz­ing place for wildlife view­ing when the salmon are running.

Phone: (907) 277‑4567 Address: 441 B St. Hours: Sun 9am — 5pm, Mon — Fri 8am — 5pm, Sat 9am — 5pm 

Nation­al chain with great local perks

Here the Arc­tic Red Riv­er joins the mighty Macken­zie Riv­er, and the vil­lage of Tsige­htchic (the vil­lage that won’t die) perch­es on the oth­er side of the Arc­tic Red Riv­er on an erod­ing riv­er bank. The Macken­zie Riv­er fer­ry is free and oper­ates from 9 AM to 12:30 AM from breakup in the spring until freeze-up in the fall. In the win­ter an ice road cross­es and fol­lows the Macken­zie all the way north to the Arc­tic Ocean. Inu­vik, the last vil­lage on…  ...more

Phone: (907) 474‑0900 Address: 6450 Air­port Way # 5, Fair­banks, AK Hours: Sun — Sat 6am — 2am 

This BLM way­side is for day-use only (no camp­ing) and is equipped with a pic­nic area and toi­lets. The boat launch pro­vides access and park­ing for extend­ed wilder­ness canoe trips in the Upper Tan­gle Lakes sys­tem to the south, where numer­ous lakes of all sizes pro­vide impor­tant wildlife habitat.

Phone: 907−248−5338 Address: 4940 W Intl Air­port Rd, Anchor­age, AK Hours: 6am — 2am daily 

This park is the con­flu­ence of the Kenai and Moose Rivers. Take a break at this recre­ation site named for the Eng­lish author Iza­ak Wal­ton who wrote The Com­pleat Angler. Look for the infor­ma­tion­al sign to learn about the Moose Riv­er Archae­o­log­i­cal Site. You will also find a host­ed camp­ground and boat launch. There’s excel­lent fly-fish­ing in this area.

Ter­mi­nal loca­tion in Haines for the Alas­ka Marine High­way Fer­ry System. 

A spec­tac­u­lar set­ting for anglers, beach­combers, hik­ers, and explor­ers. There is devel­oped camp­ing for both tent and RV campers, a boat launch, two mod­ern pit toi­lets, and numer­ous pic­nic sites. The beach makes for excel­lent walk­ing, beach­comb­ing, wildlife view­ing and birding.