Kenai Fjords National Park glacier cruise: all 10 sailings compared

Kenai Fjords is a park you look at from the water. The glaciers that made it are still there, sliding down out of the Harding Icefield until they reach the sea, and the only way to stand in front of one is to be floating in front of it. The boats leave the small-boat harbour at Seward, run out through Resurrection Bay and turn along a coast that has no roads on it at all. That is the first thing to understand about this search: you are not choosing a viewpoint. You are choosing how far along that coast a boat will take you before it has to turn around.

Which makes length the real decision, and there are only two answers to it. A six-hour sailing — $265 or $267 — runs out of Resurrection Bay, reaches the ice, gives you your time in front of it and brings you back inside the working day. A seven-and-a-half-hour sailing, $297, keeps going: its listing describes stops at two active tidewater glaciers rather than one, with the chance of a calving event at each. $271 sits between them at seven hours and lets the captain pick the route on the day, naming Aialik and Holgate as the glaciers it works towards. Ninety extra minutes does not sound like a decision. On this coast it is the only one that changes what you see.

The second decision is the harbour, and search results blur it badly. Only Seward sails into Kenai Fjords National Park. Valdez is a different bay entirely, and its boats go to the Columbia and Meares glaciers in Prince William Sound. Whittier sits at the other end of the same sound, where $260 runs through Passage Canal and Esther Passage to College Fjord. Girdwood is inland of both, with the Portage and Spencer glaciers behind it. All of them are Alaskan glacier days and all of them are good ones — but if you searched for Kenai Fjords, four of these ten sailings are the ones you meant, and the day out of Seward is set out in full on its own page.

Then there is the part nobody expects. Exit Glacier is the only glacier in the park you can drive to — and you cannot see it from a boat. It sits behind the coast on the road side of the park, so a cruise and a visit to Exit Glacier are two separate half-days, not one. People book a cruise expecting to tick both off and come back having seen more ice than they planned but not the piece of it they had read about. Do both, or pick deliberately. Just do not expect the boat to pass it.

Six numbers decide most bookings — fare, length, what the fare covers, rating, review count and what an hour on the water costs — and all six are in the table below. What a table cannot show is what each harbour does to your day, so here it is first.

From Seward: four sailings, 6 to 7.5 hours, and the park itself. $297 is our top pick and the longest run into the fjords on this site: 7.5 hours on a stable high-speed catamaran with a captain who narrates the park, stops at two active tidewater glaciers with the chance of a calving event, binoculars on board, a shuttle from the railroad depot, coffee, tea and water, and a deli lunch with a turkey, roast beef or vegetarian option. 391 reviews at 4.9. $265 is the six-hour version and the most reviewed listing on this site by a distance — 851 reviews at 4.9 — cruising Resurrection Bay past the tidewater glaciers of the Gulf of Alaska, with a captain guide, binoculars and the same deli lunch. $267 is six hours on a smaller, cosier vessel, with a dedicated wildlife guide on board, a hot lunch, the seabird rookeries of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, and the geology of the Harding Icefield explained as you go; 149 reviews at 4.9. $271 is the seven-hour small-boat day where the captain chooses the route: Aialik or Holgate Glacier, Resurrection Bay, the wildlife refuge, expert guides and a hot lunch. It holds the only 5.0 among the Seward sailings, across 25 reviews.

From Valdez: the lowest fares in the list. $180 is six hours to the Columbia Glacier, which is retreating back into the Chugach Mountains and leaves its ice floating in the bay behind it — the listing sells that retreat as the point of the trip. Seals, otters, sea lions and whales along the Prince William Sound shoreline, waterfalls, a hot soup lunch with a bagel, and a guide and map in English, Dutch, German and Korean. 180 reviews at 4.8, and the lowest fare on this page. $200 is the longer Valdez day at 7.5 hours, out to the Meares Glacier, with a morning bagel, a late lunch and a dinner roll, and 66 reviews at 4.9.

From Whittier: the long day and the shuttle. $260 is 11 hours, the longest sailing day here, running through Passage Canal and Esther Passage to College Fjord for the tidewater glaciers there, on a high-speed catamaran with a meal included — smoked salmon chowder, vegetarian chili or a hot dog kids’ meal — USB charging at every table and a no-seasickness guarantee in the listing. 175 reviews at 4.8. $200 is a six-hour road day rather than a glacier sailing: Portage Lake, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, Beluga Point, entrance fees, WiFi in the vehicle and a drop-off anywhere in Anchorage.

From Girdwood: ice reached by rail and by road. $389 is eight hours along Turnagain Arm covering three things in one fare — the Portage Glacier cruise, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and the Alyeska aerial tram, which climbs 2,300 feet for the view. $406 is the twelve-hour one: two Alaska Railroad trains, the Coastal Classic and the Glacier Discovery, out to the Spencer Glacier, then a morning paddle among icebergs right up to the terminus face, with splash tops, spray skirts, life vests and a catered lunch. It is the highest fare on this page, and the only one where you sit at water level rather than on a deck.

How to read the cost-per-hour column. It divides the fare by the length of the day, which makes the eleven- and twelve-hour days look cheap by the hour and the six-hour sailings look expensive. That is arithmetic, not worth: eleven hours from Whittier is not eleven hours of glacier, and six hours from Seward is almost all water. Read the column as a description of how the day is spent.

If you want the fullest day in the park, book $297. It is our top pick: 7.5 hours out of Seward on a high-speed catamaran, stops at two active tidewater glaciers instead of one, a captain who knows the park, binoculars on board, drinks and a deli lunch, and a shuttle from the railroad depot. 391 reviews at 4.9. The extra ninety minutes over a six-hour sailing is the only thing on this page that buys you more coastline.

If six hours is the day you have, book $265. It is the lowest fare sailing from Seward and the most tested listing on this site — 851 reviews at 4.9 — a large, stable catamaran through Resurrection Bay to the tidewater glaciers, with a captain guide, binoculars, coffee and a deli lunch. If you would rather have a wildlife guide and a hot lunch on a smaller vessel, $267 is the same length at 4.9 across 149 reviews.

If you want a small boat and a captain who reads the day, book $271. Seven hours, the route chosen on the morning according to conditions, working towards Aialik or Holgate Glacier, through Resurrection Bay and the Alaska Maritime refuge, with expert guides and a hot lunch. 5.0 across 25 reviews — a short record, but an unbroken one.

If you are based in Valdez, book $180 or $200. Six hours to the retreating Columbia Glacier for the lowest fare here, or 7.5 hours out to Meares. Both are Prince William Sound rather than Kenai Fjords, and both are rated 4.8 and 4.9 respectively.

If you are starting from Anchorage or Whittier, book $260. Eleven hours through Passage Canal and Esther Passage to College Fjord, a meal included, 175 reviews at 4.8. For a day that mixes ice with land stops, $389 covers the Portage Glacier cruise, the wildlife centre and the Alyeska tram; $406 puts you in a kayak among icebergs at the Spencer Glacier face, with the train each way.