Seven flights that land on a glacier and shut the engine down, four ways to walk on the ice without leaving the ground, and three things you can only do once a helicopter has put you up there. Knik, Matanuska, Prince William Sound and the Talkeetna side of Denali. From $310 to $1,385, with 512 reviews behind them.
From, per person
14 trips compared$310
And the dearest thing on the page is $1,385
Average rating
Across 13 rated trips4.89 ★
Across 512 verified reviews
Time in the air
One hour to four1–2 h
Most flights here run an hour; the programmes go to four
Everything you can book here
The flights first, cheapest to dearest, with the column that decides it: whether you land on the ice and how long you get to stand on it. The four glacier walks at the end are a roadside glacier, for anyone who is not flying at all.
★ 5.0 · 87 reviews
★ 4.9 · 81 reviews
★ 5.0 · 25 reviews
★ 5.0 · 7 reviews
★ 5.0 · 1 reviews
★ 4.9 · 64 reviews
★ 4.8 · 4 reviews
★ 5.0 · 1 reviews
★ 5.0 · 10 reviews
★ 4.8 · 38 reviews
★ 4.8 · 120 reviews
★ 5.0 · 16 reviews
★ 4.8 · 58 reviews
Two questions
Fourteen departures within an hour or two of Anchorage, and they come down to four decisions: whether you need the skids to touch the ice, how long you want to be up there, whether you want something to do once you land, and whether a helicopter is in the budget at all. Pick what matters and the page picks the trip.
See it before you pay for it
Three things, and the flight you pick decides how much of each. A field of blue seracs that no road goes near, the moment the skids settle on ice a mile from anything, and the country in between — braided rivers, moraine, and the Chugach behind all of it.
Side by side
Every option here is one of three shapes. An hour in the air with one landing is the classic and it is the one to book. Two to four hours buys more ice and something to do on it. The four glacier walks at the foot of the page are here for completeness — they are a roadside glacier, and a different thing entirely.
Swipe the table sideways →
| MOST BOOKEDKnik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landing | Grand Knik Helicopter Tour with Landings | Matanuska Glacier Full-Day Tour | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per person | $492 | $718 | $310 |
| How long | 1 hour | 2 hours | 10 hours |
| Cost per hour | $492.00 | $359.00 | $31.00 |
| How you get there | Helicopter | Helicopter | Coach from Anchorage |
| Do you land on ice | Yes, one landing | Yes, more than one | You walk on it instead |
| Time on the surface | 15–25 minutes | Two stops | Several hours |
| The glacier | Knik | Knik, more of it | Matanuska |
| Gear provided | Not needed | Not needed | Crampons and a guide |
| Rating | 5.0 · 87 | 5.0 · 25 | 4.8 · 120 |
| Best for | A first landing, and most people | More air time and more ice | A day on ice without flying |
| Book this one→ | Check dates | Check dates |
Free cancellation up to 24 h · Reserve now, pay later
Verdict
One hour out of the base near Anchorage: over the braided Knik River, up onto the glacier, skids down and the engine off, with 87 ratings at a clean 5.0 behind it. The reason to book something else is not price: it is that two hours lands in more than one place, and that a guided day on Matanuska gives you hours on the ice rather than twenty minutes.
Check dates and availability→Before you book
The Knik landing carries 87 ratings and the Matanuska day 120; three of the fourteen have fewer than five each, and one has none at all. That does not make the new ones bad, and one of them is the only trip here that reaches Prince William Sound. But a clean 5.0 from 87 people and a 5.0 from one are different kinds of fact, and it is worth knowing which you are reading before you spend seven hundred dollars.
Two-minute check
Fourteen departures, three glaciers and one question that decides more than the price: do the skids need to touch the ice? Three answers narrow it to one.
What is the point of the day for you?This decides more than the price does
How much can you spend?Per person, per trip
How long can you give it?Door to door, not time in the air
You'll get the departure that fits your answers, the thing about it that catches people out, and an honest word about how much evidence its rating rests on.
Six kinds of day
Ratings are the operators’ own numbers on GetYourGuide, shown as published. We do not write reviews and we do not average other people’s into a score of our own. The one-hour Knik landing carries 87 of them at a clean 5.0, which is the strongest single piece of evidence on this page.
★★★★★
Based on 512
verified reviews
All fourteen departures on this page, rated by the people who took them on GetYourGuide.
Read all 512→Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landing
From $492 · 87 reviews
★★★★★
One hour: out over the braided Knik River, up the valley, skids down on the glacier and the engine off. 87 reviews at a clean 5.0, which is both the best score and one of the largest review counts on this page.
Matanuska Glacier Full-Day Tour
From $310 · no flying
★★★★★
Matanuska sits beside the Glenn Highway, so a coach can reach it and a helicopter is not needed. It is a long day out on a roadside glacier rather than a landing on a wild one, and it is here for people who are not flying at all. 120 reviews at 4.8.
Grand Knik Helicopter Tour with Landings
From $718 · two landings
★★★★★
Two hours instead of one, and the skids come down in more than one place. It covers far more of the icefield than the standard flight, and the second landing is usually the one people talk about afterwards.
Helicopter and Glacier Dogsled Tour
From $769 · 64 reviews
★★★★★
A summer camp on the snow with a working kennel on it, reached by helicopter because there is no other way. You get a run behind the team and time with the dogs. 64 reviews at 4.9 — the best-reviewed of the programmes here.
Knik Glacier Helicopter and Ice Climbing
From $1,334 · gear included
★★★★☆
A guide, a rope and a blue wall inside a crevasse, with all the technical gear and lunch included and no experience assumed. Four hours, and the only trip here that takes you below the surface rather than across it.
Knik Glacier Helicopter and Paddleboarding
From $1,385 · the dearest here
★★★★★
A paddleboard on a meltwater lake with icebergs floating in it, at the foot of the glacier, reached by helicopter. It is the most expensive thing on this page by some distance and there is nothing else like it in the state.
What it really costs
From $492 for an hour over Knik Glacier with a landing, up to $1,385 for a helicopter and a paddleboard on a glacial lake. What every one of those prices buys is the same thing: the only access there is to ice with no road to it, and the twenty minutes of silence once the engine stops.
Swipe sideways →
| What you are paying for | Price | What you get | Cancellation |
|---|---|---|---|
| A roadside glacier on foot | $310–$348 | Matanuska, reached by coach — a day out, not a flight | Free cancellation 24 h |
| An hour in the air, with a landing | $492–$718 | Knik or the Talkeetna side of Denali, skids down on the ice | Free cancellation 24 h |
| A programme on the glacier | $724–$1,385 | Dog sledding, hiking, ice climbing or a paddleboard on meltwater | Free cancellation 24 h |
The honest answer
Yes, if the landing is what you are buying. Alaska helicopter tours without one are sightseeing trips you could half-approximate from a light aircraft for less. A flight with one puts you standing on a glacier that has no other access, and that is a different thing entirely.
The hour, minute by minute
Bring the voucher and photo ID. This is where the weights are confirmed and the seating worked out, and it is not a formality — it is how the aircraft is balanced.
Short, specific and worth listening to: how to approach and leave the aircraft, which direction never to walk, and what to do with a loose hat. Headsets go on here.
Up over the braided channels of the Knik River, with the Chugach on both sides. The rotor noise disappears under the headset almost immediately.
The face of the glacier and the lake of icebergs in front of it. This is the view that does not exist from any road, and it is the reason for the window seat.
A field of broken blue ice with crevasses running through it. Depth is impossible to judge from the air and the pilot will tell you the scale, which is always larger than it looks.
The landing itself takes seconds. Then the engine winds down and you step out. Most operators give you fifteen to twenty-five minutes up there; the quiet is the part people remember.
A different line home, usually, so you see country you have not seen. Meltwater pools read as impossible colours from three hundred feet.
An hour after you left. There is nothing else to do at the base, so plan the rest of the day around it rather than waiting.
The one decision that matters
Everything else on this page is a preference. This is the choice that decides what you actually bought. A sightseeing flight shows you the glacier from three hundred feet, and it is beautiful, and a fixed-wing aircraft can show you something similar for less money. A flight with a landing does something a flight cannot: the skids settle, the engine winds down, and you step out onto ice with no road within fifty miles of it. What people describe afterwards is almost never the view from the air. It is the silence, the scale of the seracs once you are standing among them, and the colour of the ice from a metre away rather than from the window. Operators typically give you fifteen to twenty-five minutes. It is enough, and it goes very fast. Check the listing for the word “landing” before you compare prices — on one of the trips here it is an option rather than a given.
Four parts of the flight
Broken ice the size of buildings, with no road within fifty miles of it.
Skids down, engine off, and twenty minutes of standing on it.
Pools that only read as this colour from a few hundred feet up.
A working kennel on the snow, reachable only by air.
Start here
Here is the thing that decides everything else on this page, and the listings bury it in a details field: among Alaska helicopter tours, a flight is not the same product as a landing. Sightseeing from the air is lovely and you can approximate it more cheaply in a fixed-wing aircraft. A landing puts you standing on a glacier with the engine off, fifty miles from the nearest road, and there is no other way to do that. Every trip on this page that matters includes one.
Knik Glacier is the reason the helicopters are here. It flows out of the Chugach Mountains east of Anchorage and ends in a lake full of icebergs behind a terminal moraine, near Palmer. You cannot drive to the ice. You can reach the general area on a river boat or an ATV in summer, and people do — but standing on the glacier itself is a helicopter proposition.
What you land on is not a smooth white field. It is a serac field: blocks of broken ice the size of buildings, separated by crevasses, with meltwater running through the middle of it in summer. The pilot picks a flat, safe spot and you stay near the aircraft. The colour is the thing nobody is prepared for — compressed glacial ice absorbs red light and throws back a blue that does not photograph the way it looks.
The other glacier on this page is Matanuska, and it is a different proposition altogether: it runs down to the Glenn Highway, so a coach parks beside it. That makes it a pleasant long day out on a roadside glacier. What it cannot give you is Knik — the serac field, the iceberg lake, the silence of a place with no road, no trail and nobody else on it. Those are only reachable one way.
A word about weather, because it is the one thing that will cost you the day. These flights are visual: the pilot needs to see the ground and the ridges. Low cloud in the valley cancels, and the decision belongs to the operator and not to you. It is also why every departure here has free cancellation, and why anyone with exactly one day in Anchorage should book early in their trip rather than late.
Weight matters more than people expect. A light helicopter is balanced passenger by passenger, and operators set limits and assign seats accordingly. Give them your real weight when you book. Nobody is judging; they are working out whether the aircraft can carry the load safely and where each person sits, and a surprise at check-in can cost someone a seat.
And then there is the expensive end of this page, which exists because twenty minutes on the ice is not enough for everybody. A dog team on a summer snow camp. A guided hike across the surface. A rope and a blue wall inside a crevasse. And a paddleboard on a meltwater lake with icebergs in it, which costs more than four times the standard flight and which nothing else in Alaska resembles.
If twenty minutes on the ice is not enough
These are the expensive end of the page and none of them is what most people should book first. They exist because a helicopter is a way of getting somewhere, and once you are up there you can do more than stand still: run a dog team, rope into a crevasse, or paddle across a lake with icebergs in it.
Practical
Five things decide how it goes: the weather window, what you wear on ice in a wind, where you sit, what the operator needs to know about you before you turn up, and whether you have left yourself a second day.
The classic. Out over the river, onto the glacier, engine off, and back. 87 reviews at a clean 5.0.
The Grand Knik: further into the icefield and the skids down in more than one place.
A different operator’s take on the same idea, with two stops in different country.
South over the Chugach to saltwater, with a landing on the way. The only flight here that reaches the coast.
The Alaska Range and the flanks of Denali, with a glacier landing as an option rather than a given.
Hiking, ice climbing or a paddleboard once the helicopter has put you up there.
Blocks of broken ice the size of buildings, formed where the glacier bends and cracks. This is what you land among.
Splits in the ice, sometimes very deep. You stay where the guide or pilot puts you, and that is not excessive caution.
In summer the surface carries pools and streams of an unreasonable turquoise. They are the best thing to photograph from the air.
Where meltwater drills a vertical shaft down into the glacier. Loud, and not something to stand near.
Compressed glacial ice absorbs the red end of the spectrum and reflects the blue. The deeper the ice, the stronger it is.
The engine goes off. There is no traffic, no birds and usually no wind noise. It is the part of the trip people describe first.
A light helicopter is balanced person by person. Seats are assigned by weight, and a surprise at check-in can cost someone their seat.
It is much colder on the ice than at the base, at any time of year, and there is nothing to shelter behind.
You are stepping onto ice. Sandals are not allowed and smooth soles are a bad idea.
Glare off snow and ice is severe, and it comes at you from below as well as above.
Twenty minutes disappears if you spend it changing lenses. Pick one and use it.
On a small helicopter every seat has a window, but some have more of one. It is worth asking when you check in.
Standard on all fourteen departures on this page.
Weather cancels flights. If you have one day and it is your last, you have no way to move.
It is the whole difference in value, and on one of these it is an option rather than a given.
Unusual in Alaska. Winter has snow-covered landing zones and dog sledding; summer has meltwater and long light.
Knik has no road, no trail and no boat access. That is what the ticket buys.
Several of these carry a handful of people. In July they sell out earlier than the bigger trips.
Best time
Alaska helicopter tours fly all year, which is unusual in this state and is the single most useful thing about them. What changes with the season is not whether you can go, but what is on the ice when you get there.
Jun – Aug
The most flying weather, the meltwater pools at their most absurd turquoise, and lupines on the moraine in June. Long daylight means late slots as well as early ones. Also the busiest, and the season the glacier walks are easiest.
Sep – Oct
The tundra turns orange against the ice, which is the best colour combination of the year, and the crowds go home. Weather windows get shorter and cancellations more frequent.
Nov – Mar
Snow covers the crevasse field, which makes the landing zones simpler and the dog sledding possible. Cold, short days, and the clearest air of the year on the good days.
Apr – May
Snow still on the ice, light returning fast, and the quietest weeks of the year to fly. Break-up makes the river valleys messy from the air and the glacier itself looks its cleanest.
Worth knowing
Alaska helicopter tours without a landing are a different purchase. Sightseeing from the air is pleasant; standing on the glacier with the engine off is the thing you came for. Check the listing rather than assuming, because on one of these trips the landing is an option.
Tell the operator your real weight. Light helicopters are balanced passenger by passenger and seats are assigned accordingly. This is engineering, not judgement, and a surprise at check-in can cost somebody a seat.
Weather cancels, and the operator decides. These are visual flights: the pilot needs to see the ridges. Low cloud in the valley stops everything. Book early in your trip so a cancellation has somewhere to move to.
Decide your camera before the skids touch down. You get fifteen to twenty-five minutes. People spend a third of it changing lenses and regret it. Pick one and use it.
It is cold up there in July. A glacier makes its own weather and there is nothing to shelter behind. A windproof layer matters more than a thick one, and the base is always warmer than the ice.
Book the flight early in your stay, not at the end of it. This is the one thing on an Alaska itinerary that has no substitute and no second chance if the weather turns on your last morning. Everything else can be moved; a glacier landing cannot be improvised.
Round out the trip
Go deeper
Common questions
From $492 for the one-hour flight with a landing, and $718 for the two-hour Grand Knik with more than one. The programmes that give you something to do on the ice run from $769 to $1,385.
If it includes a landing, yes for most people: Knik has no road to it, and standing on the ice with the engine off is not something you can approximate any other way. A flight without a landing is a much weaker purchase, and it is the thing to check on the listing.
On this page, from $492 for an hour with a glacier landing near Anchorage. A guided day on Matanuska Glacier, which you reach by road rather than by air, starts at $310.
It is the whole point. The flight gives you the view; the landing gives you the silence, the scale and the ice underfoot. Operators typically allow fifteen to twenty-five minutes on the surface, and people consistently describe that rather than the flight as the memory.
For a first landing, the one-hour Knik flight at $492 — 87 reviews at a clean 5.0. For more air time, the two-hour Grand Knik. For a day on ice without flying, the Matanuska tour at $310.
Yes, several ways. The helicopter flights depart within about an hour of the city. The Matanuska tours include the coach and run eight to ten hours door to door. Everything on this page is bookable as a day trip from Anchorage.
Access to the ice is through private land with an entry fee, and walking on a glacier unguided is not a casual thing — crevasses and meltwater channels are real hazards. The guided days on this page include the access, the crampons and the guide.
Yes. Light helicopters are balanced passenger by passenger, so operators set limits and assign seats by weight. The specific figures vary by operator and aircraft and are on each listing — give your real weight when you book rather than at check-in.
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One PDF: all fourteen departures by length and price, which of them land on the ice, and what to wear when they do.
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Why trust this page
Durations, prices and ratings are read off the live listings rather than copied from other affiliate pages. Where a trip lists a landing as optional rather than included, we say so.
Operators set weight limits and seating, and the figures differ by operator and by aircraft. We tell you the rules exist and where to read them rather than printing numbers we cannot stand behind.
Knik has no road, no trail and no boat access to the ice. Where a place can only be reached by air we say so plainly, and where a roadside glacier will do instead we say that too.
Fourteen departures, ordered by price, ranked on what they reach and how much evidence stands behind the rating. We earn a commission when you book and it does not change what we recommend.
The answer
If you are going up once in Alaska, book the one-hour Knik Glacier flight for $492. It carries 87 reviews at a clean 5.0, it is the only way to put your feet on ice that has no road, trail or boat route to it, and it fits inside a day you already had plans for. If you want more than twenty minutes up there, the two-hour Grand Knik at $718 lands in more than one place. Whichever you take, this is the one thing on an Alaska itinerary with no substitute — so book it early in the trip, while the weather still has chances left to give you.
Check dates and availability→ Free cancellation up to 24 hours · Reserve now, pay laterBefore you go
All fourteen departures by length and price, which of them land on the ice, and what to wear when they do.
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Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Landing
★ 5.0 · 87 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h
