Compared
Anchorage or Juneau helicopter tour: they are not the same purchase
Both sell a helicopter, a glacier and a landing, and the listings read almost identically. What separates them is not the flight — it is how you got to the state. One is a cruise ship shore excursion; the other is a morning out of the city most independent travellers actually stay in.
Quick answer
If you are flying into Anchorage and travelling by road, the Knik Glacier flight at $492 is the one you can book — an hour from the city, landing included, 87 reviews at a clean 5.0. Juneau is in Southeast Alaska, has no road connection to the rest of the state, and is reached by ship or by air. Its flights exist for cruise passengers.
The two side by side
- Anchorage
- Southcentral Alaskaon the road network, and where most trips start
- Juneau
- Southeast Alaskano road connection to the rest of the state
- Reaching Anchorage
- Fly or drivethe hub for independent travel
- Reaching Juneau
- Ship or planethere is no highway in
- The glacier from Anchorage
- Knikvalley glacier, no road to the ice
- The flight from Anchorage
- $492one hour, landing included
- Evidence
- 87 reviews at 5.0on the Knik flight
- Who Juneau flights are for
- Cruise passengerssold as shore excursions
- Can you combine them
- Rarelythey are different parts of the state
- Cancellation
- Free to 24 hon everything here
The geography people miss
Juneau is not down the road from Anchorage. There is no road.
The state capital has no road to it. That decides the question before the flights do.
This is the part that surprises visitors more than anything else about Alaska. Juneau, the state capital, has no highway connection to the rest of the state. It sits on a strip of coast in the Southeast panhandle, hemmed in by an icefield behind and water in front, and you arrive by ship or by aircraft.
Anchorage is eight hundred miles away across mountains, and the road distance between them is not a number that means anything, because there is no road.
Which means the comparison is not really between two flights. It is between two ways of being in Alaska. If you are on a cruise, your ship calls at Juneau and the helicopter operators there sell shore excursions timed to it. If you flew into Anchorage and are driving the Kenai, the Glenn or the Parks Highway, Juneau is a separate trip you are not taking, and the Knik flight is the one that fits your week.
So the honest answer is: whichever of those describes you has already chosen.
If you are in Anchorage
Six reasons the Knik flight is the one
Not a defence of Anchorage — just what is actually on offer within an hour of it.
- The landing is included
Not optional, not conditions permitting on a summit. The skids come down on Knik, the engine stops, and you step out.
- There is no road, trail or boat route to that ice
The flight is the only access. It is not a faster version of something you could walk.
- It is an hour
Which fits inside a day that already had a plan. Nothing about an Alaska itinerary has to be rearranged around it.
- 87 reviews at a clean 5.0
The best-evidenced rating on this site. Not a small sample with a lucky average.
- It runs all year
Unusual in this state, and it means a February visit is not a lesser one.
- There is a version for every appetite
One landing, two landings, or three hours on the ice with a dog team, a rope or a paddleboard.
Knik has no road, no trail and no boat route to the ice. That is what the hour buys, and there is no other way to buy it.
The Knik Glacier flight→If your ship calls at Juneau
Take the shore excursion, and book Knik too if you are extending
Different halves of the state. Most people can only book one, and their itinerary decides which.
Cruise itineraries that call at Juneau put a helicopter flight over the Juneau Icefield within reach, and it is a good thing to do with a port day. The operators there are set up entirely around ship timings, which is both the convenience and the constraint.
What is worth knowing is that a great many Alaska cruises begin or end in Anchorage, usually through Seward or Whittier, and a large share of passengers add days at that end. If you are one of them, the Knik flight is an hour from the city and is exactly the sort of thing those spare days are for.
The two are not in competition. They are in different halves of the state, and most people will only ever be in a position to book one of them.
Common questions
Anchorage or Juneau, answered
Should I do a helicopter tour in Anchorage or Juneau?
Whichever your trip puts you in. Juneau has no road connection to the rest of Alaska and is reached by ship or plane, so its flights are cruise shore excursions. If you are travelling by road from Anchorage, the Knik Glacier flight at $492 is the one you can book.
Is Juneau near Anchorage?
No. Juneau is in Southeast Alaska, roughly eight hundred miles away, and there is no highway between them. You cannot drive from one to the other.
Which glacier flight has a landing included?
The Knik flights out of Anchorage include the landing. It is the first thing to check on any listing, because a flight without one is a different product.
Can I do both on one trip?
Rarely, and only if your itinerary already spans both parts of the state — typically a cruise that calls at Juneau and starts or ends near Anchorage.
Which is better value?
The question does not really arise, because almost nobody is choosing between them. What you can compare is what each one includes: the Knik flight includes the landing and carries 87 reviews at a clean 5.0.
I am extending my cruise in Anchorage. What should I book?
The one-hour Knik Glacier flight with a landing. It is an hour from the city, it fits into a spare day, and it reaches ice with no road, trail or boat route to it.
Go deeper
More on Alaska helicopter tours and glacier landings
What an Alaska helicopter tour costs
Fourteen trips priced per person and per hour, from $310 to $1,385.
Knik GlacierThe Knik Glacier flight
The one-hour flight with a landing: what the hour contains and why it costs what it does.
VerdictThe best Alaska helicopter tour
Fourteen trips ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
The landingWhat a glacier landing is like
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes on the ice, and why that is the whole purchase.
AnchorageHelicopter tours from Anchorage
Everything that flies within an hour of the city, and where each one departs.
Grand KnikThe Grand Knik tour
Two hours and more than one landing - what the extra hour actually buys.
