Fairbanks: Northern Lights & Chena Hot Springs with Ice Museum

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1/23

Duration10h

GroupUp to 14

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

The Ice Museum Catches You Off Guard, Then the Hot Springs Wait for the Lights

You get hotel pickup from Fairbanks, a guided tour of the Aurora Ice Museum with its ice bar, access to the outdoor hot springs and indoor pools at Chena Hot Springs Resort, a dinner reservation at the resort restaurant, and small-group aurora viewing with a local guide. The whole evening runs until after midnight, and you return to your hotel with the possibility of extra stops if the lights are active.

10h

Step-by-step itinerary

Evening tour to Chena Hot Springs

Travel 60 miles to Chena Hot Springs
Look for moose, beaver, or fox
Tour the Aurora Ice Museum
Optional appletini at ice bar
Dine or drink at resort restaurant
Soak in outdoor or indoor hot springs
Join guide to view Aurora Borealis
Return to Fairbanks after midnight

The Experience

The drive out to Chena Hot Springs Resort takes about an hour from Fairbanks, and the road itself is worth watching—moose, beaver, and fox move through the interior if you're paying attention. When you arrive, the Aurora Ice Museum is the first stop, and it's genuinely strange in the best way: over a thousand tons of ice and snow carved into sculptures by artists who've spent years on this. You sit on a caribou-hide stool at an actual ice bar, and if you want one, you can order an Appletini served in a hand-carved ice glass. It's the kind of thing that sounds gimmicky until you're holding it.

After the museum, you head to the restaurant for dinner—locally sourced Alaskan food, nothing fancy, but real—and then the night opens up. You change into your bathing suit and soak in the outdoor hot springs, 106 degrees year-round, while the sky is still dark above you. The mineral water is warm enough that you stop noticing the cold air almost immediately. Some people stay in the heated indoor pool instead, which is fine, but the outdoor soak is the whole point. Your guide will tell you when the viewing conditions are best and where to position yourself, or you can wait in the Aurora Room inside the café if the cold gets to you.

The Northern Lights aren't guaranteed—that's the thing nobody can control—but the guide knows the patterns and the best spots on earth to see them. If they're active, you might catch the green and purple loops moving across the sky. If they're not, you've still soaked in a hot spring under the stars and walked through an ice museum carved by hand. The drive back to Fairbanks happens a little after midnight, and the guide may stop along the way if there's aurora activity to chase.

What’s included

Your evening includes hotel pickup and drop-off from Fairbanks, admission to the Aurora Ice Museum, a guided tour of the ice sculptures and ice bar, resort pool passes for the outdoor hot springs and indoor pools, a standing dinner reservation at the resort restaurant (food and drinks optional and not included), and small-group aurora viewing with a local guide.
The guide will point out the best viewing spots and provide tips for photographing the lights if they appear.
You'll return to your hotel after midnight, with possible stops along the route if the aurora is active.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleAccessible transport

Operated by Alaska Wild Lights

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see the Northern Lights without arranging transport, museum entry, or hot springs access separately—the fixed pickup and guide handle all three, and the late-night timing puts you in the best window for aurora viewing.