Trying to see a variety of Alaska’s most well-known wilderness areas in a single journey? A “cruisetour” organized by Princess Cruises might be the reply.
The California-based cruise firm has lengthy been the chief in Alaska cruisetours, which pair a cruise alongside the state’s southeastern coast with overland touring into its rugged inside. Princess can be notably recognized for its longer itineraries that take you to lots of Alaska’s most iconic locations in a single, easy-to-arrange journey.
Amongst a whopping 28 totally different Alaska cruisetour itineraries that Princess affords in Alaska (greater than another firm), for example, are a number of really epic choices as much as 17 nights in size that embody visits to not simply Denali Nationwide Park and Glacier Bay National Park, but additionally no less than one and generally two extra main nationwide parks.
These embody Kenai Fjords Nationwide Park, house to one in every of North America’s most spectacular ice fields and glacier-carved fjords, and Wrangell-St. Elias Nationwide Park, the most important nationwide park in the US.
Princess owns its personal lodges and different infrastructure in any respect these nationwide park locations — one thing no different tour firm can say. Princess additionally owns its personal fleet of glass-domed Princess rail automobiles and Princess Excursions motorcoaches to get you from place to position.
Right here, a have a look at three of probably the most epic Princess cruisetours that can get you into the Alaska wilderness with a number of nationwide park visits. And for a deeper dive into all 28 cruisetour itineraries that Princess affords within the state, which vary in size from 10 to 17 nights, see our associated guide to Princess cruisetours in Alaska.
3 main nationwide parks, together with Kenai Fjords
Tour identify: 15-day Connoisseur Escorted Tour
Denali Nationwide Park and Protect might be Alaska’s most well-known nationwide park, however do not overlook the lesser-visited Kenai Fjords Nationwide Park.
Situated south of Anchorage on Alaska’s gorgeous Kenai Peninsula, the large park (practically as massive as Rhode Island) is a significant hub for outdoorsy pursuits, as is your entire Kenai Peninsula — and it performs a giant position on this Princess tour.
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Tourgoers will spend three full nights close to the park on the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge, permitting loads of time for exploring in and round Kenai Fjords Nationwide Park.
House to the huge Harding Icefield, one of many largest ice fields within the U.S., and quite a few glacier-carved fjords, the park itself affords guests the possibility to see a glacier up shut, both on foot or through a ship tour, kayaking or flightseeing. Guests can spot wildlife like Steller sea lions, puffins, Dall’s porpoises, American black bears, snowshoe hares, mountain goats and humpback whales.
Different well-liked actions embody world-famous salmon fishing and scenic float journeys on the Kenai River, which flows 75 miles from Cooper Touchdown (the place the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge is) to Cook dinner Inlet. There’s additionally mountain climbing on trails close to the lodge’s entrance door.
This tour pairs a three-night keep on the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge with a three-night keep at Princess-owned lodging within the Denali Nationwide Park space and a two-night keep in Fairbanks, Alaska. Princess combines this eight-night overland tour with a seven-night cruise alongside the Southeast Alaska coast for an epic 15-night journey.
On the cruise portion of the journey, you’ll expertise Glacier Bay Nationwide Park and Protect, a 3rd main nationwide park.
The small print: For 2026, Princess affords 17 departures of the 15-Day Connoisseur Escorted Tour with fares beginning at $7,576 per particular person, based mostly on double occupancy. Such pricing is predicated on staying in a windowless “inside” cabin on the cruise portion of the journey. Charges for cabins with home windows and balconies begin at $7,575 and $8,836 per particular person, respectively.
3 main nationwide parks, together with Wrangell-St. Elias
Tour identify: 13-day Connoisseur Escorted Tour
Fast, are you able to identify the most important nationwide park in the US? In the event you stated Yellowstone Nationwide Park or Grand Canyon Nationwide Park, you would be improper by a giant issue.
By far, the largest nationwide park in the US is one you might not even know: Wrangell-St. Elias Nationwide Park and Protect. It measures greater than 20,000 sq. miles — about six and 10 instances the scale of Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, respectively.
Situated in south-central Alaska, the park is comparatively unknown due to its remoteness. It attracts fewer than 100,000 guests a 12 months. However seeing it, albeit briefly, is a key a part of this uncommon Princess tour.
The 13-day journey consists of an in a single day keep on the Princess-owned Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge, on the Copper River, simply down the street from the Wrangell-St. Elias Nationwide Park customer middle.
House to only 85 rooms, the lodge affords spectacular vistas of the Wrangell mountain vary, which is on the core of the park, and in addition overlooks one in every of Alaska’s most well-known human-made options: the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
For guests, it serves as a base for mountain climbing, salmon fishing, all-terrain-vehicle touring, rafting journeys, jet boat excursions, coastal kayaking, glacier-viewing boat excursions and even a go to to the ghost city of Kennicott (a former mining camp).
Along with the in a single day at Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge, the land portion of this tour features a four-night keep at Princess-owned lodging within the Denali Nationwide Park space and an in a single day go to to Fairbanks, Alaska. This six-night overland tour can be paired with a seven-night cruise alongside the Southeast Alaska coast.
As with the 15-night tour talked about above, the cruise portion will permit you to expertise a 3rd main nationwide park, Glacier Bay Nationwide Park and Protect.
The small print: For 2026, Princess affords eight departures of the 13-Day Connoisseur Escorted Tour with fares beginning at $6,501 per particular person, based mostly on double occupancy. Such pricing is predicated on staying in a windowless “inside” cabin on the cruise portion of the journey. Charges for cabins with home windows and balconies begin at $6,771 and $7,704 per particular person, respectively.
4 main nationwide parks
Tour identify: 17-day Connoisseur Escorted Tour
If you wish to go to each Kenai Fjords Nationwide Park and Wrangell-St. Elias Nationwide Park on a single tour, contemplate this 17-day Princess journey.
This Alaska tour — the longest Princess affords — consists of two nights at Princess lodges at every of these parks, two nights every at its two Denali-area lodges (the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge), and two nights on the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. This 10-night overland tour can be paired with a seven-night cruise alongside the Southeast Alaska coast.
For these counting, that is two full nights in every of Princess’s 5 lodges in Alaska. It’s going to additionally take you to 4 of Alaska’s eight nationwide parks: Denali, Kenai Fjords, Wrangell-St. Elias and Glacier Bay (the latter through the cruise portion of the journey).
Provided that the cruise portion of the journey additionally features a cease on the historic gold rush city of Skagway, Alaska, a good portion of which is a part of Klondike Gold Rush Nationwide Historic Park, you may seemingly expertise 5 nationwide park websites on this journey.
You possibly can take this trip two methods: occurring the overland tour or the cruise portion first.
In the event you select the cruise portion first, you’ll expertise one slight variation. Your ship will go to the glacier space of Faculty Fjord as a substitute of Hubbard Glacier (each are nice for glacier viewing).
The small print: For 2026, Princess is providing 17 departures of the overland tour-first model of this 17-Day Connoisseur Escorted Tour and 9 departures of the cruise-first model of the journey. Fares begin at $9,157 per particular person, based mostly on double occupancy, for the overland tour-first model. Fares begin at $8,126 per particular person, based mostly on double occupancy, for the cruise-first model.
Backside line
Princess Cruises is especially recognized for lengthy excursions of Alaska that mix cruise journey and overland journey to carry tourgoers to among the state’s most well-known wilderness areas. In the event you’re on the lookout for a single journey that may get you to iconic Alaska locations like Denali Nationwide Park, Glacier Bay Nationwide Park, Kenai Fjords Nationwide Park and Wrangell-St. Elias Nationwide Park, a Princess cruisetour generally is a nice alternative.
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