Riverboat cruises

Hello:We are going on a Princess 11 day cruisetour. Arriving in Fairbanks on July 18 at about 2:30 PM. Are there any riverboat tours after 4:00 PM? Cost and location? Should we come in a day early?

Riverboat cruises

Riverboat Discovery is the tour you will not want to miss. These people are absolute professionals. The boats leave at 9 am and 2 pm everyday. Check the website www.riverboatdiscovery.com. The cost is about $45 per person. It is located near the airports. Easy to find and if you get lost everyone in town knows the location. My wife and I are in our 20%26#39;s we spent the last week of June in AK. The boat ride was relaxing, educational and exciting.

ps Free coffee and the price of food is reasonable. The merchandise is a fair price if you want to buy gifts. We compared their prices to the Fairbanks Wal-Mart and found little difference.

Riverboat cruises

www.greatlandrivertours.com/glrtsscruise.html

The Tanana Chief boards at 6:30. It%26#39;s smaller then the Riverboat Discovery and I have not been on it so don%26#39;t know how they compare. But it should be fun.

Just returned from Alaska Princess Cruisetour that included the train from Denali to Fairbanks and then the riverboat in Fairbanks. Although the riverboat was interesting it was not worth the time invested in getting there and then returning. We ended up spending 4 hours at the Fairbanks Airport due to plane problems. My advice is to skip Fairbanks and do something else.

I can%26#39;t believe you came all the way to Fairbanks and just did the Riverboat cruise. Why didn%26#39;t you do some other things instead of sitting at the airport for 4 hours?

1stimestar

It was what was included in our tour, we got into Fairbanks the nite before at around 9:00pm, stayed at the Rivers Edge Resort (not nice) and then took the riverboat cruise in the morning. In the afternoon we were then scheduled to fly from Fairbanks back to Anchorge and then bus it to Whitter to go on the cruise ship. We were only suppose to be at Fairbanks airport for about 2 hours but Alaskan airlines cancelled our flight and put us on a later flight. They said it was because of mechanical problems (2nd day in a row they cancelled flight). Most of us thought it was because they didn%26#39;t have enough passengers to make it worth while to fly the plane. They were able to put all of us who were on the 2:00 plane onto the 4:00 plane plus all those people who were originally scheduled for the 4:00 and the plane still wasn%26#39;t full. As far as I%26#39;m concerned you can easily skip Fairbanks as part of an Alaskan experience, the scenery around Fairbanks is not all that exceptional.

fsulli01, I am sorry about your unpleasant experience in the airport and with hotel in in Fairbanks. Nonetheless, I feel sad you formed your opinion about Fairbanks based on your your mini-stay in this wonderful destination.

Scenery around Fairbanks is very different than around Anchorage or Denali. That area has so much beauty we just have to learn to appreciate differences and not expect the same things we enjoy in other places.

Now I have one more proof why we do not travel with groups. Being independent traveler requires lots of research and is time consuming to make all arrangements. I strongly believe that no independent traveler would go to Fairbanks just to take a riverboat cruise. There is so much more to Fairbanks than riverboat cruise. I hope your trip to Alaska was wonderful regardless of your visit to Fairbanks you did not enjoy.

I love taking visitors to Fairbanks, as it is a contrast to the rest of the state - it isn%26#39;t what people expect. But then again, much of Alaska isn%26#39;t what people expect. Most people I meet think I live where really large trees grow as well as tons of snow - not so.

Reasons to come to Fairbanks . . . so much history for the state - all the gold mining, etc. The incredible University . . . the museum, farm, etc. I love the gentle terrain and great views of the Alaska range and real summer temperatures as well as the ambiance - some great people live in Fairbanks and it shows - it has much more a sense of community than I feel Anchorage has - perhaps because it%26#39;s a small city with a small town feel. But like anywhere can be, not for everyone. I guess I feel you really haven%26#39;t gotten a true sense of Alaska until you have seen the Interior and Fairbanks, but . . . it%26#39;s okay if you want to by pass it as well. :)

Ahhh yes. They probably DID do exactly what you expect they did. Sorry. No, Fairbanks doesn%26#39;t have the spectacular mountains found in some of the more popular destinations here. But we are worth visiting if you want to get the feel of real Alaskans and ';the real Alaska';. People here seem to be a different breed altogether. You don%26#39;t find many who are not commited to Alaska and love being where they are. This is much too harsh of an environment for someone who does not love it to stay in for long. How many other towns do you know where everyone that lives in it, loves it? I love the surrounding domes, tors, and tundra. So while it%26#39;s not for everyone, we prefer it that way...

I will give you a view of a recent first-time visitor to Alaska (who did a lot of research and traveled independently). I chose to come to Alaska to see and experience its amazing nature - wilderness, mountains, glaciers, wildlife, etc. I was specifically looking for the ';wow'; kind of scenery and the ';wow'; kind of experiences and found a lot of that in Alaska. Visiting Fairbanks did not give me a ';wow'; feeling. Compared to all other places we visited it was simply too modern and too ';lower 48 states suburban like';. To me Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Soldotna / Kenai seemed as major shopping centers, where people living in the rest of the state come to shop. I know there are a lot of sights, museums, and activities in both Anchorage and Fairbanks, and if I was staying in Alaska for 3 months I would enjoy some of them. But, for an average first-time traveler coming to Alaska for the ';wow'; experience for a week or two both Anchorage and Fairbanks can easily be skipped or seen in less than a day. For visitors interested in standard ';tourists off the bus'; kind of activities the Riverboat tour and the gold mining tours might be right. For visitors interested in Alaskan history and Alaskan art the University Museum would be interesting. But, for the huge size of that museum building and reading about recent expansion I was surprised how small the actual museum is. For visitors interested in the amazing research done in the University the campus is worth visiting if you actually go into the research facilities, but for an average traveler it%26#39;s just seeing a campus of very modern contemporary architecture. Standing outside of the museum and looking around the campus I didn%26#39;t even feel like I was in Alaska. I understand that Fairbanks is part of the real Alaska. But it seems to be the modern part of Alaska, not the wild part that many visitors come to see. That is why I do not regret spending less than a day there. It was simply not high on my priority list.

On a recent 3 week trip to Alaska (other than an Inside Passage Cruise this was my first time to see the wonder of it all) we spent 5 nights in Fairbanks and loved it. We used it as a base to go to the Arctic Circle and Chena Hot Springs but also toured the city. We had fun on the Riverboat cruise, bird watched at Creamer%26#39;s Field and enjoyed the University Museum. Yes, it might be different than other areas but it is fascinating in it%26#39;s own right. I loved the history that I learned-a whole different type of wow factor. I admire the residents who live there full time and envy them also. Hope others who are planning their Alaska adventures give Fairbanks a chance as it is a true Alaska experience.