Chena Hot Springs Tours from Fairbanks

For most visitors, the Northern Lights & Chena Hot Springs Tour is the one to book: an evening soak, the Aurora Ice Museum and aurora stops on the drive back, rated 4.5 across 178 reviews. If you want the springs without a late night, a day tour fits better, and if seeing the lights matters more than anything else, the tour that stays at the resort until 2am is the stronger choice.

Every Chena tour from Fairbanks covers the same core: transport for the 60 miles each way, entry to the Aurora Ice Museum and entry to the hot springs. What separates them is the clock. Some leave at lunchtime and have you back for dinner, one returns just after midnight, and one keeps you out until 3 or 4 in the morning.

Pick by what you want from the day

Best overall: the evening hot springs and aurora tour. The Northern Lights & Chena Hot Springs Tour costs from $275 for 10 hours and has far more reviews than any other Chena trip. It picks up from hotels in both Fairbanks and North Pole, includes the ice museum and the outdoor springs, and the guide points out viewing spots around the resort before stopping for the lights on the drive home.

Best for the aurora itself: the late return. The Chena Hot Springs Northern Lights Tour from 1st Alaska Tours costs from $240 for 11 hours. You soak from 8pm for at least two hours, watch the sky from around midnight and leave the resort at about 2am, so you are still out in the dark, well away from town, after the pool has closed. Its 4.2 rating across 63 reviews is the lowest of the group, and groups are capped at 14.

Best value by day: the 1st Alaska day trip. The Full Day Ice Museum and Chena Hot Springs Tour costs from $200 for 7 hours, rated 4.6 across 38 reviews. It leaves Fairbanks at 11:30am, adds an optional free tour of the resort’s geothermal projects, and gets you back around 6:30pm. The resort’s own shuttle costs $180 return on its own, before pool or museum entry.

Best rated by day: the day tour with the geothermal tour built in. The Chena Hot Springs Day Tour + Ice Museum costs from $250 for 8 hours, holds the top rating here at 4.7 from 26 reviews, includes gratuities and the geothermal energy tour, and picks up in North Pole as well as Fairbanks.

What an evening at the springs is like

The drive out takes about an hour and a half to two hours along paved Chena Hot Springs Road, and moose by the roadside are common enough that guides often pull over for photos. At the resort you start in the ice museum, built from more than 1,000 tons of ice and snow and held at 25°F all year, with parkas at the door.

Then comes the soak. Rock Lake, the outdoor pool, is a man-made, boulder-ringed pool filled with natural spring water that averages 106°F. Guests must be 18 or over to use it. Under-18s use the indoor pool, which averages about 90°F, and the hot tubs. Getting in is easy. Getting out into the cold is the hard part, and wet hair freezes within minutes, which every guest seems to photograph.

The 11:45pm closing and the aurora

The pool house closes at 11:45pm, with last entry at 11:30pm, and the aurora often gets going after that. The evening tour heads back just after midnight with stops on the road; the late tour stays at the resort until about 2am. Neither tour can make the lights appear, and both depend on clear sky over the Chena valley. Our Chena Hot Springs guide covers the closing time, the drive and the overnight option in full.

Season and conditions

The springs are open 365 days a year, so the day tours run in any season and do not depend on snow or ice. The aurora part is seasonal: the Fairbanks aurora season runs August 21 to April 21, and outside it the nights are too light. September evenings are mild, while midwinter nights are long and very cold, and the contrast between 106°F water and the air above it is at its most extreme then. Cloud is the one thing that ends an aurora evening, and the springs and museum go ahead either way.

Practical details

All four tours collect from Fairbanks hotels. The evening tour and the day tour with the geothermal tour also cover North Pole. The 1st Alaska tours do not pick up from Airbnbs or private homes, and none of them collect from the airport.

For the springs, bring swimwear, a towel (the evening tour rents them for $5), photo ID, quarters or small cash for the 50-cent lockers, and a hat for the walk from the pool. Food and drinks at the resort restaurant are extra on every tour.

The 1st Alaska tours are not suitable for children under 5, and nobody under 18 can use the outdoor rock pool on any tour. The day tours also keep pregnant guests out of the outdoor pool.

You can also drive yourself, and a day pass costs $20 for adults. If you want just the museum, the Aurora Ice Museum ticket is $20 and is used at the resort.

Fitting Chena into a Fairbanks aurora trip

With three or four nights, a good split is one or two on a dedicated northern lights chase from Fairbanks, where the guide can drive wherever the cloud breaks, and one at Chena. A day tour fits well the morning after a late chase, since the 11:30am departure gives you a proper sleep first. The remaining days suit ice fishing on a frozen lake or a snowmobile tour (a snowmachine, to Alaskans), both of which leave your evenings free for the sky.

When you have settled on day or evening, check availability for your dates.