Fairbanks Dog Sledding Tours

For most visitors the best dog sledding tour in Fairbanks is the 1-Hour Alaskan Winter Dog Sledding Adventure from 1st Alaska Tours: $175, rated 4.9 out of 5 across 192 reviews, with hotel pickup and a warm yurt at the end. If you want the cheapest well-reviewed ride, the 30-minute run at Rod’s in North Pole costs $115. If you want the dogs and the aurora in one night, book the moonlight sled and dinner tour.

Mushing has been Alaska’s official state sport since 1972, and Fairbanks takes it seriously. The Open North American Championship, a sprint race held here every March since 1946, is billed as the longest continuously run sled-dog race in the world, and the city is home to the Yukon Quest Alaska, a 750-mile February race. Many of the kennels that take visitors out are working race and trail kennels, and their dogs run whether or not there is snow on the ground.

Pick by what you want

Best overall

The 1st Alaska Tours ride has the most reviews of any dog sledding listing around Fairbanks and a group cap of nine. The hour covers meeting the dogs, the ride and hot drinks in the yurt, so the time on the sled itself is shorter; one guest put it at roughly half. A minimum of four guests is needed for it to run, which the operator says rarely causes a problem.

Best value

The Dog Sledding and Mushing Experience at Rod’s Alaskan Guide Service is a 30-minute ride for $115, rated 4.9 across 126 reviews. It is the only short ride here that lends you full winter gear: boots, bibs, jacket, neck gaiter, hat and gloves. Rod’s is in North Pole, about 13 miles southeast of Fairbanks, and transport is extra at $50 per person if you don’t have a car. It pairs well with an afternoon at Santa Claus House; see things to do in North Pole.

Best for dog sledding and northern lights

The Moonlight Dog Sled, Dinner & Northern Lights tour ($320, 6 hours, 4.5 across 140 reviews) picks you up in town, runs the sled ride mostly through open ground where an early aurora is easy to see, then serves a salmon dinner in a yurt with large north-facing windows. The lights are never guaranteed and there is no refund if they stay away.

Best for learning to mush

The 2-Hour Basic Dog Mushing School ($250) puts you on the runners for a full 30 minutes, with a coach on a second sled teaching braking, leaning into turns and voice commands. It is a new listing with no reviews yet, run by the same operator as our top pick, with a cap of four. For a longer day, Drive your Own Dog Team ($499, 3 to 6 hours, also unreviewed) gives you a team of four to six Siberian huskies and a campfire lunch, but public departures are adults only and there is a fitness check before you start.

What a sled ride is actually like

On a standard ride you sit in the basket of the sled, wrapped up, while the musher stands on the runners behind you. The dogs are loud and frantic at the start line and go quiet the moment the team moves. After that the main sound is the runners on the snow. Most kennels stop for photos partway, and the reviews keep coming back to the mushers themselves, who talk about training, commands and racing as you go. Expect a firm pace and some bumps; the operators list pregnancy and, for most, back problems as reasons not to ride, and most set a weight limit around 250 lbs per seat.

Season: snow, no snow, and the months in between

The rule is simple. With snow on the ground, you ride a traditional sled. Without it, the dogs pull a wheeled cart or ATV, or you visit the kennel on foot.

Most kennels start snow rides in November once there is enough snow, and run into March or early April. Rod’s opens with 8 inches of snow, typically around November 1. Some kennels only run snow rides January to March. Every sled tour on this page depends on snow, so an October booking for a sled ride is a gamble.

Before the snow, the Dog Mushing through Fall Landscapes on a UTV ($200, 1.5 hours, 4.9 from 7 reviews) lets you ride a side-by-side cart pulled by the team during its fall training. Runs grow from 2 to 7 miles as the dogs get fitter, and the co-op switches to sleds once there are 2 to 4 inches of packed snow. Expect anything from 40°F in September to 15 below in November, with rain and mud early on. In high summer, the Alaskan Summer Sled Dog Adventure ($135, 1.5 hours, 4.7 from 26 reviews) at Howling Bay Kennel, 15 minutes north of town, combines a kennel tour with a dog-pulled ATV loop. With a cap of five and strollers welcome, it is the family pick. The Husky Hiking Tour ($129, 3 hours) is a 2 to 3 mile hike with a Siberian husky clipped to your belt, popular with children.

Practical details

What to wear

Rod’s and the Drive your Own Dog Team tour lend outerwear; everywhere else, bring your own cold-weather kit: insulated boots, a warm jacket, snow pants, a hat, a scarf or gaiter and mittens, in layers. Sitting still in a sled feels colder than walking. One Fairbanks kennel cancels rides at -25°F, and at -10°F for children 10 and under.

Ages

The 1st Alaska Tours rides take children from 5. Rod’s takes children from 3, though 3- and 4-year-olds ride only when it is warmer than 10°F. The adults-only rule on public Drive your Own Dog Team departures is the main exception.

Pickup or self-drive

The featured ride, the moonlight tour and the mushing school offer hotel pickup in Fairbanks, though not from Airbnbs or private homes. The others need your own car. If you take a taxi to the 1st Alaska Tours kennel, the driver has to wait for the whole tour, because rides back from the hills are hard to find.

Fitting it around aurora nights

The aurora often peaks around 1am, so a morning sled booking after a late night is hard work. Daytime rides start in short winter light; the featured tour runs “into the twilight”. An afternoon slot leaves time to sleep after a night out and still get back to town before the evening aurora tours leave. If you only have one or two clear nights, the moonlight tour combines the two so you don’t spend a second evening out. Many visitors pair a sled ride with a run on a snowmachine, as Alaskans call a snowmobile; compare those in our Fairbanks snowmobile tours guide, and see things to do in Fairbanks in winter for the rest of your days. For aurora nights, start with our northern lights tours.

Pick your date and check availability for the 1-hour husky ride.