Fairbanks Snowmobile Tours: Guided Snowmachine Rides from North Pole

For most visitors the 1-Hour Guided Snowmobile Tour from Rod’s Alaskan Guide Service is the one to book. It starts from $179, holds a 4.8 rating from 77 GetYourGuide reviews, and is the only option that hands every rider a heated helmet and a full set of cold-weather clothing. The one other snowmobile tour you can book on GetYourGuide, Alaska Wild Lights’ ride through the Chena Lakes Recreation Area, suits small groups who already own serious winter gear.

Both tours start in North Pole, about 13 miles southeast of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway, roughly a 20-minute drive.

Snowmobile or snowmachine?

Ask for a snowmobile in Fairbanks and people will understand you, but most Alaskans call it a snowmachine. In rural Alaska you will also hear “snowgo”. A search for Fairbanks snowmachine tours turns up the same two rides covered here: guided outings where you drive your own machine behind a guide on the operator’s trails. Neither is a rental, and neither lets you ride off on your own.

The choice is small, and both tours are good. Rod’s has more reviews, includes the clothing and offers free cancellation. Alaska Wild Lights caps the group at six and finishes with hot drinks and snacks.

Pick by what you want

Best overall: Rod’s 1-hour guided ride, $179. It is also the cheapest snowmachine tour on GetYourGuide. The boots, bibs, jacket, neck gaiter, gloves and heated helmet are all included, so you can fly in without buying snow gear. Rod’s runs a free-cancellation policy on this listing, and a weather cancellation gets you a new date or a full refund.

Best for a small group: Alaska Wild Lights Guided Snowmobile Tour, $187. It rates 5.0 from 22 reviews, takes no more than six people, and rides the frozen lakes and forest trails of the Chena Lakes Recreation Area. It provides helmets, mittens and goggles only, so you must bring warm winter clothing, and the listing does not offer free cancellation.

Best to pair with a snowmachine ride: the Dog Sledding and Mushing Experience, 30 minutes from $115 and rated 4.9 from 126 reviews, starts at the same Repp Road base as Rod’s snowmobile tour. If you would rather not drive at all, the 1-Hour Alaskan Winter Dog Sledding Adventure from 1st Alaska Tours ($175, 4.9 from 192 reviews) offers hotel pickup in town. Our Fairbanks dog sledding tours page compares the kennels in full.

What the ride is actually like

At Rod’s you suit up first, then sit through a short safety talk and driving instructions. The guide takes you on a practice ride and keeps going until you feel ready, then chooses a trail that fits how you handled it. The machines have heated handgrips, electric start and reverse. Most of Rod’s customers have never ridden before, and the trail runs wide and groomed through birch and spruce forest and across lakes, partly over the buried trans-Alaska pipeline.

Reviewers keep coming back to the pace. One wrote that the guide “only goes as fast as his slowest driver” and stopped for photos, and another described a guide who kept both the cautious riders and the speed-seekers happy. A few have spotted moose.

Alaska Wild Lights rides inside the Chena Lakes Recreation Area, about 17 miles from Fairbanks, where the trails cross frozen lakes and open country with mountain views. You can ride solo or two to a machine, with moose, foxes and snowshoe hares to look out for along the trail. Afterwards there is hot chocolate, coffee, tea and light snacks.

Season and snow

Rod’s opens its snowmobile tours once there is 12 inches of snow on the ground, which usually happens around November 1, and keeps running through April. The base operates Thursday to Tuesday and is closed on Wednesdays. A slow start to winter can push opening day back, so book early-November dates knowing they depend on snowfall.

Midwinter is properly cold. January in Fairbanks averages about 0°F by day and -17°F at night, which is why the heated helmet and grips matter. North Pole sits at 64°45’ north, so despite the name it is about 125 miles south of the Arctic Circle; for the real crossing, see our Arctic Circle tours from Fairbanks.

Practical details

License and age

Anyone driving a snowmachine needs a valid driver’s license, U.S. or international, and must understand safety instructions in English. Passengers do not need one. Rod’s takes passengers from age 5. Alaska Wild Lights requires drivers riding alone to be 18 or over with a license, and its listing rules out children under 7 and asks that any child can reach the running boards.

Weight and health

Rod’s caps two riders sharing a machine at 375 lb (170 kg) combined. Both tours list pregnancy as unsuitable, and Rod’s adds back and heart problems.

What to wear

On Rod’s tour, warm layers under the gear they supply are enough. For Alaska Wild Lights you need your own insulated jacket, snow pants and boots; the operator suggests renting from a cold-weather outfitter in town if you do not own them.

Getting there

Neither tour includes hotel pickup. Rod’s is at the end of Repp Road in North Pole and can arrange transport for $50 per person. Alaska Wild Lights meets at 3740 Lyle Avenue, North Pole, and runs no shuttle. Both ask you to arrive 30 minutes early, and Alaska Wild Lights forfeits riders who turn up more than 10 minutes late. With the early arrival and suiting up, plan on more time at the base than the hour on the trail, plus the drive each way.

Fitting a ride around aurora nights

Aurora nights in Fairbanks run late, so a one-hour daytime ride fits well into the afternoon after a short night’s sleep, and you can be back in town well before an evening northern lights tour picks you up.

North Pole makes an easy half day. Combine the snowmachine ride with the 30-minute dog sled at the same Repp Road base, or add Santa Claus House and the town’s candy-cane streetlights from our things to do in North Pole, Alaska page. Rod’s also runs a four-hour guided ice fishing tour in heated cabins on Chena Lake, rated 4.7 from 32 reviews. None of the listings bundle these together, so each one is booked separately; our Fairbanks ice fishing tours page covers the license you need.

If you want a longer ride, Rod’s own website lists two-hour outings and a three-hour late-evening aurora snowmachine tour. Those are not sold on GetYourGuide, and private or custom rides are a question for the operator directly. For the one-hour ride most visitors want, check availability for Rod’s tour above.