Things to do over the New Year's Day long weekend in Fairbanks (Updated 2026)

Fairbanks, USA

4.9 (110)

Northern Lights Viewing including Dinner and Dog Sledding

Join us for a combination tour of 2 great Alaskan experiences: the magic of the Northern Lights and the thrill of dog-sledding. Complete the experience...

6 hours • Hotel pickup offered

4.9 (110)

from
$320

5.0 (88)

Sled Dog Sampler Ride in Fairbanks

Founded by Susan Butcher (4-time Iditarod champion), Trail Breaker Kennel is an iconic piece of Alaskan culture. The kennel is conveniently located a mile from...

30 minutes • Free Cancellation

5.0 (88)

from
$85

5.0 (84)

2-Hour Guided Snowmobile Tour in Fairbanks

The Local Tour is a two-hour guided snowmobile tour and is our most popular day tour. On the Local Tour, you will experience driving your...

2 hours • Free Cancellation

5.0 (84)

from
$365

4.9 (80)

Spectacular Hot Spring Experience with Northern Lights

Discover the Chena Hot Springs Resort with our expert guides who will ensure you enjoy every amazing amenity safely. If the northern lights grace the...

8 to 10 hours • Hotel pickup offered • Free Cancellation

4.9 (80)

from
$231

4.9 (75)

Fairbanks Top City Highlights Tour Summer/Fall

Operated by Heart of Alaska Tours. Fairbanks City Highlight Tour stands out because it's led by passionate locals who know Fairbanks inside and out. Rather...

5 hours • Hotel pickup offered • Free Cancellation

4.9 (75)

from
$160

4.8 (72)

Fairbanks Autumn/Winter City Tour

Discover Fairbanks during the autumn/winter months, on this 5.5-hour tour with driver/guide. Visit the Santa Claus House, the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center and...

5 hours 30 minutes • Hotel pickup offered

4.8 (72)

from
$155

4.9 (65)

Fire and Ice tour hot springs northern lights

Soak. Glow. Dream. Your evening begins with a scenic drive from Fairbanks into Alaska’s wilderness to Chena Hot Springs Resort. Upon arrival, enjoy time at...

9 hours • Hotel pickup offered • Free Cancellation

4.9 (65)

from
$270

4.9 (57)

Heart of Fairbanks Tour

You’ll explore Fairbanks in a way that’s personal, flexible, and heartfelt, laughs, stories, and real connections included. This isn’t a rushed checklist of stops, it’s...

5 hours • Hotel pickup offered • Free Cancellation

4.9 (57)

from
$170

4.9 (57)

Castner Glacier Ice Cave Adventure from Fairbanks

Journey deep into the Alaska Range on an unforgettable Castner Glacier adventure from Fairbanks. Travel the scenic Richardson Highway with stops at the iconic Trans-Alaska...

9 hours 30 minutes • Hotel pickup offered

4.9 (57)

from
$275

4.8 (56)

Midnight Sun Magic Chena Hot Springs Soak and Ice Museum Tour

At Heart of Alaska Tours, we believe the best way to experience Alaska is with someone who truly calls it home. We're a locally owned...

6 hours • Hotel pickup offered • Free Cancellation

4.8 (56)

from
$220

4.8 (53)

3 Hour Ice Fishing Experience

The team at Reel Alaskan Aventures focuses on providing the highest quality experience for our guest. The locations we fish are less crowded , are...

3 hours • Free Cancellation

4.8 (53)

from
$140

4.9 (51)

10 Hours Denali Winter Drive in Alaska

The Denali Winter Drive provides a one day guided round trip journey by land from Fairbanks into Denali National Park. Guests will meet an informative...

10 hours

4.9 (51)

from
$309

Recent tour reviews

New York City

Gold Dredge 8 Historic Tour

aprilkS7745VE, Sep 2026

Great tour!

The tour was great because of the tour guide. He was extremely knowledgeable because he actually worked on the pipeline and the dredger 8. There was a bit of confusion when we arrived. We checked in but weren’t given a ticket and when we walked in we were asked for a ticket. It wasn’t a big thing but we weren’t given an overview of where to go, bathroom facilities etc until the guide arrived. Once the guide arrived we were kept informed. Overall it was a great tour and we learned a great deal.

New York City

Gold Dredge 8 Historic Tour

margaretwQ7921SD, Sep 2026

Excellent experience. Highly recommend

Exceeded expectations. This is more than just seeing a dredge. You will also get to see a section of the Alaskan pipeline and learn all about it, as well as pan for gold with a bag of pay dirt that has some flakes in it.

New York City

Riverboat Discovery Tour

SydneyPhillips, Sep 2026

Excellent experience. A must do for Fairbanks!

Wonderful experience. A must do if you’re in Fairbanks. Every part of the experience was stellar and I would definitely do it again!

New York City

Riverboat Discovery Tour

thomaspS3652YY, Sep 2026

Most bang for the buck

Entered the reception area gave our name they looked in a file and pulled out two tickets and we were done. Entered in to a large gift shop the size of a small department store and realized there were stations of free coffee everywhere. Boarding the Discovery was punctual and organized departure was on time then realized there was more free coffee everywhere. Haha A beautiful cruise down the river where I was shocked to see residents on the river run out to their yards to smile and wave a welcome. On the return we stopped at a mock village and were given a tour by native Alaskans to see what life was like both before and after western exposure. Up to now my favorite part of my Alaskan adventure and a great value.

New York City

Fairbanks Before You Fly: The Final Adventure

R9307PEsandyg, Sep 2026

Very Pleased

We went on the Fire and Ice tour to the Chena Hot Springs Resort with Gina. We enjoyed hercso much, we booked her Heart of Fairbanks tour fir the next day! It was a pleasure to spend our time with her. Gina was very quick to respond to our questions pre-tour. During she was pleasant, prompt, and attended to all details so we didn't have to. She even told our dinner restaurant it was my birthday. Her knowledge was amazing and on the rare questions she didn't know the answer, she said she didn't know but found the answers. She went above and beyond trying to show us a glimpse of the Northern Lights. She asked us a number of times to see if we wanted to see anything in particular, or if we'd like her to stop anywhere before being dropped off, etc. We saw and learned so much during our time with her. It us with high confidence we can absolutely recommend AK Bucket List Tours with Gina.

New York City

Fairbanks Alaska Luxury Car Private Tour

Joey_L, Sep 2026

Our Aurora ordeal

We had a great experience with Yas. He was punctual. He shared great stories about the aurora. He was very knowledgeable about the subject. And based on the dynamic data he was using, he can predict when the aurora would be prominent in the sky.It was rainy and cloudy on the day of activity. We drove 2.5 hours for sky clearance. We really didn’t see much , meaning without the iPhone camera, you couldn’t see the aurora.He offered to take us out again the next night. We accepted and had great views of the aurora.

New York City

Private Alaskan Reindeer Encounter & Forest Walk

R4334LXmikea, Aug 2026

Walking with the Reindeer

We were in Fairbanks a day before our land journey as part of our cruise and had decided to rent a car and head towards the Chenna Hot Springs. We had seen a couple places advertising for seeing reindeer and this one was right along the way to the hot springs, so we stopped despite the website not showing any availability (the reservation system won't show anything for the same day FYI). They indicated they had an opening in about 40 minutes once the current tour completed, so we stepped next door to the cafe and grabbed a coffee and a cookie. We started off in their hut/office with Ryne learning about caribou and reindeer, what the differences were, and lots of other fun/interesting facts for maybe 10-15 minutes (legit it was interesting). Then we made our way down towards where they kept their reindeer. We knew the experience was called a "forest walk" but I think we were all a little surprised still when Ryne hooked leads to each of the 4 reindeer and handed them to us and lead us off into their woods! Yes, we were walking reindeer through the woods, as Ryne described it, kinda like walking really big lazy dogs. They were mostly interested in eating whatever fresh vegetation they could find along the way, but were pretty easy going and would come along when you coaxed them to move along. Since this was a "private" experience it really was just the 4 of us in our party, which was very nice.10/10 experience. We all kind of had the same thought, like "this is the first day of our trip and we just did THAT, not sure how the rest of our trip will compare to this. It's definitely one of our top highlights of our 12 days in Alaska.

New York City

Guided Fishing Adventure On The Chena River By Boat

Danuta_G, Aug 2026

Great trip. The guide...

Great trip. The guide made an active effort to make sure we had the opportunity to catch as much as possible. He was patient and taught skills to those on board that have never fished and us beginners who got our lines snagged. We stayed out a bit longer than planned to accommodate group requests. Great trip!

New York City

Original Arctic Circle Drive from Fairbanks

Mark_Z, Aug 2026

Arctic Circle excursion

Wonderful excursion. Sienna was our guide/driver and did a great job over a long day. Left at 6:30am and returned at 11:30pm. Good stops along the way for food and bathroom breaks. Would recommend, at least once.

New York City

Original Arctic Circle Drive from Fairbanks

Hope_S, Aug 2026

Mike M is the best tour guide I have EVER had in my entire life of travels!

The road is extremely bumpy but it's the only way to get where you're going; so sit back and enjoy the scenery. It was everything I expected and more. Mike stopped about every hour to every hour and a half to let us get out, explore and stretch our legs. It didn't seem as long as it was. A once in a lifetime adventure everyone should do once.

New York City

Guided Fairbanks Snowmobile Tour

kenziephillips55, Aug 2026

So amazing!

SO FUN! We went 40mph and only had 2 people in our group. Just the best time ever and will definitely do it again

New York City

Guided Fishing Adventure On The Chena River By Boat

Jurate_H, Aug 2026

Excellent service,...

Excellent service, enjoyed the trip very much, thank you! Will recommend to everyone! Ben was great!

New York City

One and a Half Hour Private Summer Sled Dog Experience

Susan_S, Aug 2026

A chance to interact with Alaskan sled dogs!

Even though I have had dogs all my life, I had never experienced how sled dogs are trained and raised. I was allowed to help harness the dogs to prepare them for a ride around the area. The dogs were happy to go for a run and loved all the extra attention that they get from visitors. A must do for any kind of animal lover.

New York City

Spectacular Hot Spring Experience with Northern Lights

Camper17121224186, Aug 2026

Great experience!!!

Had an amazing experience. It was our first time getting into hot springs and glad that it was through this tour. Hot springs experience was beautiful with dark skies and stars above us while we were soaking in warm water and decent amount of lighting. It was not too crowded or not loud and was a pleasant experience. The changing rooms were not too bad, but i think that’s normal as I haven’t been to many swimming pools so not sure what to expect. We also visited the Ice museum which was really interesting and enjoyed my experience there. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the northern lights due to cloud coverage that night though the guide made a few stops to make it happen. The guide kept the party size small which was a good idea.The guide shared valuable insights into Alaskan culture and lifestyle and was very fun to talk to and easy to coordinate during the entire trip. He gave clear instructions and detailed description of what to expect at every stop. If not for the guide, we wouldn’t have enjoyed those long drives into wilderness after sunset during the trip. We were so happy with the experience that, for months afterward, we found ourselves sharing the stories our guide told us with everyone we knew

New York City

One and a Half Hour Private Summer Sled Dog Experience

Susan_B, Aug 2026

This dog sled experience...

This dog sled experience was excellent. Laura was informative and highly engaging. We learned so much about Alaskan Huskies and had plenty of time to interact with the dogs. I highly recommend this experience!

New York City

Northern Lights by Fire

nightn2026, Jul 2026

Bucket list item unlocked

Our Northern Lights by Fire tour with Gina was hands down the highlight of our Alaska trip! From the moment she picked us up, we felt like we were exploring with a friend who genuinely wanted us to have the best experience possible. She shared fascinating stories about Alaska, explained the science and folklore behind the aurora, and made the entire evening fun and relaxing. The warm lodge, hot drinks, cookies, bonfire, and beautiful dark-sky locations made the night so special. Gina also helped everyone with camera settings and captured amazing photos that we'll treasure forever. She truly goes above and beyond for her guests, and her passion for Alaska is contagious. If you're looking for more than just an aurora chase and want a memorable, personal experience

Things to do over the New Year's Day long weekend in Fairbanks (Updated 2026)

Fairbanks Tours

Attractions

Guides

Calendar

Northern Lights Viewing including Dinner and Dog Sledding

Sled Dog Sampler Ride in Fairbanks

2-Hour Guided Snowmobile Tour in Fairbanks

Spectacular Hot Spring Experience with Northern Lights

Fairbanks Top City Highlights Tour Summer/Fall

Fairbanks Autumn/Winter City Tour

Fire and Ice tour hot springs northern lights

Heart of Fairbanks Tour

Castner Glacier Ice Cave Adventure from Fairbanks

Midnight Sun Magic Chena Hot Springs Soak and Ice Museum Tour

3 Hour Ice Fishing Experience

10 Hours Denali Winter Drive in Alaska

Last Minute Availability

Popular Fairbanks Searches

Accessible Fairbanks Tours & Activities

Things To Do in Fairbanks

Popular Fairbanks Attractions

Fairbanks Calendar

Fairbanks Guides

Things to do over the New Year's Day long weekend in Fairbanks (Updated 2026)

Fairbanks Tours

Attractions

Guides

Calendar

Last Minute Availability

Popular Fairbanks Searches

Accessible Fairbanks Tours & Activities

Things To Do in Fairbanks

Popular Fairbanks Attractions

Fairbanks Calendar

Fairbanks Guides

Site Settings

Currency

Lowest Price Guarantee

We Make It Easy!

Refund Terms & Conditions

Sorting, ranking, and search results

Cool Support