Columbia Glacier Cruise

For most travellers it is the Valdez: 6-Hour Columbia Glacier & Wildlife Cruise, run by Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlife Cruises. It starts from ~$181 per person, checks in at 112 N Harbor Drive in Valdez and returns to the same dock, and it is the cheapest and best-evidenced way into Columbia Bay. It holds 4.8/5 from 206 reviews with guide and transportation subscores both at 4.9, includes a light lunch of soup, a bagel with cream cheese and cookies, is listed as wheelchair accessible, includes transfers from the RV parks in town, and allows free cancellation up to three days before departure.

Into Columbia Bay, not up to the glacier face. Columbia has retreated about 16 kilometres up its fjord since 1982, and the ice it shed on the way is still there, grounded on the shallow moraine across the bay's entrance. The boat works into that berg field as far as conditions allow, and the glacier stands beyond it. How far in you get changes with the tide, the day and how much the face has calved recently — one reviewer's sailing could not enter at all. Travellers write about this in their five-star reviews, so treat it as the shape of the trip rather than a disappointment.

Between about ~$181 and ~$810 per person for the trips that reach this glacier. The six-hour cruise from Valdez starts at ~$181, the nine-hour sea kayak day at ~$409, and the ninety-minute helicopter flight with a glacier landing at ~$810. The nearest alternatives elsewhere in Prince William Sound run ~$201 for the 7.5-hour Meares Glacier cruise from Valdez, ~$208 for the 3.5-hour Blackstone Bay trip from Whittier and ~$260 for the 26 Glacier Cruise. All prices are per person and move with the season and your departure date.

Valdez, Alaska — there is no other port with trips to this glacier. The cruise checks in at 112 N Harbor Drive, at the office behind the Best Western Hotel on pilings above the Tour Dock, a full hour before departure with boarding thirty minutes out. Park along North Harbor Drive. Access to the dock is down a ramp that the operator warns can be steep at some tides, with boarding assistance available. The sea kayak day meets at its own Valdez meeting point, and the helicopter includes a round-trip shuttle from any location in town.

Six hours on the water, plus an hour of check-in on top, so budget seven. Reviewers on the afternoon departure report leaving around 2:30 PM and docking at about 8:35 PM. If you would rather not give up most of a day, the helicopter flight is ninety minutes plus shuttle time. If you want longer with the ice, the sea kayak day runs a full nine hours including the boat transfer out to the glacier zone and back.

Probably not on the Columbia cruise, and no honest listing promises it. You are usually too far off the face for calving to be the show — what you get instead is Columbia Bay itself, which is entirely made of ice that has already calved. If watching ice come off a glacier is the specific thing you want, the 7.5-hour Meares Glacier cruise from the same dock holds station in front of an advancing face and its listing describes exactly that, and reviewers confirm being given time there. From the helicopter, the operator lists the possibility of calving events seen from the air.

It is in the retreat phase of the tidewater glacier cycle. For centuries the glacier's face rested on a shallow underwater moraine at the mouth of its fjord, which stabilised it. In the early 1980s it came off that sill into deeper water, which dramatically increased how fast it could calve, and it has been backing up its own fjord ever since — about 16 kilometres since 1982, at an average of roughly 0.6 kilometres a year, with close to 500 metres of thinning at the terminus. It is one of the most closely studied glaciers on earth for exactly this reason, and it is why a cruise here is a trip through floating ice rather than a visit to an ice cliff.

The listing names harbour seals, sea otters, Steller sea lions, porpoises, orcas, humpback whales, puffins and bald eagles, and guarantees none of them. The most reliable sighting is harbour seals hauled out on the floating ice in Columbia Bay, which is a genuine pupping area — no predator can reach them out there. Reviews swing between boats that watched humpbacks surface repeatedly and boats that saw fog. Bring binoculars, because most spotting happens at distance, and expect the crew to keep a respectful distance from seals on the ice rather than pushing for a closer angle.

Yes. The six-hour cruise includes a light lunch of soup, a bagel with cream cheese and cookies, plus complimentary coffee, tea, lemonade and water, with a snack bar and gift shop on board for anything else. Bring cash for those. Travellers with specific dietary needs are encouraged to bring their own food, and you are welcome to bring snacks and non-alcoholic drinks aboard. The sea kayak day describes a lunch break but does not confirm a meal in its inclusions, so pack your own; the Blackstone Bay trip from Whittier includes a snack and a hot drink and excludes lunch outright.

Warm layers, whatever the month. The boat is enclosed and heated, but everything worth seeing happens on the open deck, and air sitting over a bay full of floating ice is far colder than the air twenty minutes away. The operator asks for warm clothing, a jacket, rain gear, closed-toe shoes, sunglasses, sunscreen, binoculars, a camera and cash. Gloves are not on that list and you will want them — reviewers say so repeatedly. On the kayak day, guides are emphatic that dressing properly decides your experience, and travellers recommend adding hand and toe warmers.

Yes. Stan Stephens states plainly that departures take place in any weather and that the boats are enclosed and heated, with warm clothes needed for outside viewing. Reviews from grey days are still overwhelmingly positive and several note that flat overcast light makes the blue in the ice read stronger. Heavy fog is the real risk, and it can cost you both the glacier and the wildlife with no refund. Free cancellation runs to three days before on this cruise and twenty-four hours on the kayak, helicopter and Whittier trips — none of which helps with a forecast that turns overnight.

Not directly. Every trip that reaches Columbia Glacier departs from Valdez, which is about six hours' drive from Anchorage around the Chugach, or a short flight, or the ferry across the Sound. Cruises from Whittier — the 26 Glacier Cruise into College Fjord and the small-group Blackstone Bay trip — are excellent glacier days in the same Prince William Sound, an hour from Anchorage, but they do not visit Columbia. If this specific glacier is the reason for the trip, budget the journey to Valdez.

It depends what you want from the ice. At ~$409 it costs more than twice the cruise and runs nine hours, and it rests on only 22 reviews — but it holds 4.9/5 with a perfect 5.0 guide subscore, it is a small group, and it is the only way to be at water level among freshly calved bergs and to land on beaches the glacier uncovered within the last few years. A boat handles the transit out and back, so the paddling is in the glacier zone rather than the commute. Note that a meal is not confirmed in the inclusions and that cancellation is twenty-four hours rather than three days.

The Stan Stephens cruises allow free cancellation up to three days in advance for a full refund, which is more generous than the twenty-four hours offered on the sea kayak day, the helicopter flight and both Whittier trips. The helicopter adds its own condition: flights need a minimum of two passengers, and if a departure is cancelled for not meeting that minimum you can rebook or take a full refund. Each operator writes its own terms and they shift by tour and by departure date, so treat the policy shown at checkout as the one that counts. Nothing on this page is bookable through us — payment, amendments, refunds and support all sit with the operator or the platform you book on.