How to Visit Fairbanks Alaska: The Airport, the Drive and the Season

The airport, and where flights come from

Fairbanks International Airport carries the code FAI and sits a few minutes from the centre of town. It is small, it is modern enough, and it is open year round, which not every Alaskan airport is.

Most visitors arrive through Seattle or Anchorage. Seattle offers direct services and is the usual gateway from the lower forty-eight; Anchorage is the connection from within Alaska and from a wider set of routes. Winter is the busy season here rather than summer, driven largely by aurora tourism, and the schedule expands to match.

From the airport into town is a short drive. Hotels run shuttles, taxis are available, and car hire is on site if you want one for the rest of a trip.

One quirk worth knowing: because winter is the high season, hotel rates and flight loads here behave the opposite way round from most of North America. The quiet month in Fairbanks is not January but May, when the snow has gone and the summer visitors have not yet arrived.

Driving to Fairbanks, honestly

You can drive here from the contiguous United States and people do. The route runs up through British Columbia and the Yukon on the Alaska Highway and then north, and from Seattle it is roughly three and a half thousand kilometres.

In summer this is one of the great road trips. In winter it is a serious undertaking that needs winter tyres, a plan for fuel stops that are hundreds of kilometres apart, and a realistic view of what a breakdown in January would mean.

For a visitor coming for a few days of winter activities, flying is the answer. The drive is a holiday in its own right rather than a way of getting to one.

From Anchorage

Anchorage sits about five hundred and eighty kilometres south, which is roughly six hours on the Parks Highway in good conditions. The road is maintained through the winter and is the way most Alaskans make the trip.

The alternative is the Alaska Railroad, which takes about twelve hours and is a genuinely scenic journey rather than merely a transfer. It runs a reduced winter schedule, so check before planning around it.

Flying between the two takes about an hour and is frequent. For a short winter trip it is usually the sensible choice.

A cleared winter road running into Fairbanks under low light

Whether you need a car in town

For this tour, no. Hotel pickup and drop-off are included, which is the single most useful thing about it in a place where the walk from a car park to a front door is a real consideration in January.

For the rest of a Fairbanks visit it depends on what you want. Aurora viewing means getting away from town lights, and the good spots are outside the city. Chena Hot Springs is about ninety kilometres out. Both are doable by tour rather than by car, but a car gives you the choice.

If you do hire one, it will have winter tyres and it will usually have an engine block heater with a cord hanging out of the grille. Plugging it in overnight is normal here and not optional in a serious cold snap.

The other winter driving habit is to leave the engine running. Fairbanks car parks in January are full of unattended vehicles with their exhausts steaming, because restarting a cold-soaked engine at minus forty is harder on it than idling for an hour. Nobody will think anything of it.

When in the season to come

The sled season runs roughly November to March. December to March is the dependable part. The aurora season is longer, from late August to mid-April, so the overlap that gives you both comfortably is December through March.

March is the month to pick if you want one answer. Full snow, eleven hours of daylight in the middle of the month, temperatures around minus three by day, and aurora season still running.

January gives the deepest version of the place and the strongest sense of remoteness, in exchange for three hours of daylight and genuine cold. February sits between the two and is a reasonable compromise.

How long to stay

Three or four nights is the common length for a winter trip and it works. It gives you multiple aurora attempts, which matters because cloud decides the outcome and one night is a coin toss.

A one-hour sled ride sits inside that easily. Book it early in the stay rather than on the last morning, so that a weather change has somewhere to move to.

Longer than a week and you will want a car and a list, because the daylight is short and the town is not large.

If aurora viewing is the main purpose of the trip, weight the itinerary towards the back end of your stay for the sled ride and keep the first nights free for the sky. Cloud is unpredictable and a daytime activity can be moved far more easily than a clear night can be conjured.

Arriving in winter, practically

Dress for the walk from the terminal door to the shuttle, not for the terminal. People arrive in a fleece because the flight was warm and discover what minus twenty-five does in ninety seconds.

Anything electronic that has been outside should be allowed to warm up slowly rather than taken straight into a heated room, where condensation will form on and inside it.

And give yourself the first evening to adjust. Fairbanks in January is not a place to arrive and immediately go out for four hours.

Before you book

Arriving, step by step

1. Fly into Fairbanks International

   Airport code FAI, a few minutes from town, reached by most visitors through Seattle or Anchorage. Winter is the busy season.

2. Or come up from Anchorage

   About 580 kilometres and six hours on the Parks Highway, an hour by air, or twelve scenic hours on the Alaska Railroad.

3. Get into town

   Hotel shuttles, taxis and on-site car hire. The drive from the airport is short.

4. Decide about a car

   Not needed for this tour, which collects you. Useful for aurora viewing outside town and for Chena Hot Springs.

5. Be ready at your hotel

   The tour picks up from hotels in town. Airbnb and private residences are excluded, so check if you are not in one.