Kids, seniors and the long night

Age limits, tour by tour

Every tour on this site sets its own rules, and they range from infant seats to a minimum age of 15. The six we compare on the home page line up like this.

Two longer trips outside our six have rules of their own. Alaska Wild Lights' Arctic Circle day at ~$363 is not recommended for children under 10 and charges the adult price at every age. It is also non-refundable, so a sick child the day before costs you the full fare. The same company's Chena tour at ~$275 takes children, who swim in the indoor pool, and it cannot be refunded on either booking site.

Small children and the clock

With young children the hard part is less the cold than the hours. Chases leave in the evening and come back in the small hours, and Arctic Night Tours, the one that welcomes babies with infant seats, can run 8–12 hours. With a toddler, the shorter nights make more sense. The glass house and SkyChase both last about 5 hours, and the glass house keeps everyone indoors between sightings.

A few habits help. Let children nap in the afternoon and again in the van between stops, since the drives between dark spots can be long. Pack a blanket for the van and a thermos of something sweet and warm. Dress them in one more layer than you wear yourself, because a child standing still loses heat quickly, and check cheeks and noses for white, waxy patches. Wake them for a real display when the guide calls it, not for every faint arc on the horizon.

The layers in our guide to dressing for −20 °F (−29 °C) apply to children just as much, with mittens rather than gloves for small hands.

Teenagers and the age-limited trips

Teenagers hit two different limits. At Chena Hot Springs the outdoor rock lake is for adults 18 and over, so a 16-year-old sits in the indoor pool while the parents soak outside. Our Chena guide has the details. Yet the same 16-year-old is old enough for the Arctic Circle trip with Midnight Sky Adventures, which starts at 15. On the tours with a child band ending at 12, a teenager pays the adult price.

The dog-sled night

The moonlight dog-sled tour at ~$320 from 1st Alaska Tours is the one evening that gives children something to do besides look up. Over about 6 hours from around 9 pm, it pairs a sled ride of about 30 minutes with a salmon dinner (or vegetarian pasta) in a yurt, and you watch for the lights from heated yurts afterwards. The rules are firmer than on any other tour.

• No children under 5, and no pregnant women;
• A weight limit of 250 lb (113 kg) per rider. You give everyone's weight when you book, and GetYourGuide lists an extra sled seat for heavier guests;
• December 1 to March 31 only, and at least 4 guests are needed for it to run;
• Pickup from hotels only, not from Airbnbs.

Then comes the cancellation catch. On GetYourGuide you can cancel free up to 24 hours ahead, while on Viator the same night is non-refundable. Reviewers describe outdoor toilets at the off-grid camp, and a few found the sled ride shorter than they had hoped.

Grandparents and the warm room

For older travelers, or anyone who feels the cold in their joints, the glass house on Cleary Summit at ~$179 is the gentle choice. You sit in warm chairs behind floor-to-ceiling windows with a bathroom close by, and the guides come in to fetch you when the lights show. Pickup is 9–9:40 pm and the night lasts about 5 hours. The room can hold 30 guests and the best window seats go first, so arrive ready to claim one.

We would steer older travelers away from the 12-hour nights. An all-night chase that ends at 6 am, or a day on the Dalton, takes a couple of days to recover from. Chase or cabin weighs the trade-off in full. Chena Hot Springs sits in between. Most of the evening is spent indoors or in warm water, but it still means about 10 hours out, and the walk from the changing rooms to the outdoor pool is cold.

Wheelchairs and limited mobility

The listings leave little room for wheelchair users.

• Arctic Night Tours and SkyChase both say they are not wheelchair accessible;
• Electric Moose Studios says the same;
• Midnight Sky Adventures is not for wheelchair users or anyone with mobility problems, and Alaska Wild Lights' Arctic Circle tour is not wheelchair accessible;
• Chena Hot Springs gets two answers. Tour Fairbanks says the resort is not accessible, Alaska Wild Lights says its tour is. Ask before you pay;
• The glass house listings say nothing either way, so ask the operator directly.

Even where a building is reachable, the viewing spots may not be. Most aurora stops are packed snow and ice at roadside pullouts, in the dark. A traveler who walks with a cane will do better in the glass house, where you can watch through the windows without going outside at all, than on a chase that hops between snowy turnouts.

Restrooms and backs

Restrooms decide more family nights than anyone admits. Electric Moose has none at its viewing site, so plan around the pizza and cocoa. The glass house has one. On the chases you depend on the van and wherever it stops, so ask the guide early in the night when the next chance comes.

Backs are the other question. The Dalton Highway is rough and bumpy, and both Arctic Circle listings rule out guests with back problems. Children's prices differ a lot from tour to tour, and our cost guide lists them all if you are budgeting for a whole family. For the darkest and mildest weeks to bring them, see when to see the aurora.