Guide · Choosing a tour

Best Juneau helicopter tours, matched to what you want

The best Juneau helicopter tours depend on the day you want: a short walk on the ice, an hour among crevasses, a dog camp or a trek with an ice axe. Here are the three companies, what they fly and how to choose.

Check availabilityfrom $429 · no cancellation fee

Editorial team, juneau-helicopter-tours.comUpdated October 17, 2026read in 6 minutes36 sources

The tour this guide is about Juneau helicopter glacier landing tour 4.9 (49 reviews) 2.5 hoursAbout 25 minutes on Herbert GlacierPickup from your ship or hotel from$429per person Check availabilityFree cancellation until 3 days before start

The quick pick

01Simplest landing: Herbert Glacier with Coastal Helicopters, 2.5 hours, from $429.
02On the Mendenhall: TEMSCO gives 20 to 25 minutes on the ice; NorthStar's walkabout about 1 hour.¹ ²
03Most time on ice: NorthStar's Extended Trek, 3 hours on the glacier.³
04With dogs: A dog camp on Herbert Glacier, 3 hours in all, from $709.
05No landing: A 40 minute floatplane loop with Wings Airways, from $383.

There is no single best flight

Ask a handful of people who flew from Juneau which tour was best and you will hear different answers, all of them honest. Some loved a short, easy stop beside a blue meltwater pool. Others wanted a long walk behind a guide with crampons on, and some remember the dogs more than the ice. The flights look alike from the dock; the days they give you are not.

So instead of a ranking, this page sorts the best Juneau helicopter tours by what they are best at. The questions that matter are simple: which glacier you land on, how long you stay, how physical the time on the ice is, how you book and cancel, and what it costs. Each of the companies answers them differently, and each publishes its own terms.

TEMSCO Helicopters, Coastal Helicopters and NorthStar Trekking fly the helicopter glacier tours out of Juneau that are compared on this page, and Wings Airways offers a floatplane alternative from the downtown waterfront. They all fly over the same icefield in the same weather, so the scenery from the window is comparable. What separates them is the landing site, the time on the ground and the way you book.

Who has flown here, and since when

Juneau's glacier operators over the years

1958

TEMSCO founded

Founded in Ketchikan; it now has bases in Juneau, Skagway and Denali.⁴ ⁵
1988

Coastal begins

Started as a division of Alaska Coastal Airlines with a Bell Jet Ranger.⁶
1998

NorthStar starts

Helicopter tours and glacier treks in Juneau since that year.⁷
1999

Landings counted

The authorized level of icefield landings that year was 19,039.⁸
2000

New permit review

The Forest Service proposed special use permits for 2001 to 2005.⁹

Juneau helicopter tour companies at a glance

The Juneau helicopter tour companies differ most in their history and where they put you down. TEMSCO was founded in 1958 in Ketchikan and today flies tours from bases in Juneau, Skagway and Denali.⁴ ⁵ Coastal Helicopters began in the summer of 1988 as a division of Alaska Coastal Airlines, flying for the Forest Service with a single Bell Jet Ranger.⁶

NorthStar Trekking has run helicopter tours in Juneau since 1998.⁷ It flies A-Star 350 series helicopters that seat up to 6 passengers plus the pilot.¹⁰ Coastal Helicopters gives the same figure for its own helicopters: up to 6 standard passengers.¹¹ Coastal Helicopters says it runs a fleet of 13 helicopters for tours and charter work.¹²

The flights land on public land. The Forest Service authorizes helicopter landing tours on the Juneau Icefield through special use permits for specified locations, and Coastal Helicopters says it operates under such a permit on the Tongass National Forest.⁹ ¹³ Ask any operator which glaciers its permit covers, and you learn quickly where it can and cannot take you.

Side by side

The operators compared

Operator	Main glacier	Time on the ice	Booked
Coastal Helicopters	Herbert	20 to 25 min	GetYourGuide or direct
TEMSCO Helicopters	Mendenhall	20 to 25 min	Direct
NorthStar walkabout	Mendenhall	About 1 hr	Direct
NorthStar trek	Mendenhall or other	2 hrs	Direct
Wings Airways floatplane	No landing on ice	None	GetYourGuide or direct

Times on the ice as each operator states them; weather can change the glacier and the time.¹⁴ ¹ ² ¹⁵

On GetYourGuide

Three flights you can book here

Most reviewed

Glacier landing

Coastal, Herbert Glacier

Price: from $429
Length: 2.5 hrs
Rating: 4.90

See the tour

With dogs

Dog camp flight

Huskies on the ice

Price: from $709
Length: 3 hrs
Rating: 4.65

See the tour

Juneau: 5-Glacier Flightseeing Discovery by Seaplane

Highest rated

5-glacier floatplane

Wings Airways, no landing

Price: from $383
Length: 40 min
Rating: 4.95

See the tour

Decision helper

Which operator suits your day?

Pick the line that sounds like you

I want to book online with free cancellation It has to be the Mendenhall I want hours on the ice The kids want dogs I just want the view

Coastal, on GetYourGuide

Free cancellation up to 3 days ahead, pickup included.

TEMSCO or NorthStar

Both land walking tours on the Mendenhall.¹ ¹⁶

NorthStar trek

2 hours, or 3 on the Extended Trek.¹⁵ ³

A dog camp flight

About 1 hour at a camp on Herbert Glacier.

Wings Airways floatplane

40 minutes over five glaciers.

Minimum tour pilot qualifications are 1,000 hours of helicopter Pilot in Command (PIC) time and 100 hours flying the terrain in which the pilot will be working.

TEMSCO HelicoptersSource 17

TEMSCO Helicopters in Juneau

TEMSCO Helicopters in Juneau lands its walking tour on the Mendenhall Glacier. The tour includes about 30 minutes of helicopter time and 20 to 25 minutes on the glacier with guides.¹ The company also runs a dog sledding tour with 1 hour at a camp on the Mendenhall, about 20 to 25 minutes of it mushing.¹⁸

On safety, TEMSCO says it is a member of the Tour Operators Program of Safety and that its tour pilots need 1,000 hours as helicopter pilot in command plus 100 hours flying the local terrain.¹⁷ It also trains pilots to recover from adverse weather, whiteout included.¹⁹ Over-boots are handed out for the ice; warm clothing is your job.²⁰

TEMSCO is booked on its own website. It charges an extra $150 for passengers of 113 kg or more and refunds in full if weather stops the flight, usually deciding within an hour of departure.²¹ ²² Pick it if the Mendenhall is the glacier you came for and a shorter, guided stop on the ice suits you.

Checklist

Questions to ask any operator

About the flight

Which glacier is planned, and what if it changes
Minutes on the ice, not just total time
How many share the helicopter

About the money

Weight bands and seat surcharges
The cancellation deadline
The refund when weather grounds the flight

Cost calculator

Price it for your party

Choose your group size and compare the bookable options.

Floatplane loop40 minfrom $383 Glacier landing2.5 hrsfrom $429 Dog camp flight3 hrsfrom $709 Dog camp and walk3.5 hrsfrom $839

People 2

Total from$766

pp from $383

Check availabilityfree cancellation

GetYourGuide from-prices, converted with the ECB reference rate. The exact figure comes at checkout.

Video

A Coastal Helicopters walk on Herbert Glacier

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Coastal Helicopters and the Herbert Glacier

Coastal Helicopters in Juneau is the operator of the landing tour sold on this site. Its glacier is the Herbert: a flight of about 15 minutes each way and 20 to 25 minutes walking on the ice with the pilot as guide.¹⁴ On GetYourGuide the tour takes 2.5 hours with pickup, costs from $429, with a score of 4.90 across 49 reviews.

Coastal also flies to a summer dog camp on the Herbert Glacier and spends 1 hour there, with the sledding run by a third company, Alaska Icefield Expeditions.²³ ²⁴ It lists the safety standards it follows under the Tour Operators Program of Safety, among them a minimum en-route altitude of 500 feet above the ground.²⁵

For cruise guests, Coastal asks for a buffer of 45 minutes after your ship arrives and before it leaves.²⁶ It notes that many of its tours fly in the rain, and that in rare cases weather can hold passengers on the glacier for a while.²⁷ ²⁸ Pick it if you want a straightforward landing you can book online with free cancellation up to 3 days ahead.

NorthStar helicopter tours in Juneau

NorthStar helicopter tours in Juneau are built around time on the ice. The Helicopter Glacier Walkabout lands at a base camp on the Mendenhall and gives you about 1 hour on the glacier after roughly 30 minutes of flying.² ¹⁶ The trek doubles that to 2 hours, with crampons, a helmet and an ice axe from your guide.¹⁵ ²⁹

For the fittest, the Extended Trek is the most strenuous level, with 3 hours on the glacier.³ NorthStar runs most treks on the Mendenhall but holds permits for the Taku, Hole-in-the-Wall, Thiel, Gilkey, Norris, Battle and Herbert glaciers, and picks the location by weather and glacier conditions.³⁰ Its dog sledding runs at a camp on the Norris Glacier, about 35 km from Juneau.³¹

NorthStar asks cruise guests to book at least one hour after the ship arrives and to finish 45 minutes before it leaves.³² Its tours are booked direct, not on GetYourGuide. Pick it if you want the most time on the ice among the operators on this page, and if you are fit enough for uneven, slippery ground.

The floatplane alternative

Wings Airways is not a helicopter company, but it belongs on any shortlist. It flies classic de Havilland Otter floatplanes from the downtown seaplane base, and every seat is a window seat on its five-glacier route.³³ ³⁴ It is based in the blue Merchants Wharf at the head of the harbor in downtown Juneau.³⁵

The 5-glacier flight lasts 40 minutes and starts from $383, rated 4.95 from 19 reviews. The Taku Glacier Lodge flight adds a landing on the Taku River and a salmon meal, about 3 hours from $532. Both allow you to reserve now and pay later.

Choose the floatplane if you want to see as much ice as possible in a short time, or if a landing on the glacier itself is not important to you. Choose a helicopter if the moment you are paying for is stepping out onto the surface. Either way the icefield is the star, and it is the same icefield.

How to choose among them

Work backwards from your day. If you are on a cruise with a few hours in port, the shorter landings fit best, and the operators publish the buffers they want before your all-aboard time. If you have a free day in Juneau, a trek or a dog camp with a second landing becomes realistic. If you travel with young children, check the seat rules: on TEMSCO any child of 24 months or older needs a seat.³⁶

Then decide how you want to book. The Coastal landing and its dog camp flights are on GetYourGuide, with free cancellation up to 3 days ahead and pickup included. TEMSCO and NorthStar sell direct, each with its own terms. Neither route is better in itself; what matters is that the terms fit the risk of a cancelled port call or a weather day.

Finally, read recent reviews of the exact tour you pick, not of the company in general. A walk of 25 minutes and a trek of 2 hours are rated by different kinds of guests for different reasons.¹⁴ ¹⁵ Look for comments on the pilot's commentary, the time on the ice and how the day ran when the weather turned.

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