Aurora Borealis Viewing. Fairbanks sits directly under the Auroral Oval, giving it one of the highest aurora-sighting rates on Earth — roughly eight of every ten clear nights during aurora season (August 21 to April 21). Visitors who stay three or more nights have a greater than 90% chance of witnessing curtains of green, teal, and purple…
Chena Hot Springs Resort & Aurora Ice Museum. About 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks, this year-round resort lets you soak in mineral-rich geothermal pools under the open sky and then step inside the Aurora Ice Museum — the world's largest year-round ice environment, kept at a permanent 25°F with chandeliers and sculptures crafted by world-champion ice carvers.…
University of Alaska Museum of the North. This striking wave-shaped building on the UAF campus houses Alaska's largest gold display, an Ice Age steppe bison mummy (the only one in the world that has been restored), and the immersive sound-and-light installation 'The Place Where You Go to Listen,' which responds in real time to aurora activity, earthquakes,…
Riverboat Discovery. Since 1950, the Binkley family has guided visitors aboard the sternwheeler Discovery III on a three-and-a-half-hour narrated cruise along the Chena and Tanana Rivers, featuring a live bush-plane demonstration, a sled-dog demo, and a walking tour of a Chena Athabascan Indian Village where Native guides share…
World Ice Art Championships. Every February and March, Fairbanks hosts the largest ice-sculpting competition in the world, drawing over 100 carvers from roughly 30 countries to the Tanana Valley State Fairgrounds. The multi-week festival fills acres with single-block masterpieces and elaborate multi-block constructions that glow under…
Pioneer Park. A free 44-acre historical theme park on the banks of the Chena River, Pioneer Park preserves relocated log cabins, a sternwheeler, railroad displays, and museums covering Fairbanks aviation and gold-rush history. A vintage carousel and a narrow-gauge train encircling the grounds make it a perennial family favorite on…
Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. This 2,200-acre urban wildlife sanctuary — a former dairy farm saved by community action in the 1960s — draws tens of thousands of sandhill cranes, swans, Canada geese, and over 100 other bird species during spring and fall migrations. A three-mile trail network through boreal forest and wetlands also turns up moose,…
Midnight Sun Season & Baseball Game. From late April through late August, Fairbanks basks in near-perpetual daylight, culminating in the famous Midnight Sun Baseball Game played every summer solstice without any artificial lighting — a tradition dating to 1906. The free, 12-hour Midnight Sun Festival (Alaska's largest single-day street fair) fills…