Looking to see a wide range of Alaska’s most famous wilderness areas in a single trip? A “cruisetour” organized by Princess Cruises could be the answer.
The California-based cruise company has long been the leader in Alaska cruisetours, which pair a cruise along the state’s southeastern coast with overland touring into its rugged interior. Princess is also particularly known for its longer itineraries that take you to many of Alaska’s most iconic places in a single, easy-to-arrange trip.
Among a whopping 28 different Alaska cruisetour itineraries that Princess offers in Alaska (more than any other company), for instance, are several truly epic options up to 17 nights in length that include visits to not just Denali National Park and Glacier Bay National Park, but also at least one and sometimes two more major national parks.
These include Kenai Fjords National Park, home to one of North America’s most spectacular ice fields and glacier-carved fjords, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest national park in the United States.
Princess owns its own lodges and other infrastructure at all these national park destinations — something no other tour company can say. Princess also owns its own fleet of glass-domed Princess rail cars and Princess Tours motorcoaches to get you from place to place.
Here, a look at three of the most epic Princess cruisetours that will get you into the Alaska wilderness with multiple national park visits. And for a deeper dive into all 28 cruisetour itineraries that Princess offers in the state, which range in length from 10 to 17 nights, see our related guide to Princess cruisetours in Alaska.
3 major national parks, including Kenai Fjords
Tour name: 15-day Connoisseur Escorted Tour
Denali National Park and Preserve is probably Alaska’s most well-known national park, but don’t overlook the lesser-visited Kenai Fjords National Park.
Located south of Anchorage on Alaska’s stunning Kenai Peninsula, the giant park (nearly as big as Rhode Island) is a major hub for outdoorsy pursuits, as is the entire Kenai Peninsula — and it plays a big role in this Princess tour.
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Tourgoers will spend three full nights near the park at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge, allowing plenty of time for exploring in and around Kenai Fjords National Park.
Home to the massive Harding Icefield, one of the largest ice fields in the U.S., and numerous glacier-carved fjords, the park itself offers visitors the chance to see a glacier up close, either on foot or via a boat tour, kayaking or flightseeing. Visitors can spot wildlife like Steller sea lions, puffins, Dall’s porpoises, American black bears, snowshoe hares, mountain goats and humpback whales.
Other popular activities include world-famous salmon fishing and scenic float trips on the Kenai River, which flows 75 miles from Cooper Landing (where the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge is) to Cook Inlet. There’s also hiking on trails near the lodge’s front door.
This tour pairs a three-night stay at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge with a three-night stay at Princess-owned lodging in the Denali National Park area and a two-night stay in Fairbanks, Alaska. Princess combines this eight-night overland tour with a seven-night cruise along the Southeast Alaska coast for an epic 15-night adventure.
On the cruise portion of the trip, you will experience Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, a third major national park.
The details: For 2026, Princess offers 17 departures of the 15-Day Connoisseur Escorted Tour with fares starting at $7,576 per person, based on double occupancy. Such pricing is based on staying in a windowless “inside” cabin on the cruise portion of the trip. Rates for cabins with windows and balconies start at $7,575 and $8,836 per person, respectively.
3 major national parks, including Wrangell-St. Elias
Tour name: 13-day Connoisseur Escorted Tour
Quick, can you name the largest national park in the United States? If you said Yellowstone National Park or Grand Canyon National Park, you’d be wrong by a big factor.
By far, the biggest national park in the United States is one you may not even know: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It measures more than 20,000 square miles — about six and 10 times the size of Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, respectively.
Located in south-central Alaska, the park is relatively unknown because of its remoteness. It draws fewer than 100,000 visitors a year. But seeing it, albeit briefly, is a key part of this unusual Princess tour.
The 13-day trip includes an overnight stay at the Princess-owned Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge, on the Copper River, just down the road from the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park visitor center.
Home to just 85 rooms, the lodge offers spectacular vistas of the Wrangell mountain range, which is at the core of the park, and also overlooks one of Alaska’s most famous human-made features: the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
For visitors, it serves as a base for hiking, salmon fishing, all-terrain-vehicle touring, rafting trips, jet boat tours, coastal kayaking, glacier-viewing boat tours and even a visit to the ghost town of Kennicott (a former mining camp).
In addition to the overnight at Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge, the land portion of this tour includes a four-night stay at Princess-owned lodging in the Denali National Park area and an overnight visit to Fairbanks, Alaska. This six-night overland tour is also paired with a seven-night cruise along the Southeast Alaska coast.
As with the 15-night tour mentioned above, the cruise portion will allow you to experience a third major national park, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.
The details: For 2026, Princess offers eight departures of the 13-Day Connoisseur Escorted Tour with fares starting at $6,501 per person, based on double occupancy. Such pricing is based on staying in a windowless “inside” cabin on the cruise portion of the trip. Rates for cabins with windows and balconies start at $6,771 and $7,704 per person, respectively.
4 major national parks
Tour name: 17-day Connoisseur Escorted Tour
If you want to go to both Kenai Fjords National Park and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on a single tour, consider this 17-day Princess journey.
This Alaska tour — the longest Princess offers — includes two nights at Princess lodges at each of those parks, two nights each at its two Denali-area lodges (the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge), and two nights at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. This 10-night overland tour is also paired with a seven-night cruise along the Southeast Alaska coast.
For those counting, that’s two full nights in each of Princess’s five lodges in Alaska. It will also take you to four of Alaska’s eight national parks: Denali, Kenai Fjords, Wrangell-St. Elias and Glacier Bay (the latter during the cruise portion of the trip).
Given that the cruise portion of the trip also includes a stop at the historic gold rush town of Skagway, Alaska, a significant portion of which is part of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, you’ll likely experience five national park sites on this trip.
You can take this vacation two ways: going on the overland tour or the cruise portion first.
If you choose the cruise portion first, you will experience one slight variation. Your ship will visit the glacier area of College Fjord instead of Hubbard Glacier (both are great for glacier viewing).
The details: For 2026, Princess is offering 17 departures of the overland tour-first version of this 17-Day Connoisseur Escorted Tour and nine departures of the cruise-first version of the trip. Fares start at $9,157 per person, based on double occupancy, for the overland tour-first version. Fares start at $8,126 per person, based on double occupancy, for the cruise-first version.
Bottom line
Princess Cruises is particularly known for long tours of Alaska that combine cruise travel and overland travel to bring tourgoers to some of the state’s most famous wilderness areas. If you’re looking for a single trip that can get you to iconic Alaska destinations like Denali National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, a Princess cruisetour can be a great choice.
