Costal icefield excursion vs. adventure tour

[mom0f3]

Hi. Our family will be traveling on RCI in mid-August, and are planning to book a helicopter tour with a glacier landing from Juneau. Costal has gotten good reviews, and seems more reasonably priced than some. Our dilemma is which tour to book. The adventure tour is $130 more than the icefield excursion ($360/person vs. $229). With five of us, that adds up. Both seem to feature a glacier landing. In fact, the only difference I seem to see is that the adventure tour is 1.5 hours vs. 1 hour for the icefield excursion. More than $600 difference for an extra half hour of flight time might not be worth it -- but I'd love to hear from someone who has done (or researched) these tours. Am I missing something? Would one hour be too brief to really enjoy? Thanks!

[ptbooth]

We took the Adventure tour. We flew over Eagle glacier for amazing views and out over the water, and then landed on Herbert glacier. It was truly amazing, and my favorite excursion of the whole trip. I would guess that the shorter tour just lands on one glacier with less flying around. I'm sure it would still be a wonderful experience, just less air time. You wouldn't be disappointed with either, so I would say spend whatever you're comfortable spending for this perhaps once-in-a-lifetime trip. I splurged since it was likely my 75 y/o dad's only trip to Alaska.

[twoboys]

We are a family of 5 (mom, dad, 2 boys and grandma) and we will be on the Golden Princess at the end of August. I agonized and obsessed about which helicopter tour to do. We eventually opted for the Level 2 Glacier Trek with Northstar. Check it out. They have great reviews and rather than it just being a landing on a glacier, they outfit you to hike. The photos look amazing and we have 2 hours on the glacier. Its pricey but since we are from NY, we will not be getting back to Alaska so quickly and I REALLY wanted to do things we could not do anywhere else. And that is trekking on a glacier. Good luck!

[Budget Queen]

Don't they both have a glacier landing?? Usually the longer tours have two landings. If the extra costs cut into your touring budget, definately go with the cheaper tour. Varied Alaska touring adventures is what I advocate. :)

 

I have gone on one double landing trip out of 6. All were fantastic.