The best scenic seaplane tours in America for an epic afternoon adventure
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Loading... - John Fraser
- 07 Jan 2022
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Being in a plane allows you to see a familiar city from a fresh perspective. And seaplane tours are also a great way to get airborne and have a mini-adventure near home if you don’t have the time or funds to travel overseas. Oh, and you don’t have to worry about lost bags or jet lag.
Flightseeing and single-day charter flights also offer options for fishing, picnicking, bear spotting, whale watching, even alligator viewing, and can take you to places inaccessible by roads. Some tours are just about sightseeing, while others drop you in the middle of remote wilderness areas for a bit of exploration on foot.
With tropical beaches to iconic landmarks, snow-capped mountains, and winding rivers, America is simply awesome from the air.
Seattle, Washington
Finger Lakes, New York
Juneau, Alaska
San Francisco, California
The Great Lakes, Michigan
Lake Gaston, Virginia
Florida
Lake Gaston, Virginia
Lake Vermillion, Minnesota
Seattle, Washington
There’s no shortage of stunning aerial views in Seattle, from the Space Needle to the city skyline and the distant majesty of Mount Rainier. To see all of those from a new perspective, consider taking a quick, budget-friendly flight around Seattle with Seattle Seaplanes, covering 31 miles. Tours are $120 per person and last around 20 minutes.
Or if you’re more of a foodie, grab some friends and pick a floatplane picnic tour with Northwest Floatplane Picnics, leaving from Seattle. You’ll fly for around 15 or 20 minutes to one of two coastal sites where a private chef will prepare a multi-course gourmet picnic featuring local foods from the Pacific Northwest like fresh-cracked Dungeness crab with citrus-garlic sauce and smoked salmon dip with toasted baguettes. Menus are totally customizable, and the seaplanes can seat up to nine guests.
How about a seaplane day trip combining whale watching and the best of Seattle’s surroundings? Whale-watching seaplane tours with San Juan Safaris take off from Lake Washington (around 20 minutes from downtown Seattle) and head towards the seaside village of Friday Harbor on San Juan island, taking in the city, the Olympus mountains, and Puget Sound on the way. From San Juan island, you’ll switch to a whale-watching tour boat to spot orcas and humpback whales. At close to $500 per person, it’s not a cheap day out, but it’ll definitely be a memorable one.
With multiple flights, stunning sights, and fine local food, it’s hard to find a city with better seaplane tour offerings than Seattle.
The Finger Lakes, New York
While New York City operates at warp speed, there are plenty of spots in the state far more low-key than the city that never sleeps. An easy place to head from the city is the Finger Lakes region, 250 miles northwest of the Big Apple. It’s a region known for waterfalls, fine wines, and the 11 lakes that give the region its moniker.
Lake Keuka is home to Finger Lakes Seaplanes, which offers 30- and 60-minute flights above the area, taking in lakes, long shorelines, expansive forests, dairy farms, and the historical town of Penn Yan. Fittingly, Lake Keuka is the birthplace of the floatplane, first flown in 1911 by local aviation legend Glenn Curtis. Glenn was also the first person to get a pilot license in America. Planes can hold a maximum of three guests, so it’s almost always a private tour.
Juneau, Alaska
From misty fjords and glaciers to ice fields and bears, Alaska has enough wilderness to wow anyone. After all, the whole of Alaska is pretty much wild. And with such limited access via roads or even on foot, plane travel is sometimes the only way to get between small towns and hotels. Because of the state’s massive size — it’s 663,000 square acres — viewing it from the air is the best way to see it. In a place where weather and isolation make it nearly impossible to service and maintain runways, the abundance of lakes and waterways make seaplanes the obvious choice, not only for sightseeing, but for regular transport, too.
It’s hard to visit Alaska and not see any wildlife, but to see the state’s grizzly bears, you need to head to certain specific areas — and having a plane within running distance probably isn’t a bad idea either. The Pack Creek Bear Tour from Alaska Seaplanes heads to the delightfully named Fortress Of The Bears. Trips run from Alaska’s capital (Juneau) between May and September and include about 30 minutes of flight time each way plus around five hours on the ground with a guide looking for bears. But it’s one of the pricier single-day seaplane tours in the area at around $850 per person, depending on the season.
If you’re after a quicker and cheaper flight with potentially less risk of coming up close to a grizzly, a scenic flight over the rugged peaks of the Juneau Glacier and Icefield is a great option. After taking off from the float pond at Juneau Airport, you’ll have 55 minutes of raw Alaskan wilderness beneath you. It’s far more affordable at around $300 per person with a minimum of two people. Read More…
