Icy Strait Point Adventure Center

When you want an immersive experience in Native culture and the best in Alaskan adventures, there’s only one place you need to go—Icy Strait Point Adventure Center.

As Alaska’s only privately owned cruise ship destination, Icy Strait Point Adventure Center is located on Chichagof Island in the village of Hoonah. Offering museums, hiking trails, a beach, and 20+ different adventures and tours, it is a one-stop destination for experiencing the best that Alaska has to offer.

About the Icy Strait Point Adventure Center

Icy Strait Point is a destination center that is owned and operated by Alaska Natives, and all of the profits from the Center support the primarily-Native village of Hoonah. The Native corporation that owns the destination had the goal of preserving Indigenous culture, while still helping to provide financially for the local village.

While the majority of tours and adventures available here are only able to be booked through cruise ships and independent tour providers like us, the Adventure Center is also open to the public with limited-availability tour tickets.

Visiting the Icy Strait Point Adventure Center

Icy Strait Point is only open for business when a ship is in port, and as a cruise destination, it’s important to plan ahead to book a tour. All guests are encouraged to book tours directly through their cruise line or independent excursion provider, although some adventures can be booked by independent travelers through the Adventure Center’s website.

The Icy Strait Point Premiere Whale Watching Touris our most popular tour here.

History

The Huna Totem Corporation, owned by 1,350 Native Alaskans, owns and operates the Icy Strait Point Adventure Center. About 85% of the Center’s mostly-Native workforce consists of local people who live in Hoonah—Alaska’s largest Native Tlingit village.

The Hoonah Packing Company built the first cannery of the area in 1912. The cannery went out of operation in 1953, and it was used as a storage facility until the Huna Totem Corporation purchased it in the 1990s. Now, the building is restored and opened as a museum at the Icy Strait Point Adventure Center.

Interesting Facts

There are countless ways to have an experience of a lifetime when visiting the Icy Strait Point Adventure Center. The 20+ tours range from low-key seafood tasting to strenuous hiking and boating tours, and thousands of people every year come for the unique adventures you can’t find anywhere else in the state.

• The groundbreaking ceremony for Icy Strait Point was held in 2001, and the first port of call by Celebrity Mercury happed at the center in 2004.
• With the area as home to 3,500+ coastal brown bears, visitors can book a tour along the Spasski River Valley in hopes of seeing bears and other native wildlife in their natural habitat.
• Whale-watching is a top attraction at Icy Strait Point! With guaranteed sightings, boat tours are available where you can see the largest summer population of humpback whales in Alaska, along with orcas, sea lions, and porpoises.
• Icy Strait Point boasts the world’s largest zip line. ZipRider consists of six ziplines starting at a 5,330-foot elevation that soars riders 300 feet above the rainforest at speeds up to 60 mph.
• Seafood harvested locally can be enjoyed at hands-on tasting sessions where lucky visitors can watch expert demonstrations and try their own hand at cooking some of the best Alaskan seafood.

Points of Interest

Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists travel to Alaska for adventures that can’t be found anywhere else on Earth. The Icy Strait Point Adventure Center is a one-stop shop for adventure-seekers, and it remains one of the top cruise ship ports of the state.

View all of our Icy Strait Point tours and things to do in Icy Strait Point.