Barrow Transportation Tips by Stephen-KarenConn Top 5 Page for this destination

Will Rogers - Wiley Post Memorial Airport

No roads led to Barrow. Water transportation is limited to a few weeks when the ice receeds on the Arctic Ocean during the short summer. Therefore, air is the only practical way for most people to reach Barrow. The airport is within easy walking distance of all three downtown hotels.

Alaska Airlines provides two flights daily to Barrow from Fairbanks, 450 air miles to the south. Flight time is about an hour and fifteen minutes by modern jet. Flights are occasionally cancelled by the Arctic weather, including dense fogs in summer.

The Will Rogers - Wiley Post Memorial Airport is named for both the famous humorist and the renowned aviator who crashed and were killed 11 miles west of Barrow in 1935. Many small airplanes connect Barrow with outlying villages on Alaska's North Slope.

I was also interested to learn that the airport in Barrow was manufactured in the deep south, Eufaula, Alabama, and shipped to Barrow where it was erected on site.

Mode: TO

Phone: 907-852-6199

Type: Airplane

Top of the World Tundra Tours

For the average person the most practical, and least expensive, way to see Barrow is to take one of the tours offered through Alaska Airlines from either Anchorage or Fairbanks. Either a day tour or overnight tours are available.

Upon arrival in Barrow you will be greeted by your tour guide/driver who will take you on a bus, like the one shown, to see the sights of Barrow and environs. On your tour you may:

* See snowy owls, eider ducks and others of the 230 bird species who summer here.
* Touch the Arctic Ocean; walk on tundra and permafrost.
* Stand in a whale bone arch and inside the skeletal jaws of a bowhead whale.
* See the original village site mounds, which date back to 1,200 A.D.
* Experience and take part in traditional Inupiat dancing and see other demonstrations including a blanket toss.
* Have time on your own for lunch and shopping.
* And much more. To put all the components of this tour together on your own would be very difficult and the cost would be much higher.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Bus

Website: http://www.alaskaair.com