Exploring The Hotel Alyeska and Aerial Tramway in Girdwood, Alaska

Ride the Aerial Tramway at The Hotel Alyeska in Girdwood for spectacular mountain views!

One of our last stops in Alaska was Girdwood, and it was a beautifully cool and foggy day! 

We spent one of our final nights exploring Alaska at The Hotel Alyeska, and we had a wonderful time riding the Aerial Tramway all the way up to the Seven Glaciers Restaurant to check out the views. The tram was one of my favorite experiences from my recent trip out to Alaska. The reason being that I am afraid of heights and really have to push my limits and leave my comfort zone anytime I get into a tram/sky train/ski lift, and I take pleasure in pushing myself to do things that make me uncomfortable. 


I'm not going to lie to you--I have had Final Destination-like thoughts anytime I think about ski lifts and ski tramways, so naturally when I realized I'd need to take a tram all the way to the top to see what I wanted to see I was really nervous. But to my surprise, the tram ride itself was really smooth! Only one spot along the 5-minute tram ride up did the tram actually bounce and sway back and forth, and this was the part along the route where the tram moved past another pole (and our supervisor in the tram gave us a little warning so we knew it was coming). 

Prior to our tram ride, we explored the grounds of The Hotel Alyeska and admired the views. Everything was so vibrant with plants and flowers, and the gardens were really well kept. There were so many beautiful flowers to check out while we were waiting until we could board our tram, and we really liked that all of the flowers were labeled so we could see what kind of variety they were. 

Once it was time to board our tram, we walked a few minutes over to the station platform and climbed the stairs up to the loading area. We were greeted by a tramway employee, got onto the tram, and waited for everyone else to board. There was room for about 10-15 people on the actual tram, and although I felt cramped because I was already nervous about the ride up any other person would say that there was definitely a good amount of room for everyone.

The ride up the tram felt like an eternity to me. I was so nervous going up along the mountain. But the views, the views from the top made it worth it!

When we first arrived at The Hotel Alyeska, I was really bummed that it was foggy. But in all honesty, I think we got a better deal with it being foggy because the fog was really beautiful and I enjoyed watching it climb up the mountain and move faster towards the inlet. Foggy views are few and far between in Phoenix, so I really enjoyed the change of scenery! I mean, just look at how cool the fog looked with the tramway and the mountain!

After we spent some time admiring all of the gorgeous views from the top, we stopped into Seven Glaciers Restaurant for some food and then made our journey back down to our room at The Hotel Alyeska (the ride down was way easier for me--I was barely nervous at all!) 

The lobby at The Hotel Alyeska is so unique and really authentic to what I think of when I picture Alaska. We really enjoyed all of the artwork all throughout the hotel, but my favorite thing in the whole place was the lobby. The Northern Lights ceiling with the mountains covered in termination dust looked absolutely beautiful!

Are you headed to Girdwood, Alaska? Check out The Hotel Alyeska!

Love Snapchat? Me too!

@ OurMiniFamily

Get a behind-the-scenes look!

Follow us on Pinterest for more inspiration!

Thanks to The Hotel Alyeska for our travel accommodations! I received these travel  accommodations in exchange for an unbiased article about my experiences. All opinions expressed are mine.