Nome Alaska
19
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Holland America Line (2 Cruises)
Lindblad Expeditions (5 Cruises)
National Geographic Resolution
5 Cruises
Frequently Asked Questions
By tender. Ships anchor offshore in the Bering Sea and expedition vessels ferry passengers in. Swell can cancel the landing: this is a call that is never fully guaranteed.
Yes, the town is small. Front Street runs along the shore with its saloons and stores, the Iditarod arch stands at its centre and the museum is minutes away. The tundra sites, however, need a vehicle and a guide.
Front Street and the Iditarod arch, the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum for the gold rush story, then a guided run along the gravel roads for musk oxen, rusting dredges and the Last Train to Nowhere.
Yes. Recreational gold panning remains open to all, and it is not unusual to see someone with shovel and pan facing the Bering Sea. It is the last living echo of the 1898 rush, when tens of thousands of prospectors landed on this treeless shore.
The finish line of the legendary sled dog race that leaves Anchorage each March and covers more than 1,500 kilometres of trail. The burled spruce arch stands in the middle of Front Street year-round and remains the most photographed landmark in the area.
Three steam locomotives abandoned in the vegetation since an Arctic railway failed more than a century ago. Gravel-road excursions pass close by, as they do the huge bucket dredges rusting among the ponds.
Musk oxen sometimes grazing at the roadside, reindeer, foxes and remarkable birdlife: loons, snow buntings, occasionally a snowy owl. Go out with a guide to improve your odds, since the animals are on the tundra rather than in town.
No. Three roads run inland but never join the Alaska highway network. All supplies arrive by sea or air, and that isolation explains much of the community's character.
Late June to early September, when the Bering Sea is ice-free. Late August turns the hills golden and shows the tundra at its best. Outside that window, no expedition ship calls here.
It is the majority here and gives the call its human dimension. Drum dances, bowhead whaling stories and walrus ivory carved with skill passed down through generations: these encounters often stay with passengers longer than the gold rush relics.
