Maligne Canyon3 hours
3 hJasper: Maligne Valley And Pleckatis Canyon Tour
★ 4.7 · 5 reviews
- Maligne Canyon on foot, three hours
- The gorge the lake drains into — frozen in winter
- Rated 4.7
- Small group
$65$0.36 / hour
Check availability→ Cost
Maligne Lake cruise price: all 12 trips compared
The boat itself is $85 and everything else on this page is either a day built around it or a different part of Jasper altogether. What the price on a listing really buys is not ninety minutes on the water — it is access to an island with no road and no trail, on a lake where private motorboats are not allowed.
Quick answer
The Maligne Lake cruise costs $85 a person for ninety minutes with a guide, and it does not include getting to the jetty. A full day from Jasper with the cruise in it runs $140 to $206, and the difference is transport up forty-eight kilometres of valley road plus wildlife stops. Everything above $293 on this page is somewhere else entirely.
Prices, at a glance
- Listings compared
- 12six on the lake, three on the Parkway, three elsewhere
- The cruise on its own
- $8590 minutes, 1,211 reviews at 4.7
- Cheapest full day with the cruise
- $140six hours, transport included
- Best-evidenced full day
- $169674 reviews at 4.8
- Longest day with the cruise
- $206eight and a half hours
- Cheapest thing on this page
- $58the SkyTram — not a boat trip
- Most reviewed
- $953,195 ratings, and not on this lake
- Most expensive
- $906fourteen hours, private, from Edmonton
- Reviews in total
- 7,618across every listing that carries a score
- Free cancellation
- Most listingsup to 24 hours before
Every trip, current fare
Every Maligne Lake cruise price, in one table
Twelve listings with the columns that decide it: what the trip actually is, how long it takes, and whether it reaches Spirit Island at all. Three of them never go near the lake, and we say so on the row.
| Trip | Length | Price | Where | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jasper SkyTram Roundtrip Flight TicketSeven minutes up Whistlers Mountain | Ticket | $58 | Around Jasper | $0.97 | 4.7 · 745 |
| Jasper: Maligne Valley And Pleckatis Canyon TourMaligne Canyon on foot | 3 h | $65 | Maligne Lake | $0.36 | 4.7 · 5 |
| Jasper National Park: Evening or Morning Wildlife Watch TourDawn or dusk in the valley | 3 h | $69 | Around Jasper | $0.38 | 4.6 · 1,089 |
| Jasper: Wildlife and Sightseeing Tour with Lakeshore HikeWildlife and a lakeshore walk — no boat | 6 h | $78 | Maligne Lake | $0.22 | 4.7 · 391 |
| Jasper National Park: Maligne Lake Cruise With GuideThe cruise itself, ninety minutes to Spirit Island | 90 min | $85 | Maligne Lake | $0.94 | 4.7 · 1,211 |
| Jasper: Columbia Icefield Skywalk and Ice Explorer TicketThe Athabasca Glacier and the Skywalk | Ticket | $95 | Icefields Parkway | $0.53 | 4.5 · 3,195 |
| Jasper: Maligne Valley Wildlife & Spirit Island CruiseThe Maligne Valley and the cruise together | 6 h | $140 | Maligne Lake | $0.39 | 4.7 · 253 |
| Jasper: Wildlife and Sightseeing Tour with Maligne CruiseThe best-evidenced full day here | 6 h | $169 | Maligne Lake | $0.47 | 4.8 · 674 |
| Columbia Icefield: Ice Odyssey Glacier ExperienceTwo hours on the Athabasca Glacier | 2 h | $202 | Icefields Parkway | $1.68 | 4.9 · 36 |
| Jasper: Sightseeing Tour with Maligne Lake CruiseThe longest day that includes Spirit Island | 8.5 h | $206 | Maligne Lake | $0.40 | 4.4 · 18 |
| Jasper: Columbia Icefield Parkway Tour to BanffThe Icefields Parkway, Jasper to Banff | 9-12 h | $293 | Icefields Parkway | $0.47 | 5 · 1 |
| From Edmonton: Jasper National Park Private Day TripPrivate, fourteen hours — the price anchor | 14 h | $906 | Around Jasper | $1.08 | New |
How the pricing works
Why a day costs twice what the boat costs
Transport up the valley, and what else the day contains. The boat is the same boat on all of them.
Two things, and the first is the one people miss when they compare listings.
Transport. The boathouse is forty-eight kilometres up the Maligne Valley Road from Jasper, about an hour with stops, and there is no public bus. The standalone Maligne Lake cruise price assumes you are driving yourself. Every full day on this page includes the vehicle, the driver and a guide watching the treeline for bears, and that is most of the difference.
What else is in the day. The six-hour trips add Maligne Canyon and Medicine Lake on the way up. The eight-and-a-half-hour one adds more of the park. The boat inside all of them is the same ninety-minute sailing to Spirit Island, on the same launches, with the same fifteen minutes on the boardwalk.
And what is not a lake trip at all. Three listings here — the SkyTram and the two Columbia Icefield trips — are elsewhere in Jasper National Park. They are on the page because people book them in the same week, and they are labelled on every card.
What you get for the money
What the ticket actually covers
Every sailing on this page includes the same core, and the differences are short.
- Ninety minutes on the water
About forty minutes down the lake, fifteen ashore at Spirit Island, and a faster run back.
- A guide, and commentary the whole way
On glacial geology, the Stoney Nakoda significance of the site, and the peaks closing in as you go south. It is most of what makes the sailing more than a transfer.
- An enclosed, heated launch
With windows that open. The lake sits at about 1,670 metres and the wind on the water is cold even in August.
- The boardwalk at Spirit Island
Which is the only place visitors may stand. Nobody lands on the island itself.
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours
Shown on most listings here, which matters on a lake where a smoky or stormy morning can change your plans.
- Not included: getting to the jetty
Unless you book one of the full days. The ticket covers the boat, and the road up is yours.
The cheapest number on this page is not a boat trip. The Jasper SkyTram at $58 is a cable car on the other side of the valley — a good couple of hours, and nothing to do with Spirit Island.
The rest of Jasper→Where the value is
The best and worst value on this page, honestly
The boat alone if you drive, the six-hour day if you do not, and check that the listing actually includes a sailing.
Best value overall: the cruise itself at $85. If you have a car, nothing else comes close. Ninety minutes, a guide, 1,211 ratings at 4.7, and the only permitted way to reach Spirit Island. Everything more expensive on this page is buying you a driver.
Best value without a car: $169 for the six-hour day. 674 ratings at 4.8, the highest score of any full day here, and it includes the road up the valley at the hour when the animals are out. Set against the Maligne Lake cruise price plus a rental car for the day, it is not expensive.
Worth knowing before you compare: $78 does not include the boat. It is a six-hour wildlife and sightseeing day with a lakeshore walk instead of a sailing. A good trip, and not what most people think they are booking.
Where the money stops buying the lake: above $206. The Icefields Parkway transfer and the private day are real trips and neither of them is a Maligne Lake cruise price. Read the row before you click.
Book direct
Every trip that reaches Maligne Lake
The six listings on the lake and in its valley, in the order we would show them to a friend: the cruise itself first, then the days built around it.
Lakeshore hikeNo cruise
6 hJasper: Wildlife and Sightseeing Tour with Lakeshore Hike
★ 4.7 · 391 reviews
- Wildlife, the valley and a lakeshore walk
- Six hours — but it does not include the boat
- 391 reviews at 4.7
- Free cancellation
$78$0.22 / hour
Check availability→ 
Our top pick1,211 reviews
90 minJasper National Park: Maligne Lake Cruise With Guide
★ 4.7 · 1,211 reviews
- Our top pick: the cruise itself, with a guide
- Ninety minutes to Spirit Island and back
- 1,211 reviews at 4.7
- Free cancellation
$85$0.94 / hour
Check availability→ 
Valley + cruiseSpirit Island
6 hJasper: Maligne Valley Wildlife & Spirit Island Cruise
★ 4.7 · 253 reviews
- The Maligne Valley and the cruise, together
- Six hours: wildlife, the canyon and Spirit Island
- 253 reviews at 4.7
- Free cancellation
$140$0.39 / hour
Check availability→ 
Wildlife + cruise674 reviews
6 hJasper: Wildlife and Sightseeing Tour with Maligne Cruise
★ 4.8 · 674 reviews
- The best-evidenced full day on this page
- Six hours of wildlife and sightseeing with the cruise
- 674 reviews at 4.8
- Free cancellation
$169$0.47 / hour
Check availability→ 
8.5 hoursSpirit Island
8.5 hJasper: Sightseeing Tour with Maligne Lake Cruise
★ 4.4 · 18 reviews
- Eight and a half hours, with the cruise at the centre
- The longest Jasper day that includes Spirit Island
- 18 reviews at 4.4
- Free cancellation
$206$0.40 / hour
Check availability→ Common questions
Prices, answered plainly
How much is the Maligne Lake cruise?
$85 a person for ninety minutes with a guide, to Spirit Island and back. It does not include transport to the jetty.
Why do the day tours cost twice as much?
Because they include the drive: forty-eight kilometres up the Maligne Valley Road from Jasper, with wildlife stops and often Maligne Canyon, plus a guide for the whole day. The sailing inside them is identical.
Is there a cheaper way to see Spirit Island?
Only paddling. It is fourteen kilometres each way by canoe or kayak, and private motorboats are not permitted on Maligne Lake.
Do children pay the same?
Operators set their own child rates and most list them on the booking page. The Maligne Lake cruise price shown here is the adult fare.
Are there hidden costs?
No. The price is per person and covers the sailing, the guide and the boardwalk stop. What it does not cover is park entry or the drive up.
Can I cancel if the weather looks poor?
Most listings here are free to cancel up to 24 hours before. Sailings do run in rain, so check with the operator before cancelling on a forecast alone.
Go deeper
More on Maligne Lake and Jasper
The verdict
Which trip is best
The cruise alone, or a day with it in the middle.
Spirit IslandSpirit Island
Fourteen kilometres up the lake, and no road or trail to it.
BookingTickets and booking
Sailing times, how far ahead to book, and what sells out.
Getting thereGetting there from Jasper
Forty-eight kilometres up the Maligne Valley, and no bus.
Ninety minutesHow long it takes
Ninety minutes on the water, and half a day in total.
ComparedCruise or canoe
Fourteen kilometres each way, and why almost nobody paddles it.
