Booking
The season is short, the boardwalk at Spirit Island is small, and the middle sailings in July and August arrive at the same time as each other. Maligne Lake cruise tickets are not hard to get, but which sailing you get decides how the stop feels — so this is the page about timing rather than price.
Quick answer
Book Maligne Lake cruise tickets a few days ahead in July and August, and take the first sailing of the day. The season runs from about the beginning of June to early October. Sailings leave through the day from the boathouse at the north end of the lake, and the earliest one gets the quietest boardwalk and usually the stillest water. Most listings here are free to cancel up to 24 hours before.
How the day works
Transport first, then the earliest sailing, then an hour for the road — and a spare morning if the trip allows.
Decide the transport before the ticket. If you have a car, buy Maligne Lake cruise tickets on their own and drive up. If you do not, book a full day from Jasper — the sailing is included and so is the forty-eight-kilometre drive, and there is no public bus to fall back on.
Then pick the earliest sailing you can face. Boarding is at the boathouse and the queue for the first departure starts before it opens. It is worth it: the boardwalk holds one boat comfortably and two awkwardly, and at 10:00 in August there are several.
Leave an hour for the drive, and stop on the way. Maligne Canyon is fifteen minutes out of Jasper and Medicine Lake is halfway. If you have Maligne Lake cruise tickets for the first sailing, that means leaving town early — which is also when the wildlife is on the road.
And build in a spare morning if you can. Sailings run in rain, but smoke, wind or a closed road can move a day. Free cancellation to 24 hours makes that painless as long as there is another morning to move to.
Getting it right
Short, and each one comes from how these particular listings work.
The single most useful decision. Maligne Lake cruise tickets for 09:00 and for 13:00 cost the same and are not the same experience.
The standalone ticket does not include it. Every full day on this page does.
July and August fill, and the early sailings go first.
Weather and smoke can move a day, and a cancelled sailing needs somewhere to go.
One six-hour listing here has a lakeshore walk instead of a sailing. Maligne Lake cruise tickets are not included in it.
There is no mobile signal for most of the Maligne Valley Road.
The season is the constraint, not availability. From mid-October to late May the lake is frozen and there are no Maligne Lake cruise tickets to buy at any price.
When to go→Book direct
The sailing on its own, and the three full days that include it and the drive.
★ 4.7 · 1,211 reviews
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Common questions
Online through GetYourGuide — every listing on this site is sold there, most with free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
A few days in July and August. Outside high summer you can usually book the day before, but the first sailing always goes first.
Not the standalone ticket. The jetty is forty-eight kilometres up the valley and there is no bus, so if you have no car book a full day instead.
Often, outside high summer. In July and August the good sailings go early, and there is no reliable signal up the valley to book on arrival.
The first of the day. The boardwalk at Spirit Island is small and the water is usually stillest early.
Roughly the beginning of June to early October, depending on the ice. There is no winter sailing.
Go deeper
From $85 for the boat, and what the full days add.
The verdictThe cruise alone, or a day with it in the middle.
Spirit IslandFourteen kilometres up the lake, and no road or trail to it.
Getting thereForty-eight kilometres up the Maligne Valley, and no bus.
Ninety minutesNinety minutes on the water, and half a day in total.
ComparedFourteen kilometres each way, and why almost nobody paddles it.
Jasper National Park: Maligne Lake Cruise With Guide
★ 4.9 · 646 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h