North Pole Experience in Flagstaff. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….. wait.. but it’s months away!! Seriously though! Tickets are on sale NOW for some of the best holiday experiences our state has to offer and one of those experiences is the North Pole Experience in Flagstaff!
This will be season 14 and what better way is there to celebrate the joys behind Christmas than visiting where the magic begins- the North Pole! This walk-through, guided experience includes helping the elves with prepping toys for delivery, stopping for a snack and song at Mrs. Claus’s bakery, visiting “Elf University”, writing a letter to Santa, and seeing Santa’s sleigh being prepared, and then finally meeting Santa Claus himself.
The experience starts off at the Little America Hotel where you get to take a magical shuttle through a portal and end up with an awesome guided tour of the “North Pole.” The magical shuttle is a decorated charter bus with darkened windows and it’s about a 15-20 minute drive to the North Pole set-up.
After the tour (which is probably about 45 mins to an hour), there is a ride back to the hotel, so the experience is about an hour and 40 minutes total. Tickets are limited and do sell out, so be sure to book now!
The season starts November 11th and runs until Christmas Eve. Tickets range from $48-$65 for adults (cheaper for day tickets or tickets in November) and $42-$58 for children. Children under 18 months are free but do not receive a 2022 collectible teddy bear given by Santa, which all children receive at the end of the tour. There aren’t normally any promos that run for this occasion, but you can do a 2-month layaway purchase (no fees) if you book by 08/31! Buy your tickets here!
My recommendation is to take children aged 3-10. I think younger children might not quite understand. My kids were 4 & 7 last year, and it was a perfect age! We are going again this year as well! I promise your kids will love it! This means they probably will talk about the milk and cookies with Mrs. Claus all year long and ask when they get to go back!
We chose to go with matching pajamas, similar to how we’ve dressed on the Polar Express, but many people just dressed in normal, or Christmas-themed clothing.
For our visits to the North Pole Experience, our family goes with the lodging and breakfast package, wich includes, a one-night stay at the Little America Hotel and the very popular Breakfast with Santa buffet. The buffet or room only can be purchased separately though at this site here.
The breakfast buffet includes all the favorites in Little America’s Ballroom and you can go anytime between 7-11am the morning of your breakfast! Santa is normally available the entire time, so whenever the line isn’t too long, just take an eating break and make a visit to see him! The Little America Hotel is always a fun and spacious place to stay. The grounds are very pretty and we love just being in a setting that is a bit more “winter” than down here in the valley!
We love to make this a fun weekend! We just settle in, enjoy an afternoon trip to the North Pole and then eat dinner at the hotel (always the spaghetti) and have breakfast with Santa in the morning! My only complaint is that the discounted room for NPX guests at Little America is only available for one night and the rates are quite high during this time of time- I would rather stay two nights to really settle in, but we’ve just stayed at the many other great Flagstaff hotels if we want to stay more than one night!
There are many of other places to stay and things to do in Flagstaff- for a list, check out this post.
It’s a great AZ experience not to miss and add to your list of holiday traditions! If you have any questions, let us know!
North Pole Experience
at the Little America Hotel
2515 E Butler Avenue
Flagstaff, AZ 86004
