Originally Posted by drseagrass

My inclination would be to do a relatively short northern lights trip separately. October is better for seeing the northern lights, but you are right, many seasonal attractions are closed and the first snows of the season make for much more challenging driving. It is difficult to enjoy Alaska in both comfortable weather and also see the northern lights. I would embrace the winter, including the dark nights between November and February when many of the Japanese and Chinese visitors come to specifically see the northern lights, and some of the hotels in Fairbanks specialize in that. There are a lot of winter sports activities that are possible too around town---dog mushing, crosscountry skiing, etc. Of course there are many other places around the Arctic Circle that are also good bets for northern lights that you could fly into with their own local attractions such as Akureyri in Iceland, Kiruna in Sweden, or Tromso in Norway.