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Anchorage

Where Alaska's Urban and Wild Worlds Meet

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Lisa Maloney|May 1, 2025

Although Anchorage sits on the shores of Alaska's Turnagain Arm, everyday life is dominated more by the Chugach Mountains on the horizon and a casual, practical-minded "live and let live" vibe.

Once a gritty railroad town centered around Ship Creek, which runs straight through downtown, Anchorage has blossomed into Alaska's closest thing to an urban metropolis. Here, denizens of the downtown business district circulate next to bustling weekend markets and eager attendees line up at the city's three-stage performing arts center, all while recreational fishermen pull salmon out of the water. In Anchorage, Carhartts and jeans hold court right next to evening gowns and tuxedos at the city's finest events.

Massive tracts of green space and a hearty trail system make for a seamless transition from Anchorage proper to the Anchorage municipality, or borough (the Alaskan equivalent of a county). All told, the municipality measures over 2,000 square miles — larger than the state of Rhode Island — and contains exactly the sort of glaciers, wilderness, and wildlife that people dream of when they hear the word "Alaska."

You could easily spend a week here without running out of things to do; it's so much more than a stopover after a cruise or on your way to Denali National Park.

Destination Highlights

All the city amenities you could want, minutes away from the wilderness.
Art galleries, museums, theater, and a heritage center that teaches about and helps to perpetuate Indigenous cultures from all over the state.
An incredibly diverse population, with more than 100 languages spoken in homes across the city.
A wealth of dining options, including creative takes on some of the freshest seafood you'll ever have.
Sightings of moose, bears, eagles, and other wildlife in and around the city.
Glaciers, whale watching, dog sledding, sea kayaking, world-class hiking, salmon fishing, and flightseeing either right in town or within an easy drive.
When winter skies are clear, the opportunity to see the northern lights between mid-August and April.

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Lexi Trainer

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Frank Flavin

Population Facts

With 286,000 residents, Anchorage holds about 40 percent of Alaska's entire population. Around 300-400 bears and 1,600 moose live here, too.

Cultural Exploration

Anchorage bustles with art, creativity, and individuality, best expressed through the wealth of artist galleries, large and small, scattered all over town — congregating most densely downtown. National theater and music artists perform at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, while local music — from jazz to Irish and rock — thrives in smaller venues. The city's two biggest festivals take place in winter: Fun, kitschy Fur Rendezvous with its sled dog races, snow sculptures, and over-the-top melodrama, followed by the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. There's a big celebration on the summer solstice, too.

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Wayde Carroll

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Wayde Carroll

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Photo: Visit Anchorage/Juno Kim

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Kerry Tasker

Alaska Center for the Performing Arts-16-

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Wayde Carroll

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Roy Neese

The Anchorage Museum houses a Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and a planetarium, and strives to paint a nuanced, responsible portrait of Alaska's history, incorporating a variety of voices and perspectives. Meanwhile, the Alaska Native Heritage Center is an unparalleled opportunity to learn about Indigenous cultures from all over Alaska and the varied technologies and cultural practices — from masterful carving and weaving to fully watertight watercraft that flex with the waves — that help them thrive in such varied, challenging environments. The city has also embraced an Indigenous Place Names project to recognize the Dena'ina (the area's original inhabitants) names for important sites around town.

Local Food and Drink

Salmon and halibut are, without a doubt, the most iconic foods in Anchorage (as well as throughout Alaska) — although if any one dish has reached true icon status it's the sockeye salmon, whose firm, meaty, bright red fillets appear on menus all over the city during fall and summer, gentled by a lemon butter sauce or made fierce by blackened spice blends. Every so often the rich, buttery texture of king salmon takes its place; ask a dozen Alaskans, and you'll receive at least 20 different opinions on which fish is best.

No meal in Alaska would be complete without a drink, and most restaurants either brew their own beers or serve local drafts. If you're willing to dig you'll find some wildly creative options, from barley wines at Midnight Sun Brewing Co. to hard ciders from Double Shovel Cider Co. and alcoholic kombucha from the Zip Kombucha taproom. Mocktails are just starting to pop up here with some regularity; The Writer's Block, a bookstore/cafe, offers some of the best.

Crab is King

Crab legs are harder to find than they used to be due to declines in the fisheries, but still crop up as side dishes and main courses at establishments that serve heartier food, like Simon & Seaforts, Glacier Brewhouse, and 49th State Brewing Company.

They'll arrive piled on a plate or in a basket, still steaming, with a butter dipping sauce and an array of what look like tiny carpenter tools to help you extract the meat from the shell.

Photo: Visit Anchorage/JodyO.Photos

Where to Eat

In Anchorage, you can find a bit of almost any type of food you might want, from Filipino cuisine to Hawaiian-style plate lunch and Vietnamese phở. Particular standouts include dim sum at Hong King Spirit Food, unforgettable "kimchiritos" at Korean/Mexican fusion restaurant Seoul Casa, and Ethiopian injera (fermented flatbread) at the cozy, universally beloved Queen of Sheba.

Downtown, meanwhile, is the domain of established icons: For breakfast, the "Kodiak Benedict" with crab at Snow City Cafe dukes it out for the top spot with hearty baked goods and savory soups from Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop.

For lunch or dinner, the distinguished Simon & Seafort's, famous for its grilled halibut cheeks, sits right next to the funky little food truck El Green-Go's, which dispenses brisket tacos to die for.

49th State Brewing Company serves brewpub-style food with great views from its rooftop deck, and for a touch of sunshine no matter the weather, cheerful Palmeira Tropical Fusion dishes out exactly what the name suggests.

New on the scene in 2025, Crimson — part of the Wildbirch Hotel — will serve salmon, halibut, and other Alaskan staples with a Pan-American Latin twist, while the lofty Crow's Nest in the nautical-themed Captain Cook Hotel offers a fine dining experience with 360-degree views over the city.

Wildlife Viewing

Anchorage is so wonderfully rich in green spaces that hundreds of bears and moose live in town, right alongside we humans and smaller wildlife like lynx, foxes, and songbirds. Urban wildlife can be elusive, though, so for guaranteed sightings, visit the nearby Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. You can also head to Kincaid Park to look for moose, or take binoculars to the Glen Alps Trailhead in Chugach State Park and scan the valley below Powerline Pass for moose and sometimes bears, too.

Although the Chugach Mountains that surround Anchorage appear lush and green during the summer, they dazzle during autumn, bedecked with splashes of bright red, orange, and yellow foliage from tiny tundra plants. Once fall arrives, always remember to look up: You might just see the northern lights dancing in the night sky above you. Point Woronzof is a good place for viewing the lights when they're "on."

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Juno Kim

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Roy Neese

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Donna Dewhurst

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Photo: Visit Anchorage/Donna Dewhurst

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Carl Johnson

Prime Aurora Viewing

The colors of the northern lights often look brighter in photos than they do to the naked eye. But the very brightest displays will still show their full red, green, and pink glory without the aid of a camera. In 2025, the aurora is extra spectacular due to the solar maximum, or peak in the 11-year cycle of solar activity that generates the lights.

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Photo: Visit Anchorage/JodyO.Photo

Outdoor Adventure

Anchorage is a hiking paradise, with dozens of trails in 495,000-acre Chugach State Park, right on the fringe of the city. Most of these hikes go at least partway up at least one mountain, with correspondingly brilliant views. For gentler hiking options, turn to the more than 250 miles of trails and greenbelts in Anchorage's urban core, including enough paved multiuse trails that, with just a little judicious road biking, you can cycle a 32-mile loop that draws the shape of a moose head on your GPS tracker.

Mountain biking is allowed on a limited selection of Chugach State Park trails, but there are miles of thrilling, winding mountain bike trails in Anchorage's brushy, forested Kincaid Park and Hillside trail systems. Those trails twine together with unpaved multiuse paths that, come winter, transfer into world-class cross-country ski trails. Anchorage even has its own ski hill, Hilltop, with more skiing at Alyeska Resort, south of town, and community-minded Arctic Valley to the north.

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Nathaniel Wilder

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Wayde Carroll

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Nathaniel Wilder

Photo: Visit Anchorage/JodyO.Photos

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Ralph Kristopher

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Ralph Kristopher

Urban Mushing

New in 2025, you can go dogsledding right in the heart of Anchorage with Dogsled Alaska, which offers opportunities to cuddle sled dog puppies and ride in dog-drawn wheeled carts, guided by a member of the mushing-legend Redington family.

Summer Dog Sled Adventures Savanah Evans

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Savanah Evans

Other Activities

The roughly 40-mile drive south from Anchorage to the small town of Girdwood offers second-to-none coastal scenery. Once there, you could easily spend all day enjoying lift-assisted skiing, snowboarding, or mountain biking at Alyeska Resort, depending on the season. The four-star hotel also offers hiking trails, a pair of lofty, guided-access-only sky bridges, several restaurants, and a luxurious Nordic spa.

You can also try gold-panning at Crow Creek Mine in Girdwood — or keep driving another 20-some miles down the highway, through a long tunnel and on to the charming, tiny coastal town of Whittier, which offers unusual adventures like jet skiing to see glaciers.

You can also head north for world-class hiking in Hatcher Pass, stepping straight out of your car into the tundra; or make the roughly two-hour drive for guided hiking and ice climbing on Matanuska Glacier. Fall visitors can try their hands at picking wild blueberries at Arctic Valley, a community-centered ski hill that transforms into a hiking paradise and berry-picking mecca in the off season.

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Photo: Visit Anchorage/Ralph Kristopher

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Roy Neese

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Kristian Irey

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Donna Dewhurst

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Ralph Kristopher

Photo: Visit Anchorage/JodyO.Photos

Tidal Surfing

Turnagain Arm — the water just outside Anchorage — has the second-highest tidal differential in North America, which can generate impressive tidal bores. When the standing wave of a bore tide is particularly good, some hardy locals turn out to surf it.

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Wayde Carroll

Where to Stay

Anchorage's walkable downtown remains the heart of the visitor experience — and your best selection of hotels. Some of the budget-friendliest options include the cozy, boutique Copper Whale Inn — a persistent favorite on city "best of" lists — and the Historic Anchorage Hotel, which still retains a touch of old-world glory and corridors full of ghosts... or so some say. The friendly, ultra-outdoorsy Base Camp Hostel in midtown Anchorage is a welcome spot for those truly on a budget.

For upscale options, the three towers of the venerable Hotel Captain Cook are a staple on the downtown skyline, balanced out by the modern, low-slung design of Salted Roots Basecamp's apartment-style rooms that become a real bargain if you split with a few friends.

The newest kid on the block for downtown lodging is the Wildbirch Hotel, a JDV by Hyatt property, just opened in 2025, which combines upscale design with local art and tasteful touches of Alaska, like topographic map contours carved into the headboards. Several large hotel chains, including Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Hyatt, also have a presence in the city.

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Photo: Salted Roots Basecamp

Photo: The Wildbirch Hotel

Photo: Hotel Captain Cook

Getting Around

With regular service from Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, and United, Anchorage receives nonstop flights from cities throughout the western and midwestern United States, as well as some from the East Coast. Flights from many cities increase during the summer months.

Anchorage's Lake Hood Seaplane Base, the world's largest and busiest, serves as a hub for flightseeing tours and for flights to remote destinations within Alaska.

RV travelers can reach Anchorage via an epic road trip along the 1,400-mile Alaska Highway, which runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Delta Junction, Alaska. From there, turn left and drive another 330 miles to Anchorage.

Cruise ships almost never dock in Anchorage. Instead, they dock in Seward, Whittier, or Homer, then send passengers north to the city via train or motorcoach.

Once you're in Anchorage, a car is vital for seeing many attractions — although if you're staying downtown, you can make do with a mix of free shuttles, taxis, and Uber or Lyft. Anchorage does have a city bus, but it's not ideal for visitors.

When to Go

Anchorage's summer high season is June through August, with average highs in the mid to high 60s and frequent, if not dependable, bursts of sunshine through the clouds. Low temperatures tend to hover in the 40s and 50s, so you might want a fleece or light puffy jacket, but you won't need a parka. Do bring a good rain jacket, though, and a ball cap to keep rain off your glasses if you wear them. The general rule during an Alaska summer is to dress for the weather and go outside even if it's raining or windy, because you never know what you'll see out there.

Most attractions wind down by mid September. The sweet season is early September, but call to confirm availability — some tours and activities close after Labor Day. The rest of the year is shoulder season, during which you're likely to see an unpredictable mix of rain, snow, wind, and temperatures ranging anywhere from the 40s to 20 below, with a pause for winter high season in late February through early March during the Fur Rendezvous carnival and Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. For shoulder season visits, fall is much prettier than spring.

Midnight Sun

Anchorage receives 22 hours of daylight at the peak of summer. But for almost a month around the solstice, the night remains bright enough for everyday activities even after the sun sets. Anchorage receives just five and a half hours of daylight during the winter solstice.

Photo: Visit Anchorage/Carl Johnson

Combine With

Consider combining your stay in Anchorage with a visit to towns along the Kenai Peninsula like the friendly little port towns of Whittier and Homer. Or head for Seward, the gateway town for Kenai Fjords National Park. If you'd rather go north from Anchorage, don't miss the quirky little town of Talkeetna, with its small town charm and wonderful Main Street full of locally owned restaurants and art galleries, and the massive, wild beauty of Denali National Park.

Anchorage also makes a wonderful base camp for adventure either before or after an Alaska cruise. With frequent flights to and from major cities in the United States and Canada, it's easy to arrive a few days before your cruise and explore the city's best adventures, or stay a few days after and really absorb the city's sense of place.