Anchorage

Founded in 1915 as a canvas tent camp at the mouth of Ship Creek for workers building the Alaska Railroad, on the ancestral homeland of the Dena'ina Athabascan People who have fished and hunted along the shores of Nuti (Cook Inlet) for over a thousand years, Anchorage is a city like no other in North America. Although it holds 290,000 people, step fifteen minutes outside its downtown streets and you are standing inside half-million-acre Chugach State Park, with 60 glaciers within an hour's drive and roughly 1,500 wild moose, black and brown bears, bald eagles and beluga whales sharing the municipal boundaries.

Right from Downtown's Anchorage Museum and 4th Avenue, you can rent a bicycle to pedal the paved 17.7-kilometre Tony Knowles Coastal Trail to Kincaid Park, watch King Salmon leap up Ship Creek, or watch 200 floatplanes take off from Lake Hood Seaplane Base for bear-viewing and Denali glacier landings. Heading south along the dramatic cliffs of Turnagain Arm on the Seward Highway leads past Beluga Point and the Girdwood Aerial Tram to the rescued bears and muskoxen of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, Portage Glacier and the 2.5-mile Whittier Tunnel, and onward via the Alaska Railroad to Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park. Two hours northeast along the Glenn Highway, you can strap on crampons to walk directly onto 27-mile-long Matanuska Glacier. Start with our before-you-go briefing and top things to do in Anchorage.

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) sits just 10 kilometres (15 minutes by Uber, taxi or the People Mover Bus Route 40) southwest of Downtown Anchorage. Cruise passengers disembarking at Whittier (60 miles southeast) or Seward (125 miles south) connect directly into Downtown Anchorage via the scenic Alaska Railroad or motorcoach transfers. For days exploring Downtown, the Coastal Trail, the Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center (connected by a free summer museum shuttle), you do not need a car; for driving Turnagain Arm, Portage and Whittier, Chugach State Park and Matanuska Glacier, rent a car for 1 to 3 days. See getting to Anchorage and getting around Anchorage.

Anchorage accommodation is grouped into three practical zones: stay in Downtown Anchorage (between 1st and 10th Avenues) if you want to walk to the Alaska Railroad Depot, Coastal Trail bike rentals, 4th Avenue shops and top crab-and-salmon restaurants; stay 10 minutes south in Midtown or at Lake Hood and the Airport for lower hotel rates, free parking and floatplane views; or stay 40 minutes south down Turnagain Arm at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood for a five-star mountain-and-glacier chateau experience. Compare all areas in where to stay in Anchorage.

Rent a bike to ride the 11-mile Tony Knowles Coastal Trail to Kincaid Park (spotting resident moose), drive the cliffside Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm to Beluga Point and the Alyeska Aerial Tram in Girdwood, visit brown bears and wood bison at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and cruise up to Portage Glacier or Prince William Sound (Whittier), hike Flattop Mountain and kayak turquoise Eklutna Lake, walk on solid blue ice at Matanuska Glacier, ride the glass-domed Alaska Railroad to Seward & Kenai Fjords National Park, explore the Anchorage Museum and Alaska Native Heritage Center, take a floatplane from Lake Hood, and watch for Northern Lights. Full list in things to do in Anchorage.

Anchorage is the seafood and frontier dining capital of Alaska: sweet steamed Red King Crab, Snow Crab and Dungeness Crab legs dipped in drawn butter, wild-caught Copper River Sockeye and King (Chinook) Salmon, smoky Alaska Reindeer Sausage from street carts on 4th Avenue, crispy beer-battered Pacific Halibut and Chips, halibut cheeks and sourdough pancakes at Snow City Cafe, and wood-fired pizza with local craft beer at Moose's Tooth Pub & Pizzeria. Read more in our Anchorage King Crab and seafood guide.

Celebrating the 11 distinct Indigenous cultural groups of Alaska at the Alaska Native Heritage Center alongside Russian Orthodox Eklutna history, 1915 railroad heritage, the ceremonial start of the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race every March, and 22-hour Summer Solstice daylight.