Anchorage

Understand

Let's be clear, if you are looking for the "real Alaska" this is not it, but you can see it from here. Anchorage is a city — a real city with freeways, traffic, giant malls, tall buildings, crime and most other things one expects to find in an American city. It is an important hub and the gateway to other marvelous areas including the Alaskan Interior and the Kenai Peninsula, but is not really a tourist destination. While it is not the administrative capital of Alaska, it is the economic capital. There are good places to eat and plenty of shopping, but the city is just that, a city. A great place to gear up for a trip, but it's not particularly "Alaskan" except for the weather and its spectacular setting.

Climate

Alaska is well known for its winters—but most visitors come in the summer, when the days are long and the temperatures are moderate.

Many people consider the period between May and early September to be the best time to visit Anchorage. The month of June usually has the best combination of long days, good weather, and warm afternoons.

As you would expect in the high northern latitudes, the longest days come around the summer solstice, 21 June, and they get quite short around the winter solstice, 21 December. In the summer, Anchorage gets up to 19½ hours of sunlight between 4:30AM and 11:30PM, the sun sets just before midnight especially early in the season. Under clear skies, the sky wouldn't get completely pitch black in June. At the start of winter however, the area only gets 5 hours of sunlight each day - sunrise can be as late as 10:15AM and the usually cloudy winter days further limit the amount of daylight, with sunsets around 3:45PM.

The Anchorage-area climate, including the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound, can see winter temperatures fall into the -20s and -30s (-30s°C) for a short spell. Summer temperatures typically average around 68°F for daytime highs and 55°F for overnight lows; though there are often occasions where temperatures rise to around 75°F with nighttime lows up to around 59°F in warm spells.

Visitor information

• Visit Anchorage website

Place Log Cabin Visit Anchorage Information Center

Visitor center. The visit of Anchorage's downtown information centers include the "Log Cabin Visitor Center" at the corner of 4th Avenue and F Street; and a second visitor center is located on F Street behind the log cabin.

📍 546 W 4th Aveat F St.🕒 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.☎ +1 907 257-2363⚠ Last checked Jan 2019 — confirm before you go

MapsWebsite☆ Want to go

Get in

By plane

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) is served by many major American airlines. The main passenger airline that serves Anchorage is Alaska Airlines. Air travel is the cheapest and fastest form of transportation in and out of the state. Non-stop flights are available from Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Newark, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma, and more locations in the summer. Many arriving and departing out-of-state flights are late-night "red-eyes," but there are often many daytime flights to and from Seattle. Anchorage is the fourth busiest airport for freight due to its location along "great circle" routes between Asia and the lower 48.

There are non-stop flights from Canada, Germany, Iceland, and airline hubs in the lower 48. The South Terminal (domestic) serves Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Condor (departures), Delta Air Lines, Grant Aviation, Sun Country Airlines, and United Airlines All regional intrastate carriers also use the South Terminal. The North Terminal (international) serves Condor (arrivals), Icelandair, and Yakutia Airlines. The Anchorage airport is connected to the Lake Hood Seaplane Base, but not Merrill Field. A shuttle bus runs approximately every 15 minutes between the North and South terminals. There are two visitor information centers in the Airport: one in the South (Domestic) Terminal, C Concourse, in the Baggage Claim Area, +1 907 266-2437, open daily; and one in the North (International) Terminal, +1 907 266-2657, open mid-May through mid-September. The main visitor center is in downtown Anchorage at 4th Avenue and F Street.

The airport is 5 miles (8 km) southwest of downtown Anchorage. Taxis, shuttles, and rental cars are available. Route #40 of the Anchorage People Mover bus system serves the airport's North and South terminals once every 15 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes evenings and weekends, connecting it with the downtown Transit Center (6th Avenue between H and G Streets).

By car

Anchorage is also accessible from the contiguous United States (locally referred to as "the Lower 48") and Canada via road. The Alaska Highway starts in northern British Columbia and terminates in Fairbanks. You can get to Anchorage via either the Parks Highway from Fairbanks or the Glenn Highway from Tok (the first major Alaskan town after crossing the Canadian border). The Seward Highway serves traffic entering Anchorage from the Kenai Peninsula to the south and its Alaska Marine Highway System terminals. Whittier has a ferry that goes directly to Juneau with a connection to Bellingham, Washington. The ferry ride takes 5 days.

Make sure to pick up a copy of The Milepost, which is widely regarded as the premier road guide for western Canada and Alaska. Most roads in these regions have small white posts every mile or so indicating the number of miles from the start of the road. The Milepost has extremely detailed route descriptions of all of the roads, pointing out everything from scenic viewpoints and campgrounds down to the names of small creeks the roads pass over. If you're flying in to Anchorage and then driving around the state, wait and pick up a copy of The Milepost at one of the local Costcos or Wal-Marts—the price there is around half of list price.

By boat

Because of the shallow conditions of the inlet and powerful tides, as much as 30 ft, only one large cruise ship, from Holland America Line, regularly calls in the summer on the Port of Anchorage, 2 mi north of downtown. Since the port is mainly a cargo port, cruise passengers can not just walk through the port; instead, passengers are shuttled from the dock to the downtown mall.

The vast majority of large cruise ships (over 200 calls each summer) stop at one of two deep water ports much further away from Anchorage: Seward, 127 mi south on the Kenai Peninsula; or Whittier, 65 mi (104 km) southeast (mainly Princess). Whittier is also the closest harbor to Anchorage served by the Alaska Marine Highway. Many cruise lines provide transportation from their terminals in Whittier or Seward to Anchorage and may even include tours or your return air travel out of the state.

By bus

By train

The Alaska Railroad runs from Seward through Anchorage, Denali, and Fairbanks to North Pole, with spurs to Whittier and formerly Palmer. The railroad is famous for its summertime passenger services; but it also plays a vital part in moving Alaska's natural resources — primarily coal — to ports in Anchorage, Whittier and Seward as well as fuel and gravel for use in Anchorage. Their cargo trains connect to the lower 48 through the Port of Seattle by barge, but there are no passenger connections to Canada (Via Rail) or to the lower 48 (Amtrak).

Get around

While not nearly comparable to the size of major world cities (the city is several thousand square miles, but most of it is uninhabited and mountainous), the developed part of the Municipality of Anchorage is fairly spread out and not very walkable—with the exception of the compact downtown area.

Most of Anchorage is built on a grid system laid out by the railroad: numbered streets run east-west, starting at First Avenue in the extreme north of the city (at the Port and train depot) and ending up in the mid-hundreds at the south edge of town. Lettered streets run north-south, starting at A Street in the middle of downtown and going up to the west; east of A Street, the street names begin with sequential letters and are named after Alaskan cities and towns (Barrow, Cordova, Denali, etc.) This makes finding yourself on a map fairly easy, although the system gets less coherent outside of the downtown area. The Seward Highway becomes Gambell and Ingra streets, while the Glenn Highway becomes 5th and 6th Avenues.

You'll often hear Anchorageites use the following terms when describing areas of town. These areas used to be separate communities that merged as the city grew.

• Downtown: the historic core of the city at the northwestern tip next to the waterfront, roughly north of 10th Avenue and west of Gambell Street. Home to most of the tourist activities, gift stores, hotels, and the railroad depot
• Midtown: the largely commercial area immediately south of Downtown roughly between 15th Avenue and Tudor Road (becoming more industrial south towards Dimond Boulevard)
• South Anchorage: Dimond Boulevard and south. Largely suburban and residential with some major commercial development west of the Seward Highway.
• West Anchorage: the area along the water southwest of Downtown, encompassing the historic Bootlegger's Cove and Turnagain residential areas, the famous Earthquake Park and the airport.
• Spenard: smashed between Midtown and West Anchorage and spilling over and overlapping the boundaries a bit, it used to be a separate city and catered to the racier aspects of Anchorage living. It's still a bit of a red-light district, especially along Spenard Road. Be careful at night. (The airport is at the extreme west end of the Anchorage peninsula and abuts the southwestern edge of Spenard.)
• East Anchorage: everything east of the Seward Highway and north of Tudor Road. Mostly residential; little of interest to the tourist except for the universities, hospitals, and (at the extreme northeastern corner) the Alaska Native Heritage Center.
• Hillside: part of South Anchorage, it's everything east of the Seward Highway and south of Abbott Road. Completely residential, and many homes there are on the ritzier side (worth $350,000-$1.5M, where the average home is about $220,000). Anchorageites think of the Hillside like Angelenos do of Beverly Hills — if you own a home there, you must be doing well, even if the trees (or your snowmachine trailer) block your view of the lesser people below. Above the Hillside homes is the immense Chugach State Park, popular for easily accessible hiking. (The most-hiked mountain in Alaska, Flattop Mountain, is fairly easily accessed via the Glen Alps parking area at the top of Upper Huffman Road.)
• Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek: suburbs north of the city. They provide access to Chugach State Park, especially Crow Creek Pass and Eklutna Lake.
• Indian, Bird, Girdwood: small communities south of the city along the Seward Highway as it skims the north shore of Turnagain Arm. Very small, tourist-service oriented.

By foot

The area that can be explored by walking is the relatively compact downtown area. To plan your visit, drop in the unique Visitor Information Center, an authentic sod-roofed log cabin, at 4th Avenue and F Street, +1 907 257-2363, to pick up maps and brochures of the many points of interests and events (e.g., summer music concerts) within walking distance. In summer, downtown Anchorage, alive with flowers and alit with thousands of lights at night, is very popular and often crowded with tourists and those awaiting departure for, or arriving from, cruises. To extend your walking range, take advantage of the various free shuttles from downtown in the summer. Or rent a car or bike, or use the People Mover bus system, which has its Downtown Transit Center at 6th Avenue between H and G Streets.

By car

Anchorage's Ted Stevens International Airport is served by all of the major national rental car chains as well as a number of independents. A few companies have off-airport locations and may even offer courtesy shuttles (though these shuttles will not pick up from the airport). Renting from these locations avoids the 11-12% airport concession recovery fee and $4.81 per day airport facility fee. If you're renting for more than a few days, it might be worth the hassle to rent your vehicle at an off-airport location, which usually involves taxi rides or shuffling between hotel and rental car courtesy shuttles. Check with each agency or search off-airport rental cars using an online travel agency to see what cost savings may be available.

If you're arriving in the summer, plan ahead, as most rental companies are pretty much sold out from mid-June through the end of August. In the summer, cars are often not available without reservations, and even if they are, be prepared to pay top-dollar for them, especially four-wheel-drive vehicles. Renting a car in Alaska can be more expensive than pretty much anywhere else in the United States, ranging up to (and occasionally even over) $200 per day for a large vehicle sufficient to carry multiple passengers and outdoor gear during the peak season. In the dead of winter, however, you can sometimes grab a vehicle for under $10 per day.

Some of the major car rental companies serving the Anchorage area are:

• Alamo (in-terminal): +1 907-243-3406
• Avis (in-terminal and downtown): +1 907-243-2377
• Budget (in-terminal and midtown): +1 907-243-0150
• Dollar (in-terminal and midtown): +1 907-248-5338
• Enterprise (in-terminal, downtown, and midtown): +1 907-248-5526, +1 907-277-1600, +1 907-563-5050
• Hertz (in-terminal and downtown): +1 907-243-3308, +1 907-243-4118, +1 907-562-4595
• National (in-terminal): +1 907-243-3406
• Thrifty (in-terminal and midtown): +1 907-276-2855

Most airport rental agencies are open from about 5:30AM or 6AM to about 2AM (3AM at the latest) in the peak summer season. With the number of red-eye flights serving Anchorage, it's especially important to be sure your flight doesn't arrive after your rental agency closes. None of the major chains is open 24 hours, so the only option for after-hours arrivals is a cab or hotel shuttle to an area hotel or to sleep on a bench until the agencies open.

Two main taxi companies serve the Anchorage area: Alaska Yellow Dispatch (+1 907-222-2222) and Checker Cab (+1 907-276-1234). The airport maintains a taxi stand on the arrivals level. As of September 2023, the municipality-set rate for all taxis is $2.75 are the flag drop and $2.75 per mile; time based rate ~$.63 per minute. The average fare to downtown runs about $25 one-way.

Many hotels also offer courtesy shuttle vans that stop at the airport near the taxi stand. Several courtesy phone banks are inside the baggage claim areas.

Drivers tend to be aggressive in Anchorage year round, and many of the roads are heavily damaged by severe winter conditions and the use of studded tires. If you are visiting in winter and not used to driving in winter conditions, be very cautious, do not pass, keep excessive following distance, and allow plenty of time to stop. If it's snowing, no matter what time of the day, have your headlights on (the Seward Highway south of Anchorage requires headlights to be on at all times). A roadway covered with black ice may look completely dry but provide no traction whatsoever.

By bus

If you're determined to save money or are traveling the USA without a car, you can use the PeopleMover, Anchorage's bus system. A single ticket costs $2, a day ticket costs $5. People over 60 years of age pay half price. On Wednesdays and Fridays, people aged 60 and over ride free. People up to 18 years of age travel for free all the time. PeopleMover has an app for payment of the bus fare as an alternative. For more information, call the PeopleMover Ride Line at +1 907-343-6543.

By bike

Anchorage features an extremely well-developed bike trail system, with over 200 miles (320 km) of developed trails (120 of which are paved) winding their way throughout the city's parks and three green belts. The popular Tony Knowles Coastal Trail parallels the waterfront from Downtown to Kincaid Park near the airport. Several companies offer bike rentals and trail tours. In the winter, many of the trails are groomed and used as ski trails.

Stay safe

Anchorage has a reputation for being a dangerous city — a reputation that's not entirely unwarranted — but the average traveller should not be too overly concerned or cautious of their surroundings. A lot of the crime occurs between those involved in the drug trade or organized crime.

Like most cities, location is very important as security changes from place to place. Areas close to downtown are safer to walk at night. Stay in populated areas, avoid poor neighborhoods, especially at night, and don't walk there at any time if you are alone. Vicious beatings have been reported at resorts by people who have travelled alone, so stay alert for any suspicious-looking individual.

Certain areas in the northeast of the city (Mountain View, north of the Glenn Highway and east of Merrill Field airport) and central (Fairview, 6th to 15th Avenue, east of Ingra) have higher crime than other spots.

As in all other cities these crimes receive a disproportionate amount of attention from local media. These tragic events, however, are typically not random so they will probably not impact your visit. You are more likely to be a victim of crimes of opportunity; however, most violent crimes in Anchorage are usually domestic disputes.

Also, areas around the airport like Spenard are known for increased drug activity and sex work. In earlier times, the downtown area around 4th Avenue was like that, but a concerted effort over the last eight years has mostly moved the activity into Spenard.

A constant problem is car break-ins at parking lots. Do not leave any valuables visible.

The trails close to and around the university are unsafe when it is dark. During the colder months there are increased attacks on females going to and from the housing and library.

Also, stay a good distance away from moose. Although they may appear harmless, they can and will protect their young ones from people, and can charge if they feel cornered or threatened. Never approach them, as they are best viewed from a distance.

Go next

There are only two roads out of Anchorage, the Seward Highway which goes south to the Kenai Peninsula and ends/starts at Seward, and the Glenn Highway which goes northeast to Glennallen and continues as the Tok Cutoff to Tok where it ends at the Alaska Highway. The Glenn Highway junctions with the George Parks Highway about 35 miles (56 km) north of Anchorage, continuing northwest to Denali National Park and Fairbanks. Driving from Anchorage to Fairbanks usually takes 6–8 hours (356 miles (573 km)) and driving from Anchorage to Seattle, WA usually takes at least 3 days.

The Alaska Railroad offers daily service between Anchorage/Seward, Anchorage/Whittier, and Anchorage/Fairbanks during the summer. The Anchorage/Fairbanks run (Aurora) offers flag drop service between Talkeetna and Hurricane - it is the only railroad in the U.S. that will pick you up if you flag the train from the side of the tracks.

There are numerous small plane flying services which have scheduled flights to small villages, or the capacity to charter flights to different villages. For travel to villages outside of the south central region, it is usually cheaper to take a regular commercial flight to the appropriate regional hub (Bethel, Unalakleet, Dillingham, Unalaska, Kotzebue, Nome, Barrow, Fairbanks, or Juneau) and arrange to fly from there to your destination.