If you think you have to take a cruise to see it, congratulations, you’ve been had. And if you think that going it alone means lots of expensive puddle jumping in tiny planes, or that you’ll die on a mountain somewhere, or that your boat is going to almost go down in a terrible storm, well, you need to cut back on your Discovery Channel viewing.
Alaska, how can we put this — well, it can be really tame. Sorry to disappoint, but we’re talking about a state where approximately half the residents live in a city dismissed by the other half as “Los Anchorage.” The most adventure some Anchoragians will ever see is trying to get their car started in January. They have Nordstrom’s. Target. There are wine bars. It’s all pretty normal.
Except for one thing — no matter the similarities to other cities (like Los Angeles, it also has good Korean and Mexican restaurants), Anchorage will always be better, because it has Alaska. Not up the road, mind, but rather right in its face.
The city may be tame, but the amount of adventure that waits on the city’s doorstep is absolutely mindblowing; it’s enough to keep even the most ambitious outdoorsman busy for weeks. No major schlepping, no more planes, no expensive, multi-day tour packages, no paying thousands of dollars to fishing guides required. All you need is a rental car, a bit of sense in your head and, of course, an love of the outdoors.
Here’s how you do it — step by step.
#1 FLY TO ANCHORAGE Currently, there are no non-stops from New York to Anchorage, but connections are easy — they’re easiest from Seattle, but Chicago-O’Hare’s also an option, and sometimes pretty cheap. There’s an August fare, at press time, from JFK to Anchorage roundtrip (via O’Hare) for just $515, including taxes, on Alaska (alaskaair.com
). Another option for finding a good fare: Take a minute to set up an alert (it’s easy) between your preferred home airport and Anchorage at Airfare Watchdog, which has a team of human fare finders whose job it is to let you know each time something good pops up (airfarewatchdog.com
).
#2 GOOD. NOW STAY. Too many people get suckered into thinking that slogging all the way to Anchorage is somehow not enough. Newsflash: It’s plenty. There’s a convenient rental-car center attached to the airport terminal; go down, get yourself some wheels, and point them toward your hotel. Which actually, preferably, should be one of the city’s many perfectly nice bed and breakfasts, which generally go for pennies — the pleasant Earth B&B, in a great residential area just steps out of downtown starts at $115 a night in the summer, if you can get a room. Two of the best bakeries in the city are within a block or two — bonus (earthbb.com
)! Just up the street is another great choice, the Wildflower Inn, with rates from $129 (alaska-wildflower-inn.com
). Right in the nicest bit of downtown, steps from a couple of its best restaurants, the Copper Whale Inn is as close as it gets to a boutique hotel around here, with rooms from $220 (copperwhale.com
). If you prefer the familiar, all sorts of tidy, new-ish chain properties — places like the Homewood Suites and Residence Inn out in sprawl-y Midtown are perfect for families — are available. Just bear in mind, that if you don’t stay downtown, you’ll be driving absolutely everywhere. Also bear in mind that most of the big city center hotels are outdated rubbish that cater primarily to business types and unimaginative tourists who’ve just been dumped off cruise ships. Hence the suggestion of the B&B route.
#3 GET A TASTE OF ADVENTURE Anchorage is a big town, but one of the best things about it is that Alaska is so much bigger — the city is constantly being overwhelmed by nature, in all sorts of excellent ways. A fisherman who makes a living leading guided trips down the Brooks River may see it all as terribly citified, but to the typical New Yorker, this is quite enough outdoors for starters, thanks much. The area’s vast network of well-done biking and hiking trails (amazing for those cyclists who just can’t get enough open road in, say, Brooklyn) gets pretty remote, pretty fast. You’ll see moose — and sometimes bears — on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, a paved, 11-mile strip that leads from the heart of downtown, out along the Turnagain Arm and down past the airport; rent bikes at Downtown Bicycle Rental ($32 for 24 hours, 4th Avenue + B Streets, alaska-bike-rentals.com
). For thrill-seekers, the 3,510-foot Flattop Mountain is the preferred place to get your evening exercise in the summer months. Except here, you’re basically rock scrambling by the end, and the winds can whip up so high on the treeless peak, that you have to squat down in order to keep from being blown over. You might feel like Shackleton, but to Alaskans, this 1.5-mile, 1,350-foot climb is the equivalent of a jaunt in Central Park — note the occasional girl in fancy workout clothes and everyone jamming on their iPods. Anyone can just drive up to the trailhead and go, but you can also arrange a guided trip through Downtown Bicycle Rental for $22 per person.
#4 HIKE A GLACIER Feeling like a big man? Or lady? As previously mentioned, Flattop’s nothing. To really up your street cred, go for a glacier hike. Nothing fancy required, no — just get up, grab a coffee at one of Anchorage’s many fine caffeine dispensaries and drive out north along the Glenn Highway and past the charming town of Palmer to the Matanuska Glacier. Some people drive to the beach in the summer, Alaskans go glacier hiking. You could certainly try to muddle through, but that would be pretty dumb, unless you have extensive glacier-hiking experience and the proper gear. Sensible tourists sign up for the regular guided hikes offered by an outfitter such as Mica, which does 4 hikes a day. Choose from either 1.5 hours ($45) or 3 hours ($70, micaguides.com
). If you don’t feel like a guided thing, that’s fine — the Exit Glacier and Harding Icefield, down on the Kenai Peninsula (that’s south of town) are part of the beautiful Kenai Fjords National Park. Do as much or as little as you like — there’s a tame, 1 mile loop from the visitors center out to see the glacier. Or, go the full monty on a free, guided (and pretty serious) hike with a park ranger out on the Icefield, offered every Saturday in July and August at 9:00 a.m., no reservations required (nps.gov
).
#5 SEE THE RAINFOREST This is the Pacific Northwest — albeit to extremes — and as such, it has a little bit of everything you’d expect from a place thrown into chaos after countless earthquakes. So how better to follow up a glacier hike than with a day in the rainforest? This time, you don’t even have to drive all that far — just tool on down to the little hippie town of Girdwood, just off the Turnagain Arm on your way to the Kenai (look for beluga whales off to your right). In winter, the slopes at the town’s Alyeska Resort are filled with Asian tourists and locals navigating the somewhat wet snow; in summer, people come here to hike the Winner Creek Gorge. A 5-mile loop out from the hotel at Alyeska takes you into some awesome coastal rainforest that’ll make you feel like you’ve stepped into a less tropical Jurassic Park. No dinosaurs, but maybe bears. And definitely wild blueberries for the picking, in high season. Plenty of people prefer to go the guided route, and that’s fine — it just costs money, and is generally unnecessary. If you do go this way, book with The Ascending Path for a fun 2-3 hour excursion that takes all the thinking out of the process, all you need to bring are good hiking shoes ($79, theascendingpath.com
).
#6 GO RAFTING (OR FLOATING). Ever been floating? Not in your pool, but on a raft, down a river? It’s the ultimate lazy man’s adventure, but if you’ve already been on a glacier and into a rainforest, you can afford a day off. Two-hour trips down the Upper Kenai River with Alaska River Trips are the sort of thing anyone could handle ($54, alaskarivertrips.com
), while the easily bored should definitely look into Nova Alaska‘s awesome Six Mile Creek whitewater trip in the Chugach National Forest. Again, just an hour or so from town, you’re getting some serious action. The half-day trip down Class IV-V rapids (this is one of Alaska’s better runs) costs $95-$139 depending on the trip — no kids under 12 allowed. Not only is it a great trip, the guides take all the thinking out of it for you, providing any necessary gear and guidance. On a warm day, you can go swimming before and after (novalaska.com
).
#7 HEAD FOR THE SOUND. You know those pictures of everyone out on the deck of a cruise ship, gawking at glaciers? Hot tip — half the time, those ships are so darned big, they’re not getting anywhere near anything. No — for these types of trips, the ships make you get off and on to a smaller sightseeing boat. Why not eliminate the middle man? One of the better trips, through Prince William Sound, can be booked easily on your own; it’s also only an hour from town to get down to the docks in the bizarre little town of Whittier for a day cruise with Prince William Sound Glacier Cruises. Expensive, yes, worth it, absolutely — $114 for adults, $57 for kids (2-11) — but for four hours out in one of the most incredible bits of real estate in what you’ve already gathered is a pretty incredible state, it’s not much at all. The boats are small enough that you can get right up next to the glaciers — so close you can touch them (princewilliamsound.com
).
INFO travelalaska.com
It’s actually a real city
5 things to do in Anchorage that don’t involve potentially being mauled by a bear (though, hey, you never know)
GET SOME CULTURE After a very smart-looking expansion / redo spearheaded by British architect David Chipperfield, the Anchorage Museum is absolutely on fire — the new Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center on premises is an must for anyone interested in Alaskan heritage. The First Friday (of every month) party from 6-9 p.m. brings out the town (anchoragemuseum.org
).
STAY UP LATE Today is the longest day of the year — in Anchorage, that means nearly 24 hours of daylight. That means really late tee-times at the Anchorage Golf Course, a beautiful spot up above town with views (on good days) of Denali. The pro shop stays open until 10 p.m., you can tee-off up until that point and stay until you’re done (anchoragegolfcourse.com
).
PLAY THE MARKETS Everyone likes to get out and do stuff in summer — if you’ve been through a winter here, this makes plenty of sense. Parties, festivals, markets — it’s all happening in that brief, fleeting space in time between Memorial and Labor days. The weekly Saturday Market downtown is somewhat of a tourist attraction, but it’s also a great place to see the diversity and weirdness of Anchorage — reindeer quesadillas, anyone (anchoragemarkets.com
)? The more local-ish Spenard Farmers Market (also on Saturdays, 9-2) not far from downtown brings out the veggie/vegan/fixie-bike set for organic produce and things that are gluten-free (spenardfarmersmarket.org
).
EAT RIGHT Speaking of food — it’s incredible up here. Let’s just say, if there was nothing else to do, the fresh-caught everything that you can get anywhere in town at any time is almost reason enough to venture up to Alaska. You’ll never want to eat salmon, halibut, scallops, king crab (etcetera, etcetera) anywhere else, ever again. Seriously. Something as simple as the fish and chips at the hip Spenard Roadhouse or a brilliant salad at Middle Way Cafe or the smoked salmon you had for breakfast at the otherwise missable café in the Captain Cook Hotel will stick with you for ages. In a really good way.
DRINK UP The only thing Alaskans like more than coffee — they drink so much of it — is beer. Or is it the other way around? Either way, try both. Anchorage knew what coffee was supposed to taste like long before most of the country did; today, SteamDot is the spot of choice both for killing an afternoon in the continental style, and also drinking really, really good locally roasted coffee (10950 O’Malley Center Drive). For beer, well, just look around you — it’s everywhere. Serious drinkers should trek down to Midnight Sun Brewing in South Anchorage, a top brewer with a great brewpub (811 Dimond Hook Drive).
INFO anchorage.net