Anchorage - Scenery, Nightlife, and Wildlife - Oh My!

Alaska offers scenery, adventure, and unforgettable wildlife. Southcentral Alaska has the most diverse selection of activities. Anchorage boasts familiar urban offerings, from comedy clubs to nightclubs, movie theaters, symphony, museums, and touring Broadway shows. It also offers outdoor activities, like cross-country skiing in downtown parks, cycling, fishing, backpacking, kayaking, canoeing, mountain biking, swimming, wildlife viewing, snowmobiling, dog mushing, aurora borealis viewing, and more—all within the city limits. 

For a deeper dive into this popular destination, enroll in the Alaska Destination Specialist Course. If you subscribe to the Premium Access lounge, this course is Free! As with all Destinations these days, it is vital to check the varying health and safety protocols, reopening dates, operating hours, and availability of attractions and accommodations and be sure to consult sources like Alaska’s Health Protocols website and the U.S. State Department before booking your clients.

Anchorage Skyline

With high-rise hotels, good restaurants, a world-class museum, a zoo, shops, theater, art, and music, Anchorage is tailor-made for those seeking outdoor recreation opportunities without sacrificing urban comforts. The population includes about a quarter-million people, along with moose, black and grizzly bears, bald eagles, and other wildlife, although these residents are seen more in recreation areas than on city streets.

Anchorage can be an ideal place to spend a few days pre- or post-cruise or land tour. Day tours from the city reach almost any corner of the state, from Utiqiagvik in the Far North, to the Aleutian Islands of the Southwest, or Juneau on the Inside Passage. Tour operators can package many glaciers in a single day trip or offer a leisurely look at wildlife off the Kenai Peninsula or Prince William Sound. Floatplane operators are available to fly people on anything from a quick flightseeing tour to a multi-day fishing or bear watching package at a wilderness lodge.

The iconic Visitor Information Center in Anchorage

Anchorage’s many attractions include: 

• Alaska Center for the Performing Arts: A three-part complex hosting numerous events. Home to eight resident arts companies, its 3,000-seat hall features touring Broadway shows. The center holds the International Ice Carving Competition as part of the Fur Rendezvous Festival in February.
• Alaska Native Medical Center: An unexpected place to find Native art. The hospital craft shop has a broad, reasonably priced selection on consignment from patients. The center is an easy taxi or bus ride from downtown. 
• Saturday Market: An open-air market during the summer season. It has a wonderful selection of arts, crafts, food, and other items. A smaller market is held on Wednesdays in the Northway Mall parking lot.

Top of the run at Alyeska Ski Resort

• Alyeska: A glacier-carved valley about 45 minutes from downtown. Located in Girdwood, the valley floor has trail systems for Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, and dog sledding. For avid skiers, Chugach Powder Guides operates both heli-skiing and cat-skiing operations. Most slopes are rated for intermediate or advanced skiers. Experts enjoy the North Face with North America’s longest continuous double black run. Hotel Alyeska is both a winter and summer resort.
  
  Around the winter solstice in December, Alyeska averages five to six hours of sunlight. Come mid-June, the area enjoys up to 20 hours of sun each day. The short hours of winter daylight restrict the time skiers can go downhill, but night skiing is available. The summer season features hiking and biking throughout the valley. The scenic Aerial Tram ride gives visitors panoramic views of the Chugach Mountains and Turnagain Arm. The four-star restaurant at the top of the tram is popular for dinner year-round.

• Beluga Point: A turnout on the Seward Highway about 25 minutes from downtown with panoramic views up and down Turnagain Arm. Beluga whales occasionally can be seen chasing salmon into the shallows just below the highway turnout. Beluga Point is a popular location for watching bore tides. The incoming tide can be six feet high as it rushes in. Kayakers and surfers ride the wave for several miles.
• Flat Top Mountain: The best sunset views are from the lookout atop Flat Top and from Point Woronzof—but local residents seem to prefer the waterside view. To reach the Point, follow Northern Lights Boulevard west, beyond the airport and Earthquake Park, to an overlook on the bluff above Cook Inlet. Knik Arm opens to the north and Turnagain Arm to the south, and most parking areas have direct access to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Road access to Point Woronzof from West Northern Lights Boulevard may be closed due to airport security, but walking or cycling access on the Coastal Trail is still possible.
• Knik Glacier: Take an airboat for a close-up glacier view. This trip gets almost within touching distance of the glacier (at least that’s how close it appears) as passengers float through a maze of icebergs.

Prince William Sound

Indoor activities in other Southcentral towns are more limited because of size and population, but outdoor possibilities expand. The climate is relatively mild, especially near the ocean where the Pacific moderates temperature extremes. Winter storms can dump a foot of snow in a few hours, but the generally mild weather encourages outdoor recreation in all seasons. People can switch from fly-fishing in summer to ice fishing in winter or trade sea kayaks for cross-country skis, but outdoor recreation remains a year-round way of life.

Source: thetravelinstitute.com