Anchorage or Juneau?

Neither city is a place to swim. Anchorage's Cook Inlet is silty, with dangerous mudflats, although for a few summer weeks a couple of city lakes such as Goose Lake have sandy swim areas. Juneau has nothing like that outdoors, but its gravel shores at Sandy Beach and Eagle Beach are better for walking, with eagles and beach fires at low tide.

Both eat best from the sea, with salmon, halibut, crab and spot prawns on summer menus. Anchorage offers more beyond that: reindeer sausage from street carts, Asian and Pacific Islander cooking, and a larger group of craft breweries in midtown and Spenard.

Juneau often serves its seafood at its simplest, in fish-and-chip shacks by the harbour and at outdoor salmon bakes. Beyond a short list of serious restaurants downtown, though, much of the waterfront is aimed at cruise passengers, and several places close in winter.

Neither city has much historic architecture, so the difference is in emphasis. Anchorage, rebuilt after the 1964 earthquake, has two substantial institutions in the Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center, plus the floatplanes at Lake Hood and the aviation museum beside it.

Juneau is more of a walk through layers of history: the State Museum, Tlingit and Haida art at the Walter Soboleff Building, totem poles downtown, the onion-domed Russian church and gold-mine ruins on Douglas Island. Each city fills a day or two.

Anchorage gives you more to do after dark. Taprooms, pubs and dive bars are spread between downtown and Spenard Road, there are a few dance bars, and the midnight sun keeps people out late in summer. Going out in Juneau means a few saloons and brewpubs around South Franklin Street, full of character with their sawdust floors and gold-rush décor, but small and mostly closed before late, and neither city has a club scene.

Both cities have wild country at the edge of town, and the difference is in its kind. Anchorage is about mountains and roads: Flattop and the Chugach behind the suburbs, moose in the parks, the coastal trail, and the Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm to the Portage glaciers and skiing at Alyeska.

Juneau is about ice, rainforest and water. Mendenhall Glacier, helicopter landings on the icefield, humpback whales in Auke Bay and boat trips into Tracy Arm all come with heavy rain. Anchorage is drier, and its dark winters bring the northern lights.

You can drive out of Anchorage, and that makes the difference. Girdwood, the tunnel to Whittier, the spirit houses at Eklutna, the colony barns of Palmer and the Independence Mine camp are all within driving distance, with Talkeetna at the far limit of a day out.

From Juneau, the only towns within reach, Skagway and Haines, mean a small plane or a long day on the ferry. Its excursions lead into fjords and glaciers rather than to other places.

Anchorage is easier with children of any age. The zoo's bears and musk oxen, the moose and bison at the conservation centre near Portage and the museum's science gallery give you options in any weather, and playgrounds and easy trails fill the gaps. The bright summer nights do make bedtimes harder.

Juneau's highlights, whales from a boat, bears at Steep Creek and the touch tanks at the Macaulay hatchery, are thrilling for school-age children. Many of them are long, costly tours, though, and there is little to do indoors when it rains.

Juneau is the easier town to manage without a car. The docks, museums, Capitol and tramway are a short but steep walk apart, and a local bus runs to the Mendenhall Valley and Auke Bay, with shuttles and taxis covering the last stretch to the glacier.

Anchorage's grid downtown is walkable too, but the city sprawls beyond it and the buses are not designed for visitors, so a rental car is close to essential. The summer Alaska Railroad is the scenic exception. Bear in mind that Juneau itself can only be reached by air or sea.

The best buys in both cities are Native art and craft, but Anchorage has more of it and more besides: qiviut scarves, ulu knives and carvings in downtown galleries and at the Heritage Center, a weekend market downtown in summer and good outdoor-gear shops. Shopping in Juneau takes less time, with Tlingit and Haida work at the Sealaska Heritage shop and a few galleries among blocks of jewellery and souvenir stores for cruise passengers that close for the winter.

Neither city is cheap, but Anchorage stretches a budget further. Rooms and meals cost a lot in both, yet in Anchorage you can do more without a paid tour, the trails start right from town, and winter is noticeably cheaper. In Juneau almost everything is flown or shipped in, rooms are scarce in summer, and the outings that justify the trip, whale watching, icefield helicopters and floatplanes, are hard to skip.

Anchorage has the bigger stage. The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts is home to the symphony and opera and hosts touring Broadway shows and dance, while taprooms put on folk and bluegrass.

Juneau has a lot going on for its size: a professional theatre in Douglas, a community symphony, the Alaska Folk Festival in spring and the biennial Celebration of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian dance. In both cities the main season falls outside summer, so a summer visitor mostly sees Native dance.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Anchorage has one real draw within reach: the Nordic-style spa with outdoor pools in Girdwood, about forty minutes south, for a warm soak under snowy peaks. Juneau offers small day spas, hotel treatments and public pools. Its calm is found on rainforest walks once the cruise ships have sailed, because downtown is anything but restful on a busy ship day.