Anchorage

Anchorage sits on salt water, but this is not a coast for swimming. Cook Inlet is grey with glacial silt, bitterly cold all year, and its tidal mudflats can trap anyone who walks out on them, so the shore is for looking at, not for getting into.

On warm summer afternoons locals head instead to small lakes inside the city, such as Goose Lake and Jewel Lake, which have sandy swim areas and lifeguarded corners for a few weeks. The water stays cool and the season is short. A visitor who wants beach time should plan it for another trip.

Eating in Anchorage is built around what comes out of Alaskan waters. Wild salmon, halibut, king crab and spot prawns turn up on menus everywhere in summer, from fish-and-chip counters to smarter dining rooms downtown, and reindeer sausage from street carts is the classic quick bite. A solid set of craft breweries and taprooms, many in midtown and Spenard, gives the city its strongest drinking culture, and coffee drive-through huts are a local habit.

Beyond the seafood the range is modest: diners, family restaurants, some good Asian and Pacific Islander cooking reflecting the city's mix, and little fine dining. Prices run high because so much is shipped in.

Anchorage is a young city, largely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1964, and has little historic architecture to wander through. What it does have is two serious places to understand Alaska. The Anchorage Museum covers Alaskan art, history and Arctic science, with a strong collection of Alaska Native objects, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center on the edge of town presents the cultures of the state's Indigenous peoples through dwellings, dance and craft.

Add the Alaska Aviation Museum beside Lake Hood, the busiest floatplane base in the world, and Earthquake Park, and a visitor has two or three good days of sights. The real attraction lies outside the city.

Going out in Anchorage means pubs, brewery taprooms and old-fashioned dive bars, scattered downtown and along Spenard Road rather than gathered in one district. In summer the midnight sun keeps people outside late and the downtown bars fill with seasonal workers and visitors, which gives the evenings some energy.

There are a handful of dance bars but no real club scene, and in the long winter dark nights become much quieter. It suits a relaxed beer after a day outdoors, not anyone planning a trip around nights out.

Few cities have wilderness this close. The Chugach Mountains rise directly behind the suburbs, and trails such as Flattop climb to wide views within half an hour of downtown. Moose wander through neighbourhoods and the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail runs for kilometres along the inlet, used by cyclists in summer and cross-country skiers in winter.

The Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm is one of the great drives, with Dall sheep on the cliffs, beluga whales in summer and the tidal bore rolling up the fjord. Glaciers at Portage, skiing at Alyeska in Girdwood, salmon fishing and glacier cruises from Whittier are all within about an hour. Winter brings northern lights but very short days.

Most excursions from Anchorage are about scenery, and the places themselves are small. Girdwood is a ski village with a pleasant summer feel, and Whittier, reached through a long single-lane tunnel, is a curious port town where most residents live in one tower block. North of the city, Eklutna has a Russian Orthodox church and painted Dena'ina spirit houses. Palmer grew out of the Matanuska Colony, a farm settlement the federal government founded in 1935 under the New Deal, and still has colony barns and buildings from that time. Independence Mine is a preserved gold-mining camp high in the mountains.

Talkeetna, a frontier town on the road to Denali, sits at the edge of a comfortable day out, and Seward is further still. Expect a car, long drives and modest towns.

Anchorage works well for families who like the outdoors. The Alaska Zoo specialises in northern animals such as bears, musk oxen and wolverines, the wildlife conservation centre near Portage lets children see moose and bison up close, and the Anchorage Museum has a hands-on science gallery for younger visitors. Spotting a moose in a park or watching floatplanes at Lake Hood is a thrill in itself.

The city is relaxed and outdoor-minded, with good playgrounds and easy trails. The drawbacks are distances, reliance on a car, and summer daylight that makes bedtimes a struggle; blackout blinds help.

Downtown Anchorage is compact, laid out on a grid and easy to walk, with the museum, the coastal trail and many hotels close together. Beyond it the city spreads out in low-density suburbs and wide roads built for driving.

The city bus network is limited and not designed around visitors, and the trailheads, glaciers and towns that are the reason to come all need wheels. The Alaska Railroad offers scenic summer trips south and north, but for most visitors a rental car is the practical choice. Winter driving on snow and ice needs care.

Shopping here centres on Alaska itself. Alaska Native art, carved ivory and soapstone, ulu knives, and scarves knitted from qiviut, the soft underwool of the musk ox, are the worthwhile buys, found in downtown galleries and at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. A large open-air weekend market runs downtown through summer with crafts and food stalls.

Otherwise there is a central mall, big-box stores and good outdoor-gear shops. Downtown also has many souvenir shops of mixed quality aimed at cruise passengers.

Anchorage is an expensive place to visit, especially in the short summer season when hotel rooms are scarce and demand from cruise and tour travellers pushes rates up. Groceries and restaurant meals cost more than in most of the United States because so much arrives by ship or plane, and a rental car is close to essential.

The bigger costs are the experiences: glacier cruises, flightseeing and guided trips all add up quickly. Hiking trails and city parks are free, and winter is noticeably cheaper for anyone who can handle the cold and the short days.

The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts downtown is the hub, home to the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra and Anchorage Opera and host to touring Broadway productions and dance. A few small community and professional theatres add plays, and Alaska Native dance and drumming can be seen at the Heritage Center.

Live music in bars and brewery taprooms leans towards local bands, folk and bluegrass. It is a reasonable programme for a city of this size, but few visitors plan an evening around it, and the season is mostly winter, when tourists are fewest.

Anchorage has no bathing culture of its own, and the hot springs Alaska is known for lie far to the north. Within reach there are hotel spas, a few day spas, and a Nordic-style spa with outdoor pools in the ski village of Girdwood, about forty minutes south, where soaking in warm water under snowy mountains is a fine way to end a day.

The main restorative pull is the pace and the space: quiet trails, long light summer evenings and a city that is never crowded. For a dedicated wellness trip it offers little.