KAYAK - Anchorage, Alaska Travel Guide

Anchorage Travel

Popular Alaska (AK) Destinations

Nearby Cities

Anchorage Airports

Anchorage Vacations

Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city filled with all of the modern development like fast food restaurants, hotels, and shopping complexes and surrounded by fantastic, pristine wild lands complete with bears and salmon. Visitors to the state who are outdoor buffs can visit Chugach National Forest, which is the nation’s second largest, or Chugach State Park, which is the size of Rocky Mountain National Park and includes alpine terrain. Ship Creek is a great place to catch large salmon and visitors can take hikes along the miles of coastal and wooded areas or ski in the country’s best Nordic skiing parks. Tourists can also take in some interesting history and culture by visiting the Alaska Aviation Museum, the Alaska Native Heritage Center, or the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.

Popular Anchorage Hotels

Inlet Tower Hotel & Suites
1200 L St

Ramada Anchorage Downtown
115 East 3rd Ave

Westmark Anchorage Hotel
720 W 5th Avenue

ExtendedStayDeluxe ANC-Downtwn
108 E. 8th Avenue

Sheraton Anchorage Hotel & Spa
401 East 6th Avenue

Clarion Suites Downtown
1110 West 8th Avenue

View more Anchorage hotel info »«

Top rated attractions in Anchorage

1.	Alaska Botanical Garden Alaska Botanical Garden is set in a boreal forest and features native flora, herbs and garden flowers grown in Alaska. There are two perennial gardens, herb garden, and a rock garden, as well as a wildflower trail. The Lowenfels Family Nature Trail loops around for a mile where guests can see salmon in Campbell Creek. « hide
2.	Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum is located on the shore of the Lake Hood floatplane base and features many of their planes, most of which have been restored, and artifacts of Alaska’s military history. Visitors can sometimes watch as further restorations are taking place. « hide
3.	Alaska State Troopers Museum Another enchanting little museum to visit is the Alaska State Troopers Museum, which is popular with law enforcement people as well as others. It features law enforcement insignia, equipment, photographs, a 1952 Hudson Hornet patrol car, and other memorabilia that displays the positive spirit of early Alaska. « hide
4.	Anchorage Museum of History and Art Anchorage Museum of History and Art features an Alaska Gallery that takes visitors on a walk through the history and anthropology of the state. There are also art galleries as well as touring and temporary exhibits, films, lectures, jazz happenings that are staged on summer evenings, and openings. The museum also has the Marx Brothers Café that serves up tasty lunches. « hide
5.	Imaginarium A small and very popular museum with the children under the age of eight is the Imaginarium, which is located in the basement of the Orso Restaurant and features marine touch tanks as well as displays with amphibians and live reptiles. « hide
6.	The Alaska Zoo The Alaska Zoo features the controversial Maggie the African elephant with Alaskan natives that include polar bears, seals, otters, moose, musk ox, Dall sheep, caribou, and waterfowl as well as other favorites like snow leopards, Siberian tigers, yaks, and Bactrian camels. Summer educational programs are offered most Tuesday s at 7 p.m. Live music is featured most Fridays at 7 p.m. « hide
7.	Alaska Native Heritage Center Alaska Native Heritage Center is the state’s best native cultural attraction with three main features: A hall where storytellers, native athletes and dancers perform, a gallery of educational displays including workshops with artisans who show, practice, and teach crafts to visitors and a theater that shows short films, and finally the third area is a pond surrounded by five traditional native dwellings that represents each native cultural group. « hide
View more Anchorage attractions » « View less Anchorage attractions

Top rated restaurants in Anchorage

1.	Club Paris Club Paris reminds one of an earlier Anchorage during the boom town years and serves up steak and seafood with rare steaks that makes one feel like they are about to moo. « hide	6.	The Greek Corner The Greek Corner offers both Italian and Greek cuisine featuring regular Italian favorites like lasagna, spaghetti, pizza, and other dishes as well as a dozen authentic traditional Greek favorites. « hide
2.	Simon and Seafort's Saloon and Grill Simon and Seafort's Saloon and Grill features steak and seafood with nightly specials that includes crab and macadamia stuffed halibut. « hide	7.	Diene's Restaurant Dianne's Restaurant is a cafeteria located downtown in a tall, glass office building where both business folks and people on the go can grab a quick bite to eat with soup, sandwiches, fresh-baked bread and specials being offered during the lunch hour. Liquor is not served. « hide
3.	The Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria The Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria is the place to go for beer and pizza with light, soft crusts and ingenious toppings as well as a great place to take the kids for a meal. « hide	8.	Downtown Deli and Café Downtown Deli and Café serves breakfast all day featuring their famous sourdough pancakes. Lunch consists of soups, salads, and sandwiches, and dinner offers delicious entrees like Fresh Alaskan Salmon as well as notable appetizers like the Alaskan Sampler made with reindeer sausage, lox cream cheese dip, and smoked halibut. « hide
4.	Campobello Bistro Campobello Bistro specializes in northern Italian and bistro dishes like Italian sausage, veal Marsala, seafood crepes, and polenta that are highly seasoned and bold tasting. « hide	9.	Glacier Brewhouse Glacier Brewhouse has an ever-changing menu featuring pizza, grill and seafood for those looking for a tasty, quick meal. It also offers at least eight hardy beers brewed on-sight. « hide
5.	Orso Orso features Italian and Mediterranean meals like Seafood Gemelli, Chicken Parmesan, Wild Mushroom Ravioli, and Spaghetti and Meatballs. « hide

Anchorage Insider tips

Native Art and Crafts

Visitors interested in purchasing native arts and crafts have a choice of several shops like the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers’ Co-operative, which is owned by two-hundred-fifty native Alaskan women living in villages across the state and featuring scarves and other hand-knit items made from the silky under hair of the musk ox. The Yankee Whaler, located in the lobby of the Hotel Captain Cook, sells native arts. And the Rusty Harpoon features native items like Alaskan jewelry and other less expensive crafts. « hide

Cook Inlet

Apparently there is only one beach in Anchorage and that is Cook Inlet, which is dredged to allow incoming ships access to the city. Unknowing visitors might think that walking along the shallow mud flats is a good idea but nothing could be further from the truth. The mud is composed of glacial silt carried down by rivers to the sea. It is exceedingly strong and once it grabs hold of a foot, will not let go. This has resulted in the death of some people, who were stuck during high tide and ended up being drowned. A person can even risk having their limbs torn apart. So if one happens to be trying to walk on the mud in the hours prior to high tide, while they are alone with no one around, the chances of being rescued in time are perilous at best. If a person does make the wrong decision to try it for themselves, the National Guard will have to be called out in order to rescue them and the cost of the rescue team will have to be paid by the person who unwisely got stuck in the mudflats. « hide

Anchorage nightlife

1.	Bear Tooth Theater Pub Bear Tooth Theater Pub is a combination pub, movie theater, and eatery with seating in both the lobby and in front of the movie screen where patrons can enjoy Moose Tooth Bear on tap and southwestern cuisine that is discretely served while guests watch a movie. « hide
2.	Cyrano's Off Center Playhouse Cyrano's Off Center Playhouse offers up lectures, comedy, intimate works, and poetry readings as well as cultural and classical cinema while the adjoining café, Bistro Bergerac, serves up gourmet snacks, beer, and wine in a coffee-house atmosphere. Interested parties should call ahead for shows, times and ticket prices. « hide

Cheap Anchorage Flights

These are the cheapest* flights to Anchorage found by KAYAK users in the past 48 hours. Use the links to see if you can get a better flight deal.

From $476 Flights Chicago (ORD) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $432 Flights Denver (DEN) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $587 Flights Minneapolis (MSP) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $295 Flights Los Angeles (LAX) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $336 Flights New York (NYC) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $317 Flights Salt Lake City (SLC) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $474 Flights Seattle (SEA) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $438 Flights Atlanta (ATL) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $353 Flights Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) - Anchorage (ANC)
From $389 Flights San Francisco (SFO) - Anchorage (ANC)