Best places to live in Alaska.
Alaska is awesome and every community up there is going to be unique and have kind of its own flavor, so whether you are looking to move up there, or maybe you’re just curious, or you’re trying to plan some kind of a trip, these are going to be the top five cities and towns in Alaska. Number one on the list is Anchorage. This is the largest city in Alaska, it has 292.000 people who live there so as far as Cities goes not really a huge metropolis, but land wise this city is enormous. The good thing about Anchorage is you do have the convenience of a large city while still having quick and easy access to coastal trails, hiking, fishing and all the stuff that people are attracted to when they’re moving to Alaska. One of the best communities within Anchorage is Eagle River, it’s one of the suburbs and has great local shops and restaurants with the actual Eagle River flowing through it. From here you do have access to the Eagle River Nature Center, great hiking trails and skiing in the winter as well. Lakes are also all around the place, so if you’re into canoeing and kayaking that’s a great option.
Number two is going to be Fairbanks and this is the largest city that you’re going to find north of Anchorage. It has just a little over 31.000 people that live there and it’s great because it’s really close to the Denali National Park and it’s a pretty beautiful location. The people who do live there endure some of the most brutal temperature swings of anywhere in this state. Usually they win the summer’s record for the hottest and the winter’s record for the coldest, so they’re pretty hardy people but the good thing about that is they’re always going to be up for fun. They do have hot springs that are nearby, they have the ice sculpture museum and the Yukon River and the Arctic Circle is about 200 miles away. The road is very bumpy getting out there so just be aware of that.
Number three is Juneau. It’s the state’s capital, this city has about 32.000 people that live in it. It’s not accessible by any way but flying in or taking the ferry or boat there. It is really beautiful, it does have a really fun setup that involves a lot of estate buildings and businesses. They all are on one side of this canal that goes between two mountains, but then you go over a bridge over this canal and on the other side where a lot of houses are. The cool thing about this city is that you do actually get a number of killer whales, seals and other sea life that are right there and they’re gonna come into the canal so that’s really fun.
Number four is going to be Palmer. This is a small town, there’s only about 7.300 people that live there and it’s not a lowland but it’s kind of flat there, as far as Alaskan standards of flat goes. It’s surrounded by these enormous bigger-than-life mountains all around you, so that’s really nice. Palmer really does have real history when it comes to agriculture because it was part of the New Deal where they were going to send a lot of folks up there to try to develop agriculture. You can still see evidence of that legacy with rusty farm equipment here or there, or you’re going to see farms and you usually don’t think about farms in Alaska. It’s also going to have a really slow-paced feel to it, really relaxed and laid-back and usually it stays pretty low-key.
Number five has got to be Seward. If you love small-town life and you’re just looking for somewhere quiet to get away, then Seward is going to be the place for you. There are only 2.700 people that live in this small town on the Kenai Peninsula and it’s bare-bones, you’re not going to find a mall or anything like that obviously, but if you’re looking for that small-town feel and you want to be close to the ocean and you want to see these big glorious mountains all around you it’s going to be a great option. It would be a good weekend plan to go there to get away for a couple of days, just kind of relax and recharge. Seward is awesome and highly recommended. They do have a number of races, one of them is Mountain Marathon where they’ve got a big old steep mountain right there overlooking the town and people just run up the mountain and run back down.