Anchorage

Understand

Let's be clear, if you are looking for the "real Alaska" this is not it, but you can see it from here. Anchorage is a city — a real city with freeways, traffic, giant malls, tall buildings, crime and most other things one expects to find in an American city. It is an important hub and the gateway to other marvelous areas including the Alaskan Interior and the Kenai Peninsula, but is not really a tourist destination. While it is not the administrative capital of Alaska, it is the economic capital. There are good places to eat and plenty of shopping, but the city is just that, a city.