Anchorage is the second biggest city in Alaska. We had a one day stay at Anchorage and was able to make most of it by taking the A-1 (All in one ) tour with 907 tours. Susan and John are great friendly people who run the tours. Susan is a great wealth of knowledge. The tour van was warm and neat and they provided us with a carseat for our infant son free of charge. Lunch at the house of Breads with lot of vegetarian options was quite good and included in the tour cost.
After being picked up from our hotel, we headed to a view point near the Anchorage airport with great views of 'The Great One' Mt.McKinley and Alaskan ranges on one side, and the chugach ranges on the other. We also stopped on the way to view the Great Earthquake highly effected area. Then we saw different airplanes that provides the means of transport to most remote places in Alaska.
After lunch, we took the scenic seward highway, and watched the turnAgain arm. It is funny to know how the tides change the direction of movement once in 6 hours.When I saw pictures of the mountain ranges online earlier, I thought those were black and white shots intended. But, I was surprised to realise that it is how they appear true to eye. The trees and bushes are black in the contrast white snow.we were able to see the glaciers before we had any fog settling up on the view. The portage glacier was ice blue and I was able to spot it from quite a distance.
We had a chance to see the Moose, Red Bison , Caribou, Bald eagle and the reindeer at the Wildlife conservation center with a chance for neat pics with those. Wood Bison once considered extinct are being cared for and ready to be introduced to the Alaska wilderness under the Wood Bison's conservation project undertook by the center. We could sit in the van watching for the animals or you could get down and walk from one enclosure to another with the van driving alongside.
The trip concludes with a trip to Mt.Alyeska a popular skiing resort. We get down the van infront of the tram terminal and get into a closed tram to be sky lifted to top of the mountain. Just a few steps from the terminal, there is a viewpoint with breath taking view and get to see many glaciers, moutain ranges, and turnagain Arm at a distance. We could watch people with their ski gear as they get ready to ski down the hill. The cafe near the terminal on the top sells sandwiches, coffee, hot chocolate and drinks. I guess it is open until/around 5 PM. We spent sometime there and headed down through the tram again.
It was a pretty good trip considering our limited time at Anchorage and able to cover all the popular sightseeing places there. We were picked up at our hotel around 1030 AM and back at hotel by 6 PM right by sunset time. 907 tours work through the winter and I highly recommend it for those who have limited stay at Anchorage. They are very friendly and Knowledgeable. The tour covers the Wildlife center's and tram tickets. They pay for lunch too. I found out about them from the trip Advisor.
These are the list of spots we covered on our own when time permitted -
The 5th Avenue mall in Anchorage (Simon.com) is a 4 storey great shopping center with all brands with food court on the top level. If you are planning to take home a bit of Alaska, "The Once in a Blue Moose" store on the first level of the mall is a great place with Alaskan shirts,cards, stickers, magnets from lower prices to higher end stuff like hand carved wooden displays.
We also visited Ramusen Center/Anchorage Museum located in downtown a few feet away from the Anchorage and thoroughly enjoyed the Alaskan history gallery, SmithSonian Arctic gallery and the Art of the North galleries. The Planetorium shows and times are limited during the weekdays hence, check with them beforehand. There is a restuarant lounge at the Museum that closed earlier on a weekday than the suggested time and there were no vegeterian sandwich options at the other cafe located in Museum. We were thankful that we carried snacks in our backpacks to munch on while taking a break from strolling through some of the long galleries. It will cost around $20 from airport to Downtown/museum/mall in a cab.
There are also the flightseeing rides at Anchorage that has packages to take around Mt.Mckinley,Anchorage etc.We did not opt for those considering safety for infant as well as need to pay an adult price for an infant too.And, some of those companies need a minimum of 2 persons to operate. I called a flightseeing company if they still make a glacier landing as mentioned on their site but got the response that they do not do it in winters due to safety.
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