Anchorage Family Vacations

If the city you hail from is more concrete jungle than rain forest, head to Anchorage where "big city" happily meshes with "the great outdoors." Here in south central Alaska -- with its motto of "Big Wild Life" -- the largest city in the state will enchant every member of your family.

Walking around town it's common to spy a majestic bald eagle soaring overhead or a moose ambling down the street, stopping traffic. With a population of 277,000, Anchorage is home to a busy international airport and is often visited by thousands enjoying Alaskan cruises. Bear (black and grizzly), fox, Dall sheep, wolves, beavers, and all other manner of critters also call this home. Anchorage is a city where all things wild coexist with tamer urban life.

Anchorage beckons adventure-seekers who come to hike, bike, fish, camp, and bird and whale watch. The landscape is breathtaking with 60 nearby glaciers, and seven mountains -- Chugach, Kenai, Talkeetna, Tordillo, Aleutian, Alaska and Mount McKinley -- within eyeshot. Anchorage, with its perfect location on the Cook Inlet coastline, is a nature lover's paradise that's easy to get to and inexpensive to explore.