Alaska Planning: Should I Visit Anchorage or Fairbanks (or both?)

A common question when starting your planning is whether to fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks. This article will cover both areas in-depth and help guide you to the right decision.

I have over 25 years experience in Alaska and love exploring this beautiful state. In my opinion, there’s one city that’s better, but I’ll provide all the information needed for you to make the best decision for your trip!

Article Summary

If you don’t have time to read through this entire article, here are the main takeaways.

Fairbanks is best for witnessing the northern lights and exploring Denali National Park. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve & the Arctic Circle are also popular places to visit.

I typically recommend Fairbanks for more off-beat travel and most notably for some of the best northern lights viewing in the world. It’s also a good option for people who have already been to Alaska.

Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska and the best hub for most quintessential Alaska experiences. From here, you are an hour or so to epic glaciers, world-class hiking and fishing, and you’re near the ocean.

There’s more variety of wildlife due to the bays, inlets, and oceans nearby (think whales, porpoise, sea lions, and sea otters along with all the land animals as well). It takes longer to get to Denali National Park than Fairbanks, about 5 hours away. Anchorage is my recommendation for your first Alaska trip!

Should You Fly to Anchorage or Fairbanks?

Making the decision to choose Anchorage or Fairbanks will largely depend on which activities you want to do and which areas you want to visit (more on that in the next section). It will also depend on how much time you have to explore.

For example, within a few hours of Anchorage, you can be kayaking alongside sea otters in Resurrection Bay and hiking to glaciers. Whereas from Fairbanks, you are closer to Denali National Park and Gates of the Arctic National Park.

If you have at least 14 days, you can fly into Anchorage, explore the area, then drive to Fairbanks and Denali NP and explore that area as well. If you only have 7 days, though, I’d stick to one region.

The two largest airports in Alaska are Anchorage and Fairbanks. Anchorage has over 300,000 residents while Fairbanks only has about 32,000. Anchorage has a much larger airport with more planes flying to it daily, although neither airport qualifies as large by any means.

For the most part, it’s cheaper to fly into the Ted Steven’s International Airport in Anchorage.

Anchorage vs Fairbanks: Best Launching Point for Your Trip

Many people will claim that both cities offer a wealth of experiences and things you can do. While that is true, Anchorage has a huge advantage over Fairbanks.

Geography & Scenery

The reason Anchorage has the advantage boils down to geography. Fairbanks is located in an area known as the ‘Interior’ of Alaska. If you fly into Fairbanks you may be surprised that there aren’t towering mountains surrounding the area. The Interior of Alaska has more large valleys and even gets flat as you continue north toward the Arctic Circle.

Anchorage is in Southcentral Alaska. The city sits on the Cook Inlet waters with the imposing Chugach Mountains as a backdrop. Anchorage provides much more scenic views and is what most people think of when it comes to Alaska.

Activities

Because Anchorage is in Southcentral Alaska, it’s close to the Kenai Peninsula, an area loaded with glaciers and hiking and whales and every epic experience you can think of. Honestly, the only popular thing this area doesn’t have is Denali National Park.

Things you can do here quite easily that you can’t in Fairbanks include hiking on a glacier (or many), hiking to glaciers, whale watching, other wildlife viewing, kayaking on an inlet, and participating in world-class fishing on the Kenai or near Homer.

There are many activities you can do in and around Fairbanks, but it’s not fair to say they both offer the same amount of things to do. There’s just way more to do within a few hours of Anchorage than Fairbanks.

But if you do want to fly into Fairbanks, perhaps for easier access to Denali NP, you can easily make an entire trip out of it. You could visit nearby Chena Hot Springs, drive a few hours to Denali, take a tour to the Arctic Circle, visit the town of North Pole, and even head south to explore the Castner Glacier.

City Offerings

If you’re flying all the way to Alaska, I wouldn’t spend too much time in either city. Alaska is full of mountains, wildlife, glaciers, hiking, fishing, and more, which is best experienced outside of the larger towns and cities.

That said, there are a lot of things you can do within each city.

Population

Anchorage is the largest city in the state with roughly 300,000 people. Fairbanks, on the other hand, has about 30,000 people and roughly 97,000 when you include the surrounding areas.

Things to Do

Within Anchorage, you can visit museums, try a bunch of restaurants, walk a trail or go hiking, and even fish right in the city! Here’s a large list of things to do while you’re in Anchorage. If you prefer an itinerary, here’s a 24-hour Anchorage itinerary with all the highlights. A huge perk of Anchorage is that it’s a great base for day trips. Here are the ones I recommend.

Fairbanks has a cute and historic downtown. There are many museums worth checking out such as the university’s Museum of the North. There are over 2.5 million interesting artifacts including Alaska’s largest collection of gold. There’s also the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium, and Auto Museum, and Pioneer Park which is a historic village with original buildings.

Food

Both cities have a surprising amount of fantastic restaurant options. In Anchorage you can find all sorts of options. Some of my favorites include Fire Island Bakery, Snow City Cafe, Middleway Cafe, Spenard Roadhouse, and Humpy’s. But if you’re in the mood for Thai, Vietnamese, sushi, etc you can also find a lot of great options. And don’t discount Charlie’s Bakery for Chinese food – everything there is fantastic.

Fairbanks also has many great options. I recommend Turtle Club, Pump House, Brewsters, and Cookie Jar.

Is Anchorage or Fairbanks More Expensive?

Alaska is an expensive destination. Everything costs more here in large part due to shipping costs. Both places will be pricey and are comparable in costs, with a few differences outlined here.

Fairbanks is more expensive to fly into than Anchorage. This is because there are more flights and Anchorage has a larger airport. And often, flights to Fairbanks (FAI) will first stop in Anchorage (ANC) and then head to Fairbanks.

Vehicle rentals are less expensive in Fairbanks. In Anchorage, however, you’ll have many more options to choose from.

For hotels and accommodations, both places are similar in prices. Fairbanks will be slightly higher as there aren’t as many options.

Food costs are about the same or slightly higher in Fairbanks simply due to its location so far north compared to Anchorage.

What About the Northern Lights? Where Should I Go?

Fairbanks is much further north than Anchorage and has less light pollution. It’s also in a region of the world known as the ‘Auroral Oval’.

Your chances of seeing a stunning aurora show are best around Fairbanks. Here are some of the best places to stay for the northern lights.

If this is the point of your trip, skip Anchorage and go straight to Fairbanks. If you’re reading this and you already booked your trip to Anchorage, it’s still possible to see the northern lights from Anchorage. Here are the best viewing locations from Anchorage.

I also have a winter itinerary that starts in Anchorage and ends in Fairbanks (via the Alaska Winter Train).

Note that you can only see the northern lights when it’s dark enough outside. The best times to see the lights are September – early April. The sky doesn’t get dark in the summer months in Alaska so it’s impossible to see the northern lights during the summer (May to mid-August).

There’s a slightly gray area between August and mid-September where you could catch a show, but I wouldn’t plan my trip around it as it’s incredibly unlikely. If you happen to see the lights at that time of year, consider yourself very lucky!

How Much Time Should I Spend in Anchorage?

I recommend a day or two at most. Even if you only have a few hours, you can accomplish a lot (here’s a list of things you can do). If you’re flying all the way to Alaska, I’d recommend getting away from the city and exploring the glaciers (here are 7 you can drive to from Anchorage), wildlife, mountains, and exploring small towns. You can visit other, much better cities elsewhere in the world.

As far as cities go, my honest opinion is Anchorage is an okay city with a decent amount to do. But you’ll get a far more authentic Alaska experience by heading away from it.

Denali National Park: Should I Fly to Anchorage or Fairbanks?

You can get to Denali National Park from either Anchorage or Fairbanks.

Fairbanks is much closer to Denali and is about a 2 1/2 hour drive (122 miles, 196km). If the entire point of your trip is to visit Denali, you could simply fly into Fairbanks, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice.

There is so much more to Alaska than just Denali with mountain ranges everywhere. Also keep in mind that typically you can only see the mountain about 30% of the time (I’ve seen Denali the most from Anchorage and Eagle River, about 130 miles as the crow flies).

For a trip that includes Denali and other areas of Alaska, one option would be to fly into Fairbanks then make your way to Denali and down south to other popular areas then fly out of Anchorage. Or do the reverse. This way you wouldn’t be backtracking and driving the same route more than once.

But rental vehicles could make Fairbanks cost-prohibitive. As a rule of thumb, you should book your vehicle rental at the same time or even before you book your flights. Most people are shocked at how expensive they are (typically at least $100-200 a day).

From Anchorage, Denali National Park is about a 5-6 hour drive (don’t let Google Maps fool you, it’s much longer than 4 hours). Along this route, you could stop in the historic town of Talkeetna for a few hours and also at many of the pull-off areas along the highway.

You could easily make a day of this drive (one way that is). It’s important to note that you’re covering a lot of ground, about 240 miles, so if there’s construction or an accident or anything, it could really add to your drive time.

From Denali, you could turn around and head back. Alternatively, you could make you’re way north to visit Fairbanks. From there, you can head on to the town of North Pole and then head south to Valdez. This would be one epic road trip and I’d only recommend this if you love driving. But you’d cover a lot of the drivable areas of the state in one trip.

The stretch of road from Valdez to Palmer is one of the prettiest drives in the state (aside from Anchorage to Seward).

My Personal Recommendation

If you’re choosing between the two cities, aside from the Northern Lights, you’ll want to go with Anchorage over Fairbanks. Anchorage is the launching point for most of the popular activities in Alaska.

This includes towns to the south such as Girdwood, Seward, Homer (with the famous Homer Spit), Kenai (famous for the Kenai River and fishing), Cooper Landing, and also areas to the north such as Hatcher Pass, Talkeetna, and Matanuska Glacier.

While Fairbanks is closer to Denali, you can still drive up (about 5-6 hours) north from Anchorage to reach Denali.

Anchorage is set between the Chugach Mountains and the waters of Cook Inlet, making it a spectacular starting point.

Fairbanks is 360 miles north in what’s known as the Interior. There are mountains but they are further out as Fairbanks sits in a valley.

While I personally recommend Anchorage as your starting point, there are many popular things to do in and around Fairbanks. The popular tourist town of North Pole is nearby. Chena Hot Springs is about 90 minutes northeast. Denali is a few hour’s drive.

Within Fairbanks, there’s the Tanana River, great food, the famous Ice Art Championships, festivals, a few museums, and a small-town atmosphere.

To Wrap Up…

Overall Anchorage is the best choice when deciding where to start your trip. There are more flights and more activities within a few hours of the city. But if you plan your visit for the Northern Lights, then Fairbanks is a better choice.

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