Anchorage is a municipality: essentially it's a city and a county. The city itself is defined by Muldoon Road to the east, Rabbit Creek Road to the south and Cokk Inlet to the south and west. Several small suburbs are part of the municipality of Anchorage, although they are physically outside the city of Anchorage.

Climate

Anchorage has a temperate climate, with an average summer of 18 °C, and in winter of -2 °C. Maximum range between 12 and 32 °C in summer and between 1 and -35 °C in winter. Minimum ranges between 5 and 17 °C in summer and between -5 and -48 °C in winter. The highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 33 °C, in 1941.Rarely happens in the summer of the temperature being negative, but it happened in 1984 and 1992.The rainfall occurs more intensely in the summer, mainly between August and October, the rainiest month is August, with 74 millimeters of rainfall. The dry season takes place between January and May, when it rains less than 90 millimeters, April is the driest month. Unlike many cities, it rains a lot in the fall and a little in the spring, although it is colder.

Bairros

You will often hear anchoragianos use the following terms to designate parts of the city - these areas were originally separate municipalities that mixed when the city grew:

• Downtown (Lower) - The city's historic district is located on the north-west end of the dock; here are most tourist activities, gift shops, hotels and the railway station.
• Midtown - The mainly commercial area just south of downtown.
• South Anchorage (Anchorage South) - Dimond Boulevard and South. Suburb mainly residential with some commercial areas.
• West Anchorage (West Anchorage) - The area along the coast line to the southwest of downtown, including the historic Bootlegger's Cove residential area and the famous Earthquake Park. Completely residential.
• Spenard - Encravado between Midtown and West Anchorage, was once a separate city and concentrated some of the more racist aspects of anchoragian life. It's still a red alert district. Be careful at night.
• East Anchorage (Anchorage East) — everything east of Seward Highway and north of Tudor Road. Mainly residential.
• Hillside - South Anchorage part. It's all that's east of Seward Highway and south of Abott Road.
• Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek - Cities in the city's suburbs. Totally residential, but they provide entry to State Park.
• Bird, Indian, Girdwood, very small communities south of the city.

By plane

Anchorage is served by most major American airlines. An air trip is the cheapest and most efficient way to enter or leave the state. There are direct flights between Anchorage and Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis or Taipei all year round, plus a few more places in the summer. Many of the arrivals and departures from the state are red-eye flights (flights departing very late at night and arriving very early the following morning), but there are also frequent daytime flights to Seattle. Anchorage recently completed an extensive reshuffle at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport to help accommodate the growing tourism (unofficial sources estimated that the number of tourists in May-September 2004 is around 4 million tourists).

By boat

Many cruise lines provide transport from their terminals to Anchorage and may even include guided visits or air return out of the state.

By train/train

By bus/bus

By car

Anchorage can be hit by car from Canada using Alaska Highway, which starts in northern British Columbia and ends up in Fairbanks, passing through the city. Parks Highway, which starts at Fairbanks, and Glenn Highway, which starts at Tok, is another possible chance. Seward Highway serves traffic into Anchorage from the Kenai Peninsula to the south.

Don't forget to hold a copy of The Mile Post, an extremely precise and very detailed map of all the roads, pointing out scenic points of view. If you're going to fly to Anchorage and then drive across the state, you'd better take a copy of The Mile Post at Costcos or local WalMart.

On foot

The developed part of the municipality of Anchorage is very widespread and not very walkable — with the exception of the compact area of downtown.

The city was built in a network system: the numbered streets are in a east-west direction starting on First Avenue in the far north of the city; numbered streets are in a north-south direction starting at A Street in the middle of the downtown and moving west; to the east of A Street the names of the streets begin with sequential letters and are called Alascan cities (Barrow, Cordova, Denali, etc.). This makes it quite easy to find on a map, although the system is less coherent outside the lower area.

By bicycle

Anchorage has a great system of bicycle lanes, about 200 miles along the way (120 of which are paved). The popular Tony Knowles bike track is parallel to the coastline, from downtown to Kincaid Park at the airport. Several companies rent bicycles and tours by bicycle.

By train/train

By bus/bus

If you're determined to save money, use PeopleMover, the Anchorage bus system. In 2007, a trip cost $1.75, while a one-day pass cost $4. Most bus routes have a bus going in a different direction in an hour. Buses often arrive late.

Route 7 of the Anchorage buses stops at the south end of the airport

The public transport service does not cover the whole city, and some places have bus services more frequent than others (See peoplemover.org for full routes. The price is $1.75 a trip).

By boat

By car

Rent a car

You can rent a car instead of public transportation. Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport is served by several car rental companies. Some companies have locations outside the airport. If you're coming in summer, renting a car is not the solution: cars are very often all being used, and even if there are any cars, they are prepared to pay an astronomical price for it.

Taxis

Two main taxi companies serve the Anchorage area: Alaska Yellow Cab and Checker Cab; another company called Aurora Taxi seems to be growing in importance. The airport also sells "tickets" by taxi over a counter.

• Alaska Native Heritage Center (8800 Heritage Center Drive; Tel. (907) 330-8000 Adults $23.50, Senior/Military $21.15, Children 7-16 $15.95, Children 6 years or less free input). — In this museum all the indigenous cultures of the Alascas are represented. In the museum, there is a great stage with dancers from dance native to Alaska, besides other events of the same genre. Behind the center a small path will give several stations, each one represented an aspect of indigenous life, with native guides with small demonstrations. Still inside the museum, many items like works of art, kayaks, and ulus (knives) are on display. There's a little theater that designs a lot of movies and a gift shop.
• Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center) (43 miles south of Anchorage in Seward Hwy on mile 79. Tel. (907) 783-2025 Adults $5, Children 4-12 $3, Seniors over 55 $3, Active Military with ID $3). - The CVA gives refuge to orphan, sick or injured animals. Visitors drive all over the park and come with the big, fenced animal habitats, which include bears, eagles, uapitis, elk, bison, and more.
• Anchorage Museum of History and Art (Anchorage Museum of History and Art), (121 W 7th Avenue. Tel. (907) 343-6173. Adults $8, 0-6 free, 6-17 $2, Senior/Military/Student with ID $7). — The Anchorage Museum of History and Art has several exhibitions from all over the country and all over the world, and several examples of local art, including pieces by Sidney Lawrence and Ray Troll. The museum also has vast exhibitions about the history of Alaska.
• Earthquake Park (4306 West Northern Lights Boulevard). Tel.: 907 276 4118) - Built on the site where, before the Good Friday Earthquake, there was an affluent residential area, the park has memorials and explanatory signs relating to the Good Friday Earthquake. Tony Knowles' bike lane goes through here.

Events

Activities

Alaska Tourism - Offering scripts with a guide speaking Portuguese.

• Wildlife observation — The Anchorage area is shelter for elk, brown and black bears, Dall sheep, and many species of migratory birds. The visitor must face