I have lived my entire life in the Lower 48 States and Alaska seems like a cool place to live. Could somebody from Alaska please tell me why or why not Alaska is a good place to live? In all honesty, I'd probably live in a city if I moved to Alaska like Anchorage, Fairbanks, or Juneau; I wouldn't want to live like an isolated mountaineer.
Could you also tell me where you live/have lived in Alaska and give me your honest opinion about it? Tell me what you like and don't like about Alaska. Thanks!
Hi! So I am currently living in Anchorage, I've lived here for 6 years. I also lived in Juneau for about 5 years before I moved here, and I have also visited Fairbanks numerous times.
So I'll start off my opinions about each.
Anchorage: It's great here, honestly. You have the city life downtown and midtown, but you also have all the beauty and nature surrounding you so its a good balance. I live in south Anchorage and it's really nice here, just like any suburban area but with all the necessities less than 5 miles away. Transportation is easy here, if you have a car, it takes less than 20 minutes to drive all the way across town, and there's never really any traffic. Summers are nice here, especially this past summer, a majority of the days are sunny and can get up to nearly 80 degrees, usually its around 65-70 though. But winters are long, you appreciate them at first, but when it lasts almost 7 months its definitely bothersome, especially if you don't like the cold and snow. Usually winters last from October-April. Basically Anchorage is the place to be if you enjoy city life with the serenity being 5 minutes away, there's so much to do outdoors (and indoors) here.
Juneau: Is a cute, tourist like town. Juneau is very small with a population of 32,000. You are still surrounded by people and activity but when it comes to Juneau, there's not really a "city" part of it. Sure, there's downtown but a majority of everything there is very touristy. There's nice restaurants and shops if you really want to explore though. Everything else is pretty spread apart, compared to what I'm used to in Anchorage. Oh, a MAJOR con in Juneau is the rain. On average, it annually rains 222 (that includes days that it snows in the winter) days there. I mean, it's nice if you like a rain foresty type place, vegetation is in an abundance there. Overall, I just don't like the small, touristy feel of Juneau, it was nice living there for a while, but it gets old soon. There's not many places to shop, or much to do there. But if you like a smaller, "cute" town that still has the people but lacks the city part then Juneau is where you want to go.
Fairbanks: Granted, I've only been there 4 or 5 times for several days at a time, I can still give you my opinion. First off, Fairbanks is in the extremes when it comes to weather. Summers can get very warm, 80-90 degrees some days, but the winters get COLD, averages in the negatives. Okay you can look all that up online I'm sure you're thinking. Anyways, I don't like Fairbanks very much. It has a very industrial, run-down feeling. It doesn't have much tourist attraction and most of the town has a "ghetto" kind of feeling. It's not a very appealing town but then again maybe I just haven't spent enough time there to really get a feel for it. All in all, if you don't like EXTREMELY cold winters, don't go here.
Alright, so there's my opinions of each. Basically, my favorite place out of the three is Anchorage, I mean, there's a reason why it has a larger population than both Juneau and Fairbanks! All of the places have their flaws, but Anchorage is the most appealing of them.
So, I'm not really sure what else you're looking to know but I can offer answers to most of your questions, feel free to email me (happy.jenna21@yahoo.com) with whatever you want to know! :)
P.S, Sorry for my 12 year old email, I made it a long time ago and only use it for Yahoo Answers, I'm definitely not 12.
My dad lived there and I visited him near Fairbanks (with trips to other places) for a month--hopefully someone else will have a better answer. Basically, in summer it's wonderful and probably better than anything in the lower 48, and in the winter it's worse than anything in the lower 48. In winter it is dark most of the time, it is so cold that you need to plug your car in so the fluids won't freeze, and yes, your spilled coffee will be ice before it hits the pavement. But summer!
In summer, it doesn't really get dark so barbecues may not end. It starts to turn into evening (around 10:30 or 11 pm), but doesn't quite get to the dark of night before it turns into morning. The temperature is pretty much perfect--75-90 degrees with most days around 82 so you still get to wear shorts and tees, but if you wanted to hike in brush with jeans on it isn't too hot for that. I went fishing for an hour and caught my limit in salmon. Denali Park is amazing--I saw a caribou from 70 feet away.
As far as the 'isolated mountaineer' thing, Fairbanks does have enough people that you won't feel isolated, but something I noticed in my short time visiting was that driving times/distances are a lot longer. Driving five hours one way for a weekend trip seems perfectly normal and reasonable. Something 45 minutes away is just around the corner. It may have been the vacation attitude I was feeling, but it seemed like people didn't think of a two hour drive as "all the way out there".
I lived in North Pole, Alaska......the nearest town to Fairbanks. I think, just like anything else, Alaska is the best place in the world for some people and the worst for others. It all just depends on what your priorities are and what type of person you are.
For me, here are the pros and cons:
Food: especially fresh items - are much more expensive because of the shipping costs. They are also half-rotten by the time you get them home. If you're the type of person who loves to garden, you can do that. The growing season is REALLY short, but because of the constant sunlight, things grow HUGE....so it's pretty awesome. If you like to hunt and fish, you can really stock your freezer with lots of things.......salmon.......caribou..........
Weather: The summer temperatures can get up into the 90s......although the huge mosquitoes sometimes can make being outside unpleasant. Still, the daylight lasts for hours and that is really awesome. And on the days when "the mountain" (Denali) is out (visible), you get incredible views of some of the best scenery in the world. The winters are frigid.....it's an Arctic climate, obviously. Personally, I love cold weather and I didn't mind the cold temperatures.....except when I had problems in the house with pipes freezing. And I was always afraid I would get a flat tire on the way home some night from work and would freeze to death......but it never happened! So, during the summers you can go white-water rafting up at Denali; kayaking; canoeing; swimming in the water is too cold, but you can go to Chena Hot Springs in the winter for a nice little trip. Obviously, there is skiing and snowboarding. And people all have snow machines (they don't call them snowmobiles) and there are so many places to go riding them in the winter. In the summer, everyone gets out their ATVs or Gators.
People: There are a lot of unusual people who live in Alaska......for good reason. It's remote and some people just want to get away from it all. Others are running from something. (There are a number of problems such as drug and alcohol abuse and pedophilia.) BUT, some of the nicest people I have ever met are from Alaska. Because of the harshness of living there, people learn to stick together and will do anything to help you.
Homes/Rentals: You can buy a home for around $250,000.....but it may not be in as good as shape as in the Lower 48. The weather really beats houses up there. Rentals are pretty expensive. And heating your home with oil is really expensive, so it's good to learn how to effectively and safely use wood stoves.
Jobs: Fairbanks isn't a huge city, consequently, it can be a challenge to find a job that will allow you to have money to do all the fun stuff there. But, if you can think outside the box and be creative, you can start up your own business and do pretty well. Or you can try one of the seasonal jobs....like oil-rig trucking; fishermen, loggers, etc.
Island Madness: So, we all know the state is HUGE. But, the road system is NOT. The majority of places in Alaska are not reachable by road. You need to fly, boat, snowmachine, etc. And what would normally be a 30-minute trip in the Lower 48 can take hours in Alaska. For instance, I drove up to the Arctic Circle in October....in a blizzard....LOL........and it was a 20-hour trip. Worth it, but scary as heck! Plane tickets to get out of Alaska or back in are expensive. So, if you're the type that likes to travel around the country, Alaska is not the place for you.
Basically, if you are a rugged, independent, hard-worker.....you will love Alaska. Just seeing the Aurora Borealis for the first time makes you almost stop breathing. They are incredible. But if you like to be the life-of-the-party and go clubbing every single night or have your choice of hundreds of stores, then Alaska is probably not the answer to your dreams.
Hope this helps!
Yes
But you must love cold weather.
not if you like warm sunny winters
