Anchorage, United States

Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska, in the Southcentral region. Anchorage is a cosmopolitan port city with a population of 288,000 (2019). It is a consolidated city-borough referred to as a municipality. The urbanized city is defined by Muldoon Road to the east, Rabbit Creek Road to the south, and Cook Inlet to the north and west. Several small suburbs are within the Municipality of Anchorage while physically outside what most Anchorageites would call the "Anchorage" proper area. These include Eagle River and Chugiak to the north and Girdwood to the south.

Let's be clear, if you are looking for the "real Alaska" this is not it, but you can see it from here. Anchorage is a city — a real city with freeways, traffic, giant malls, tall buildings, crime and most other things one expects to find in an American city. It is an important hub and the gateway to other marvelous areas including the Alaskan Interior and the Kenai Peninsula, but is not really a tourist destination. While it is not the administrative capital of Alaska, it is the economic capital. There are good places to eat and plenty of shopping, but the city is just that, a city. A great place to gear up for a trip, but it's not particularly "Alaskan" except for the weather and its spectacular setting.