An afternoon in Anchorage-what to do?
 

Is it possible to get out of the city to see beautiful places? Is Denali too far?

Denali is way too far to go in an afternoon, unless you take a charted flightseeing tour out of Anchorage. If you post the amount of time you have to spend, perhaps you will get some suggestions for near Anchorage trips.

Consider driving south toward Seward as far as time permits. It's a beautiful drive. You might have time enough to take the tram to the top of Mt Alyeska. But a flightseeing tour would be great.

Go for hike up Flat Top Mountain.

Have a meal or a drink at the Captain Cook Hotel.<BR><BR>http://www.captaincook.com/restaurants.htm

Rent a bike and ride along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail!

The drive south, as another poster suggested, is beautiful. You can also fly over Mt McKinley from tours out of Anchorage which was a highlight of our trip! The scenery is awesome!

Get out of Anchorage and go south. Seward is a 1 1/2-2 hour drive with fabulous scenery.

Seward is too far for an afternoon drive unless you want a blood clot.

What time of year ?

Drive down to Portage Glacier in Whittier. It's not that far out of Anchorage.

Assuming this is summer or fall, there are numerous choices depending on your interests. <BR><BR>The drive all the way to Seward is around 2-3 hours each way, and you're retracing your steps, however the road is beautiful. You can truncate the trip by going as far as Hope, a small village on the south side of Turnagain Arm - a grand afternoon's drive.<BR><BR>North you can visit the Matanuska Valley and head up to Hatcher Pass for an interesting glimpse of an old mine in grand mountain scenery. En route you can stop at Eklutna and visit the interesting native graveyard.<BR><BR>If you can swing the cost, the best outing for an afternoon is a flightseeing tour in a floatplane out of Lake Hood in Anchorage - over the Chugach mts., or the Kenai Moose Range, maybe land for an afternoon's fishing on a roadless lake someplace... a superb view of the Alaska you can't see from the road.<BR><BR>One good thing - &quot;afternoon&quot; in Anchorage in the summer lasts a helluva long time.

In ten days, we never saw dark so as long as you can hold up you'll have light to go and see. It really kept me going. At midnight, I would have to just make myself go to bed.

I second the recommendation to rent a bike and ride the Tony Knowles trail. Or you can walk part of it. You'll pass the Captain Cook monument, Earthquake Park, and in my case, a moose! <BR><BR>There are a lot of people who look down their noses at city bus tours, but if your time is limited and you want to see a lot, for me it's the way to go. Gray Line offers a three-hour city tour, or a seven hour (definitely more than an &quot;afternoon) tour that goes out past Turnagain Arm and includes a cruise to Portage Glacier.