I have been reading the reviews on Trip Advisor and it's not pretty. Can I have peoples' experiences with the Anchorage hotels. There doesn't seem to be an upscale hotel that is close to downtown. We will not have a car for a couple of days after we fly into Anchorage (doing day trips with Tours) and then we will rent a car. Need a shuttle from the airport and either a hotel within walking distance of the train, ect. or a hotel that provides a shuttle to downtown. Any suggestions, please. Thanks so much.

We stayed in the Anchorage Grand and liked it very much...can walk to anything. We had a train to catch early the next day, and it was perfect for it. We paid only 96$ for the end of Aug. It is not fancy, but it is very comfortable and a good value.

We loved the Marriott in downtown Anchorage. Your entire wall is glass and if you're on an upper floor and facing Denali in the morning, you can see it very clearly. Everything about the hotel was wonderful.

Well, it's not "upscale" but I was pleasantly surprised by the Ship's Creek Days Inn, and it meets your other criteria.
It's in a scenic location right on the creek, and the rooms were clean and pleasant, although standard.

It's a very short, two block walk to the train, however, the hotel shuttle will pick you up from the train station if you request it. The shuttle also goes to the airport, and you can walk to downtown from the hotel.

There are SEVERAL really nice hotels in downtown Anchorage!

I lived at the Sheraton for a month while working in Anchorage. It has really nice guest rooms and a very good restaurant, especially the breakfast buffet. My coworkers and I enjoyed their sushi bar, too!

I also lived at the Hilton for a week. It has a very nice bar with stuffed polar and grizzly bears! I didn't get to try their restaurant, but the bar was good.

I didn't stay at the Captain Cook, but we had a meeting there and it seemed nice. Their restaurant was also good.

You can take a cab to any of the hotels downtown for about $20. IIRC, none of them have a shuttle to/from the airport. The closest one to the train station is the Hilton, but all of them are no more than 5 minutes' cab ride.

We stayed at Days Inn. Just a short walk from Downtown. Not upscale but ok and reasonable price.

Airport Hotel Guru is a site that has good reviews of several Anchorage airport hotels. Sounds like the Courtyard might work best for you:

http://airporthotelguru.com/2008/01/26/anchorage-anc/

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express not far from the airport and found it to be of a good standard. We later hired a car to get around. This was some distance out of Anchorage. I am pretty sure there was a shuttle bus though.
Donna