Currently celebrating its 65th year of statehood, Alaska remains a top travel destination in 2024. Though visits to the state dropped by half from 2019 to 2020 due to the pandemic, visitor numbers have rapidly risen again every year since 2021. This year, Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks all saw a record number of visitors arriving via cruise ships and airplanes. Travel in the winter and summer this year has looked great for the state’s tourism industry.
People less familiar with the state might find it strange that Alaska’s a popular vacation destination, especially during winter when its temperatures grow bitterly cold and nights stretch on endlessly; however, the state offers many great experiences and adventures for prospective visitors. If you wonder why Alaska attracts so many visitors or want to visit it yourself one day, here are some reasons it makes a great place to go on vacation.
The Many Ways To Experience Alaska
Stretching for more than 570,000 miles across northwestern North America, Alaska is a huge place to explore; even a month-long trip might not be enough to see everything you want to. While the enormous size may be daunting at first, you have many options for traveling through different areas of the state and getting a good taste of what things it has to offer.
By flying into Anchorage or Fairbanks and renting a car, RV, or camper, you can easily visit several of the state’s most famous destinations, including Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The roads also lead to many other beautiful scenic outlooks, trails, and campsites.
While many parts of the state such as the southeast’s Inside Passage or the north’s vast rural interior are inaccessible by road, you can book a ride on a train, join one of Alaska’s famous cruises, or charter a bush plane to see these areas up close. If you really want to get off the beaten path, you can book a stay at a wilderness lodge accessible only by plane or boat.
The Home of Many Natural Wonders
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Alaska is famous for its impressive natural beauty. Though sometimes mischaracterized as a freezing cold, ice-covered expanse year-round, the state includes many diverse natural environments and climates. Huge mountains like Denali and massive glaciers like the Malaspina exist throughout the state, but so do sandy beaches, temperate rainforests, fjords, volcanoes, tundra, rivers, and millions of lakes.
The state’s wildlife is equally impressive: wolves, bears, caribou, moose, seals, orcas, salmon, trout, golden eagles, Arctic terns, and more live throughout the state. If you visit Alaska, you might get to see orcas swimming in the teal waters of Kenai Fjords National Park, wolves walking through valleys in Denali National Park, bears hunting for salmon in the Katmai River, or moose wandering around outside their hotel or cabin.
There has been an increase in solar activity this year, making one of Alaska’s most well-known natural phenomena, the Northern Lights, even more impressive for visitors to see this year. Besides this electromagnetic phenomenon, visitors can also experience Alaska’s famously long stretches of the sun barely rising during winter or shining brightly even past midnight during the summer.
A Land of Diverse Cultures and Histories
Making up 20% of Alaska’s population, Alaska Natives live in villages, towns, and cities across the state. The Athabaskan, Yup’ik, Iñupiat, Aleut, Tlingit, Alutiiq, Tsimshian, Siberian Yupik, Haida, and Eyak peoples each possess unique cultural histories, traditions, and beliefs. If you visit Alaska, you can see Alaska Natives balancing traditional and modern ways of living; you can also understand their vast cultural influence from art to architecture to place names. When visiting places like Anchorage’s Alaska Native Heritage Center or Fairbanks’s Alaska Native Language Center, you can also learn more about these groups.
The Russians and Americans who colonized Alaska also played a major role in the state’s history and culture. Russian Orthodox Churches and historical fur trading posts recall Alaska’s time as part of the Russian Empire, while the remnants of American gold mines and frontier towns recall the state’s various gold rushes. Places like the town of Ketchikan, located deep within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park has many historical resources focused on the history of the Alaskan Gold Rushes.
The Site of Many Exciting Outdoor Adventures
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Given its huge expanse, distinct natural environments, and abundant wildlife, Alaska is unsurprisingly attractive to any visitor who enjoys outdoor adventures. In winter, the state offers many spots and opportunities for ice-fishing, glacier climbing, dogsledding, skiing, snowboarding, dipping in hot springs, and more. In summer, the state is great for hiking, kayaking, sport fishing, swimming, river rafting, and much more. In the fall and spring, you can watch the leaves fall and animals prepare for winter or watch flowers and animals suddenly come back to life after a long, cold winter.
Since so much of the state is inaccessible by road, you might be interested in exploring the state’s unpaved, unspoiled, vast rural central and northern interior on foot or in small watercraft. You can do so by taking a guided backpacking, camping, kayaking, or rafting adventure offered by one of the state’s many backcountry tour companies. If you’re an expert outdoors adventurer, you might even take one of these trips unguided; if you do, just make sure you’re up to the challenge the rugged outdoors presents.
Alaska’s most famous outdoor event is, of course, the Iditarod sled dog race that takes place every winter. Dozens of trained mushers and sled dogs race across 1,049 miles of frozen and snow-covered interior and coastal Alaska. The race usually kicks off in downtown Anchorage; the mushers and dogs arrive in Nome, hundreds of miles northwest, between 8 to 15 days later. Every year, the event draws thousands of visitors to watch and cheer on sled dog teams.
Final Thoughts
This is another great year for tourism in America’s largest state. Though its relative isolation, vast size, and colder weather even in summer might make Alaska seem strange for a very popular tourist destination, the state attracts many visitors because of its natural beauty, rich culture, and opportunities for adventure.
If you want to travel to Alaska in the future, you should know about many ways to travel there, cool places to explore, and fascinating things to experience and learn about the state. Alaska remains a popular tourist destination for many reasons; will you be part of the next wave of first-time visitors?
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