Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, is a curious mix of industry and culture. The boats in port and the warehouses built up along the Knik Arm waterfront reveal close ties to oil and industry. However, this actually contributes to the Anchorage aura, both businesslike and beautiful. Numerous hikes, vistas and haunts can be found within an hour's flight or drive of the city.

If you're looking for bears, Katmai is the place. Across the Shelikof Strait from Kodiak Island and with a very volcanic and lunar-like landscape, Katmai National Park has smoking craters and salmon choked rivers. The main town in the Katmai environs is King Salmon. This leaves little doubt as to what locals fish for and also accounts for the large brown bear population.

Kodiak, the island, is Alaska's biggest, though with a population of 14,000, Kodiak, the city, feels relatively small. Though, as is typical of Alaska, the panoramas are huge.

Seward, Alaska is perched on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula along Resurrection Bay. A short glacial slide away is stunning Kenai Fjords National Park, best viewed from the seaside as the interior of the park, with its rugged landscape, is difficult to penetrate on foot.

Soldotna is a major hub of the Kenai Peninsula, south and west of Anchorage. Bordering the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, this is an area thick with wildlife, from bear and wolves to moose, caribou, geese, eagles, and salmon—for which fishing in the Kenai River that bisects the town is a popular pastime.

Little in 21st century Valdez is left to remind the visitor of the tragic 1989 oil spill that most associate with the area. The road in, connecting the city to Anchorage and Fairbanks, is splashed with waterfalls and provides surreal vistas of glaciers and mountains spread out along the coast. Sea lions now bask unconcernedly on oil-free rocky beaches outside of Valdez, and sea birds again call the area home.