Anchorage or Juneau?

[takuriver]

I've lived in both, would never live in Anchorage again. But, it will come down to the size of community and amenities you are looking for. Hard to recommend one over the other without understanding your lifestyle necessities.

I think you either love Juneau or dislike it. Anchorage is a "take it or leave it" kind of city. Anchorage has better weather, but also has larger city issues.. Juneau is much more like the coastal areas of Oregon and Washington, with more snow.

[n3wt]

Juneau is the more beautiful place by far, but Anchorage is much larger and less remote.

It really depends on how important natural beauty is to you.

(Juneau is closer to the Klondike too! =D)

[Dakster]

I dealt with South Florida, just South of the City of Miami for 41 years too... Share the same opinions of the place. I do/did love my job and had really good neighbors, which is why I was able to deal with it for so long. Anyways, we picked Anchorage over Juneau to start out with. And Finally made it here to Anchorage. (Still have stuff to do in Miami before I can permanently call this home though.)

Since you are from Tampa the price shock for housing and food prices won't be that bad in Anchorage. And Instead of every block/intersection there being an idjit driver, it is about one every 10-20 miles. HOWEVER, at times there is some "heavy" traffic here too. Especially around "midtown" or "downtown". Big box stores are a plenty and they so far seem to always be busy, but not over crowded. People are typically very nice around here. Housing here is very tight too... But since this is a city of 330k at least you have some turnover. Unlike Juneau which is a city of 30k (IIRC). In fact, some of the houses/condos we are looking at around here won't be available for a week or so. And once you get into the "looking" for a place to live and have contacted several property management companies, you get updates on things coming available on the market.

And I gotta say, my blood pressure dropped about 10-15 points since we got here... And I think it will go down a lot more once I am here to stay.

[Crossfire600]

Originally Posted by CoastieJane

I am active duty military and am coming up on my transfer date soon. There is a good chance Anchorage and/or Juneau will be choices. I am originally from a town in Washington State a little south of Seattle. Currently living in the Tampa, FL area and my husband and I both hate it. We don't like the weather and people are really unfriendly. No one can drive. Coming from the northwest too we are very active, outdoorsy people. We are both big hunters and fisherman. Just looking for advice, maybe someone who has been to or lived in either Juneau or Anchorage and Seattle/western WA and might be able to compare them. Would also like some info about job opportunities in either city, since my husband will need a job. He's looking into the electrician's union. For people who have moved to AK from the lower 48, what was the hardest part or adjustments you had to make? Just looking for some info Thank you for your time!

Edit: I have also heard a lot about how expensive groceries are in AK. How much more?

Throw my .02 cents in.. When we moved up here we originally looked at Juneau. We really wanted to experience Alaska so we did some investigative work including a very long moving to Alaska thread here. I love the outdoors (hunting, fishing, snow machining, trapping etc. etc.) After taking a long hard look at Juneau we decided that 30 miles of road and the only way out being by boat or plane wouldn't allow us to see the state like we wanted to. We settled on the valley and have been all over the state with the exception of Deadhorse. If there is a road you can get to it from the valley.. The folks on this forum were wonderful and very helpful and we are friends with several folks in our area still..

[HannahTravels]

I've only spent time in Anchorage for travel/vacation purposes but I thought I'd throw my two cents in on the pros and cons of Juneau. Some of the pros include: beautiful scenery, access to the AK Marine Highway, mild weather/temps, very community oriented, and great outdoorsy activities (skiing, snowboarding, hiking, climbing,etc). Some of the cons include: cost of living, difficulty of housing market, rainy weather (some people see this as a con), and isolation. A lot of those things apply to Anchorage too but I personally love Juneau and know quite a few coastie families who love it as well. I'd encourage anyone to move here! However, they are considering moving the USGC base (not sure of the official term), which may be something to consider. If they move it, they will be moving it to Auke Bay and that is quite the trek from a lot of the available housing in town. If you aren't someone who minds commutes then it isn't an issue but I know the possibility is a little daunting for some USCG families who don't have vehicles here/have purchased homes near the current base location. Just something to consider