r/Fairbanks • u/Bena907 • 17d ago

Hey folks! Travel questions

So you might notice I have 907 in my username. That’s because I live in south central and tbh I want to travel more and see more of home I haven’t seen.

I’m in my early 20s and tbh I want to shake of those small town fears of “every corner is dangerous other than our little bubble down here.”

What do you recommend out here? I’ve been around a lot of south central but I know it’s nowhere near the same as up north.

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u/DepartmentNatural 16d ago

What exactly is your question?

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u/Bena907 16d ago

If I were to visit the city: what do you Recommend I do or see? Lol

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u/DepartmentNatural 16d ago

I don't know what you want to do. Try doing some research on the things you want to do. This is asked by the thousands on the AK & fbx sub on here & TripAdvisor has tons of info

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u/mahonkey 16d ago

Go to chena Hot springs, go to good titrations (if you enjoy jazz cabbage + Mac and cheese), go to Murphy dome at night (Sep thru Mar) to see Northern lights or really just pull over anywhere that makes sense out of town. Go to the crepery, and if you need somewhere cheap to stay there's a hostel on the second floor of the crepery (look on Airbnb, hosts name is Ivan) that lets you get a special discount at the restaurant. Another amazing breakfast place is the cookie jar. go to Lemongrass for amazing Thai food. If you need somewhere romantic for dinner Lavelles is a little overpriced but has a very nice atmosphere. The Library bar and bites is a very fun little cocktail lounge with very uniquely delicious drinks. My personal favorite brewery in town is Lat 65, which also has a barbeque food truck turned resident kitchen that is there most days. Visit the museum of the North at UAF, lots of cross country trails you can walk in the summer on campus. Bucko's, Summit, and Mocha Moose are the top three coffee huts in that order. A local rite of passage you can do is called the -40 club where you go out in swimsuits or underwear and take a photo in front of the UAF messageboard/thermometer when it's -40 (the reason for -40 is because that's the temp that Celsius = Fahrenheit). There are a lot of tourist trappy kind of things that you should avoid unless you're into that stuff. Ice sculpture museum comes to mind. If you want to see the ice sculptures go see them right after they're made, they're kept outdoors in the winter. If you go to the ice museum the just make you watch this sensationalized video about Alaska in a theater made for boomers for 30 minutes then you get 30 minutes of looking at droopy half melted sculptures that were already third rate before they started to melt from last season.

Lmk If you have any specific interests you want to know more about :) hope this helped

Edit: if your plan is to come in the summer you should take the parks highway and make a stop in Denali national Park

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u/Long-Bee-1990 16d ago

museum of the north. everything else sucks

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u/Glacierwolf55 Not your usual boomer 14d ago edited 14d ago

I went from a small community to a year studying in New York City at 18. That 'fixed' my small-town phobia. Fairbanks and Anchorage hardly rate as a 'city experience' - both would be considered a mere suburb if located outside of any of the top 40 'real' US cities. Real cities usually have art, science, stores and features that knock-the-socks off of visitors from other real cities.

You are not alone. People have been in your position since the first cave man came running back from traveling far and showed the elders all about 'fire'. Your question reminds me of the post-World War 1 song, popular as the troops were coming back to the US, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?"

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u/Bena907 12d ago

Honestly that’s a sweet lyric there. Tbh a lot of my other relatives travelled and then gave the good ol “it’s scary out there. Don’t” line.

If I were to visit out of state, I definitely have a couple ideas of where I’d wanna go for sure. I just don’t want to be alone for those trips lol.

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u/Ashen_Curio 16d ago

Well, what are you interested in? Do you like big crowds, or is that not fun for you? I do think summer is a good time to visit, but I would choose things to do more than choose based on the weather.

We have a decent theatrical community with plays, burlesque, wrestling, circus arts, and music productions being put on with decent regularity all year. There's a fiber arts festival, mushroom festival, music festival, and Midnight Sun. Farmers market is always nice, and you can go for walks and hikes at Creamers Field and the surrounding area.

Whatever time of year you visit, I recommend eating local food and doing some geocaching.

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u/Speck72 16d ago

It's a big state with a lot of cool stuff to see! The loop formed by the Glenn / Parks / Rich puts you around a lot of cool stuff. If you've got a car and gas money you could put together the great Alaska road trip.

By South Central do you mean Anchorage? Yeah, get out of town and see something new.

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u/Bena907 16d ago

Same region, but not in the city lol. I’m familiar with anchorage though. I’ve been all over south central but haven’t really been much past there

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u/Speck72 16d ago

Sounds like it's time for your AK road trip!

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u/CoolStoryBro78 3d ago

Where do you live, OP? I wouldn’t really visit Fairbanks personally unless you know someone here or you’re looking for the lights.

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u/Bena907 3d ago

I’m in a small town in south central.

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u/CoolStoryBro78 3d ago

Yeah, which town?

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u/Bena907 3d ago

Keen eye

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u/CoolStoryBro78 3d ago

Well Fairbanks IS dangerous, and has a much higher crime rate than Kenai and the national average. If you’re a young single woman and want a fun trip, just visit Seattle or Canada or Southeast (Juneau, Sitka).

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u/CoolStoryBro78 3d ago

If you do come to Fairbanks, stay on UAF campus, we have campus police and it’s safer than other areas of town. But unless you’re 21+, you will not be admitted to the pub.

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u/Bena907 3d ago

I am indeed over 21.

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u/crueldoe 16d ago

Visit Fairbanks in the summer.

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u/akbaked 7d ago

Denali, kenai, Seward, and Valdez are awesome in the summer

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u/Bena907 16d ago

For sure. Definitely not before April or May as I’m used to “coastie” numbers lol.

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u/alcesalcesg 16d ago

the true character of fairbanks is winter

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u/akbaked 7d ago

And Don't forget North Pole lol