9 Liveliest Alaska Towns For Active Seniors

Alaska is a place of rugged mystery and stunning feats of man versus nature. Since its colonization and the discovery of gold, frontiersmen and women have fought against the elements to lay claim to this land. As one ages, there is little time for adventure. Jobs, careers, families, children. All these add up, and the lower 48 states may not feel as free as some people desire.

However, with age comes freedom. Jobs and careers end. Families and children become independent. For an active senior, Alaska may be the best trip, the last frontier. Here are nine towns with low populations where seniors can spend their golden years in stunning locales and scenery. Alaska is for the brave, but as many know, bravery comes from having seen a lifetime and not flinching. It’s hoped some retirement-aged travelers here hear the call of the wild.

Homer

On a sliver of land piercing 4.5 miles into the Kachemak Bay, the Homer Spit, and the rest of the City of Homer is known for being the place with things to do. While not specifically geared towards seniors, the Homer Spit is renowned for its diverse range of recreational activities for both visitors and residents of the city.

Seniors may want to take a scenic summer ride to an affordable $49 dinner at The Meandering Goat. Guests will enjoy a gourmet dinner featuring fresh seafood, local produce, and meats, all of which are available on a 25-minute cruise from Homer via water taxi. Shopping on the Spit is also a popular activity and includes hunting for local crafts, as well as cafe dining, on the Spit or at the Farmer’s Market, Pioneer Avenue, and Historic Old Town. Afterward, an elderly couple might walk down to the Homer Spit Trail and spend an afternoon spotting birds in the estuary.

And of course, the bug that traditionally attacks senior men is also alive and well in Homer. Fishing charters are popular in “the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.” If a boat is too unsteady, the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon is stocked with king salmon and includes fish cleaning tables, restrooms, and a picnic area.

Fairbanks

Fairbanks is the second-largest city in Alaska, with a population of approximately 32,000 as of 2025, and offers a plethora of natural and cultural attractions for both young and old. Seniors may want to shut the curtains at some point, but coupled with the highly visible Northern Lights, the Midnight Sun is part of a regional phenomenon that can only be observed near the poles of the globe.

Favorite activities, which don’t require a lot of physical exertion, but might attract lively seniors, include drives out into the Arctic Circle to experience still-active Native culture, as well as wildlife. Northern Alaska Tour Company is one of the companies that offers fly-and-drive tours to the northernmost points of the world, operating between May and September. The event that brought thousands into the state, the spillover of the Klondike Gold Rush, is also narrated on the Riverboat Discovery, an authentic Alaskan sternwheeler, during three-and-a-half-hour tours along the Chena and Tanana Rivers, which senior history enthusiasts might find fun and engaging.

Ketchikan

With a population of around 8,000 within the city itself and approximately 14,000 in the larger Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Ketchikan is on the southernmost coast of Revillagigedo Island and holds wonders, some man-made and some carved by glaciers. The Misty Fjords National Monument, located within the Tongass National Forest, spans approximately two million acres and was preserved through a proclamation by former-President Jimmy Carter in 1978. Huge cliffs, thousands of feet in height, were created by a glacier 17,000 years ago and can be seen from a boat or floatplane in the Behm Canal, along with killer whales, porpoises, mountain goats, and bears.

Culturally speaking, the Totem Heritage Center holds an invaluable collection of 19th-century totem poles. These pieces were saved from the villages of Alaskan Natives when the people left them to move to Ketchikan in the early 1900s. Another invaluable site retirees can experience is Creek Street, where houses line the water on stilts. Once a red-light district in the early 20th century, it is now a popular shopping spot with gift shops, museums, and preserved homes. Today, the former speakeasies and brothels have been replaced with mixed residential and commercial buildings, including the Star Building, a former dance hall now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wasilla

Wasilla has a large percentage of younger residents, but it is still somewhere seniors can retire and be active in their golden years. With a population of around 10,000, the land sheltered by the Talkeetna Mountains in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, between the Wasilla and Lucille lakes, is relatively temperate and boasts fishing, swimming, boating, hiking, and biking, along with dog sledding for those extra courageous seniors. In fact, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race calls Wasilla home.

Seniors can also take advantage of volleyball courts and bocce, as well as 10 miles of bike trails throughout the town. There are 240 acres of parks within Wasilla, and while older residents may not decide to take up skateboarding in the skate park, ball fields, and camping facilities are available. Iditapark, Newcomb Park, Lake Lucile Park, Carter Park, and Nunley Park are all part of the city’s offerings to its residents.

Juneau

Definitely a larger city in what many think is the deserted hinterland of North America, Juneau boasted over 31,000 residents as of the 2020 U.S. Census. But that just makes activities all the more abundant. To get things started, why not a visit to the Alaska State Museum? The building houses artifacts, including an umiaq, a traditional skin boat. The large driftwood-framed boat is in the permanent gallery by the Western Alaska exhibit cases.

Juneau is also ground zero for glacier viewing. A 13-mile-long natural phenomenon, the Mendenhall Glacier, known as one of the largest in the Juneau Icefield, can be seen from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. The viewpoint includes interactive exhibits, telescopes, and ranger talks. For brave seniors, the boat journey to the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness offers a view of both fjords, the Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm, spanning over 30 miles of sheer cliffs above the vessel. The ride is known to be thrilling as great ice chunks often fall directly into the water by the ship. Note: this can be dangerous.

Sitka

When the United States of America bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, Sitka became Alaska’s first capital city. Today, the capital is Juneau, but Sitka is still worth a visit for active seniors. With approximately 9,000 residents, it spreads out within the Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in the world.

Fishing, hiking, and wildlife are among the attractions. Sitka also has a rich history involving the first native Tlingit culture and some of Imperial Russia's history, which may attract independent aging visitors and potential transplants to its shores on Baranof Island, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. One example of Russia’s past is the Russian Bishop’s House, built in 1843, which became the center of the Russian Orthodox Church from California to Siberia. The church closed it in 1969, but in 1973, the U.S. National Park Service started the project to restore the property. Visitors are meant to feel as though they’ve stepped back in history.

The largest national forest in Alaska, the Tongass, is a place where viewers can see eagles, bears, spawning salmon, and other pieces of the natural world. In total, 89% of the old-growth, high-density biomass is preserved in the Tongass National Forest, more than any other ecosystem on the planet. Sites like the Alaska Raptor Center are also open to the public, including seeing the Bald Eagle Flight Training Center, which calls Sitka home and seeks to rehabilitate raptors back into the wild.

Seward

Seward is a port city on the Kenai Peninsula on the edge of Kenai Fjords National Park. There are approximately 2,700 residents in Seward, which is situated at the intersection of several distinct landscapes: the mountain peaks of Mt. Marathon and the Harding Icefield, as well as the Pacific Ocean.

Seniors might enjoy the trails in and around Seward, such as the Caines Head Trailhead, which is accessible from downtown Seward. The trail includes camping sites and passes Tonsina Point, North Beach, and Fort McGilvary. Climbers will ascend 200 feet from Lowell Point to Tonsina Point, 120 feet from Tonsina Point to North Beach, and 650 feet from North Beach to Fort McGilvray. It is considered moderately complex. The Alaska Sea Life Center, located in Seward, features tours that offer a chance to see marine mammals, octopuses, and puffins.

Kenai

Another coastal city where seniors may want to visit has a population of 7,500. It is called Kenai, and it is situated on the Kenai River on Cook Inlet. The city is known for its king salmon fishing, as well as other varieties of salmon. Kenai has several commercial and sport fishing opportunities. Each July, the City of Kenai hosts a personal fishery for residents, harvesting about 400,000 sockeye salmon each year.

Close by is the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, also known as “Yaghanen,” to the Dena’ina people, or “the good land.” The refuge encompasses ice fields and glaciers, as well as forests and wetlands, drawing from ecosystems across the State of Alaska, which spans its borders. Habitats range from coastal lowlands and wetlands to boreal forest and glaciated high country. Wildlife includes bears, lynx, wolves, and swans. Visitors can find opportunities to fish, boat, hike, bird, and hunt. Trails include the Clear Creek Trail, approximately 1.5 miles long, and the Pollard Horse Trail, approximately 6.5 miles long.

Valdez

Valdez is located near a deep fjord by Prince William Sound and is also surrounded by the Chugach Mountains. With a population of 3,900 residents, seniors and other visitors won’t feel overwhelmed by crowds of people, but nor will they be left high and dry during their stay with a lack of services.

In the city proper, a 20-mile trail network is available seasonally for residents and visitors, spanning the city. They include the Alpine Woods Trail, accessible to horses and four-wheelers, and the Dock Point Trail, which offers hikers views of grassy and wildflower meadows. Also close by is the Valdez Glacier Lake, home of several chunks of icebergs that come off the Valdez Glacier. While the cold water is reminiscent of the popular film, “Titanic,” the glacier itself can be viewed by boat.

Settle Down In Alaska

Active seniors looking for something more than the lower 48 states can brave the continents and see things that were not accessible in their youth for whatever reason. It is in those lonely glacier ranges along the cold water of the Pacific, a half-jump to Asia, and a deep rabbit hole into the natural world, that their golden years should be spent.

It is hoped that a housebound senior may see the beauty of what exists in a state not often thought of, unless it's Christmas and the grandchildren are clamoring for information on how fast Santa Claus can fly from the North Pole. To them, photographs taken by Gramma or Grampa would truly give them the dreams that they'll remember forever.