Alaska
Food
Try the reindeer sausage with your eggs and hash in the morning and you'll feel like a true Alaskan.
Some foods indigenous to this area are fireweed honey (distinctive and quite uniquely delicious), and spruce tip syrup made from the Sitka spruce which grows very commonly throughout Alaska; and of course there is perhaps the most well know of all Alaskan produce: seafood. Alaska’s fishing grounds are among some of the richest in the world and feature among other delicacies King and Snow crab which are exported the world over. Many local restaurants close to the shore serve fresh halibut and salmon daily, right off the boats.
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Drink
Beer is a big deal in Alaska with 4 breweries in Anchorage alone. Alaska Brewing Company in Juneau is the best known brewery in the state and their Alaskan Amber leads beer sales. Other towns with local Breweries include Homer, Haines, Kodiak, Fox (near Fairbanks), and Wasilla. In January there is the Great Alaska Beer and Barleywine event. It is the third largest in the United States and may be the largest event highlighting barleywine in the US.
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Shopping
Alaska, like many areas dominated by cruiseship tourism, is dominated by a shopping experience focused on jewelry, tee shirts, and trinkets. Yes, there are good buys occasionally (especially at the end of the season), but local products can be difficult to find.
If you are on a cruiseship, don't be afraid to visits stores not listed on the "preferred business'" list provided by the cruiseline. Those businesses paid a premium (ransom) to be listed and don't necessarily represent higher quality or better selection.
Alaskan products and crafts can include:
Gold nugget jewelry and items carved from ivory and jade, Handmade clothing and toys, Collectors items made from animal skins, fur or bone, Woven baskets of beach grass, bark or baleen, Alaskan delicacies - canned and smoked salmon, wild berry products and reindeer sausage, Native seal oil candles, beaded mittens, fur mukluks and miniature hand-carved totem poles.
Be sure to look for the "Made in Alaska" logo, which indicates an item genuinely manufactured in Alaska. If you find a silver hand logo, it identifies the item as a Native Alaskan handicraft.
Alaska Native art and crafts made from protected marine mammals are perfectly legal (even though possessing the raw animal pelts is not legal for non-Natives), but you do need to get permits to take these items out of the country. Permits also are required to export products made from brown or black bear, bobcat, wolf, lynx, or river otter. Visitors are advised to mail these souvenirs home to avoid confusion at the border. If you carry it with you, or buy from someone who can’t handle the paperwork, you’ll need to get your own permits.
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General informations