travel42 Port Guide: Fairbanks

travel42 Professional Cruise Port of Call Review

Fairbanks, Alaska—named for former Indiana Sen. Charles Fairbanks—is truly a frontier. The gateway to the Arctic is spread out on a seemingly endless plain in the Tanana Valley, with only a few downtown high-rises and plenty of log cabins dotting the residential districts.

Fairbanks, 125 mi/200 km south of the Arctic Circle and the northernmost large U.S. city (as well as Alaska's second largest), is a hub for interior Alaska's commerce, education, arts and, more recently, tourism, even in wi...