Top Rated Shopping in Anchorage

On the corner of Fourth Avenue, sits a large gift store with interior log walls and filled with unique items. Check out the birch wood bowls, spectacular and original birdhouses, chimes, handmade Alaskan soaps, baskets, blown glass candles, moose print blankets, pajamas, glass jewelry and pins. One will also find Alaskan wildflower decorated and scented candles, a selection of Alaskan books, caps, T-shirts, beautiful pottery and locally made ceramics. If you cannot find the perfect gift here, you are simply not looking. Shipping is available.

Filled with a variety of authentic Native arts and crafts, this shop also happens to be Alaska's largest fur pelt dealer. See the museum quality collector's items like ivory carvings, whalebone jewelry and scrimshaw artwork. Other gift ideas include horn carvings, soapstone, Alaskan jade jewelry, masks made of fox, caribou and muskrat, hats, slippers and the traditional Eskimo footwear, the sealskin mukluk. The exchange also produces some of the fur pelts as coats in otter, wolverine and fox, and carry hats made of wolf, lynx and coyote.

With more than 11,000 square feet and 125,000 titles, this shop has every category and subject covered. Books, both new and used, are stocked here and it offers a generous trade-in policy. The large online store selection offers many of the books via the Internet and shipping is available to anywhere in the world. Perhaps its best feature for the Alaskan visitor is the wealth of Alaskana titles at reasonable prices. Make sure to stop and talk with the knowledgeable staff.

Here lies more than 4,000 square feet of unique Alaskan souvenirs and gifts. This shop touts "the lowest prices, widest selection and friendliest service in town," and invites you to put this motto to the test. If you are hunting for T-shirts, salmon and halibut products to take home with you, or videos of the many aspects and locations of Alaska, this is your place. When was the last time you heard a player piano? This shop has a ragtime playing player piano that you can tap your toes along to as you shop.

Directly across from the Log Cabin Visitor's Center, Alaska's largest photograph shop offers 60 years of collected Alaska color slides, movies, photographs and postcards for purchase. A resident reindeer provides you with a photo opportunity you are not likely to forget! Part of the historic registry, this 1921 building has its original pressed-tin ceiling. This shop is one of the largest resale outlets for Alaskan jade and it is available by the pound or by the ton.

Marked by a life-sized statue of a grizzly standing above the front entrance, this store holds a variety of gift options. Choose from a massive T-shirt selection and a variety of Alaskan theme stationery, magnets and calendars among other items. Located in the center of the store, the long glass jewelry cabinets hold Alaskan Jade, the vivid green and blue Alaskan Opals and gold nugget pieces. This shop also carries videos, CDs and cassette tapes; you can bring Alaska home with you in a variety of media. Mail orders are available online.