So you want to move to Juneau (Alaska)....

I moved to Juneau, Alaska, fresh out of graduate school, almost 5 years ago.  I did some research before I came up, but I only had a month between the job offer and when I started working, so that didn't give me a lot of planning time for the move.  Thankfully, I didn't have a lot of stuff to move, much less anything valuable to worry about leaving behind, but there wasn't a great deal of information out there, and I didn't really feel like I knew what I was getting into.  It all worked out in the end, but for others who may have an interest (or necessity) to move here, I can at least provide some information.

Mountain from the Gastineau Channel

Some Things About Juneau

Juneau has been the capital city of Alaska since 1906.  It's in Southeast Alaska, surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest national forest and a temperate rainforest.  By "temperate," I mean the annual temperature usually ranges from 0 degrees Fahrenheit up to about 75 degrees.  Even in winter, it's unusual to be below freezing for long, and almost never drops below 0.  Conversely, in summer, even on sunny days, it rarely rises above 70 degrees.  Sunny days are rare year-round, though; it rains almost daily, with a yearly average of over 60 inches of rainfall.  

The city itself is on a narrow ocean channel that runs between mountains, and includes a few valleys that the glaciers have retreated from.  There's a bridge leading to Douglas Island, which used to be its own town but incorporated with Juneau in the 1970's.  The road runs approximately 50 miles - 10 miles south of downtown Juneau, and 40 miles north - plus 15 miles along the coast of Douglas Island.

There's no road access into or out of Juneau, though.  Cars have to come up by ferry or barge, and people come by boat or airplane.  The Alaska Marine Highway System serves Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, with many stops in Juneau and surrounding villages, and Alaska Air has been the main airline operating out of Juneau, with Delta Air recently trying to get back into the game.

Meadow north of Juneau

So what's it like living in Juneau?

Over the past 40 years or so, many of the people who moved up to Alaska have come from the Upper Midwest, where I grew up, so culturally I feel right at home.  Prices are high because of shipping costs, but no higher than those in any of the big cities on the West Coast.  Most people own cars, most houses have city water and sewer, and most Juneauites work 9-5 office jobs.  There are avalanches, and occasionally a glacier collapse will cause a river to flood, but most people have been sensible enough not to build in the obvious natural-disaster paths that these things leave on the landscape.

Also, it rains.  A lot.  The long summer days are evened out by being universally gloomy.  Bring rainboots and a raincoat - you'll need them.  You can buy them locally, too - it's something of a local tradition to get married in Xtra Tuffs, with good reason.  Winter makes it even rougher, with rain alternating with snow and the daylight cut down by having mountains in the east and west.  If you're prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder, bring a full spectrum light and keep busy during the winter.

The miserable winters have improved the city's cultural offerings, as people need to keep busy.  Our annual Folk Festival is one of the biggest folk music festivals in the nation.  Perseverance Theater and Theater in the Rough both put on plays pretty much year-round.  The Juneau Symphony and Student Symphony do 3 concerts a year, each.  The Juneau Lyric Opera, Bach Society, and Jazz and Classics are also musical options.  We have a Roller Derby, Hockey association, Skating club, and a bunch of other extracurriculars.  The restaurants have improved significantly since I moved here, although for fast food, we only have one McDonald's and a few Subways.  No Starbucks, either - the local coffee company is Heritage, which does a good job, but won't take your Starbucks card.

What Juneau doesn't have is shops.  For groceries and outdoor gear, you're covered, but it's impossible to find, say, nice clothes in Juneau.  Most people take special shopping trips up to Anchorage or down to Seattle if they need to make any big purchases.  You can buy cars in Juneau, also - new or used - but not a new custom order, which all have to get shipped up from Seattle, so most people go down there to pick out cars, too.  Amazon will ship free to Alaska, but many other online providers will charge extra or will refuse service complete.

Juneau also doesn't have a big city feel, no matter that it's one of Alaska's hubs.  Most of the people I talk to that live here and are unhappy about it have previously lived in a large city (Chicago, New York, London, etc.) and are missing that vibe.  If you have a job here that allows you enough vacation time, you can take one or two long trips a year, and many people take advantage of that.  If you don't get a lot of paid vacation, or can't afford it, then Juneau can feel like a claustrophobic backwater.  Having grown up in an actual backwater, it feels plenty metropolitan to me. 

Taiga at Eaglecrest Ski Resort

How hard is it to visit Juneau?

Ridiculously easy.  Tourism is our second biggest industry, with cruise ships bringing 1,000,000 visitors every summer.  The entire downtown area is dedicated to the cruise ship industry, with almost half of the shops only open while cruise ships are in port.  There are daily flights in and out of Juneau, and (in the summer) daily ferries from the Alaska Marine Highway, cut down to several times a week in the winter.  There are a bunch of standard hotel chains around the airport, including Super 8, Travelodge, Best Western, Extended Stay America, and local chains like Frontier Suites and Aspen Suites.  In the Downtown area, there's the Baranof, Prospector, and Goldbelt.  There's also a bunch of little bed-and-breakfasts and people willing to let out their houses for petsitters, couchsurfers, or AirBnBers.  

Forest near Windfall Lake

How hard is it to move to Juneau?

I would say, not very, but I came with a job lined up, and that was my only goal.  Housing is tight - vacancy is approximately 3.5% - many landlords won't rent sight-unseen to people trying to move to town, and it's almost impossible to find a place to live that allows pets.  My future coworkers helped me line up an apartment that I love, but if you don't have local contacts to help you, the Mendenhall Apartments in Downtown Juneau almost always have vacancy.  They're not the cheapest or the newest, but if you need a place to stay, it's one of the few you can rely on.  There's also the Juneau Hostel, which allows stays of up to 5 days, but you can only be in the building at night - they clean during the day, so you  have to take all your belongings between 9AM and 5PM.  There's also Craigslist, but keep in mind that this page serves all of Southeast Alaska, so what looks like a great deal in Ketchikan or Haines is so, because it's not accessible from Juneau - you can't commute.

Mendenhall Glacier

When's the best time to move there?

 To be honest: fall or early winter.  Juneau has 3 distinct seasons: Legislature (January-April), Tourist (May-September), and the off-season (October-December).  While the Legislature is in session, all of the congressmembers, lobbyists, and staffers come to Juneau looking for temporary housing.  Right as they leave, the tourist workers come to town looking for the same.  The cruise ships usually stop coming the end of September, and by October the tourist shops are shuttered and their workers are shipped elsewhere by the cruise companies for the winter season.  This leaves rental properties available, and it may even be possible to move in just until the Legislature meets again (January), to give yourself a few months to acclimate and find an apartment of your choosing if your first stop isn't something you want to keep. 

Windfall Lake

How hard is it to get a job in Juneau?

I can't really speak to this, having lined one up before I got here, but most of the people who ask about it seem to think they'll move here and trip over job offers.  Most of the employment in town is office work, since this is the capital and the federal, state, and local offices are almost all located here.  Being government, though, hiring can be slow, and that's assuming there's a job opening that you qualify for.  You could get a minimum-wage job in a big box store or food service, but that won't be enough to pay rent.  And despite some fishing, logging, and mining opportunities in the area - and well-paying ones at that - I haven't found them easy to get contacts for, leaving me to believe that if you have a friend willing to refer you, you've got a chance, but if you don't already know people in the industry, you're going to have a rough time.  

Ebner Falls

Is it easy to get around in Juneau?

Once you're here, yes, it's easy to travel around town.  The roads go pretty much anywhere that you need to go, whether you have a car or borrow or rent one.  We have a city bus service that covers most of the road system - it doesn't go south of Downtown Juneau or north of Auke Bay, but reaches everything in between, including Douglas.  There's also a bike path that follows Glacier Highway, running from Downtown Juneau to the Mendenhall Valley.  Electric vehicles have become more popular in the past few years, and there are several charging stations in parking lots and parking garages.  Almost all of the hiking paths have road access and parking, or are connected to a path that does, and there is a tram running from Downtown Juneau to the top of Mt. Roberts, so even the wilderness is accessible.

Mount Juneau

Are there a bunch of wild animals?

Yes and no.  Juneau has wildlife, no worse than anywhere else in the western United States, and not nearly as bad as some places.  We have almost no moose or brown bears, and black bears are not very dangerous.  Coyotes are starting to move into the area, but haven't historically lived here, and there are no big cats, skunks, raccoons, buffalo, or elk.  The climate makes it hard for spiders, reptiles, and amphibians to survive, so we have almost none of them here, and nothing poisonous.  Nature photography is quite popular, though, with so many bald eagles, whales of varying kinds, sea lions, marmots, and more common species like porcupines, blacktail deer, foxes, and ravens on offer. 

Snowslide Gulch

What's this about free Alaska money?

You mean the Alaska Permanent Fund.  The State of Alaska taxes the oil companies that operate in the state; those taxes get invested to earn income.  Every year, the state looks at the annual average of the past 5 years' growth, divides it by the number of Alaska residents, and mails everyone a check.  You have to be a legal Alaska resident, have physically been in the state, and a few other restrictions, but everyone, even infants, qualify if they're on Alaskan soil by January 1.  In 2013, the PFD was $900 (due to the Recession); in 2015, it was about $2,000.  With the recent extreme drop in oil prices, the Fund's future isn't looking stable, and no one knows how long or how well it will last.

Mossy tree

In Conclusion...

I'm very happy here, and certainly enjoy the clean air and quality of life.  I'd enjoy spending pretty much the rest of my life here - Alaska has a lot of financial incentives for retired folks, countered by Juneau's winter iciness and having only one small hospital, all of that could easily change in the next 50 years.

Having been here for a while, I've probably lost sight of many of the considerations I had to make in moving up here, and have missed some important points, so if there's anything you'd like to know, just leave a comment, and I'll add my answers to the post. 

For further reading, you can look at Elise Tomlinson's blog, where she goes over similar questions.