Article Overview: What to Know Before You Visit Adak
Adak is the kind of place that doesn’t show up on most Alaska itineraries, and once you’ve been there, you understand why. It’s a three-hour flight from Anchorage on a 737 that’s mostly empty. Furthermore, the town sits on a windswept, treeless island in the middle of the Aleutian chain, closer to Russia than to most of the rest of America. About 80 people live there full-time, surrounded by the bones of a Cold War naval base that used to house thousands. As a result, it’s beautiful, lonely, occasionally terrifying, and quietly one of the most singular places left in the country.
I spent a week on Adak filming for the Discovery Channel. This guide is what I’d tell a friend if they were thinking about going. In short, you’re getting the practical stuff you actually need, and a few stories from the week.
Why Trust Us On Adak
Alaska Explored writes from the position of working insiders, not trip-report tourists. We’ve spent years across the state on shoots, fishing trips, and long winters in cabins, and the recommendations here come from showing up, getting it wrong a few times, and figuring out what’s worth the airfare. On Adak specifically, I flew in with a small film crew and cast for a week-long production shoot. We hunted, hiked, drank with locals, saw the barracks the Navy walked away from thirty years ago, and got invitations I’m still glad I declined. In short, what follows is the honest version of what visiting Adak is actually like.
1. Getting to Adak Is Harder (and Emptier) Than You Think
The Flight In
There is one way to get to Adak commercially, and it’s an Alaska Airlines 737 that flies twice a week from Anchorage. No ferry, no marine passenger service, and no regional carrier. Just the 737, and weather permitting.
Two things will surprise you about that flight. First, the duration. Adak is roughly 1,200 miles from Anchorage, and the flight runs just over three hours. In other words, you are not going to a part of Alaska. Instead, you are going past Alaska, into a stretch of the Pacific that geographically counts as Alaska only because we drew the maps that way.
The Empty Cabin
The second thing is how empty the plane is. We flew on an Alaska Airlines 737 with fewer than a dozen people on board. The entire passenger cabin was our cast, our crew, and the flight crew. Nobody else. The cargo hold was packed, since that’s the whole point of the route, freight to Adak, but the cabin felt like a private charter the public doesn’t know about. Because the plane was so empty, our cast got bumped up to first class, and so did I.
Here is where I have to admit something. I have a completely unrealistic fear of flying. I understand this is ironic, given that I have spent most of my career on planes, often in places where the plane is not the part of the trip you’d call safe. The fear comes from a couple of terrifying flights in Africa in my early twenties that did not go great, plus a more recent float plane incident in Canada I’d rather not relive.
None of that has cured me. It has only made me better at hiding it from the people sitting next to me. However, sitting next to one of our cast members on the way to Adak, the hiding probably didn’t go great. With every turbulent jolt of the plane I’m sure my expression was not subtle, and there is no good way to white-knuckle the armrest of a first-class seat without the person next to you noticing.
Weather Delays Are a Real Risk
Weather can and will delay you. The Aleutian chain is famous for sudden fog, sustained 50-knot winds, and the kind of cloud ceilings that make landing impossible even on a clear-looking day. As a result, you should build a buffer day on each end of your trip. If your return flight cancels and the next one isn’t for three days, you’re spending three days on Adak whether you planned to or not.
2. “Birthplace of the Winds” Is Not Marketing Copy
The Aleut name for the region is the Birthplace of the Winds, and the locals do not say this with any kind of poetic flourish. They say it the same way you’d say “the kitchen is upstairs.” It’s a description of where you are.
Wind on Adak is constant, and when it’s not constant it’s about to be. Summer temperatures sit between 45°F and 55°F, and you’ll get about ten days of rain a month even at the warmest. The sun does come out, but it comes out the same way a punchline lands: briefly, with no warning, and then it’s gone again. Layers are not optional. Specifically, a hard shell, a fleece, and waterproof pants are the minimum, and you should expect to wear all three at once on a hike, take them off, and put them all back on within a single afternoon.
This is not a complaint. In fact, the weather on Adak is part of why it looks the way it does. The treeless tundra, the green hills going down to black-sand beaches, the low fast-moving clouds that you can stand and watch sweep across the bay. None of that exists without the wind. Just dress for it.
3. The Town Looks Post-Apocalyptic Because It Mostly Is
Adak was a major Naval Air Facility during World War II and the Cold War. At its peak, around 6,000 service members lived there, plus families, with somewhere around 90,000 personnel cycling through during the height of the WWII Aleutian Campaign. The base closed in 1997. Afterward, most of those people left, and most of what they built stayed.
What this means in practice is that the town today is roughly 80 full-time residents living inside the shell of a city built for thousands. Entire neighborhoods of military housing stand empty, siding torn off in the wind, mold growing through the broken windows. On some streets, every third house is occupied and the rest are slowly being reclaimed by the weather. The high school still stands, and now houses the city offices, the community center, the post office, and the school itself, which had a handful of students last I checked.
If you’ve ever wanted to walk through a real-life version of one of those video games where the world ended quietly and everyone just left, this is that. Just don’t go inside the buildings. There’s a reason for that, which gets its own section.
4. Adak Has Some of the Best Birding and Caribou Hunting in Alaska
About half the island is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, and most of that half is designated wilderness. Adak is one of the only places in the refuge you can actually drive to, which makes it disproportionately valuable for travelers who want to access wild Aleutian terrain without chartering a boat.
Hiking and Wildlife Viewing
The hiking is real hiking. No marked trails to speak of, no signage, no infrastructure. You’re walking on tundra and scree, often in fog, so bring a GPS and tell someone where you’re going. Gannet Rocks near Kuluk Bay is the closest thing to a downtown trail. In addition, the lagoon on the north end of the island, near the old Bering Sea side of the base, is the kind of place where you can drive right up to it and watch sea otters, salmon, and eagles do their thing within a hundred yards of your vehicle.
World-Class Birding
Birding draws people from all over the world. Adak sits on a flyway that brings Asian species to North America, and it’s not unusual for serious birders to fly out specifically to add a half-dozen lifers to their list in a long weekend. For example, Whiskered Auklets, Whooper Swans, and a long list of vagrants from the Russian side make the island a pilgrimage site for the kind of people who carry binoculars worth more than your car.
Caribou Hunting
Caribou hunting is the other big draw. There’s a non-native caribou herd on the island that was introduced in 1958 and 1959 to give the military a meat source. The herd grew, the military left, and now the herd is hunted on what amounts to a year-round basis to keep numbers in check on the wildlife refuge land. If you’ve never hunted caribou and you want to, Adak is one of the more realistic places to do it. You will, however, need a Land Use Permit from the Aleut Corporation, which we’ll get to.
For more on what it’s like to fish elsewhere in the state, our Alaska fly fishing guide covers the rivers worth your time.
5. The Locals Are the Story (Whether You Came For Them Or Not)
This is the part of any Adak guide where most writers wave their hand vaguely at “colorful characters” and move on. I’m going to be more specific, because the people are why this place is unforgettable.
In a town of 80, everyone has a thing. There’s a person who runs the airport on the days flights come in and runs something else on the days they don’t. Someone else keeps the power plant running. And then there’s the person who hunts rats.
I’ll get to the rat story. First, the hot pot.
The Hot Pot Invitation
A few days into our shoot, we got an invitation from a local to come spend an evening at their place, in a hot tub they’d cobbled together at the back of their property. We thanked them and didn’t think much of it. The next day they offered again. And the day after that. By day four, after working in the cold and hiking the hills and trying to keep camera batteries from dying in the wind, the idea of sitting in a hot tub for an hour started to sound genuinely appealing.
I mentioned this to one of our crew members, who looked at me like I was about to walk off a cliff. The invitation, they pointed out gently, was not for us to use the hot tub. Instead, the invitation was for us to get in the hot tub with them. Clothing was probably optional. In other words, I had been processing the offer in my head as a generous neighbor lending out their amenity, when in fact the local was inviting us to a different kind of evening entirely.
We declined. The invitation was sincere and offered in good faith. I think they were genuinely just looking for company on a quiet island, and a film crew passing through must have seemed like an interesting opportunity. However, this is what I mean about Adak. The conventions you carry with you from the rest of the country don’t always apply, and you have to recalibrate fast. Lesson learned for me.
The Bar
The bar story is shorter. We went to the local bar one night, the way you do in any small town, expecting to drink a beer and listen to people. We left understanding that we did not need to come back. I won’t go into more detail than that. If you go to Adak and you find the bar, you can decide for yourself. Still, I will say that not every “local color” experience is actually for you, and recognizing that fast is a useful skill.
The Rat Tail Artist
And then the rats. One afternoon I got pulled aside by a local who told me there were rats in the tunnels under the old barracks, and he was going down there to capture some, and would I like to come along. He was, he explained, an artist. The medium was rat tails. The tails came from the rats. The rats came from the tunnels.
I declined politely, based on essentially every word in that sentence. First, the tunnels under abandoned military barracks. Then the rats. After that, the capturing. Next, the tails. Finally, the art. There was no part of the offer where my answer was going to be yes, but we appreciated the invitation to participate in his practice. Adak is a place where you encounter the full and uncurated range of human creativity, and you have to make decisions about how much of it you want to be part of.
6. There Was Effectively No Food Scene on Adak
When we were on Adak, this was the section where the island differed most sharply from anywhere else in Alaska I’ve written about. You wouldn’t find a restaurant scene. There was no diner with a halibut chowder. The island had no bakery. On a good week, you could find a small store with limited hours and limited inventory.
The One Exception
I will, however, make one exception. We did manage to find what counted, on Adak, as a restaurant: the Blue Bird Cafe. It was a guy who cooked dinner for people on the first floor of his house. Small dining area, a few tables, surprisingly inviting. The hours were whatever the hours were that week. After a full day in the cold, having someone else feed the crew was a quiet kind of luxury, and the food was good.
On our last day on the island I left my satellite phone in the dining area. I didn’t realize it until I was already back in Anchorage. The owner found it, packed it up, and mailed it back to me. Whoever you are, if you ever read this, thank you again. In fact, that gesture says more about the people on Adak than anything I could write here.
A Fantastic Update
The Blue Bird Cafe has since closed, which is a real loss. The good news is that another spot called Adak Soul has opened, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week. That’s a remarkable development for a place that effectively had no consistent food scene when we were there, and it’s the kind of change that points to where Adak is heading. I haven’t been back to try Adak Soul yet, but on my next trip, it’s the first stop. If you’ve eaten there, I’d love to hear how it is.
What to Pack
What this all means is that you have to bring your food with you. The standard advice on Adak, which the locals will tell you themselves, is to do your grocery shopping at a real grocery store before you leave Anchorage, pack everything into a cooler, secure the cooler with duct tape, and check it as luggage on the Alaska Airlines flight. Plan every meal. Bring favorite snacks. In addition, pack extras for the day or two your return flight gets weather-delayed, because it will.
Coffee, breakfast bars, jerky, freezer meals, fresh produce that travels well, a bottle of something for the evening. Whatever you’d want over a six-day stretch with no resupply, that’s what you’re packing. Most lodging on the island has a kitchen because most lodging has to.
If you’re flying in through Anchorage and you want a real meal before the long flight out, our Anchorage Airport restaurants guide covers the spots inside the terminal worth your time.
7. The Adak Island Inn Is Your Basecamp
Lodging on Adak is not a competitive market. The Adak Island Inn, run by Aleut Ventures, is the year-round lodging option that almost everyone uses. It’s a converted block of military housing that’s been brought up to a standard that works for visitors, contractors, scientists, and the occasional film crew.
The rooms are clean, the heat works, the kitchen is functional, and the staff knows the island. In addition, the Inn rents gear: paddleboards for Clam Lagoon, hunting equipment, things you’d otherwise have to fly in with you. You can call them at 907-570-2324 to book directly, which is genuinely the most efficient way to get a room.
There are a small number of other private rentals and lodges that pop in and out of operation, but for a first trip and a planning baseline, the Adak Island Inn is the safe answer. Book early during caribou season and during the spring and fall birding peaks, because the place fills up.
8. Unexploded Ordnance Is Real, and the Permits Are Not Optional
Adak is a former active military installation, and not all of it has been cleaned up. There are areas of the island marked as containing potentially unexploded ordnance, and the warnings are not legacy signage from twenty years ago that nobody bothered to take down. They are real. In fact, the U.S. Navy has a Hazardous Site Awareness Video that the city of Adak asks you to watch before visiting, and you should actually watch it.
Don’t Enter the Buildings
The practical version: stay on roads and established paths in marked areas. Do not enter abandoned buildings, even when the door is open and your curiosity is running hot. Some of those structures are structurally unsound. Others have had visitors before you who left things behind that nobody has come around to clean up. The film crew and I walked past plenty of buildings during our week, and the rule was simple: photograph from outside, do not go in.
The Land Use Permit
The Land Use Permit from the Aleut Corporation is the second non-negotiable. About half the island is Aleut Corporation land, held by the Unangax̂ people whose ancestral home this is, and access for hiking, hunting, fishing, or camping requires a permit. You can buy one online before your trip or at the airport terminal when you arrive. It’s not expensive, and the money supports the corporation’s revitalization work on the island. The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge land doesn’t require the same permit, but you should still check current rules before you go.
Get Medivac Insurance
The last piece of safety advice: get medivac insurance. Air ambulance service from Adak to Anchorage can run into significant five-figure territory, and the medical facilities on the island are extremely limited. LifeMed Alaska and Guardian Flight are the two providers commonly used. As a result, an annual membership is a small expense compared to what an uninsured emergency evacuation will cost you.
9. Adak Is Changing, and the Window for the Old Version Is Closing
When I was on Adak, the place felt frozen. Like nothing had moved in a decade and nothing was going to. However, that’s no longer the case.
SpinLaunch, the satellite-launch company, has begun building a launch facility on the island. In addition, the military has renewed strategic interest in the Aleutian chain in light of geopolitical shifts in the North Pacific. The Aleut Corporation, through Aleut Ventures, is investing in tourism infrastructure: the Adak Island Inn, the new travel guide they published, paddleboard rentals, organized experiences. Meanwhile, the number of full-time residents has been creeping up. Federal interest is up. Private investment is up.
What this means for travelers is that Adak in 2026 is still the Adak I’m describing, but it might not be in 2030. If the version of the island you want to see is the empty, post-apocalyptic, lonely-windy-edge-of-the-country version, the window is now. In ten years there may be a real coffee shop, a real hotel, a runway with daily flights, and a reason for a normal traveler to go. There will be gains and losses in that. The gains are real. The losses will be real too.
Pro Tips for Visiting Adak
A few things worth knowing about Adak before you book the flight:
- Book your flight as far ahead as possible, then book a buffer day. Flights cancel for weather. Plan for it.
- Pack everything. Food, prescriptions, batteries, a backup power bank, anything you’d be annoyed to be without. There is no resupply.
- Cell service is dead. AT&T has a roaming agreement with the local provider for voice, but data is not functional. The Adak Public Library has internet access. Therefore, tell your family before you leave that you may be effectively unreachable for the week.
- Bring cash. Some operations on the island take cards. Some don’t. Don’t get caught.
- Layer like you mean it. Hard shell, fleece, waterproof pants, gloves, hat, sun protection. All of it. All the time.
- Get the Land Use Permit before you fly. You can do it at the airport, but doing it ahead saves time.
- Be respectful of the Unangax̂ history. This island was taken from its original people and only partially returned. The buildings you’re photographing sit on that history. Read up before you go.
- Watch the Hazardous Site Awareness Video. It’s not a formality.
- Don’t go into the buildings. I’m saying this twice on purpose.
Adak Alaska FAQ
A few of the questions I get asked most often about visiting Adak, answered honestly.
How do you get to Adak?
Alaska Airlines flies a 737 from Anchorage to Adak twice weekly, and that is the only commercial route. There is no ferry, no marine passenger service, and no other regional carrier. The flight is just over three hours, weather permitting, and weather frequently does not permit. Charter flights exist but are not a realistic option for most travelers.
How many people live on Adak?
Around 80 people live on Adak full-time, in two main neighborhoods near the center of town. Compare that to roughly 6,000 during the Cold War and 90,000 cycling through during the WWII Aleutian Campaign, and you get a sense of how much space is left over.
Is Adak worth visiting?
It depends entirely on what you want from a trip. Adak is worth visiting if you’re an experienced and self-sufficient traveler who wants extreme remoteness, unique wildlife, military history, and a landscape you cannot see anywhere else in the United States. However, it is not worth visiting if you want restaurants, nightlife, easy access, predictable weather, or any kind of curated tourism experience. Decide what you’re after before you book.
What is there to do on Adak?
Hiking, birding, caribou hunting, fishing, beachcombing, kayaking, paddleboarding on Clam Lagoon, exploring the abandoned military infrastructure from a safe distance, and watching the weather move across the bay. In short, Adak is an outdoor and exploratory destination, not an attraction-based one. You bring your own activities.
Do you need a permit to visit Adak?
You do not need a permit to fly into Adak or to stay in town. However, you do need a Land Use Permit from the Aleut Corporation if you plan to hike, hunt, fish, or camp on Aleut land, which is roughly half the island. Permits are inexpensive and available online or at the airport terminal upon arrival. Refuge land is managed separately by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
When is the best time to visit Adak?
June through September is the practical visitor window. There’s no genuinely stable month. July and August are the foggiest, while June and early September tend to offer slightly better visibility. Spring brings the best birding for Asian vagrants. Caribou hunting picks up in late August and runs through fall and winter. However, flying in deep winter adds a layer of weather risk that most travelers don’t want.
Is Adak dangerous?
Adak is dangerous if you treat it like a developed destination, and reasonable if you don’t. The genuine hazards are the weather, the unexploded ordnance in marked areas, the unstable abandoned buildings, and the distance to medical care. Stay on established paths in marked areas, do not enter abandoned structures, dress for the weather, and carry medivac insurance. Do those four things and you’ll be fine.