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We are planning a trip to Alaska for May 26 - June 5, flying into Anchorage. We would like to do the none tourist type stuff but still get the most out of our trip. What are some must do things?

It's tourist type stuff but we drove to Seward and took the boat tour to the glaciers. You have to go to Denali National Park(It is a bus tour inside the park). I wish I had gone on to Fairbanks.

Last time I was there I was on a business trip right around that same time of year, but we stayed an extra 2 days to do stuff outside of Anchorage. If you don't want to do super tourist stuff, plan to do stuff outside of Anchorage. You'll get there and you'll notice it looks exactly like every other mefium sized city you've ever been to. Office depot, Walmarts, Dillards... You'll only be a couple weeks shy of the summer solstice, so prepare for some looooong days. We drove up a couple hours to Talkeetna (pronounced tal-keet-na not talk-eetna as my business partner kept saying) and it was very cool. The two guys I went with took a very short fly in trip from Talkeetna that landed waaaay up on a glacier on Denali and they said it was incredible. It was relatively cheap too. Only $100 a person or something and the pictures they got were incredible. I chose to go fly fish that day on a local river and that was cool. I would spend a night at Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge. It overlooks an incredible view of Denali. Again, not terribly expensive, but a very nice hotel. We fished with a guide service for Chinook (king) salmon on the river the next morning on the river. you take a jet boat up river a couple miles and fish from shore. Kind of a rodeo, but it was only $100 a person and we all caught fish. I caught this one that was 40lbs.

This is the service we went with and for the money, it's pretty good. They are all the same around there. They all go to the same spots:
http://akfishermanschoice.com/
If you want to fish on a river all by yourself and see bears and moose...then you are going to have to go with a fly in guide service or lodge and pay a few grand.

I absolutely would go back to Talkeetna. You get the experience of "real" Alaska, cool local restaurants, beautiful scenery and only a little bit of tourist feel. If you go on a weekday, the town will be very quiet. The drive up there is worth it alone.
We also golfed one day after work in Anchorage (because it stays light almost 24/7 that time of year) and it was cool being out at 9pm and the sun still up. I just rode with them since I didn't bring my clubs. Can't remember the course, but it was a nice course. It was pretty funny when we got there that they had 9 holes of it closed because of bear activity. We say bear poop and moose tracks which was interesting.

I have been to Alaska only for waterfowl hunting, so I can't be of much help in answering your question. But I will say this: Alaska is my favorite place I have ever been.

Talkeetna!!!

We stayed in a cabin there 2 nights, 2 nights in a hotel in Anchorage, and 2 nights in Seward. Didn't like Seward so much. We did the half day cruise there -- rained the whole time. We said that we'd stay the whole trip in Talkeetna next time. Take the long way up and over Hatchers Pass on your drive between Anchorage and Talkeetna. This was a non-touristy thing we did that was a highlight of the trip to me.

Stay OFF those dayum cruise ships!!!....7 days of screaming teenagers, old farts on canes, orientals, swinging 5 cameras around their necks, $9 dollar mini-cocktails, and obese afro wimmin, hollering "come here, you little mofo", at their rug rats....felt like I was in the Delta.

Food was good but got old after 2-3 days of it.

Stick with your plan, and actually SEE Alaska from the land!!!

And, go fishing every chance you get !!!

Need to go to Denali no question about it. Spend as little time as possible in Anchorage. If you want to do some Halibut fishing head down to Homer or Seward. If you want some great trout or salmon go to coopers landing and book a trip with troutfitters. Do some research on some areas you may want to do some hiking. I would recommend finding a glacier to hike up to depending on where you go. As stated before prepare for some long days but that just allows you to cram in more stuff. Food in Alaska is hit and miss but they do know how to brew beer and make some good pizza.

Halibut is the ribeye of the sea.!!!!!

I lived there 11 years truly incredible. As far as "must sees" that really depends on the person. Most of the normal ones have been mentioned, I'm assuming you will have wheels but get a room at Denali and do full day tour of The Park, make drive up a two day trip, from anchorage to Palmer go up above Palmer few miles and see MatSu glacier, you can walk up and touch it. Then turn around back to Palmer and go thru Hatchers Pass then on to talkeetna for overnight. Next day to Denali.

Just north of anchorage in the chugach mountains is Eklutna lake and glacier, you can drive up to west end of lake then and the walk road around north side, much better is to ride bike to east end of lake 13 miles to glacier and some of steepest mountains you will ever see, lots of very large dall sheep Rams will be watching you, lot of black and griz on this lake but real spooky. Time your finish for the evening and hang out and listen to the wolves, generally pretty large pack back there.

Driving south out of anchorage along turnagain arm you'll see more sheep along the cliffs, community of girdwood is home of alyeska ski resort, they'll chair lift you up mountain for some nice views. Keep going and you'll end up on Kenai peninsula, road forks left is Seward right is kenai and homer, if not gonna fish go right thru mountains until break out on peninsula just for scenery then you can turn around and head back to Seward for more scenery.

If fishing that's a whole different ball of wax, problem is you don't have enough time to do too much, Alaska is huge, the trail I just gave ya would be like driving from memphis to Minneapolis.

If you don't do a plane ride to Denali out of Talkeetna, then at least do one out of Anchorage over the Chugach for at least two hours min, try to get someone that will get you up close and personal without killing you, I used to give those tours flying along the peaks, over the ice fields, snaking down the valleys and dropping down into the crevasses on the glaciers with blue ice all around you. Sorry can't recommend anyone, been a while since I was up there, not sure if you can still find anyone that'll get you that close anymore (insurance was beginning to be problem from too many folks trying to mix aluminum with rock).

Rest up well before your trip, you will wear yourself out!

You'll enjoy the train ride for sure, as far as Alaskan communities go Fairbanks isn't the top of the list but still nice place, the train is going to carry you right by Denali Nat Park, but from sounds of it you won't get to spend any time there.

There really is no BAD Alaskan vacation, little something for everyone for sure, that's why it's hard to answer the question of best places to see, I was fortunate enough to live several different places even above artic circle and hunted most of the game as a resident, only problem I had was lack of money and plenty of time, or just opposite.

Alaska will also quickly prove that pictures can't do scenery justice, if any way possible try to visit MatSu (matanuska-Susitna glacier) not far from anchorage, the reason being last I heard it's still one of the few that is close that you can walk up to. Of course you are taking your life in your own hands but if you are brave enough walk into one of the caverns below it, these glaciers aren't a solid wall of ice and they melt from both the top (sun) and bottom (heat of earth) leaving huge cracks and caverns. Don't go too far under it but when you get under it look up into the ice. The ice is packed so dense from compression that it is like a crystal lense, you can see 50 plus feet into the ice, every thing you are looking at, leaves, twigs whatever is THOUSANDS of years old perfectly preserved.....remember the ice man they found perfectly preserved years ago, he was trapped in glacial ice....so do something not many people get to do and reach up and touch ice that is older than man! Almost forgot to warn you, these glaciers talk when you get up close, since they are moving albeit slow, they creak, crack and groan.

Oops got more....while in alaska depending on where u are staying tell them to wake u if any northern lights are visible, Fairbanks is best place to see them, anywhere above Denali really, but it's going to be soO light outside u may be out of luck

When u get away from civilization get outside and take a deep breath of real fresh air, first time I did that I choked and coughed...lol

Last but not least during twilight you will see some stars, they are going to look larger than normal, night sky is beautiful for sure, the reason for this is that atmosphere is colder thus thinner over polar regions which means you have less junk to look through to see stars and planets, they are going to be more vivid....

Just pointing those last ones out cuz most folks are so wide open on vacation they miss it....