Q: I'm planning to make Alaska my new home. I would like to be in an area with good waves (for surfing) and good mountains (for climbing) not too far from each other. Here's the catch, I'm not independently wealthy so I either have to live in the woods or near a town (or city). Can you point me in the right direction? —Da Haj

A: Da Haj, Welcome! It's great to hear you're moving to Alaska. The truth is probably no place in America offers the quality of life you can find in Alaska. So I commend you for figuring out what only a fraction of a percent of Americans have figured out--Alaska's the place to be!

If you want an area with great waves (even world-class), you want a low-cost lifestyle, and you want the ability to do some mountain climbing, I'm going to recommend Yakutat, mostly because of it's surfing. If you don't know much about it, you can read my Yakutat page on my Alaska.org website. It lies on the coast, a long ways from any of the major population centers of Alaska (if there is such a thing).

I might also mention I created a site for people thinking of moving to Alaska.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you really do make the move.