What there is to do in Barrow is largely a function of where you are: at the literal edge of the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost settlement of the United States, four hundred kilometres above the Arctic Circle. The Iñupiat Heritage Center is the cultural anchor and the best place to understand whaling, ice, and subsistence life. The whalebone arch on the seafront is the obligatory photograph. Driving north to Point Barrow itself — the geographic top of the continent — usually means a guided trip in a battered van across the tundra, with polar bear sightings a real possibility.
Beyond that, what visitors come for is the strangeness: walking the beach when the sea is frozen solid, the midnight sun in June, the polar night in December, and the chance to dip a hand in the Arctic Ocean. It is more a place to feel than a place with a checklist of sights.