Seattle has an image problem. People arrive expecting rain, coffee and grunge, which is roughly like going to Paris for the berets.
What’s actually here: a city wedged between a sound and a lake with two volcanoes visible on a clear day, some of the best seafood in the country, and neighbourhoods that feel like separate small towns.
Here’s what earns your time, and a couple of things that really don’t.
1. Pike Place Market, Early
Yes it’s the tourist thing. It’s also a genuine working market that’s been running since 1907 and where actual Seattle residents actually shop, which is rarer than you’d think.
Go at 8am. The fishmongers are setting up, the flower stalls are being built, and you can move. By eleven it’s a crush and the famous fish-throwing has become a scheduled performance for phones.
The good stuff is down the levels. The market goes several floors below the main arcade and almost nobody descends. Old bookshops, a magic shop, weird little bits of nothing.
Skip the queue for the original Starbucks. It’s not the original, it’s the second location, and it’s the same coffee served slower.
2. Kerry Park, for Five Minutes
A tiny park on the south slope of Queen Anne Hill that gives you the postcard: Space Needle, downtown towers, the sound, and Rainier floating behind it all.
It takes five minutes. It’s free. Go at dusk when the lights come on and the mountain is still catching colour.
The park itself is essentially a viewing platform with a bench. Don’t expect a picnic.
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3. The Space Needle, Honestly Assessed
605 feet, built for the 1962 World’s Fair, and the thing on every fridge magnet in the city.
Here’s my take: it’s expensive, and the view from it doesn’t include the Space Needle, which is the best-looking thing in the view. The rotating glass floor is genuinely good fun though.
If you want a high view for less, the Sky View Observatory in the Columbia Center is taller, cheaper and much quieter. If you want the iconic experience, go up the Needle and accept the price.
IMO Kerry Park does the job better and costs nothing.
4. Get on the Water
This is the one people miss and it’s the best value thing in Seattle. The ferry to Bainbridge Island costs a few dollars as a foot passenger, takes 35 minutes, and gives you the entire skyline from the water with the Olympics behind you.
Bainbridge itself is a pleasant small town with a good bakery. Or just get the next boat back. Nobody minds.
The ferries are working transport, not a tour, which is exactly why they’re good. Locals commute on them reading newspapers while you gawp.
5. Discovery Park
534 acres on a bluff at the western edge of the city, with forest, meadows, two miles of beach and a lighthouse. Most visitors have no idea it exists.
The Loop Trail is 2.8 miles. The walk down to West Point Lighthouse adds a fair bit and puts you on a beach looking straight at the Olympic Mountains.
Bald eagles are common here. Seals turn up. It’s a twenty minute drive from downtown and feels like an hour outside it.
6. Ballard and Fremont
North of the ship canal, and where you go to feel like you’re in Seattle rather than visiting it.
Ballard is old Scandinavian fishing stock turned brewery district. Its Sunday farmers market runs all year and is one of the best in the country. The Ballard Locks next door lift boats between the sound and the lake, and there’s a fish ladder with a viewing window where you can watch salmon climbing in season.
Fremont declares itself the centre of the universe, has a troll under a bridge, a rocket bolted to a shopfront and a statue of Lenin. It’s exactly as odd as that sounds.
7. Eat Seafood, Seriously
Dungeness crab, spot prawns, oysters from about eight different named beds, and salmon that has not been in a lorry for three days.
Oyster bars here list the specific beach each oyster came from, and the differences are real. Order a mixed dozen and taste them side by side.
The other thing Seattle does properly is Asian food, particularly the International District and the Vietnamese places along it. Teriyaki is a genuine Seattle invention and every neighbourhood has a place doing it.
8. The Central Library
Sounds dull. It isn’t. Rem Koolhaas designed an eleven storey glass and steel structure that looks like a stack of shifted boxes, and inside there’s a continuous spiral of book stacks running through four floors.
It’s free, it takes half an hour, and it’s one of the best buildings of the last thirty years anywhere in America.
The red corridor on floor four is worth the trip on its own. Go and see, you’ll understand.
9. Day Trip to Mount Rainier
The mountain you can see from the city is 14,410 feet and about two hours away by car.
Paradise on the south side is the classic destination, with wildflower meadows that peak in late July and August and short trails with the glacier right above you. Sunrise on the east side is higher and less visited.
It’s a long day and it’s absolutely worth it. Check road status before you go, since Paradise can be snowbound into June.
If you have less time, Snoqualmie Falls is 40 minutes out and has a 268 foot waterfall you can see from the car park.
10. Accept the Weather and Go Outside
Here’s the thing about Seattle rain. It rains on about 150 days a year, which sounds terrible, but the total rainfall is less than New York or Miami. It’s drizzle, not downpour, and it lasts from October to May.
Nobody here uses an umbrella. They put a hood up and carry on, and if you wait for a clear day between November and March you will wait a long time.
The flip side: July, August and September are close to perfect. Dry, mid twenties, and light until 9pm 🙂
Common Questions
How many days do you need in Seattle? Three for the city itself. Four or five if you want Rainier or the Olympic Peninsula as day trips.
Is the Space Needle worth it? Once, if the iconic experience matters to you. For pure view value, Kerry Park is free and the Columbia Center is taller and cheaper.
Do I need a car in Seattle? Not for the city, where the light rail from the airport and buses cover most of it. Yes for Rainier or the peninsula.
When is the best time to visit? July to September, comfortably. Dry, warm and long evenings. May and June are a decent gamble.
Is Seattle expensive? Yes, on a par with other major west coast cities for hotels and food. The best things here, the ferries, the parks, the market and the library, are cheap or free.
