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Jan
10
Seattle Travel & Sightseeing Guide
Filed Under United States
A trip to Seattle
Home to three of the world’s ten richest men, Seattle is clearly an enviable place to live. Hemmed in by wilderness and astounding natural beauty, the city sits on the Puget Sound, in plain view of an immense mountain range and quite near two major lakes. For this reason, it’s a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers from all over North America and abroad.
Flights to Seattle
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is the primary hub in the Northwest Pacific region, offering regular international connections to Asia and Europe in addition to its many domestic routes. Commuter routes to Vancouver and Portland are also popular. An airport shuttle takes passengers to and from the city centre for slightly less than a taxi. Ferries to and from British Columbia and a number of smaller ports up and down the Washington coastline are also available. If you are looking for a cheap flight to Seattle try Expedia.
Seattle
The Greyhound bus terminal books regular routes to California and Oregon, and two railroad lines—one to Chicago and the other to Southern California—end in Seattle. Many times, travel by either of these modes in the US is more novel than it is affordable. Travel times are unbearably long and in many cases a discount airline can match the prices offered by long-haul land transport.
Sightseeing in Seattle
Seattle’s most well-known landmark, the Space Needle, towers above the city skyline. A high-speed elevator rockets spectators to the top of the structure where they’re rewarded with fantastic panoramas of the city and distant mountains. While perched here in the heights of the city, many visitors justify a high-brow dining experience in one of the world’s highest restaurants.
Pike Place Market is an exciting centre of commerce. First opened in 1907, this farmers’ market features shops selling produce and handicrafts along with a few boutiques, restaurants and occasional street performers. The oldest architecture in the city (19th century) sits on Pioneer Square. A couple of museums in Seattle focus on the 19th century Gold Rush craze and the exhibits offer a window into the tools and implements of that era.
Fun by night – eating drinking and partying
The University District is home to some of Seattle’s wildest party scenes. The Village and The Ave are the two main strips here, with a spread of sports bars, nightclubs, cafés, old-style theatres and loads of boutique shopping venues. This is one of Seattle’s oldest areas, so a lot of the architecture harks back a couple centuries.
Pioneer Square is a hotspot for late-night revelry, but you’ll also find plenty of mild-mannered cafés and trendy hangouts where patrons while away the afternoon hours. Starbucks was born in this neighbourhood, and beyond carefully crafted coffees, Pioneer Square is home to several art galleries (free tours on the 1st Thursday of every month) and bookshops that occasionally host book signings by prominent authors. When it’s all said and done, you’ll find seven nightclubs that all fall under the umbrella of a single cover charge.
Fun by day - shopping and activities
As with all major US cities, Seattle has more shopping outlets than you’d care to count. Many of the ritzy, upscale neighbourhoods host designer outlets and trendy boutiques dealing in every type and brand of good imaginable. Pioneer Square, The University District and Queen Anne’s neighbourhood are all great places to peruse the local selection. Just keep in mind that some the world’s wealthiest people make their home in Seattle, and there’s truly no limit to the amount of money you can spend here.
Daytrips
The Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park is one of the many reasons why people come to Seattle and it makes for a good daytrip. It is an indoor national park situated inside the old Cadillac Hotel building. Inside, you can learn all about the gold rush and what prospectors needed to do to make a claim.
Mount Rainier National Park hangs over the Seattle skyline, a huge conical volcano. Its peak is permanently covered in snow and easily has the best hiking and skiing in the region. To see all that Mount Rainier National Park has to offer, check out the Paradise Visitors Center.
Mount St Helens is another of Washington State’s volcanoes and spectacularly blew its top in 1980. It also erupted in 2005 but the crater is once again open for viewing and is best seen from the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which teaches all about the mountain and its blasts. The hiking and climbing at Mount St Helens are also very good.
Tacoma lies within an hour of Seattle and is a popular daytrip destination for visitors. It is famously home to artist Dale Chihuly and displays some of his vast glass sculptures, including the 1911 Union Station and the super long Bridge of Glass. The Tacoma Art Museum and Washington State History Museum are also worth seeing here.
Must-see attractions
Seattle’s most unique landmark comes in the form of the aptly named Space Needle which features an observation deck and a very fast lift. Views of the Seattle skyline and surroundings from up here are unrivalled, taking in the Puget Sound, Lake Union, and downtown Seattle. There are also telescopes and a revolving restaurant up here.
The Seattle Center is an amusement park on the Monorail line, built for the 1962 World Fair and home to the famed Space Needle. Also within it is the Fun Forest amusement park with its roller coasters and arcade games, while the Pacific Science Center features a giant IMAX theatre and laser shows. Also worth checking out is the International Fountain.
The Seattle Aquarium can be found on the waterfront and is another of Seattle’s must-see attractions. It has many exotic fish from the deep as well as river otters, sea otters and a giant octopus. Sharks are also here and can be seen from the safety of the underwater viewing dome. Several other tanks feature coral reef fish.
America’s oldest public market, Pike Place Market, has shops and restaurants galore as well as a plethora of craft stalls and even flying fish at Pike Place Fish. The Sur la Table eatery will happily cook your store-bought produce.
Best time to go
Summer is without doubt the best time to go to Seattle due to its northerly location which makes it chilly at most other times of the year. June to September is the fine weather window, with July and August having the hottest weather. Autumn time is also quite nice in Seattle while winters are cold but popular with skiers.
Rainy day suggestions
An Underground Tour of Seattle is perfect for a rainy day. You get to go underground at Pioneer Square and see old Seattle due to discrepancies in the reconstruction of the city after the great Seattle fire of 1889.
Seattle also has many museums for rainy days. Burke Museum has exhibits on fine gems and fossils, focusing on Seattle natural history, while the Museum of Flight has aircraft and spacecraft, and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is dedicated to science fiction.
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