Visit Seattle

Booking travel is a lot of work and doing it right takes a lot of research in a town you’ve never visited. I work hard at understanding transit and finding the best neighborhoods, activities, restaurants and museums. I know Seattle really well, so this is going to be the post that I would be exited to find when I am looking to stay in other cities. Hopefully this can be helpful for people spending a weekend here, or a week, or month or longer.

Transit– We have a great light rail in Seattle but it isn’t quite all the way built out yet. It goes from the airport to Seattle and by 2025 it will be extended to Lynnwood in the North, Bellevue to the East, and Federal Way to the South. Buses are also great for almost all neighborhoods in the Seattle City Limits. Metro buses also extend to other local cities but those routes are usually not as frequent. We also have a monorail (pictured above) which is whimsical fun, but not terribly useful – it really just goes from downtown up to the Seattle Center. If you don’t want to drive and/or park in the city core, I recommend you get an ORCA card that will work on the light rail, buses, monorail, ferries and commuter rail. These are available at kiosks in the light rail stations.

Neighborhoods– If you are looking for a long term Airbnb, I would first try my favorite 3 neighborhoods on the light rail network- Capitol Hill, Beacon Hill (my old ‘hood) and Columbia City (my new ‘hood). After doing a quick check…there might not be that many rentals available. Regardless of if you stay in these areas, it’s nice to be able to take light rail to different neighborhoods/urban villages to check out the interesting restaurants, bars, etc. Roosevelt or Chinatown/ID stations get an honorable mention. The Downtown stations (Pioneer Square, University Street and Westlake) would be fine, but you would be paying a lot of money for staying in a high rise without a real neighborhood. Places next to the other stations would be OK from a transit perspective but you would miss out on the cool neighborhood living that we have here in Seattle and you might not get a nearby grocery store or hub of restaurants.

Another option are the great neighborhoods not on the light rail but are still connected by frequent buses. Some of those are Georgetown, Fremont, Lower Queen Anne and Ballard.

Museums– We love the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and have been members for years. We see every new exhibit and sometimes just stop in for 30 minutes or so because of our yearly pass. But, if you are a world traveler, I can understand that our museum does not have as much of the famous art that you are used to seeing in East Coast or European museums and you could be disappointed. But if you do go, make sure you look for our Seattle artists- Morris Graves, Mark Tobey, Ken Callahan, Guy Anderson, Paul Horiuchi and Jacob Lawrence. Also look for the sculptures by Gerard and George Tsutakawa around town. SAM also runs the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. It is in the original old building of SAM which is pretty cool. The free Seattle Olympic Sculpture Garden near the waterfront is also run by SAM.

The Frye Art Museum is a pay-what-you-want museum in the First Hill neighborhood that usually has 3-4 rotating exhibits. The Henry Museum in the U-district usually has some interesting stuff from artists you have never heard of. The Pioneer Square Art Walk on the first Thursday of the Month is a must-go for art lovers. It has many high end galleries but also a lot of small artist workspaces make it big enough that you can’t see the whole show in one night.

The Burke Museum of Natural History might be my favorite natural history museum ever. And I have been to London, New York, Chicago and Vienna museums. The Burke doesn’t just have collections of dead animals, rocks, plants and dinosaur bones. It is really a museum of watching the scientists work doing research with the collections. You see some of the collection, but you are really going to look at actual Science.

The MOHAI history museum on Lake Union gives a great history of Seattle and Northwest history but the exhibits don’t change much. If you have been before like me, I am usually disappointed by their temporary exhibits and am not excited to see the same history of Seattle exhibit again. But it is good if you are interested in local Seattle history and have never been before.

The Pacific Science Center was my favorite place when I was a kid and I became a member when I had young kids, but now it just feels like the same Science Museum that many other cities have. Unless you have kids, or have never been to the Science museums in places like Chicago, Vancouver, Portland, Phoenix, or Munich, then I don’t think it is worth time.

In contrast, MoPop is an entirely unique museum. It started off as Paul Allen’s music museum to show off Seattle music such as Jimi Hendrix and the 90’s grunge bands. Then it added Paul’s collection of science fiction and movie stuff. It really is a mixed bag for a museum and often have temporary collections of interesting topics. They have some practice rooms where you can try tutorials on playing many different instruments that is really popular.

The Museum of Flight is a fantastic collection of airplanes including the first 747, the first 787, a Concorde, an old Air Force One, and the Space Shuttle mockup. A must see if you enjoy aviation museums.

Tourist Activities– The most popular things to do are to see the waterfront, Pike Place Market (NOT Pike‘s Place), and taking the monorail to the space needle. I guess those things should be done. The aquarium is OK and it is being expanded this year. The Woodland Park Zoo is really nice if you are into caged animals. I like the Underground tour even though they say the script hasn’t changed in 40 years; it really does give a great history story of the big fire of 1889.

But, I think what you really should be doing is biking in Seattle (I know I’m bike-biased!). That is the best way to find the neighborhoods, the parks, the music, the restaurants and the breweries. I think we have some of the most scenic city riding of anywhere in the world. We have many bike share and scooter share companies but that is only monetarily reasonable for short trips. You should be able to get a rental bike from Recycled Cycles for less than $40. And I have written a lot about the best bike routes in Seattle. See my fav 5 bike rides.

Hikes are also fun. Everyone should get up to Mount Rainier when the snow melts for some amazing hikes at both Sunrise and Paradise. Unfortunately, you need to get to Rainier super early to avoid the entrance lines. Avoid weekends. Most good hikes and backpacking is now incredibly crowded and it makes me miss the old days when you didn’t need reservations for an overnight backcountry permit. But it also makes me feel good that young people are all not watching TV and video games every weekend. If you are looking for a hike, there is no better place than the Washington Trails Association. Use the filters on their hike finder and read the trip reviews to find something that will work for you. There are some hikes doable by bus but most will need a car rental.

Other activities worth thinking about are a visit to the Ballard locks (free), a ride on a ferry to Bainbridge Island for lunch, or a kayak ride starting near the West Seattle Water Taxi Pier. Or just some city walks, we really like wandering through new neighborhoods. The Arboretum by the University of Washington is great for garden and plant lovers. Kubota Gardens in South Seattle is also a great (free) Japanese garden. Bird Watching at the Union Bay Wildlife Refuge is also always a good nature time near the city.

Music Venues and Events– We have tons of fantastic local bands and lots of venues in this city and it doesn’t make sense to go through all of them because everyone has different music tastes. The best way to find great music is to look at the Stranger’s Everout listings. The Stranger is Seattle’s alternative online newspaper which also usually has a couple of articles every week explaining their favorite upcoming events. My favorite music venues are the Royal Room, The Triple Door, The Moore Theater, The Crocodile, and The Neptune. All of those are on the light rail by the way. For plays, I like the Paramount and Theatre Off Jackson as well as the Seattle Shakespeare Company’s free summer plays in the parks.

We have a ton of festivals in the summer and it seems like there is great free music every weekend in July and August. My favorites that always find music I like are the Fremont Solstice parade and festival in June and the Ballard Seafoodfest in July. But we also have the Folklife Festival in late May, Georgetown Festival in June, West Seattle festival in July, Bite of Seattle in July, Capitol Hill Block party in July, Seafair parade and boat races in August, and Bumbershoot Labor Day weekend. Downtown has free music most days at lunchtime and they get really great bands most of the time although it is weird to watch nightclub party music at noon in front of only 100 people or so. Those shows are called Downtown Summer Sounds. I have seen a lot of them this year.

Parks– We have a pretty good parks department and most neighborhoods have their own local park. We also have some outstanding beaches and destination parks. The best saltwater beaches are Golden Gardens and Alki beach– both best accessed by bicycle or bus. The best big parks are Discovery Park, Gasworks Park, Cal Anderson Park, Volunteer Park, Lincoln Park and Seward Park. Lake Washington has the best lake swimming in the city and everyone has there own favorite beach. There are many swimming beaches from Madison Park all the way down Lake Washington Blvd to Seward Park. We like swimming in the lake at the South end of Seward Park and have our favorite willow tree we sit under a couple of times a week in the summer. When we are on a beach in Sicily, or Thailand, or Mexico or even in a pool somewhere, we always judge the water temperature compared to Lake Washington. Our lake is just warm enough to get in easy but also cold enough to be refreshing on a 85 degree August day.

Sports– Tourists love baseball games at T-Mobile park. Our Mariners might not be the best but our ballpark is fantastic with some great food available. Seahawk and Husky Football is fun but tickets are expensive and hard to get. Kraken hockey tickets can also be expensive and they tend to sell out a lot. Soccer is the sport that I would recommend. Seattle is a big sports town overall but we are also one of the biggest soccer towns in American. The Sounders have huge energetic crowds that make you feel like you are in Europe. If you choose to see a game, make sure you start at Occidental Park in Pioneer Square for the March to the Match and hour and a half before game time.

Restaurants– We have so many different types of restaurants here that it is impossible to give a complete list of all the good ones. Seattleites don’t like chains- we STILL don’t have a Walmart :>) and we still don’t have an Olive Garden :>) We like our neighborhood food that we can walk to or take a short metro ride. Lots of great Seafood, Chinese food, Filipino Food, Italian Food and Pizza. For foodies looking for the hottest restaurants, I would first check Seattle Eater. They have 38 best restaurants that they update every month and often to a list of the hottest new restaurants. But Google review works well here too. My neighborhood favorites are Homer, Bar Del Corso, Perihelion, and Musang in Beacon Hill and in Columbia City I like La Medusa, Island Soul, Jackalope, and Tutta Bella. My favorite brewery is just a few blocks away from my house in Columbia City- Flying Lion. Breweries are in every neighborhood, but Georgetown and Ballard have more than their fair share. The cooperative attitude rather than competitiveness of Seattle breweries have given us some of the best beer in the world.

Downsides of Seattle– It is expensive. Restaurants, hotels, and beer are pretty pricy. As always, there are ways to do things on the cheap but it makes you miss Southeast Asia or even Midwest America prices. The other thing you will notice in Seattle is that we have a visible problems with drug use, mental illness, and homelessness, just like other big cities up and down the west coast. It is concentrated in areas that move around from time to time so I can’t really tell you what to avoid if you don’t want to see it. Seattle really is trying to fix it and we keep voting on more money to try and help but it is going to be a while before it really gets better. The other problem is the weather. Climate change now means beautiful sunny weather without much of a chance of rain from Mid June to Mid September. Climate change also means that we can suffer from smoke from wildfires. For the last few years we have been hit with a week or 2 of smoke which makes everything not so fun. They now say we can expect that most years for the future. Winter on the other hand can be a little dreary from November to March which is one of the reasons we are now semi-nomadic, and only return to Seattle in the summer, or to see our families on holidays. But if you are mostly interested in great food, beer, museums and music, then Seattle would be a good visit in the shoulder seasons when Airbnb’s are cheaper.

Conclusion: Tourism in Seattle has expanded like crazy in the last 10 years. The climate-killing cruise machines are bringing thousands more to our city. The tech boom in Seattle has also brought tons more of people to live here. Things have changed but a lot has still remained the same. We still are an outdoors city and the new people and tourists are going outdoors with those of us that have lived here our whole lives. It is a great place to be and I hope you will try to find the good stuff here if you choose to travel to Seattle.