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Seattle Destinations

Best of Seattle

Pike Place Market This regenerated market holds Seattle’s liveliest assortment of stalls and street entertainers.

Space Needle Bypass the generic fare in the Seattle Center and head straight to the top of the Space Needle, the city’s most distinctive landmark, offering the kind of panoramas you’d expect.

hub for hip bars, gay clubs and alternative clothing and music shops.

Underground Tour Discover Seattle’s sleazy history on the famous Underground Tour, visiting the subterranean passages below Pioneer Square where speakeasies and burlesques thrived in the early twentieth century.

Seattle Coffee houses It’s Seattle, so you know you’ve got to drink coffee!

Fremont As funky a Seattle neighborhood as you’ll find, Fremont’s highlights include tours of the renowned Redhook Brewery, wacky street art and an eighteen-foot troll.

Explore Seattle

Bainbridge and Vachon Island

For a brief escape from Seattle, the half-hour ferry ride across Elliott Bay to Bainbridge Island provides a relaxing, scenic experience. Washington State Ferries leave from Pier 52 ($4.50 round-trip for foot passengers; $8 round-trip per car and driver, or $10 during peak periods; hourly - avoid rush hours; tel 206/464-6400) for the 35-minute journey, docking in the town of BAINBRIDGE ISLAND (formerly Winslow), which is small and charming but provides little reason to linger. This green and rural island, occupying less than fifty square miles, is mostly private land, but if you want to pitch a tent, there’s camping at the far end in Fay Bainbridge State Park ($12; tel 206/842-3931). Otherwise, accommodation is limited to B&Bs , details of which can be obtained from the visitor center at 590 Winslow Way E (tel 206/842-3700, ). The Streamliner Diner , 397 Winslow Way (tel 206/842-8595), with its huge breakfasts and sandwiches, is the best place to eat in the daytime.

Nine daily Washington State Ferries from Seattle and West Seattle also make the short trip to pleasant, bicycle-friendly Vashon Island . Ferries from downtown Seattle’s Pier 50 are passenger-only ($5.50), while West Seattle trips are also for vehicles (car and driver $10 round-trip, or $13 during peak hours; passengers $2.90 round-trip). A few beaches lie along the coast of this island, where the community of VASHON is little more than a hamlet. The AYH Ranch Hostel at 12119 SW Cove Rd (tel 206/463-2592, ; up to $35/$35-50), six miles from the Seattle-Vashon ferry dock at the north end of the island, is in an amiable wooded spot and features log cabins, covered wagons or tepees as accommodation. Phone ahead to make a reservation and arrange a free pickup at the jetty. There are also a number of good B&Bs , among them Artist’s Studio Loft , 16592 91st Ave SW (tel 206/463-2583, ; $100-130), and the Swallow’s Nest Guest Cottages , 6030 SW 248th St (tel 206/463-2646, ; $100-130). Good places to eat are Emily’s Café , 17530 Vashon Hwy SW, an espresso bar and bakery with good vegetarian meals, Casa Bonita , 17623 100th Ave SW, offering solid Mexican fare, and Rock Island Pub & Pizza , 17322 Vashon Hwy SW, which has gourmet pizzas and microbrews.

Ballard and Ship Canal

The “U” District and Seattle’s other northern neighborhoods are sliced off from the rest of town by water; the Lake Washington Ship Canal connects Lake Union with the sea to the west and Lake Washington to the east. Near the mouth of the canal, a procession of boats passes through the Chittenden Locks (bus #17 from downtown), where migrating salmon and trout negotiate a fish ladder laid out with viewing windows, through which you can see enormous fish leaping up (late summer season for salmon, fall and early winter for trout).

Behind the locks is Salmon Bay, with Fisherman’s Terminal on its south side, crowded with Seattle’s fishing fleet and stalls selling freshly caught fish. On the northern side of Salmon Bay, blue-collar BALLARD (reached by several buses from downtown) is undergoing gentrification and the historic Old Town, on Ballard Avenue, is now home to galleries, bars and restaurants. The heritage of the Scandinavian fishermen who settled in Ballard in the late nineteenth-century is celebrated at the Nordic Heritage Museum , 3014 NW 67th St (Tues-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; $5; ), offering memorabilia and folk art associated with their long journey from the Old World through Ellis Island and eventually to the West Coast. The only other site of interest in the area lies further east, on the north shore of Lake Union, where Gasworks Park provides an unexpected delight. A former gas plant turned postmodern park, children now play on grassy hills that were once slag heaps and decaying, graffiti-covered machines offer surreal evidence of the site’s previous industrial incarnation.

Belltown

The resurgently chic Belltown area (also referred to as the Denny Regrade) has left its grunge legacy behind and is now choked with bohemian cafés, vintage clothing stores, used record shops and alternative galleries. Belltown casually blends the swank and avant-garde, beginning just to the north of Pike Street Market and extending one mile in the same direction towards the Seattle Center, with the heart of Belltown being the five-block area of Second Avenue between Stewart and Battery. Godfathers of the neighborhood, Sub Pop Records , famous for promotion of the early 1990s grunge scene with releases by Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden, began its operations on the edge of Belltown, where it still occupies several floors of the Terminal Sales Building. You can get the best sense of the local bohemian scene, though, at the Center on Contemporary Art , 65 Cedar St (Tues-Sat 11am-6pm; $5; ), which focuses on edgy regional works with a satirical flair.

Capitol Hill

A fifteen-minute bus ride to the top of a steep hill east of downtown takes you to Capitol Hill , the city’s alternative center since young gays, hippies and assorted radicals moved in during the 1960s and 1970s. Today it exemplifies the city’s diverse lifestyles and, despite a fair bit of gentrification driving up the rents, remains a good choice for munching on ethnic food, listening to old LPs, and hitting the club scene. The shops and cafés around Broadway are abuzz with neo-bohemian activity and are littered throughout with storefront coffee vendors and espresso carts. East of Broadway from Twelfth to about Ninth avenues, the Pike/Pine Corridor is filled with all-night coffee houses, live music venues and some of Seattle’s best nightspots.

By contrast, the northern end of the district features mansions built on Gold Rush fortunes that sit sedately around Volunteer Park (named after Spanish-American War veterans). Here you’ll find the 1912 Conservatory ‘s hothouses, home to flowers, shrubs and orchids from jungle, desert and rainforest landscapes (daily 10am-4pm, summer closes at 7pm; free), as well as the old Water Tower that provides a free, sweeping view of Seattle through wire mesh. In the same area, the Seattle Asian Art Museum , 1400 E Prospect St (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Thurs closes at 9pm; $3, free first Thurs of month; ), boasts a 7000-piece collection of ceramics, jade and snuff bottles from Japan, China, Korea and Southeast Asia. Ten blocks east, Washington Park stretches to the north, encompassing the University of Washington Arboretum , a lush showcase for indigenous Puget Sound vege-tation, with plenty of charming footpaths and different varieties of regional trees. At the south end of the park, the immaculately landscaped Japanese Gardens flash banks of pink flowers beside neat little pools with exotically colored carp (March-Nov daily 10am-dusk; $2.50).

Fremont

North of downtown Seattle across Lake Union, Fremont is a consciously hip, mostly white middle-class area, with a spate of used bookshops and artsy cafés. The hub is the stretch of Fremont Avenue N that runs, beginning at the Fremont Bridge, from N 34th to N 37th streets, where the Fremont Sunday Market (April-Nov 10am-5pm) fills up a parking lot with produce stalls and a flea market. In summer, the neighborhood hosts the Fremont Outdoor Cinema ( ), which projects classic films against a building wall on Saturdays at dusk, with live music and entertainment before all shows. A big attraction in Fremont’s industrial section is the Trolleyman Pub housed in the historic Redhook Brewery building, 3400 Phinney Ave N, where beer is no longer brewed on site, but where you can still order a pint or taste a few samples to find your match. Additionally, fans of public art should check out the curious local sculptures , the best of the bunch being the Fremont Troll lurking under the Aurora Bridge at 36th Street and Aurora Avenue.

Museum of Flight

The biggest of Seattle’s museums, the Museum of Flight , a twenty-minute bus ride (#174) south of downtown at 9404 E Marginal Way (daily 10am-5pm, until 9pm on Thurs; $9.50, kids $5; ), is partly housed in the magnificently restored 1909 “Red Barn” that was the original Boeing manufacturing plant. Displays of 54 airplanes lead from ancient prototypes to the Wright Brothers, from the growth of Boeing to a gallery hung with twenty full-sized aircraft and a replica of John Glenn’s 1962 Mercury space capsule. One unmistakable highlight is the chance to sit in the cockpit of an SR-71 Blackbird, the type of spy plane once used to fly 80,000 feet above the jungles of Vietnam.

Pike Place Market and the Waterfront

Pike Place Market is the oldest continuous working public market in the US. Farmers first brought their produce to the market in 1907, lowering food prices by selling straight from the barrow. The market prospered during the Depression, but by the 1960s it was shabby and neglected, and the authorities decided to flatten the area altogether. Following vigorous protests, Seattlites voted overwhelmingly to preserve this as the affordable domain of the elderly and poor. The restoration has been highly successful: the whole place, stretched over several city blocks, bustles with energy, and a real attempt has been made to keep it true to its roots, even though upscale restaurants are beginning to creep in and sanitize away all the former seediness. Still, there’s plenty to enjoy, with street entertainers playing to busy crowds, the aroma of coffee drifting from cafés, and stalls offering piles of lobsters, crabs, salmon, vegetables, fruit and flowers. Further into the long market building, handmade jewelry, woodcarvings and silk-screen prints are on sale, while small shops close by stock a massive range of ethnic foods.

Also nearby, the Seattle Art Museum at 100 University Street and First Avenue (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Thurs open until 9pm; $7 ticket includes entry to the Seattle Asian Arts Museum on Capitol Hill; free first Thurs of month; ) occupies a Robert Venturi-designed building - noteworthy for its giant engraved letters - and features international touring exhibitions and eclectic collections of African, Pacific and Native American work, with a more limited selection of modern art. Outside the main entrance is the 48ft ” Hammering Man ,” a kinetic sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky, which has become the museum’s enigmatic emblem.

Stairs in the market lead down to the steep staircase of the Pike Place Hillclimb , and to the waterfront below. Almost opposite the Hillclimb, Pier 59 , an old wooden jetty that once served tall ships, now houses the underwater viewing dome of the Seattle Aquarium (daily 10am-5pm; summer closes at 7pm; $9, kids $6.25; ). A combined ticket also admits you to the 3-D Omnidome next door (daily shows starting 10am; $7; combined ticket $13; tel 206/622-1869 for program info; ), where 70mm films on the huge curved screen include the always-popular Eruption of Mount St Helens . On Pier 54 to the south, the most famous of the waterfront’s fish-and-chip stands, Ivar’s Acres of Clams , has its own special stop (“Clam Central Station”) on the restored vintage waterfront streetcar ($1, peak hours $1.75). Colman Dock at Pier 52 is the terminal for Washington State Ferries.

Pioneer Square and around

A few blocks inland from the ferry terminal, the Pioneer Square area, Seattle’s oldest district, was nearly destroyed in the 1960s, but has since been renovated, with bookshops and galleries adding a veneer of sophistication to the old red-brick, wrought iron and shady trees. Things get more raucous at night, when rock music booms out from assorted taverns and panhandlers become more aggressive.

By far the most interesting way to find out about the city’s seamy past is on a 90-minute Underground Tour from Doc Maynard’s tavern, 610 First Ave ($9, kids $5; tel 206/682-4646, ). After a disastrous fire in 1889, this area was rebuilt with the street level raised by one story, so what used to be the ground-level floors of its brick buildings are now underground, linked by subterranean passageways. A couple of blocks north from Doc Maynard’s , at 117 S Main St, the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (daily 9am-5pm; free; ) is not a park, but a small museum celebrating the days when, thanks to a formidable campaign to promote Seattle as the gateway to Alaskan gold, prospectors streamed in and traders (and con artists) made their fortunes. The dog population fared less well as many a hapless mutt was harnessed to a sledge so that gold-seekers could practice “mushing” up and down Seattle’s streets before facing Alaskan snow (see Jack London’s novel The Call of the Wild ). Just as interesting, the nearby cobblestoned square of Occidental Park , between Main and Washington streets at Occidental, holds four totem poles carved with mythical creatures from Northwest Native American legends. Two blocks northeast, on the edge of Pioneer Square, the 1914 white-terracotta Smith Tower was the city’s first skyscraper, as well as its longtime visual icon - until the Space Needle appeared in the 1960s to become the city’s main postcard symbol.

A few blocks south of Pioneer Square, football fans can check out a Seahawks game at Washington State Public Stadium (tel 1-888/635-4295, ), while baseball enthusiasts can visit Safeco Field , further south at First Avenue and S Atlantic Street, to take in a Seattle Mariners game (tel 206/622-HITS, ).

Seattle Center

The Seattle Center ( ) dates from the 1962 World’s Fair, whose theme was “Century 21” (hence the rather outdated architecture and spindly, 600ft flying-saucer-tipped Space Needle tower). Since then the 74-acre complex has become a sort of culture park, staging major sporting events, concerts and festivals, as well as a longstanding site for ancient-looking carnival rides aimed at the pre-teen set. Amid this strange hodgepodge stands the Pacific Science Center, Seattle Opera (closed until 2003), Children’s Museum, Experience Music Project, and various theaters. The Center is best reached by the monorail , which runs from the third floor of Westlake Center at Fifth Avenue and Pine Street downtown ($1.25 one-way; ) and drops you close to the Space Needle , the Space Age-modernist city icon, which is most appealing at night when it’s lit up. The panoramic view from the observation deck, where there’s a bar, is unmatched (daily 8am-midnight; $11; kids $5; ).

Southwest of the needle, the Pacific Science Center (daily 10am-5pm, weekends and summer open until 6pm; $8; ) is easily recognizable by its modernist white arches and shallow, stagnant “lake.” The hands-on adventure park is full of science-related exhibits for children, and includes a planetarium and IMAX theater. Nearby lies the Frank Gehry-designed Experience Music Project (daily 9am-9pm, weekends open until 11pm; $19.95; ), a giant burst of colored metal made of sweeping aluminum curves - into which the monorail passes - that opened in June 2000. Inside is an 80,000-piece strong collection of rock memorabilia divided up into exhibits on different phases of popular music history, along with a gallery-shrine to the original Seattle guitar-god, Jimi Hendrix. As much an interior amusement park as a bona fide museum (check out the Sound Lab, where you can bang on drums and keyboards to your heart’s delight), the “EMP” never loses the sense of freewheeling pleasure associated with 1960s rock and pop.

University District

Across Union Bay from the park, the University District , or the “U” District, is a busy hodgepodge of coffee houses, cinemas, and clothes, book and record stores catering to the University of Washington’s 35,000 students. The area centers on University Way, known as ” The Ave ,” and is lined with inexpensive ethnic restaurants and the cavernous University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE. Although the sidewalks are always bustling, the area lacks the late-opening clubs and music venues of nearby Capitol Hill.

On campus, the Henry Art Gallery , 15th Avenue and NE 41st Street (Tues-Sun 11am-5pm, Thurs closes at 8pm; $6, free Thurs 5-8pm and for any student with ID; ), houses American and European paintings and photography from the last two centuries, and hosts rotating contemporary exhibitions focusing on regional art in all forms. The Burke Memorial Museum , 17th Avenue and NE 45th Street (daily 10am-5pm, Thurs closes at 8pm; $5.50; ), presents exhibits on the natural and cultural history of the Pacific Rim and displays selections from its huge collection of 2.75 million fossils and Ice Age skeletons, including the remains of a 12,000-year-old sloth.

Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved.The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.

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                  * Region: Washington
* Time Zone: Pacific (GMT-8)
* Geography: Northern Hemisp