Seattle: trip advice needed

[RAReinecke]

My sister and I are planning a trip to Seattle. We would like to see the Chihuly museum and are open to suggestions.
What should we see? Is a day trip to Mt. Rainer worth it?
How long should we plan to stay?
Do we really need a rental car?
Do you have a good hotel suggestion for people who don't need 5 star, but don't like to rough it?
Likely travel time is the end of June, but could be flexible over the summer.
Thank you for your help..

 

[Veronika]

There are a few Seattle peeps on the forum who can give you very detailed information. There is a lot to see (I lived in the area for over 2 years) and you should try to plan as much as you can. I would suggest getting a car if you are going to Mt. Rainier, but if you are staying in the city you probably won't need one.

I stayed at the Hyatt Place on Denny (in Belltown/Queen Anne) the first time I went to Seattle and it was very nice. It's not close to Pike Place, but you can take a taxi with no issues.

 

[Rogue]

I stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn by Lake Union. It was very well located close to a trolley stop, so getting around downtown was very easy.

If you are into history, the underground Seattle tour is very interesting.

 

[manhn]

Seattle has the best donuts in the US, IMO. Top Pot. Mighty O.

I know the city has been constructing the new light rail, but I find their transit entirely frustrating. Depending on how long you're staying, I would get a rental car.

Personally, I love west Seattle, Ballard and Green Lake.

In terms of events in June, Seattle has a big marathon and I think Pride takes place that month too.

 

[Vash01]

My nephew lives in Seattle and I have visited him many times. Long ago when I first visited Seattle, I stayed in a downtown hotel (I think it was Holiday Inn) and took day tours. If you rent a car, you will have more freedom but I have to warn you that Seattle is small in area of land (lots of water though)and I find it a bit scary to drive on the sloping, narrow roads. Fortunately I didn't have to drive.

There is lots to see there. I highly recommend one full day to visit Mt. Rainier national park. It's a gem!

I also recommend visiting the Boeing factory. They have
tours going there.

Another place worth seeing are the locks. You can either see them from the grounds or take a cruise.

I have not seen the Chihuly garden in Seattle but I have seen lots of Chihuly sculpture here, in our Desert Botanical garden. It's truly amazing, so do visit the Chihuly garden in Seattle.

If you have more time, you can visit the Olympic National Park and the North Cascades national park. I prefer the Olympic NP of the two. For NCNP you have to drive deep into the park.

There are islands near Seattle that you can visit. They have Day cruises. There are lots of lakes and sounds. The scenery is spectacular at all times.

There is the famous needle you see in almost every Seattle picture.

So there is lots to see and do. I would say minimum 4 days and if you have more time, even a week or two will keep you entertained there.

Once I stayed in Bellevue at the Silver Cloud hotel. I don't know if it's still there, but if you stay in the suburbs you will definitely need a rental car. There is public transport from Bellevue to downtown, I think. My sister had used it but I am never comfortable using public transport.

IMO if you could stay in a downtown hotel - I am sure hotels.com or Booking.com have some good rates- it may be easier to do some if the sightseeing. For Mt.Rainier, Boeing, Chihuly, etc. you need either a tour or a rental car.

When you are in Seattle, you see Mt Rainier in the distance frequently. I always find it exciting. I would say a trip to that national park is a must if you are visiting Seattle.

 

[nyrak]

I highly recommend the Chihuly Museum, and easily accessible from downtown via the monorail. Downtown is fairly walkable, at least the parts I've been to...easy to walk downtown from the Clipper dock, and many of the main attractions are near the Pike Place Market. The monorail is a short walk away, and a fun way to get to Seattle Center/Space Needle.

 

[Aussie Willy]

I visited Seattle last year and would go back. Wonderful place and so much to do and see. Would have definitely liked to have spent more time there.

If you get the Seattle City Pass it has tickets for the attractions. It cost $79 for adults but with the things I chose it more than paid for itself.

Definitely visit the Chihuly museum (which is included in the pass) and have lunch at the cafe. You might have to wait a bit but the fries are worth it.

And nearby is the EMP museum which has exhibitions about the Seattle music scene, including Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana and you can get to be in a band and they film it. Good fun. At the time I went they had the World of Wearable Art exhibition on.

Pike Place Market is fabulous. I would recommend the Crumpet Shop for breakfast. Watch out for the Monkfish. Lots of buskers as well. If you go to the bookshop down on the lower level the friend guy there who talks a lot is very funny and has a book that people send him postcards of. I still owe him one.

I did one of the Underground tours (I think it was the Beneath the Streets tour). There are two of them running. I did the newer tour which was less busy and the ticket got me entry to the Comedy Club which I spent the night at. Well worth doing.

Pioneer Square has lots of galleries to look at. There is a really great native art gallery there called Stonnington Gallery. Also the Klondike Gold Rush museum is fascinating to learn about the history of the area.

I also did a quick trip to the Seattle Art Gallery. Was disappointed I didn't have more time for that one.

The only thing I was disappointed with was the Aquarium. After having spent a week in the wilderness of Canada, it was kind of disappointing to see the animals in captivity. However sea otters seemed to be quite happy.

Here are my photo albums on my Facebook Page from my Seattle trip.
Chuhily Glass Museum
EMP Museum
Some photos including market
And a few more photos

I can't recommend accommodation except to say I did an Airbnb about half an hour out in the suburbs. Had no problems with the bus getting out there but it was a long way and as much as the host was lovely and area very nice, I would have preferred something a bit closer to downtown. I did find Seattle very easy to get around.

 

[madm]

If you are into nature, I recommend taking a whale watching excursion to see the killer whales (orcas). They are most active around San Juan Island. We did a zodiac boat trip out of Victoria (on Vancouver Island) many years ago, and you see the whales up much closer than a cruise ship. There are trips that depart from Seattle: https://seattleorcawhalewatching.com/

A day trip via ferry from Seattle to Victoria is nice. There is a lot to see on Vancouver Island, with British ambiance in Victoria. Butchart Gardens is beautiful.

In Seattle itself, I recommend the Pike Place Market and the Space Needle. Again if you're into outdoorsy stuff, you can visit the original REI store. My husband likes to eat at Ivar's Acres of Clams on the Seattle waterfront - you can get buckets of steamed clams and mussels there and the view is great.

If you have a car, you can drive east on I-90 to the town of Issaquah for dinner at Snoqualmie Falls Lodge, which is perched above a huge waterfall. Reservations required in advance as this is a popular place. The town of Issaquah is European style with many arts, wine, and food festivals.

Speaking of wine, there are a lot of wineries in Washington! http://www.winesnw.com/seatmap.html

Rainier National Park is one of my favorite places in the U.S. Definitely spend a day there. One nice place to eat inside the park is Paradise Inn: http://mtrainierguestservices.com/rainier-dining/paradise-inn-dining-room/. The park is huge and it takes a long time to drive around it. Be sure to stop at the Sunrise Visitor Center.

 

[jobelle]

Mt. Rainier is definitely worth it! If you are planning to hike be aware that in late June many of the higher elevation hikes will still have lots of snow (although many are still hikable). You can check here for trail updateshttps://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/trails-and-backcountry-camp-conditions.htm). In June we often choose a lower elevation hike and then finish the day with a drive up to Paradise or Sunrise for what my sister and I call "mountain-gawking"-- my preference is usually Paradise as there are more amenities.

We always prefer to take the "long" route to Paradise through Enumclaw, Greenwater (State Route 410), and down the Eastern side of the Park (highway 123), entering the Park through the Steven's Canyon entrance . It's a longer trip than the alternate option (through Tacoma, Ashford on 706 and the Longmire entrance) but the drive is beautiful and the Steven's Canyon road in particular is breathtaking. (https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/upload/Driving-Directions-6_13.pdf) Heading back that way we always make sure to stop for coffee and huckleberry ice cream at Wapiti Woolies in Greenwater.

 

[mrr50]

My son lives in Seattle. We enjoyed the zoo and the whale watching tour. My son and husband love the Boeing museum. My son enjoys the pop culture museum. If you plan to drive in Seattle, rent a small car. We own a Prius and it was nerve-racking to squeeze through side streets. Rt 5 is a mess, but people are kind. At least when you have out of state license plates. Many fabulous Asian/Vietnamese restaurants.

 

[kwanfan1818]

When I was living in Vancouver and didn't have a car before car2go launched, I used to stay at the Mediterranean Inn when I visited Seattle. It's conveniently located in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, where Seattle Center is located.

There are Festals at Seattle Center to celebrate different cultures. There's food and usually some type of singing and dance performances throughout the Center the weekends that they're on:
http://www.seattlecenter.com/festal/

The Woodland Park Zoo is well worth a visit, and they have concerts during the summer.

Although you can get close by transit, almost no one ever does, so if you have a car, I would suggest the Kuboda Garden:
http://www.kubotagarden.org/

Food wise, you can drive or take light rail and then walk 10 minutes to the small downtown in Columbia City, where one of the best bakeries in town, Columbia City Bakery, is, and across the street is wonderful thin crust Neapolitan pizza restaurant, Tutta Bella. (They have at least two other branches in Seattle, too.) Also there is a Green Eileen shop, where you can get second-hand Eileen Fisher clothing at 20-25% of the original cost.

My favorite gelato places, at least when I could eat it, are The Fainting Goat on 45th Street in Wallingford, not that far from the Stone Way Tutta Bella, and D'Ambrosio on Ballard Avenue, convenient if you head to the Ballard Locks. Most people go to the Locks and turn around without continuing up the road, where you'll find Ray's Boathouse -- Ray's Cafe upstairs is cheaper, and if you're lucky, you can get deck seating -- and even farther, a lovely walk along the docks, where people moor their boats. Even farther up is Carkeep Park, which is on the water and has a beach.

Again, easy with a car, is Alki Beach in West Seattle, and in the town center of West Seattle, bakeries and restaurants. That's generally from where they get the shots of downtown Seattle.

One of my favorite things is taking ferries. From downtown, you can ferry to Bainbridge (35 min each way) or Bremerton (60 mins each way) -- you pay in Seattle. You can just turn around and come back. With a car, we've driven to West Seattle, had lunch, driven to the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal at one end of West Seattle, take the car ferry to Vashon Island, gone to Farmer's Market there, driven through Vashon to Tahlequah, taken another car ferry to Point Defiance, where there's a park, and go to Tacoma, which has a great museum district: Museum of Glass, if you can't get enough Chihuly, Washington State History Museum, America's Car Museum, and the Tacoma Art Museum.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/
http://www.traveltacoma.com/things-to-do/museum-district/

One Seattle Museum that not enough people go to is the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), which is now more conveniently located in South Lake Union:
http://mohai.org/

The Olympic Sculpture Park is at the border of Belltown and Lower Queen Anne on Elliot Bay. It's free, and there's a lovely waterfront walk there as well:
http://seattleartmuseum.org/visit/olympic-sculpture-park

 

[Peaches LaTour]

My sister & I are also planning a trip to Seattle. We are wondering what type of public transportation is available from the airport to the Space Needle area and how far it is from the Space Needle to the main public library?

 

[kwanfan1818]

From the airport, you take light rail. It's about a half mile walk from the north end of the terminal through the parking garage. There are vending machines before you go up to the platform. It's an extra couple of dollars, because you can't use transit tickets on the Monorail, but the easiest way to get to the Space Needle is to take light rail to Westlake Station, head to the 5th Avenue exit, and take the Monorail from Westlake Center (Pine Street) to the Space Needle. Or you could get out at Westlake Center towards the 3rd Avenue exit, and then walk to 3rd Avenue, where you can catch the D Line bus just south of Pine Street. You'd get out at Republican by Key Arena. It's sometimes hard to hear the bus stop announcements, but at the front of the bus, and after the accordion on the articulated buses, there's a screen with the stop names.

From everything I've read, you can't use light rail tickets for the bus or bus tickets for light rail. (I thought you could do the former, but not the latter.) However, if you buy an Orca card for $5 (each), you can transfer between buses and light rail without paying an extra fare, so that if you're doing rail to bus and bus to rail to get to and from the airport, that would pay for the price of the card, and it's a lot easier than stuffing exact change into the bus fare box. You can buy them at the vending machines at the airport, and then load value. Or you can order them in advance from the website:
https://www.soundtransit.org/Fares-and-Passes/orca-card. You can also get day passes for $8 in addition to the $5 for the Orca card, so if you're going to be doing a lot of busses and light rail in a day, that could be worth it, too.

It's 1.5 miles from the Space Needle (in Seattle Center in the lower Queen Anne neighborhood) to the Central Library. If you're in the mood to walk, you can exit Seattle Center at 5th Avenue (formerly EMP, or now M-Pop side -- it's the big Frank Gehry Building, and just walk up 5th. It will start to go uphill, though.

An easy route is to take the bus from Seattle Center to downtown, go to Pike Place Market if you want, and then walk on Pike to 4th, which is pretty flat, and then head four blocks south to the Library, which is between Spring and Madison (N/S) and 4th Avenue (lower entrance) and 5th Avenue (upper entrance).

Alternately, you could take the monorail from just by the Space Needle to 5th and Pine, and walk five blocks south. It's one stop, going back and forth between Westlake Center (5th and Pine) and Seattle Center.

 

[genevieve]

how did I not see this until now?

Many posters have got it covered, I think, but here are a few details.

Bus route #2 goes directly from the Queen Anne Ave N (1 block west of the space needle) to the downtown library. Due to 1-way streets, coming back to lower Queen Anne it's not quite as direct coming back - pick up the 2 on I think University, or walk down to 3rd and Pike. Lots of buses on 3rd go to the Space Needle - just make sure you're on the side you want to be (1, 2, 13 go to the west/Elliott Bay side; 3, 4 go to the east/Lake Washington side).

Whatever you do, for the love of Pete DO NOT bother with the world's first Starbucks. It's exactly like every other Starbucks in the world, except there are 20,000 people trying to cram in there to take a photo. If you absolutely must drink Starbucks (and please try other local coffees, they are almost all better - Vivace is the best), there's a new Starbucks one block from the original one.

I highly recommend the Underground Walking Tour. It's an interesting way to see and learn about Seattle's history, back when it was a very interesting town.

The International District is the best neighborhood in the central part of the city. If the Panama Tea House is still open, it's worth a visit. Up a hill if you're walking or taking transit. Columbia City is the best neighborhood outside the downtown core. Island Soul has amazing Caribbean food!

Parking in Seattle is awful. So is traffic. I suggest renting a car only for day trips unless you stay somewhere with free parking included.

If you don't have time for a full on ferry experience to Bainbridge or Bremerton, take the water taxi to West Seattle - there is a free shuttle to Alki from there, and the warmer it gets, the more awesome it is. The water taxi is walk-on only, no cars.

If you happen to be in Seattle on the first Thursday of the month, the museums are free that day.

Um, random list, feel free to ask any additional questions - I'm not there right now but have lived in Seattle for 26 years

 

[maatTheViking]

When we were visitors, many years ago, we just rented a car for one day - going to Mt. Rainier - and walked/bussed the rest. With the light rail now, if you stay down town, I would say don't bother with a car other than for a day trip.

Mt. Rainier is worth it. Especially of you go in mid July (I think that is when) and the wildflowers are blooming at Paradise. It is the most beautiful place I have been on this Earth.

Also, even if it is expensive, and touristy, don't skip the space needle if it is a clear day. You can see Mt Rainer, Mt Skt Helens, Baker, Oplympus - mountains ALL THE WAY around, it is gorgeous.

I can also recommend The Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. It usually has very interesting special exhibitions too.

If you are very interested in Glass, Tacoma has a glass museum too. It has working demonstrations which are really interesting. You do need a car to get there.

Of other 'need a car' things I can recommend the Le May car museum in Tacoma if you like cars (esp vintage American) and the Museum of Flight.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I can also recommend The Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. It usually has very interesting special exhibitions too.

It's a great museum, but it's closed for renovations until 2019

If you are very interested in Glass, Tacoma has a glass museum too. It has working demonstrations which are really interesting. You do need a car to get there.

Of other 'need a car' things I can recommend the Le May car museum in Tacoma if you like cars (esp vintage American) and the Museum of Flight.

Since both are south of Seattle, this might make a good day trip with a break in between.

Another possibility is to do Rainier and Tacoma/Museum of Flight at one end of the trip. You could stay at an airport hotel or one in Tacoma and even rent/drop off a car from there and avoid having a car in Seattle completely.

 

[nyrak]

If you are into nature, I recommend taking a whale watching excursion to see the killer whales (orcas). They are most active around San Juan Island. We did a zodiac boat trip out of Victoria (on Vancouver Island) many years ago, and you see the whales up much closer than a cruise ship. There are trips that depart from Seattle: https://seattleorcawhalewatching.com/

A day trip via ferry from Seattle to Victoria is nice. There is a lot to see on Vancouver Island, with British ambiance in Victoria. Butchart Gardens is beautiful.

Yes, if you have time take the Clipper up to Victoria....it's a fast (about 2.5 hours) and scenic trip. Lots to see here too.

 

[kwanfan1818]

You can do Victoria in a day. The Clipper from downtown has an expanded schedule in the summer, and you can leave first thing in the morning. Passport Control is at the destination, but they do check ID's (Passport, NEXUS, Enhanced Driver's License) as you board.

 

[RAReinecke]

Thank you all for your help. We stayed downtown at the Motif and could walk virtually everywhere. We went to most of the major attractions including a cruise through the locks. We skipped Boeing because the ticket was $25 but to get there we would have likely used their shuttle which made it a $90 ticket. We were just annoyed by that.

Seattle is an Uber town and we spent far less on Uber than on a rental car. Uber to the airport was about $30 rather than the $50 the cab cost on the way in. We were not confident we could get an Uber back from the Boeing factory.

We also took a tour to Mt Rainier which was well worth the money: someone else drove and made decisions about where we would stop. Driving ourselves would have been a disaster and would have made for a long, tiring, and not as productive day.

If going, do look into the city pass.

Again, thank you all for your input as it was very helpful.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I'm glad you had a good trip to our neck of the woods