What to do in Seattle?

dceire

Hey, I've been in Vancouver for 2 months now and have decided to leave to do some traveling around North America. At the moment I'm in Victoria, it's a beautiful city well worth a visit. I'm heading down to Seattle for 5 days next Monday and am looking for suggestions of places to go, things to do and see.

I'm a big music fan and love grunge bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains etc. Being the home of grunge rock has anyone got any suggestions for me? I hear that there is a Jimi Hendrix experience thing that you can do so I'll probably give that a look.

Sergeant

If you're a fan of seafood, then a visit to The Crab Pot is a must. Homer Simpson in the all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant is the closest I can describe the place as.

If you're a fan of beer, then there is a great tour that takes in 3 or 4 breweries.

silja

You MUST go to Pike Place market, it's great! The first Starbucks is there also. They have a nice aquarium too.

If you like nature, there are some great day trips to go whale watching.

InTheTrees

Its a lot smaller than Vancouver.

There's the market.

The Space Needle.

Pioneer Square is the old area.

There's a free newspaper called The Stranger, its available everywhere. it'll have all the music listings.

EMP The Experience Music project is worth a visit. (its not a Hendrix thing, although Hendrix was from Seattle.)

You can take various boat tours, also seaplane rides.

There's a great Aviation museum at Boeing Field very close to downtown.

JONJO THE MISER

There is a lovely Irish pub up a laneway off pike place market, it has lovely views over pugent sound and you can sit outside, kells is the name of the place.
Just watch out for all the pan handlers in Seattle:p

ibh

InTheTrees wrote: »

EMP The Experience Music project is worth a visit. (its not a Hendrix thing, although Hendrix was from Seattle.)

I think the OP might be referring to the exhibition(?) about Hendrix that was on in the EMP. Not sure if that's still running. It was brilliant. If you're a music fan you could kill most of a day in the EMP.

If you're into sports you could catch a Seahawks (NFL), Sounders (Soccer), or Sonics (NBA) game in the upcoming weeks.

If you have the option you should travel to Seattle from Victoria. Take the ferry to Port Angeles and then from there to Seattle. There is another ferry ride that takes you right into downtown Seattle and it has amazing views. Well worth going on.
If you go this way you can also visit Hurricane Ridge lookout point near Port Angeles.

Didn't go myself, but you could also visit Mount Rainier near Seattle.

Love the city, well worth visiting. If you like you could visit the beaches (great surfing!) around La Push on the pacific coast. Would also mean you could drive through scenic Olympic National Park.

InTheTrees

ibh wrote: »

If you're into sports you could catch a Seahawks (NFL), Sounders (Soccer), or Sonics (NBA) game in the upcoming weeks.

Seahawks maybe. But with only 8 home games a year tickets can be hard to get (i'm still mystified by american football...)

Sounders have reached the finals and the first game is October31st (yes I have tickets!).

The Sonics moved to Oklahoma two years ago. Seattle no longer has a basketball team.

dceire

silja wrote: »

You MUST go to Pike Place market, it's great! The first Starbucks is there also. They have a nice aquarium too.

If you like nature, there are some great day trips to go whale watching.

Sadly I am slumming it in Hostels but on the plus side I'm staying in the Green Tortoise which I'm pretty sure is in and around Pike Place market.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, keep them coming.

Chet Zar

How are you planning on getting around on yer trip? Going to do any driving? Or just buses and trains?

Also interested in replies on here - great ones so far - as will definitely be hitting Seattle when I go travelling - will prob be my 2nd stop.

boarddotie

Pike palce market is a must, especiall;y the fish shop at the main entrance. If u ask nicely they will let you behind the counter to catch the fish!

Boeing factory was my absolute highlight. U wouldnt think it would be exciting but it is. The place they build the planes is HUUUGGGGE and there are just 2 or 3 planes lying casually around in there! Also you might get to see the new Boeing plane which is huge, dount i will ever get to travel in it really though unfort! A car is the best way to get there but I have heard there is buses. Alternatively they have tours on that a shuttle will bring you there and back and includes the price of the tickets. Its pricier but at least you save some time rather than waiting on city buses.

If you are renting a car or whatever I recommend Olympic National Park. It has hurricane ridge (was ok) but also Hoh rainforest which has some great walks and icy rivers flowing down from the mountains. Then my highlight there were the beaches. A few different ones but all on the Pacific coast and just so eery and spooky. No wonder Twilight was set up there! Maybe this is like Vancouver and all that coast but I have never been to Canada so ONP was a unique experience for me!

Enjoy!

InTheTrees

boarddotie wrote: »

Boeing factory was my absolute highlight. U wouldnt think it would be exciting but it is. The place they build the planes is HUUUGGGGE and there are just 2 or 3 planes lying casually around in there! Also you might get to see the new Boeing plane which is huge, dount i will ever get to travel in it really though unfort!

Also:

http://www.museumofflight.org/

InTheTrees

There's a really good zoo. Its one of the newer kind with fewer animals but with larger more natural spaces.

Number Five bus goes right to the entrance from downtown.

http://www.zoo.org/

InTheTrees

http://www.spaceneedle.com/

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=47.621243,-122.347017&spn=0.002817,0.004785&z=18&layer=c&cbll=47.621187,-122.347088&panoid=VvRpZPfY38pE0BchPmk59A&cbp=12,262.43,,0,-10.44

Mountjoy Mugger

Take a trip out to the San Juan Islands.

dceire

Cheers for all the suggestions lads. I'll be taking the train down from Vancouver and the walking and busing it when I get down there.

This looks like it could be decent value...
http://www.citypass.com/seattle?mv_source=empsfm

InTheTrees

If you're arriving by train then another thing you can do is take the ferry over to bremerton and back, its cheap and you get a great view of the city from the water.

blow69

dceire wrote: »

Sadly I am slumming it in Hostels but on the plus side I'm staying in the Green Tortoise which I'm pretty sure is in and around Pike Place market.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, keep them coming.

It's literally ten steps from The Pike Market. A very nice hostel with a great atmosphere and great people when I was there.

There's great views from Kerry Park all year round. Great for some photography. Also if you have a car (or bus) the Freemont Troll is a fun way to kill an hour and see the outskirts of the city. (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2236)

Cazlou

The hostel has lots of info on different walks and day-trips you can do on your own. They advertise group walks but anytime I stayed there they didn't go ahead. They tell you how to get to Jimi Hendrix's grave although we didn't have time so we went to his statue on Braodway and Pine, and had a wander around there before heading to Lakeview Cemetery to find Bruce and Brandon Lee's graves. As a point to note for anyone else wanting to see the statue and graves... They look really close on a map.... but they're not really.lol so you may want to get the bus. If I think of anything else I'll get back with it.

PS Don't miss out on the shopping!:)

madmoe

Cheers to all for the tips, off to Seattle in November and then onto Vancouver for the weekend following that. Any other tips\information anyone had feel free to post them here!

I think I'm gonna stay in the Tortoise Hostel, all positive comments here and ranked number 3 on Tripadvisor which is very impressive!

Cheers,
M