21 Best Things To Do In Seattle (Plus What I’d Skip)

I’ve been writing about the best things to do in Seattle since 2015, which is when I took my first trip up there, and I still have a running list of stuff I haven’t gotten to. Seattle keeps handing you more the longer you spend in it.

I live in San Francisco, so Seattle is a two hour flight and usually a cheap one. That’s a dangerous combination. Robin and I have gone up for long weekends, for whirlwind 48 hour work trips, and for a couple of nights just because a flight was $89 round trip and I wanted clam chowder.

I always start craving Seattle around autumn. Something about that city in October and November and straight through Christmas just hits for me. The rain, the coffee, the fall foliage going gold and rust, the Christmas lights bouncing off wet sidewalks, the mountains sitting there in the background being enormous… LOVE. 

I love a cozy city and Seattle in the cold months is the coziest one on the West Coast. Summer is lovely (we got one perfect sunny end-of-summer weekend that I still think about) but if you’re asking me when to book, I’m saying fall.

The 21 Best Things To Do In Seattle

1. Spend A Whole Morning At Pike Place Market

• Cost: free to wander.
• Hours: most shops run 9am to 6pm, but the market is open and alive by 7am and that’s when you want to be there.

Pike Place Market is the number one thing to do in Seattle and I will not be taking questions. It’s also the thing most people do wrong.

Do not go at 1pm. I made that mistake on my first trip and it was wall to wall people, and you can’t see anything. Go at 7:30 or 8am instead. The market is calm, the vendors are setting up, the light coming off the water is gorgeous, and you can walk into shops instead of shuffling past them.

Here’s what most visitors miss: Pike Place Market has multiple levels. The main floor with the fish throwers gets all the Instagram attention, but go down the stairs. Down there you’ll find vintage shops, a magic store, comic sellers, jewelry makers, and weird one-room businesses that have been there for decades.

I bought art prints on my very first Seattle trip that are still hanging in our apartment.

Grab breakfast inside the market at Seattle Bagel Bakery (to the left of the pig statue). Get the everything bagel with lox, around $12. Then take it to the public seating area on the first level, sit at the counter, and eat with a view of Puget Sound and the ferries coming and going. On a clear day you can see Mount Rainier from that counter. Hello, Meredith Grey.

The famous Gum Wall is in Post Alley below the market. It’s gross. Go look at it anyway, it takes four minutes.

Pro-tip: before you grab your bagel, get your photo in front of the Pike Place Market sign. By 9am there’s a crowd in front of it and you’ll be waiting a while.

2. Visit The Original Starbucks (It Completely Changed In 2026)

• Cost: free to enter, you just pay for what you order.
• Hours: 6am to 8pm daily.
• Time needed: 30 to 45 minutes once you’re in.

This one needs a real update, because if you’re reading a Seattle guide written before summer 2026, the advice in it is wrong. 

The first Starbucks store at 1912 Pike Place reopened on June 11, 2026 after a full reimagining, and it’s a different animal now. The old system was a rope line and a scrum. The new system is a reservation queue: you show up, a partner books you a time slot (you can reserve up to 48 hours out, but only in person at the store), and you come back when your window opens.

What that means practically: you can’t wander up and walk in during peak hours anymore. Go in the morning, book your slot, go eat a bagel in the market, come back.

What’s inside now: they cut the menu from about 160 drinks down to 30 core espresso beverages, all heritage builds like lattes, cappuccinos, and the Caramel Macchiato. There’s a Market Latte made with local honey, a butterfly pea flower refresher, and rotating international drinks you can’t get anywhere else in the country.

They do pour-over service with Pike Place Reserve and 1971 Roast beans delivered weekly from a roasting plant nearby. Staff are trained as cultural ambassadors (look for the Rachel the Pig pins) and they’ll actually walk you through the history instead of just handing you a cup.

The exclusive merch is the real souvenir play: Pike Place tote bags, caps, mugs, and Pike Place Bearista Bears you can only buy at this store.

Fun fact I love: the very first store wasn’t in this spot. It opened elsewhere in 1971 and moved to Pike Place in 1976, and it’s been there since.

3. Do A Tasting At The Starbucks Reserve Roastery

• Cost: free entry, drinks run about $6 to $18 depending on how fancy you go. A flight is around $15.
• Time needed: an hour.

Different animal entirely, and worth doing even if you rolled your eyes at number two.

The Starbucks Reserve Roastery sits on the edge of Capitol Hill, about nine blocks from Pike Place Market. It’s a working roastery, so you watch them roast beans while you drink, and they pour rare small-lot blends you cannot get at a regular Starbucks. We did a tasting flight and it was far more interesting than I expected. It also smells incredible in there. Walk-in-and-inhale incredible.

Skip it if: you hate crowds, because weekend afternoons are packed. Worth it if: you’re even mildly into coffee and want the version of Seattle coffee culture that isn’t a paper cup.

4. Go Up The Space Needle

• Cost: single adult timed-entry tickets typically land in the low-to-mid $40s, with discounts for youth 5 to 12, seniors 65+, military, and King County residents. The Day/Night pass, which gets you up twice in 24 hours, runs about $76 at the box office.
• Hours: roughly 9:30am to 8:30pm Monday through Thursday, 9:30am to 10pm Friday, 9am to 10:30pm Saturday, 9am to 9:30pm Sunday.
• Time needed: 90 minutes, or two hours if you want to linger.

Touristy? Obviously. Worth it? Yes, and I’ve done it and would do it again.

Buy your Space Needle tickets online ahead of time. Everything is timed-entry now with arrival slots every 15 minutes, and pricing shifts by day and time slot, so booking ahead both saves you money and saves you standing around. Book a late afternoon slot so you’re up there for golden hour watching the sun drop over Puget Sound and the Olympics. That’s the whole ballgame.

The outdoor deck is the best part. There’s also a rotating glass floor one level down, which I found very fun and slightly alarming.

IG worthy: head to the outside deck and use the viewing scopes as a prop. Wait a beat for people to clear so you don’t get photobombed. Afternoon and evening light beats midday up there.

5. See The Chihuly Garden And Glass Exhibit

• Cost: $40 to $45 general admission, $35 to $40 for seniors and youth 5 to 12, free for kids under 4.
• Hours: 10am to 8pm Monday, 10am to 6:30pm Tuesday through Thursday, 9:30am to 8:30pm Friday, 9am to 8:30pm Saturday, 9am to 8pm Sunday.
• Time needed: 60 to 90 minutes.

Chihuly Garden and Glass is the major Seattle attraction I still haven’t been inside, which is a little embarrassing given how many times I’ve stood directly outside it.

So let me at least save you the planning work. It sits at the base of the Space Needle at Seattle Center, a two minute walk between them. Dale Chihuly’s blown glass installations fill eight galleries plus a glasshouse and an outdoor garden where the sculptures sit among real plants, which is why people say it’s the most surprising museum in the city.

Every friend who’s gone has told me I’m an idiot for skipping it.

Pro-tip: buy the Space Needle combo ticket or use CityPASS. Paying full price for both separately when they’re neighbors is money set on fire.

6. Get Weird At MoPOP

• Cost: around $45 for adults and $34 for kids at box office, though MoPOP uses dynamic pricing that moves with demand and season, so booking ahead usually beats walking up.
• Hours: 8:30am to 5pm weekends, 10am to 5pm weekdays.
• Time needed: two to three hours.

The Museum of Pop Culture is the wavy metal Frank Gehry building at Seattle Center that looks like a smashed guitar, which is on purpose.

It covers music, sci-fi, horror film, video games, and fantasy, and it leans hard into Seattle’s own music history. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Hendrix, all of it. It’s directly next door to the Space Needle, and when it’s raining sideways (it will be at some point) this is where you go lose three hours. It’s on my list for next trip, right alongside Chihuly.

Seattle Center as a whole is worth a wander even without going into a building. There’s the International Fountain, the monorail, and a big plaza that hosts events all year.

7. Watch The Sunset From Kerry Park

• Cost: free.
• Hours: open 24 hours, though the whole point is sunset.
• Time needed: 30 minutes, plus the walk up.

Kerry Park in Queen Anne is the postcard shot of Seattle. Skyline, Space Needle, Puget Sound, and Mount Rainier sitting behind all of it on a clear day.

Hold onto your butts, because you’re walking up a really big hill to get there. It’s steep. I was breathing hard and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But you get to the top and the view does the thing where it makes you stop talking for a second.

It’s a small park and at sunset it’s shoulder to shoulder with photographers who have claimed their spots and are not moving.

IG worthy: the paved viewing area is going to be elbow to elbow. Hop over the edge and go down to the grassy hillside below. Same backdrop, way more room, nobody’s tripod in your frame.

Upper Queen Anne has cute shops and cafes if you want to make an afternoon of it, and Lower Queen Anne has some of my favorite restaurants in the city (more on those below).

8. Wander Gas Works Park On Lake Union

• Cost: free.
• Hours: 6am to 10pm.
• Getting there: about 30 minutes by bus from downtown, and I love taking public transit in a new city because it maps the place out in your head.

Gas Works Park is one of my favorite city parks anywhere. It’s a former gasification plant on the north shore of Lake Union that the city turned into a park instead of demolishing, so there’s rusted industrial machinery sitting in the middle of a green hill like abandoned sculpture. There’s a kite-flying mound with a sundial at the top and a full skyline view across the water.

Around the edges you’ll spot houseboats bobbing in the lake. Very Seattle. Very Sleepless In Seattle, specifically.

9. Book A Floating Sauna On Lake Union

Wild Haus Floating Saunas runs Nordic-style sauna boats on Lake Union, and you can cold plunge straight into the lake between rounds.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time you know I am deeply into sauna and cold plunge culture. I’ve done it in Bergen, Norway, I’ve done it in Amsterdam, all over the world honestly, and I will do it anywhere someone lets me get very hot and then very cold in quick succession. Something about it resets my whole nervous system. Seattle putting a version of this on a boat with the skyline right there is such a good idea that I’m annoyed I didn’t think of it.

 You can book a 90 minute voyage or a 2.5 hour one, and either private with your own group or communal where you’re matched with strangers. If the water’s too rough to jump in, there’s a bucket shower on board to cool off instead.

Seattle’s sauna scene is growing fast. The Seattle Sauna Festival runs in November, which is exactly what I mean when I say go in the fall, they always have fun things going on. 

10. Find The Fremont Troll, Then Stay In Fremont

• Cost: free.
• Getting there: about a 20 minute walk from Gas Works Park, so do them together.

The Fremont Troll lives under the north end of the Aurora Bridge, stands eighteen feet tall, and is clutching a real Volkswagen Beetle in one hand. He went up in 1990 as a neighborhood art project to fix a space that had become a dumping ground, and now he’s one of the most photographed things in Seattle.

You can climb on him. I did. I loved climbing all over that troll and pretending I was a kid again. I grew up in a town famous for trolls and hence my favorite artist is Thomas Dambo, and while this isn’t a Dambo troll I still love visiting it. 

Then head down the hill into Fremont proper, which calls itself the Center of the Universe and has the self-aware weirdness to back it up. There’s a big antique store I could have emptied my wallet in if I’d had suitcase room, plus bookstores, vintage shops, and a rocket ship mounted on a building.

Stop at Schilling Cider House while you’re there. We got a flight and worked through everything from oaked maple to sriracha and lime. If you’re a foodie, this is a must stop. For a cheap, casual, dog-friendly lunch, Norm’s Ale House does burgers and fresh clam chowder and had so many good pups inside when we went.

Fremont also has the Theo Chocolate factory tour and a whiskey distillery tour. Both were closed the day we tried, which is my own fault for not checking hours. Check the hours.

11. Do A Brewery Crawl In Ballard

Seattle gets all its credit for coffee but the beer scene is just as good, and Ballard is the epicenter. There are more than ten breweries in that one neighborhood, most within walking distance of each other.

Pick two or three, order a flight at each, pace yourself. Flights run about $12 to $16. My favorites:

• Reuben’s Brews, my top pick
• Stoup Brewing, great patio
• Peddler Brewing, bike-themed and dog friendly
• Ballard Beer Company, which runs a happy hour worth timing your crawl around

Ballard itself is a hip waterfront neighborhood and Market Street is packed with food. Mexican, Thai, Indian, seafood, whatever you’re in the mood for. Grab lunch there before you start drinking, learn from my mistakes.

One logistics warning: getting from Ballard back to downtown takes longer than the map says. There’s no great direct route and we got stuck in traffic doing it. Build in extra time, especially if you have a flight.

12. Watch The Salmon Run At The Ballard Locks

• Cost: free, all of it.
• Hours: the fish viewing room is open 7am to 9pm.
• Heads up: the ladder closes for about two weeks of maintenance in mid-May, so don’t plan a trip around it then.

This is the thing I’d tell a first-timer they’ve probably never heard of, and it’s my top pick for the whole list if you’re traveling with kids.

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (everyone calls them the Ballard Locks) are working locks that move boats between the fresh water of Lake Union and the salt water of Puget Sound. Watching boats get raised and lowered is weirdly hypnotic on its own.

Then in salmon season it becomes something else. The locks have a fish ladder with a big underwater glass viewing room, so you stand there watching salmon fight their way upstream inches from your face. Timing matters a lot here, so plan around the run:

• Sockeye: peak mid-June through mid-July
• Chinook: peak in August, roughly 15,000 fish a year
• Coho: peak in September, roughly 25,000 fish a year and the biggest run of the three

There are also botanical gardens on the grounds that are free to walk through. My Seattle trips have skewed December and August so I’ve never caught the coho run myself, and it’s the reason my next visit is getting pushed to September.

13. Have Happy Hour At Inside Passage

• Cost: cocktails run about $16 to $20, shared ones more. Go during happy hour and the math improves a lot.

Y’ALL. Inside Passage is the coolest tiki bar I have ever been to and I’m including some very serious tiki bars in that statement.

It’s a speakeasy tiki bar and it is over the top in every direction, which is the correct amount of over the top for tiki. Everything on the menu is good, so you can order recklessly.

What to get:

• The Amazon Bee. It arrives in a little custom Amazon box. I love it and it’s the one I always order.
• The Dinglehopper. Really good, and yes, it’s a Little Mermaid reference.
• The Ballard Fog Cutter. Robin’s pick, and it comes with a Viking horn. He was thrilled.
• A shared cocktail if you’re rolling with a group. Get one. That’s the whole point of a place like this.

14. Find Bathtub Gin & Co (Good Luck)

• Cost: cocktails around $16 to $20.

I’m a sucker for a speakeasy. Here’s my logic: if I’m about to pay $18 for a cocktail, and honestly if I’m paying any amount for a cocktail, I want to drink it somewhere fun. I love whimsical stuff. That’s the whole brand.

Bathtub Gin & Co is on the edge of downtown and it delivers. It’s also hard to find, which I mean as a compliment. Our directions dumped us at an apartment building and we were wandering around outside looking increasingly lost until some guy took pity on us and said “hey, are you looking for the speakeasy?” and pointed us the right way. It’s tucked in an alley.

That whole experience is the point. A speakeasy you can find on the first try isn’t doing its job.

Inside it’s small but it goes up multiple levels, and there are ceramic bathtubs everywhere, which never stops being funny. I absolutely love this place. It’s my go-to Seattle cocktail recommendation.

Pro-tip: go early on a weeknight. It’s tiny and it fills up, and there’s no good place to wait outside in the rain.

15. Get Danish Pastries At Cafe Hagen

• Cost: pastries around $5 to $7, coffee around $5.

Cafe Hagen is a Danish bakery and cafe and it made my whole morning.

Context: I lived in Copenhagen for a summer and came home obsessed with all things Nordic. So when a cafe in another country gets Danish pastry and Danish coffee culture right, I’m so tickled. Cafe Hagen does. I grabbed us breakfast there one morning and it was the exact hit of Copenhagen I didn’t know I needed in Washington.

Pro-tip: it’s a short walk from the Moxy Seattle, which made for a very easy morning. Coffee in the hotel lobby, walk over, pastries, back out into the city.

16. Eat Chowder At Pike Place Chowder, Chase It With Ginger Beer

Pike Place Chowder is in Post Alley and it’s world famous for a reason. Yes there’s a line. It’s usually 20ish minutes to the counter and it moves faster than it looks.

Get the New England clam chowder in a bread bowl your first time. The smoked salmon chowder is the one I actually crave, and it’s very Pacific Northwest. Both are excellent. Expect around $14 to $18 for a bread bowl.

Then walk one storefront over to Rachel’s Ginger Beer. Housemade ginger beer in a pile of flavors, around $6 to $8. Guava is my personal recommendation. Order it to go and drink it with your chowder.

IG worthy: Rachel’s drinks are bright and colorful and look extremely good next to a bread bowl. Hello, flatlay.

More Seattle food I’ve personally eaten and would send you to:

• Serious Pie for blistered Italian-style pizzas and housemade sodas. The pizzas are small, so plan on eating a whole one yourself like a real Italian.
• Nate’s Wings and Waffles in Capitol Hill. The wings and waffles are very good, but the mac and cheese is what I still think about. Some of the best I’ve ever had.
• The Pink Door near Pike Place for Italian with occasional live cabaret and trapeze. Book reservations way earlier than you think you need to. We booked too late and missed our shot, and I’m still bitter about it.
• Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar in Queen Anne for oysters.
• Masonry and How To Cook A Wolf in Queen Anne, both fantastic.
• Hot Cakes for a s’mores molten cake at the end of the night, with several locations around the city.

One miss worth naming: we had a seafood dinner at Palomino downtown and it was average. Not bad, just not worth your one big Seattle seafood night. Aim higher.

17. Walk Pioneer Square And Go Underground

• Cost: around $25 for adults, less for kids and seniors.
• Tour times: on the hour, every day, year round, 10am to 6pm, with extra half-hour departures June through September.
• Length: 75 minutes. Book ahead in summer.

Pioneer Square is the oldest neighborhood in Seattle, all red brick and cast iron, and it’s a lovely walk on a quiet morning. We walked there from downtown in about 30 minutes across an almost empty city and it was one of my favorite slow moments of that whole trip.

Eat breakfast at Planet Java, a 1950s style diner that was packed with locals heading to a Seahawks game when we went, which is how you know it’s good. The egg scramble and the chicken fried steak both delivered.

Then do the Seattle Underground Tour. After the Great Fire of 1889 the city rebuilt itself one to two stories higher, which left the old storefronts and sidewalks buried underneath. You walk through them. It’s the best rainy day activity in the city and the guides lean hard into the gross and funny parts of Seattle history.

18. See The Fall Foliage At Washington Park Arboretum

• Cost: free.
• Hours: the grounds are open dawn to dusk, and the visitor center runs 9am to 5pm.
• Time needed: an hour to wander, more if you’re a plant person.

If you’re coming in autumn like I keep telling you to, go to the Washington Park Arboretum. It’s a 230 acre public garden run by the University of Washington, free to walk, and the Woodland Garden holds one of the largest Japanese maple collections in North America. In October and November it goes fully unhinged with color.

It sits between the University District and the Central District, so fold it into a day exploring that side of the city. The U District has the University of Washington campus (walk through the Quad, it’s gorgeous, and in spring the cherry blossoms there are a whole event), a great Saturday farmers market, cheap college-town food, and dive bars we’ve bounced between at night. The University District Street Fair each May is one of the oldest street fairs in the country.

The Central District is the historically Black heart of Seattle and has some of the most interesting food in the city right now. Straight talk: it’s the neighborhood I’ve spent the least time in across all my trips and I’m fixing that next visit. If you’ve got recommendations there, leave them in the comments, I’ll use them.

19. Take The Kids To The Seattle Aquarium And The Waterfront

• Cost: about $50 for adults and $40 for youth 4 to 12 at box office, free for kids 3 and under. This is the one where CityPASS pays for itself fastest.
• Hours: 9:30am to 6pm, last entry 5pm.
• Time needed: two to three hours.

If you’re looking for things to do in Seattle with kids, the downtown waterfront is where I’d spend a full day.

The Seattle Aquarium sits on Pier 59 with harbor seals, sea otters, a giant Pacific octopus, and a touch pool. It added the Ocean Pavilion recently, a huge new building built around a coral reef habitat. Kids lose their minds. It’s also indoors, which matters here roughly nine months a year.

Right next door is Miners Landing on Pier 57 with an arcade, a carousel, and the Seattle Great Wheel out over Puget Sound. Straight talk, we visited in December when half of it was shut down and it felt a little sad, but in summer with kids in tow I think it’s a hit. The Great Wheel does a holiday light show in winter that’s very pretty.

The whole waterfront got a massive redo after they tore down the old viaduct, so it’s a proper walkable park promenade now instead of a road with a highway on top of it. Big improvement.

20. Spend A Day At Woodland Park Zoo

• Cost: about $37.50 for adults and $24.75 for kids at box office, and buying four or more days ahead knocks 10% off.
• Hours: 9:30am to 6pm May through early September, 9:30am to 4pm the rest of the year, open every day except Christmas.
• Time needed: a solid half day.

Woodland Park Zoo is up in Phinney Ridge, north of Fremont, and it consistently ranks among the better zoos in the country because of how much they lean into natural habitat design over cages. There’s a tropical rainforest section, an African savanna, and a humid butterfly garden in summer.

There’s a carousel, a playground, and enough covered space that rain won’t wreck the day. I mostly travel without kids and prioritize bars, so I’ve never made it through the gates, but it’s the most consistent recommendation I get from friends who’ve done Seattle as a family trip. It also plugs the gap between Fremont and Green Lake nicely if you’re already exploring north.

21. Day Trip To Mount Rainier

• Cost: $30 per vehicle for a 7-day park pass, and you’ll need a rental car. Timed-entry reservations are required for the Paradise and Sunrise corridors during peak summer months, so check before you drive out.

If you have an extra day, get out of the city.

Mount Rainier National Park is about two hours southeast of Seattle and it’s one of the most spectacular places in the country. Wildflower meadows at Paradise in July and August, waterfalls, old growth forest, and that enormous glaciated volcano just sitting there. I wrote a full one day Mount Rainier itinerary with the best hikes and photo spots if you want the details.

Pro-tip that costs you nothing: if you’re flying into Seattle from the south, book a window seat on the right side of the plane. On a clear day you get an incredible view of Mount Rainier on the descent. I’ve gotten it twice and gasped both times.

Other Washington trips worth stacking on:

• Olympic National Park, rainforest and wild coastline, about three hours out
• Forks, yes THAT Forks, where I tracked down every single Twilight book and movie filming location on the Olympic Peninsula
• Leavenworth, a real-life Bavarian village in the Cascades that goes all out at Christmas
• Lake Chelan for summer lake days and wine tasting
• Snoqualmie Falls, only about 40 minutes out, and a good short misty-hike option

Free Things To Do In Seattle

Seattle is expensive. Hotels, cocktails, all of it. So these are the free things to do in Seattle I’d recommend even if you had unlimited money:

• Pike Place Market. Free to wander, free to watch the fish throwing, free to explore all the lower levels.
• Kerry Park at sunset. The best view in the city costs nothing but a walk up a mean hill.
• Gas Works Park. Free, open 6am to 10pm, and the Lake Union skyline view is worth the bus ride.
• The Fremont Troll. Free, and you can climb him.
• Ballard Locks and the salmon ladder. Free, including the underwater viewing room (7am to 9pm) and the gardens.
• Washington Park Arboretum. Free, 230 acres, unreal in fall.
• Seattle Central Library. Rem Koolhaas designed it and the interior is wild. Go up to the tenth floor reading room. Free, open daily.
• Olympic Sculpture Park. Free outdoor art on the waterfront, run by the Seattle Art Museum, open dawn to dusk.
• Pioneer Square. Free to walk, and the architecture does the work.
• Seattle Center grounds. The International Fountain and plaza are free year round.

You could fill two full days in Seattle without paying an admission fee once, and honestly it’d be a good two days.

Seattle Festivals Worth Planning Around

Seattle does festival season well, and a few are worth building a trip around:

• Northwest Folklife over Memorial Day weekend at Seattle Center. Free, enormous, and packed with live music, dance, and arts from across the region.
• Bumbershoot in early September at Seattle Center. Big music and arts festival with comedy and visual art mixed in.
• Seattle International Film Festival in May, one of the biggest film festivals in the country by number of screenings.
• University District Street Fair in May, one of the oldest street fairs in the US.
• Fremont Fair in June, exactly as chaotic and delightful as Fremont promises.
• Seattle Sauna Festival in November, back for a second year, and very much my kind of thing.

Where To Stay In Seattle

I’ve written a full where to stay in Seattle guide but here’s the short version.

My main piece of advice: skip the insanely cheap motels here. Seattle has some fantastic hotels that are almost an experience on their own, and your trip will be about a hundred times more enjoyable if you book one of them. This is a city to budget a little extra for lodging.

Moxy Seattle

We stayed at Moxy Seattle on a recent trip and it was a great home base. It leans full PNW with plaid textures, axes on the wall, faux taxidermy, and a big fireplace in the lobby that I parked myself in front of with coffee every single morning. Tons of board games in the lobby, which Robin and I got weirdly competitive about around happy hour. The lobby bar at night is such a vibe and it’s easy to end up chatting with other guests and bartenders instead of going to bed.

We hit two Moxy properties back to back on a West Coast road trip from Oakland up to Seattle if you want the full breakdown of both.

Airbnbs In Seattle

This stunning downtown Seattle loft is perfect if you need more space or are staying longer than a couple of days. I adore the floor-to-ceiling windows and the proximity to transit and major tourist sites. 

The Edgewater

The Edgewater is Seattle’s only hotel built directly over the water, and every room has its own fireplace. Fireplace plus Puget Sound views plus rain on the windows is the coziest thing I can picture doing in Seattle in November. The Beatles famously stayed here and fished out the window in 1964, which is a very fun piece of trivia. In October they run a Little Haunted Lobby Bar for Halloween, which is such a good excuse for a fall booking.

I haven’t stayed here yet and it’s top of my list for the next cold-season trip. If you’re going in fall or winter, I’d book this over anything else on this list.

Palihotel Seattle

Palihotel is the most photogenic hotel in the city, in my opinion. The decor reads like English sailor meets Pacific Northwest, with funky wallpaper, painted portraits, stacked vintage luggage, and deep green paint. There’s a restaurant, a bar, and a coffee outpost downstairs. It’s right by Pike Place Market so you can roll out of bed and be eating a lox bagel in ten minutes.

A Perfect Weekend In Seattle Itinerary

Here’s exactly how I’d structure a weekend in Seattle if you’re flying in Friday night or early Saturday. This assumes longer daylight, so shift things earlier if you’re going deep into winter.

Saturday

9 to 10am: Land at SEA. Book a flight landing no later than 10am or you’ll lose the day.

10 to 11am: Take the Link light rail into downtown Seattle. Follow the signs from the terminal, it’s a bit of a walk. Flat $3 fare, about 40 minutes to downtown, trains every 10 minutes including weekends. Skip the Uber, the light rail is cheaper and often faster, and you get a good look at the city on the way in.

11 to 11:30am: Check into your hotel and drop your bags.

11:30am to 12:30pm: Walk to Post Alley. Grab a guava ginger beer from Rachel’s, then get in line at Pike Place Chowder. Do not go into Pike Place Market right now, it’s a zoo midday and you’ll hate it. You’re going tomorrow morning instead.

12:30 to 3pm: Wander downtown Seattle. Pick from the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, Pioneer Square, the Seattle Central Library, the Underground Tour, or the Olympic Sculpture Park.

3 to 5pm: Space Needle, tickets bought in advance for a late-afternoon slot. Give yourself two hours so you catch the light changing over Puget Sound. If you bought the combo ticket or CityPASS, do Chihuly Garden and Glass right after since it’s a two minute walk.

5:30 to 6:30pm: Back to the hotel for free happy hour if yours has one. Refresh, change, sit down for a minute.

6:30 to 8pm: Dinner in Queen Anne or Lower Queen Anne. Masonry, How To Cook A Wolf, or Taylor Shellfish.

8 to 9pm: Kerry Park for sunset. Big hill, worth it.

9pm onward: Cocktails. Inside Passage for tiki, or Bathtub Gin & Co if you’re up for an alley scavenger hunt. Or head to Capitol Hill and bar hop, where the Unicorn is wonderfully wacky.

Sunday

6:30am: Wake up. I know. Trust me.

7 to 7:30am: Head to the Original Starbucks at Pike Place and book your reservation slot for later that morning. Remember, you can only reserve in person now.

7:30 to 9am: Pike Place Market. Bagel with lox from Seattle Bagel Bakery, eaten at the counter with the water view. Explore every level of the market, then circle back for your Starbucks slot.

9 to 10am: Back to the hotel, pack, check out, leave your bags at the front desk.

10 to 11:30am: Head north to Gas Works Park, then walk over to the Fremont Troll.

11:30am to 12:30pm: Explore Fremont. Antique shops, bookstores, and a cider flight at Schilling.

12:30 to 2pm: Over to Ballard for lunch on Market Street, then the Ballard Locks to watch the boats and, in season, the salmon.

2 to 3:30pm: Ballard brewery crawl. Pick two, order flights.

3:30 to 4:30pm: Head back toward downtown and give yourself extra time, because this route gets clogged.

4:30 to 6pm: Early dinner near your hotel. Serious Pie, Lola, or The Pink Door if you booked ahead like a responsible person.

6:15 to 7:15pm: Grab your bags, walk to the station, take the Link back to SeaTac. Budget 45 to 60 minutes during rush hour.

Want the hour by hour version with more detail? I broke it all down in my Seattle weekend itinerary post.

Seattle FAQ

How many days do you need in Seattle?

Two full days covers the greatest hits: Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, Seattle Center, and one outer neighborhood like Fremont or Ballard. Three days is the sweet spot and lets you add a second neighborhood plus a proper sit-down seafood dinner. Four or more days and you should take a day trip to Mount Rainier or Olympic National Park.

What is the best time of year to visit Seattle?

Depends what you want. July through September is sunniest and warmest, and the city transforms when the sun comes out. My personal favorite is October through December for fall foliage, coho salmon at the locks in September, holiday lights, and full cozy coffee shop weather. Spring is wet, but the UW cherry blossoms in late March and the tulip fields north of the city in April are worth a detour.

Does it really rain that much in Seattle?

It rains often but rarely hard. In my experience it’s misty drizzle rather than downpours, and it usually passes in 30 minutes. On our first December trip we were outside almost the entire weekend. Bring a light rain jacket and skip the umbrella-only plan.

Do you need a car in Seattle?

No, and you’re better off without one. Parking is expensive and traffic is rough. The Link light rail runs from the airport into downtown for a flat $3, buses cover the neighborhoods well, and Uber fills the gaps. You’d only want a car for a day trip to Mount Rainier or the Cascades.

How do you get from Seattle airport to downtown?

Take the Link light rail. Flat $3 fare, trains every 10 minutes including weekends, and about 40 minutes to downtown Seattle. Follow the signs from baggage claim. It’s a bit of a walk through the parking garage area but well marked, and it’s cheaper and often faster than a rideshare.

Do you need a reservation for the Original Starbucks?

Yes, as of the June 2026 reopening. The store now runs a reservation queue instead of a standing line. You book a time slot in person at the store, up to 48 hours in advance, then come back when your window opens. Show up in the morning, get your slot, and go explore Pike Place Market while you wait. Entry is free, you just pay for what you order.

What are the best free things to do in Seattle?

Pike Place Market, Kerry Park, Gas Works Park, the Fremont Troll, the Ballard Locks and salmon ladder, Washington Park Arboretum, the Seattle Central Library, the Olympic Sculpture Park, and wandering Pioneer Square. You could fill two full days without paying an admission fee once.

What are the best things to do in Seattle with kids?

The Seattle Aquarium on the waterfront (about $50 adult, $40 youth), Woodland Park Zoo (about $37.50 adult, $24.75 child), the Seattle Great Wheel and arcade at Miners Landing, the free salmon viewing window at the Ballard Locks, MoPOP for older kids, and the Pacific Science Center at Seattle Center. Gas Works Park is a great free one for letting kids run.

Is the Space Needle worth it?

Yes, if you buy tickets ahead of time and go late afternoon. Buying at the door can eat an hour you’d rather spend up top. If you’re on a tight budget and have to pick, Kerry Park gives you a better photo of the skyline (with the Space Needle in it) for free.

How much does a trip to Seattle cost?

Attractions add up fast: the Space Needle runs in the low $40s, Chihuly $40 to $45, the aquarium about $50, MoPOP around $45, and the zoo $37.50. If you’re doing three or more, the $139 Seattle CityPASS saves real money. Outside of that, budget $3 each way for the Link, $14 to $18 for a chowder bread bowl, $16 to $20 for a craft cocktail, and $12 to $16 for a brewery flight.

Where should I stay in Seattle for the first time?

Downtown Seattle, near Pike Place Market. You’ll be walking distance to the market, the waterfront, and Pioneer Square, and about 20 minutes from Seattle Center. Hotel Max and Palihotel are my two picks for first-timers.

What food is Seattle known for?

Seafood above all. Salmon, oysters, Dungeness crab, and clam chowder. Also coffee, obviously, plus a very strong craft beer scene and excellent Asian food, especially in the International District. Do not leave without a proper seafood dinner.

So, What Should You Do In Seattle?

If I could only give you one day, here’s my pick: Pike Place Market at 7:30am with a bagel and lox, Kerry Park for sunset, and Inside Passage after dark. That’s Seattle in three moves, and it’s the version of the city I fall for every time.

The Emerald City is one of my favorite places on the West Coast, and it’s at its best when it’s grey and drizzly and the coffee is hot. Book the fall trip, and pack a rain jacket instead of an umbrella.

Been to Seattle? Got a spot I missed, especially in the Central District, or a Chihuly take I need to hear? Drop a comment below, I read every single one. And come follow along on Instagram @thewhimsysoul for more travel.