If you’re looking for tourism that stretches the legs and shows you the city in smaller, more meandering bites, try bouncing between the International District and Capitol Hill. Poke around in stores, eat good food, stop in at a park or museum (Wing Luke or Frye, for instance).
The two areas are linked by the streetcar, meaning you can start on either end and explore a bit before getting a lift to the next area. Either end leaves downtown as a potential destination if you run out of room to wander.
Emily Muirhead
Seattle with a view
Aquarium, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, Pike Place, the Olympic Sculpture Garden, the original Ivar’s – there’s plenty of ways to spend your time down on Seattle’s waterfront. You can even take a turn on Seattle’s technicolor ferris wheel.
GRANT HINDSLEY/SEATTLEPI.COM
The big ones/Stay out of Seattleite’s way
Start your day at Pike Place – there’ll be some crowds, even early in the morning, but nothing like later – and skip the original Starbucks (take a picture if you must, but it’s the same Starbucks you get anywhere else, just with a longer wait). Find some good eats, munch on it while taking in the view from Victor Steinbrueck Park. Check out cool tents, and the fish throwing, and all the other sights to see.
Then either walk Seattle streets (maybe through the Sculpture Park?) or head to Westlake and catch the Monorail and spend the rest of your day at Seattle Center. The Armory has food, and the center has the Science Center, MoPOP, and Chihuly Garden. Oh, and the Space Needle.
JOSHUA TRUJILLO/seattlepi.com file photo
Short layover and an Orca card
Seattle’s done a lot to beef up its airport offerings, but it’s still more fun to take the couple hours you have in the city and ride the light rail to a stop to explore. Drop in on Columbia City Ale House, or the Pancake Chef or Tammy’s Bakery. Get off at a random stop, and let Yelp be your guide.
Courtesy Sound Transit
Get cultured
It’s possible to squeeze in more than one museum in a day (maybe a long day), and definitely worth it. MoPOP, Science Center and Chihuly Garden are all located on Seattle Center, but that’s not too far from the Seattle Art Museum (downtown) or MOHAI (South Lake Union). If you’re kicking it on Capitol Hill there’s also the Frye (First Hill) or the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM).
And don’t forget the smaller museums like Wing Luke or the Klondike Gold Rush Museum.
AP
Revel in the Center of the Universe
Get some grub in Fremont and wander around the Center in the Universe. Maybe take a stop at the canal to sit and watch the bridge go up; definitely visit Lenin and the Troll. Take a tour through Theo’s Chocolate if you’re into (artisanal) chocolate. Then take a jaunt to Gasworks to see a great view of the city, and maybe throw a frisbee around.
GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM
Don’t even see Seattle
Hop a ferry and get yourself over to Bainbridge or Anacortes. Do it for the views or to find a non-Seattle town to spend your time in. Check out an Argosy tour or try your eyes at a whale-watching venture.
Courtesy Washington State Ferries
Get your Leslie Knope on
Do a park tour of Seattle! If you have a car you can fit in plenty of them: Seward Park, Golden Gardens, Gas Works, Discovery Park, or the Sculpture Park are all good spots (with quintessential views) to throw in. Maybe worth a pitstop at Kerry Park, if you want to see what the outside of Frasier’s window really looks like.
Dcoetzee/Wikimedia Commons
See how the collegiate half lives
Head down to the Waterfront Activities Center at UW and rent a canoe to explore Union Bay (and the associated marsh land). Once you’re done there, you can walk around the Union Bay Natural Area for a little while and head to University Village, or jaunt through UW’s impressingly collegiate looking campus and make your way to the Ave.
Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com
Let sea life be your guide
Stop by the Locks and learn about their 100 year(!) history, then mosey over to Golden Gardens to check out some tide pools. Find a new beach or boat or stand-up paddle board to kill a few more hours. Punctuate your day with stops at Seattle’s finest sushi and seafood establishments. Let Golden Gardens or Alki be your stop for the sunset.
RON WURZER/AP
Find an off-kilter tour
Check out Seattle’s Underground Tour (by either of the companies), or hop on a Segway and see the sights and sounds of Seattle Center and South Lake Union. Seattle’s ghost tours is another way to uniquely see the city. Or try a tour that "stalks" all of Seattle's rock'n'roll spots.
seattlepi.com
The Seattle underground tour.
seattlepi.com
Take the ferry to Bainbridge.
Maybe it's your job to look after your cousin for the day. Maybe your folks are finally checking out your new home. Either way, you've got a day to kill and Seattle is the city to do it.
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Seattle's tourists attractions and proclivities towards its tourism have been well documented, it's still got quite a tourist track. And when you find lists of "How do to Seattle in a day" or "Sights you definitely shouldn't miss" there's always the usual suspects of spots to hit.
The qualifier I'd add is that very seldom can you hit all these spots in one day (in fact, arguably never). Even with the help of a car, good luck getting from Pike Place to Fremont to Cap Hill to Renton (if you wanna check out Jimi Hendrix's grave) in Seattle's not-quite-the-worst-in-the-world traffic.
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No, Seattle is not a "in one day" kind of town; the best ones usually aren't. What you can do is break Seattle off into one day chunks, centered on a theme or locale.
Above is a slideshow that offers up just that, some suggestions for how to spend a day getting to know the city. There's plenty more to see, of course. But if you want to give your visitors a taste of the city — in some cases literally, with a seafood tour — try checking out the above suggestions.
Did we miss a favorite spot you like to take out of towners? Tell us in the comments!
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This article was first published on July 16, 2017.
