After recently spending a wonderful week in Seattle, I wanted to share with y’all a city guide complete with everything from where to stay, what to do, and what to eat here. Seattle is a lovely, fast-growing city in the Pacific Northwest that has everything from quirky neighborhoods to explore, to well-known sites like Pike Place Market and the Space Needle. While the city is certainly known for its rain, its beautiful scenery, close proximity to several national parks, and many things to do more than make up for that if you ask me. Read on for my guide to Seattle to help you plan your trip to this fantastic city, and make sure you check out my travel guides to Nashville and Asheville as well, if you haven’t already!

Getting Here: 

• Seattle is home to Sea-Tac, a major international airport, so flying in here is a breeze, and options like Lyft or Uber can take you from the airport to wherever you’re staying. For a more budget option of getting to and from the airport, the Link light rail costs $3.25/person and takes about 40 minutes to go from Sea-Tac to the Westlake downtown station.
• If you plan on visiting one of the nearby national parks like Mt. Rainier or Olympic National Park, renting a car at the airport make that convenient to do for a day trip. Just be aware of the time of year that you’re planning to visit, as some roads in the parks are closed during the winter months and Mt. Rainier even requires chains on your car tires if you enter the park during winter!

Where to Stay: 

• If you plan on doing a lot of sight-seeing in the city, I recommend staying right downtown as it is highly walkable to most places that you’ll want to go. I loved my stay at the Paramount Hotel (not sponsored, just really enjoyed it here!) and it’s location is absolute perfection. The Hyatt Place in downtown Seattle is another option that is typically a bit more affordable as well.
• And if you’re a budget traveler looking for a hostel to stay in, The Green Tortoise comes highly-rated and is just steps away from Pike Place Market.

What to Do: 

• There is honestly so much to do in Seattle that the hardest part is just prioritizing what to do on your visit here! I’m not usually one for city passes, but since I planned on visiting the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, the Museum of Pop Culture, plus maybe the Seattle Aquarium as well, it made sense to spring for the $89 Seattle City Pass, which can be used over a period of nine days.
• Visiting the Space Needle is an absolute must, and with your City Pass ticket, you actually get two visits within 24 hours so that you can check out the incredible views during the daytime and again at night. We did our nighttime visit on our first day in Seattle after visiting Chihuly Garden and Glass, which absolutely blew me away with the amazing displays of Dale Chihuly’s blown glass sculptures. I can’t recommend either of these activities highly enough!
• Pike Place Market is an iconic market formed in 1907, with everything from fresh fish, to produce, to crafts and fresh flowers, tons of restaurants, and bakeries. You can easily spend an afternoon just walking through the market and the different streets that make up Pike Place Market, and even after visiting day after day, I found new pockets and new shops to explore each time. You also can’t miss the famous Gum Wall while you’re exploring Pike Place!

• Pioneer Square is a fun neighborhood near downtown to explore that has everything from art galleries, great restaurants and coffee shops, including the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, a tasting room with food, drinks, and more, to the Smith Tower Observatory, which is another place to check out the beautiful Seattle skyline.
• The neighborhood Fremont is an artsy area that’s also fun to explore, with cute shops and restaurants, a walking trail, a Sunday farmer’s market, and the famous Fremont troll under the bridge.
• I can’t leave out some of the incredible and unique architecture in this city, like the Seattle Public Library, located downtown, and The Spheres, an innovative space built by Amazon that are home to over 40,000 plants, with the ground floor open to the public and the upper levels by appointment only.

Where to Eat: 

• There is so much great food in Seattle that I hardly know where to start! There are some incredible dining options at Pike Place Market, with everything from casual food stands to sit-down restaurants. You can’t miss the bakery stand Cinnamon Works that has the best gluten free cinnamon rolls and monster cookies I’ve ever tasted, and of course has delicious regular options and even vegan options as well.

• Eating at Pike Place Chowder is a must while in Seattle, and they’ve honestly won too many awards for their chowder to count. I love that they only serve sustainable seafood as well. Be prepared for a line, especially on the weekends, but know that it’s worth the wait.
• Lowell’s is another Seattle institution with amazing fresh seafood and nice views of the waterfront. I highly recommend stopping in for brunch and getting the Dungeness Crab omelet, something they’re well-known for, or the smoked salmon scramble with cream cream and capers. So good!
• Shug’s soda fountain was one of my favorite places that we just stumbled upon on our visit, also located at Pike Place Market. It’s an old-fashioned style soda fountain with everything from traditional ice cream shakes and malts, to fun alcoholic versions like prosecco floats. This is definitely worth checking out for a sweet treat!

• I think my absolute favorite place that I ate in Seattle is Biscuit Bitch, with several locations throughout the city, including one near Pike Place Market. Their biscuits are out of this world, including their gluten free ones (!!), and the Hot Mess Bitch, a combo of biscuits, gravy, grits, eggs, cheese, and sausage is something you just have to try.
• If you’re looking for a healthier option after all of this indulging, Sweetgrass Food Co. is just the place for you. Their grain bowls and salad bowls manage to be incredible tasting while also being good for you and made from local, sustainable foods.

Well there you have it, my best tips and suggestions to help you plan a fantastic trip to Seattle! Have you been to this city before, or if you haven’t, is it somewhere you’d like to visit? I definitely recommend adding it to your travel bucket list, if it’s not there already! Make sure you let me know in the comments what you think of this post and if there’s anything you’d add!

xo, 
Katie