Seattle is a compact city and many of its most popular neighborhoods are within walking distance or a short cab or bus ride from downtown hotels.
To learn more, stop by the Seattle Visitor Center and Concierge Services desk inside the lobby of the Washington State Convention Center (at 7th Avenue and Pike Street downtown). The desk is free for visitors and features concierge professionals who can advise travelers about Seattle neighborhoods, and how to get to them. Neighbordhood maps and brochures and Metro bus guides are also available.
The desk is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Or, call the visitor and concierge desk directly at (866) 732-2695 or (206) 461-5840 or e-mail at visinfo@visitseattle.org.
While Seattle’s LGBT community spans many Seattle neighborhoods, Capitol Hill serves as its prevailing cultural and political hub.
Bound by downtown Seattle on the west and Lake Washington on the east, the hill rises to nearly 500 feet above sea level and boasts stunning views from nearly all sides. At its apex, Volunteer Park, offers solace amid busy neighborhood commerce. Part of Seattle’s Olmstead park legacy, Volunteer Park also features a glass conservatory built in 1912, the Seattle Asian Art Museum and a water tower with 360-degree views of the city and immediate neighborhood.
Broadway Avenue East is Capitol Hill’s commercial axis, running north and south, and featuring a wide array of cafes, coffee shops, boutiques, markets, bars and other nightspots. The avenue is experiencing a gentrification that includes new apartments and condominiums. A new underground light rail station will open at the south end of the street.
The Pike/Pine Corridor runs east and west and is easily walkable to and from downtown Seattle. The corridor experienced commercial rejuvenation in the 1990s and today thrives with some of the city’s trendiest bars and nightclubs, new restaurants, vintage clothing stores, furniture shops and coffee houses.
The 12th Avenue business district, which intersects both Pike and Pine Streets, features some of the city’s newest restaurants and boasts many theaters and cinemas.
Just off many of the hill’s commercial strips lie stately homes and mansions, many of Victorian and Craftsman style. These quiet, tree-lined streets nod to the neighborhood’s history and original elegance and character.
“Fremont: the Center of the Universe.”
That greeting draws both chuckles and scoffs from visitors who cross the Fremont Bridge and enter this North Seattle neighborhood bound by the Lake Washington Ship Canal to the south, Ballard to the west and Wallingford to the east.
But, according the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, the claim has never been adequately disproved. And so, Fremont continues its tyranny over popular culture and common sense. Here, the ordinary is shunned and the unexpected is embraced.
Take its public art collection – please! A nine-ton bronze statue of Lenin that was salvaged from the former Soviet Union and now presides over the neighborhood’s main street and is perennially for sale.
Grab a public art walking tour map (at several locations) to find other treasures. The Fremont Troll, for example, located under the Aurora Bridge, clutches a live-size Volkswagen Bug. The Troll, however, is not for sale. Several years ago, the City of Seattle renamed the nearest street “Troll Avenue.”
Don’t miss the Fremont Rocket, Dinosaur topiaries and the weekly display of local artists’ work at the popular Fremont Sunday Market. The neighborhood is also famed for its abundant junk shops.
If you’re planning to visit in late June in advance of Pride Week, plan on the Fremont Solstice Parade. The height of daylight entices Seattleites into full glory each year with the parade’s nude bicycle battalion.
Other neighborhood finds include the country's only 100 percent organic, fair-trade chocolate factory (which offers daily tours), Seattle-style brew pubs and an array of cafes, coffee houses and restaurants.
Working class, industrial, maritime, home to Scandinavian heritage – and Seattle’s new nighttime hotspot. The neighborhood of Ballard offers the visitor all of the above.
Bordered by Puget Sound and Salmon Bay, Ballard has long served as a portal to Seattle’s fishing and maritime industry and culture. Fisherman’s Terminal, just across the bay from Ballard, is home port for the North Pacific Fishing Fleet. Visitors can meander the docks, watch fishermen mending nets and dine on the day’s catch.
The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, often called Ballard Locks, lie at the western end of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. They were constructed to raise and lower ships (between six and 26 feet depending on the tides) to allow them to pass between fresh water (Lakes Union and Washington) and salt water (Puget Sound). Operated by the Army Corp of Engineers, the locks are one of Seattle’s most popular visitor attractions and offer a visitor center, fish ladder for salmon, steelhead and other fish and a botanical garden.
Shilshole Bay Marina, on Puget Sound, is Seattle’s largest marina with moorage for 1,500 pleasure boats and panoramic views of the sound and Olympic Mountains. Nearby is Golden Gardens, one of Seattle’s most popular beaches and parks.
Don't miss the Nordic Heritage Museum at the geographic and cultural heart of the neighborhood, boasting historic and fine art exhibits, musical performances, children's activities and cultural events.
The confluence of Ballard Avenue and Market Street is the heart of neighborhood commerce, dining and entertainment. During the past five years, some of Seattle’s top new restaurants and bars have opened here and the area’s reputation as a nightspot has grown among visitors and locals. By day, this part of the neighborhood showcases boutiques, home décor shops and gift stores.
Known for its heart-pumping inclines, stunning city and sound views and historic mansions of the Queen Anne architectural style, this neighborhood has been called quintessential Seattle.
Visitors and locals alike visit Kerry Park on the Queen Anne’s south face for panoramic views of the Space Needle and downtown skyline beyond. In the 1990s, the hit sit-com Frasier, which was set on the hill, showcased this famous view weekly.
The show also nodded to Queen Anne’s wealthy elite and appealing mix of coffee shops, wine bars and top-notch cafes and restaurants. Queen Anne Avenue North, which crests the 500-foot hill, is hub for many of these.
At the foot of Queen Anne’s south slope is Lower Queen Anne, home to the 74-acre Seattle Center, the site of the 1962 World’s Fair and today an urban park that hosts many of the city’s largest cultural festivals such as Bumbershoot, Northwest Folklife and the Bite of Seattle. The Seattle Center is also home to the Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Experience Music Project, Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, the north terminal of the Seattle monorail and KeyArena, which is home to the Seattle Storm women’s basketball team.
Located just north of downtown Seattle, Queen Anne Hill is walkable to many hotels and inns and is a short cab or bus ride to Capitol Hill, Fremont, Ballard and other popular in-city neighborhoods.
A neighborhood within city limits, West Seattle feels a world away. Though the neighborhood occupies a scenic peninsula across Elliott Bay from Downtown Seattle, an island atmosphere pervades, especially at one of the city’s most popular beaches - Alki Beach.
This sandy oasis faces Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains and features a wide promenade for strolling, jogging, bicycling and rollerblading. Beach volleyball nets, wake boards and bon fire pits are ever-present during the summer months. Alki Avenue is lined with cafes, bars and coffee shops.
Seattle’s first white settlers landed at Alki Point in 1851. Today, visitors can see glimpses of the town’s early history. The Log House Museum, operated by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society and often referred to as the "Birthplace of Seattle," is an authentically restored 1904 log building surrounded by a Pacific Northwest native plant garden and features many artifacts, photos and other memorabilia form Seattle’s early years.
At the center of West Seattle, running north and south, California Avenue SW is the hub of an urban renaissance that features a wealth of new restaurants, bars, boutiques and growing numbers of condominiums and apartments. Once a sleepy hamlet, West Seattle now draws local entertainment-seekers on the weekends and increasing numbers of tourists throughout the year.
West Seattle can be reached by car, taxi or bus via the West Seattle Bridge. Visitors can also take a 12-minute ride on the Elliott Bay Water Taxi, April through October. The taxi runs between Pier 55 on the downtown Seattle Waterfront and Seacrest Park at 1660 Harbor Avenue Southwest in West Seattle. Busues, neighborhood shuttles and bike trails and pathways offer further exploration of the West Seattle neighborhood.
© Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau