Seattle, the Emerald City, was the starting point of our Pacific Northwest road trip. Just driving from the airport, we were struck by how green Seattle is, with gorgeous tree-lined suburbs and evergreens everywhere, hence its name, the Emerald City. In fact, the location of Seattle on the water with mountains on the horizon is stunning. But what else did Seattle have to offer? We decided to find out…
Seattle is an easy city with teenagers, mostly because so much of it is outdoors and near water. Pike Place Market for the Gum Wall and the fish throwers, MoPOP for the grunge exhibition and the Sound Lab, a Mariners game if they are playing at home, and a boat trip through the Ballard Locks. We arrived jet-lagged from the UK and used all of it to stay awake, which turns out to be a decent way to plan a first day.
After a 10-hour flight from London Heathrow to Seattle Tacoma International Airport from the UK, we had been awake for a very long time when we arrived. As Seattle is 8 hours behind the UK, then we needed to stay awake, so a radical plan was required.
We drove straight to the open-air Colman Pool in West Seattle, parked up and headed along the waterfront path with dazzling views over Puget Sound. We were excited by: the signs along the path explaining which whales you might spot on the Whale Trail, piles of driftwood washed up on the pebble beaches, and the heavy scent of trees in the air. A lovely start!
The Colman Pool is an Olympic-sized salt-water outdoor pool built in 1925 with an art deco mural in the entrance hall, views over Puget Sound on one side and rows of fir trees on the other side. So, after your swim you can sit back and watch the Washington State Ferries making their way back and forth to the islands. It was the perfect way to help get over jet lag and stay awake for longer than we otherwise might have done.
Nicely refreshed, we grabbed some food from the nearby Wildwood Market and drove to downtown Seattle (8 miles), admiring the views of the Seattle skyline and container port on the way.
Quite quickly we realised just how hilly Seattle is, as our beast of a car struggled at junctions where there was a steep incline.
It is a long process to get over jet lag and so we were awake at about 4.00am the next morning and ready to get going. Eventually, when it was a respectable time to leave the hotel, we headed to Pike Place Market in search of some breakfast.
There were lots of options for breakfast including delicious bagels, pies from the Piroshky Piroshky Russian Bakery, and coffee from what is accepted by tourists to be the Original Starbucks outlet.
Once you’ve fuelled up for the morning, you can explore more of Pike Place Market, such as:
Post It Note Wall, Post Alley: We found a wall of messages on post it notes stuck to one section of Post Alley. The wall allowed people to promote themselves, or their cause, however we spotted a man taking down messages that he didn’t agree with. Why not just write what you do agree with and post that? (I’m not sure if the Post It Note wall is still a part of Post Alley?)
The Gum Wall, Post Alley: A different part of Post Alley is ‘decorated’ with highly colourful, but disgusting, used chewing gum which was a hit with our teenagers. Apparently, it first started when people were queuing for the comedy club next door, and the idea just took off making a feature on Post Alley. The Gum Wall gets cleaned off every other year, but the gum quickly builds up again.
Rachel the Lucky Pig: Donate to the market and rub Rachel’s nose for luck.
Pike Place Fish Throwers: The fishmongers at Pike Place Fish have created lots of entertainment over the years due to their tradition of throwing the fish purchased by customers to each other before wrapping it, calling out to each other when throwing the fish. However, the fishmongers are not allowed to throw the real fish anymore and throw a stuffed version of the fish, what a shame!
The Athenian Seafood Restaurant and Bar: Featured in Sleepless in Seattle with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks (1993).
Neon signage: There are some great neon signs around Pike Place Market, such as the ‘Sound View Café’ or ‘Lower Floor arrow’ sign. But the most famous sign at Pike Place Market is the iconic Public Market Centre red neon sign and clock, which was erected in 1937 immediately outside the market.
As you’re in the city where Starbucks coffee was born, then you might fancy taking a Coffee tour in the city which you can book through Get Your Guide:
The ‘Seattle Sound’ or ‘grunge’ movement started in Seattle in the mid 80s, exploded for a few years, but then faded after the tragic passing of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana’s frontman, in 1994.
Bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden helped create an exciting music scene of alternatives who became synonymous with long hair, flannel shirts and guitar destroying antics – the perfect antidote to over-produced, anodyne pop music.
The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) is a good place to start your Nirvana pilgrimage as the Museum carries a permanent exhibition about the band and the grunge scene more broadly.
There is also a Guitar Gallery which explores the history of the guitar, displays legendary guitars, and showcases iconic guitarists, including members of the grunge scene, such as Kurt Cobain. If this inspires you to pick up a guitar, then you can visit the Sound Lab at MoPOP and play instruments together as if you are a band in a recording studio.
Outside the Museum of Pop Culture is a statue of Chris Cornell, the lead singer of Soundgarden, grunge pioneer and much-loved member of the Seattle Sound scene, who tragically died in 2017.
There are temporary exhibitions at the Museum of Pop Culture so check out the Museum’s website to see what’s on during your stay. We managed to catch an exhibition dedicated to the artist (formerly known as!) Prince, which included his motorbike from the Purple Rain film.
You will need a car (or taxi ride) to visit this unofficial memorial to Kurt Cobain, but it is only a short 15-minute drive from the city centre out to Lake Washington, and nice to see the huge houses in this area of the city.
We made a quick stop to pay our musical respects at the Kurt Cobain Bench situated under a giant tree in a small clearing on the edge of Viretta Park. The bench was covered in messages from fans, some of whom had left cigarettes, flowers, photos, and candles. It was quite moving reading the messages which had been left. The house where Kurt lived, and spent his final days, is across the road from the park but it is a private residence and not open to the public.
If you’re a music nerd, or grunge fan, with a bit of googling you can make a list of the key places in which Nirvana played and set out to find them on your own timescale.
We made sure to pass The Crocodile Club in Belltown when we were walking from Pike Place Market to the Space Needle. This music venue opened in 1991 and played host to numerous famous grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, as well as many other famous bands such as REM and The Strokes.
The Crocodile Club closed, reopened, and has now moved from its original location, but we liked the crocodile door handles, historical photos of the bands in a side window along with a sign saying, ‘Hippies Use the Back Door’.
Check whether the Seattle Mariners are playing at home during your stay in Seattle – if they are, book tickets for an enjoyable afternoon watching the baseball and the comings and goings of the crowd. Whilst I cannot profess to know all the rules of the game, you can pick up the basics quickly and join in with the player chants and songs.
Attending a baseball game felt like a traditional slice of American life and was another great way to help stay awake and continue to get over jet lag as we were being entertained.
Note: It was easy enough to catch the tram and/or light railway from downtown to the T-Mobile Stadium and back.
We walked from Pike Place Market through Belltown to the Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden, a 25-minute walk, locating the ‘Welcome to Seattle’ postcard mural along the way for a photo opportunity.
The Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden is an incredible exhibition of glass sculptures on a large scale by artist Dale Chihuly. The colours and designs are striking and include a glass ceiling, large glass balls in a boat, flower structures and flame-like shapes.
As well as indoor exhibits, there is a glass house and glass garden filled with sculptures in a riot of colour and unusual shapes which are both beautiful and fun in equal measure.
As we were wandering around the Chihuly Glass Museum the huge sculptures hanging from the ceiling raised questions, such as, how were all the glass pieces held securely together? How are these large but fragile glass sculptures transported to other countries for exhibitions (we had seen some of Dale Chihuly’s work displayed at Kew Gardens in London in the early 2000s)? Luckily, there was a video towards the end of the museum route explaining the answers to our questions – in short, by a big team effort.
The Seattle Space Needle was built for the 1962 World Fair and features a futuristic shaped observation tower. The Seattle Space Needle is directly next door to the Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden and so are good to visit together on your itinerary. In fact, these are just two of the attractions forming the Seattle Centre, along with the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) next door.
Unfortunately, it was cloudy when we visited Seattle and so we decided not to go up the Space Needle and just to admire it from ground level instead. All was not lost though as you can see the Space Needle from viewpoints all over the city and from the water if you take a boat trip, so at least you don’t feel as though you have missed out by not going inside.
We booked a boat tour of Lake Union, the Ballard Locks and Puget Sound, leaving from Pier 55, through Get Your Guide, as follows:
Our boat trip however began with a bus journey to Union Lake where we were transferred onto the boat at Lake Union. The highlights of this boat trip were the:
Including the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat.
The Ballard Locks take you from the freshwater of Lake Union to the open sea waters of Puget Sound. The suburb of Ballard was inhabited by the Norwegians who came here to fish in this similar climate to Norway.
Fremont used to be inhabited by hippies and those with an alternative view of society. Sadly, I couldn’t see much of it from the water, or the Fremont Troll sculpture who lives under one of their bridges!
The boat made its way back along the Puget Sound back to Pier 55 passing the Seattle skyline with a great view of Space Needle and some sea lions along the way.
When you arrive back at Pier 55, Elliotts Oyster House is a good place to pick up some food when you get off the boat and enjoy good fish and chips, crab cakes or oysters.
From the Seattle Space Needle and the Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden, you can take a 25-minute walk to Lake Union (South), passing lots of tech company office space for the likes of corporate giants Amazon and Google offices on the way.
We booked a table at Daniel’s Broiler for lunch which has great views over Lake Union, allowing us to watch the Kenmore Air float planes taking off and landing on the lake which was nice.
If it is your visit you will probably want to be within walking distance of Pike Place Market, the waterfront and the Space Needle. If you are travelling with children you will also want a bit of space, something to do indoors if it rains, and ideally an arrangement where teenagers are not sharing one room with their parents.
We collect IHG reward points, so we stayed at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Seattle downtown, which was very good. It is central, about a 12 minute walk from Pike Place Market, the rooms have a separate living area with a sofa bed, and it is a hotel which is happy to have families and pets. We spent most of our time outside the hotel so didn’t really mind about the lack of a pool.
You can walk to the market, the aquarium, the Great Wheel, the ferries and the new waterfront. Teenagers like the food and the energy of it, while younger children find the hills and the crowds slightly more chaotic. The Hotel Monaco sits in this area.
The easiest option with younger children. The Space Needle, MoPOP, the Pacific Science Center, the Chihuly Glass Museum, the Artists at Play playground and the monorail into downtown are all clustered together here, and the evenings are calmer than around Pike Place.
Newer hotels, bigger rooms and lakeside paths. A good middle ground if you want a suite with a kitchen and slightly less of the tourist crush, while still being central.
Neighbourhood Seattle, with the locks, some very good bakeries and Golden Gardens beach if you have a car. Better once you have done the big sights, or if your teenagers would rather be somewhere that feels local than in a hotel district.
Downtown. Boutique rather than an enormous chain hotel. Book one of the suites so that teenagers are not sharing a room with you, and useful if you collect IHG points as we do.
If the budget allows. A rooftop infinity pool looking out over Elliott Bay, right next to Pike Place Market.
A grand downtown hotel with a proper indoor pool.
The practical family choice, with one to three bedroom suites with kitchens and laundry, indoor and outdoor pools and a games room. Best value if you are staying only a couple nights.
Quirky, with an indoor pool right by the Seattle Center attractions. Good value next to the big downtown names.
Bunk rooms and connecting family and friends rooms, which is useful for teenagers wanting their own space.
Suites, kitchenettes, breakfast and an indoor pool.
In closing
We very much enjoyed our first visit to Seattle and exploring some of the main sights. We found it to be a very attractive city (almost at odds with the concept of grunge!), with views of the glittering Puget Sound appearing at the bottom of the hills in the city, and lots and lots of trees. It also has the 'cool' element that most teenagers like because of the city's music history.
Obviously, there were lots that we didn't have time to explore, such as the Capitol Hill neighbourhood, Olympic Sculpture Park, and Pioneer Square with the opportunity to take an underground tour to see the original city which was burnt down in a fire. If we hadn't been heading off to Anacortes to catch the ferry to the San Juan Islands, then we would have been very happy to spend more time in Seattle and its surroundings.
However, we did well on our quest to get over jet lag whilst sightseeing in the city. In fact, it was difficult to be 'sleepless in Seattle' when there was so much to see!
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