Will be spending 5 days in Seattle this summer. Would you recommend renting a car? Will probably be staying at the Inn at the Market. Any itinerary or must-see/do/eat advice welcomed. Thanks in advance.

Are you going to stay overnight in Seattle the whole time? While you can get around downtown, there is a lot to see and do outside of the downtown area, where transportation is spotty.

Unless you're planning any out of town excursions I'd forget about the car. The public transport around the city is pretty good but the further you get from downtown the worst it gets. When I went half the trip I had a car half I didn't. I rented from U-Save out by the airport. And no they won't pick you up if you're downtown. It took over an hour by bus to get to the airport. But they were cheap and the only place that didn't charge me for being under 25. BUt in my opinion Seattle is pretty easy to get around with a car. It depends on what you like to do when you travel. I can't parallel park but managed to drive around the city farely easy the only tiem I had a problem was when I was going out on a Saturday night in Capitol Hill where finding on street parking is really hard after 45 minutes of driving around and of course not being able to paralell park limited me to only parking on corners where a car wasn't in front of me so that might why it took so long but finally I gave up and parked in parking lot on a quiet resedential street for $3.

As far as must sees. Well I'd say the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, Kerry Park on Highland Dr has an awesome view of Seattle. Great for a postcard like photo op. Ride the ferries even if you just turn right around it's so quaint. Again great photo ops. I went on a really clear day and could easily see MT Rainier it looked like you could just reach out and grab it. And speaking of Mt Raininer you have to go. Now for that you will definately need to rent a car and beware the last gas station before Mt Rainier has sky high prices don't be like me fill up before you get there. Mt Rainier is about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from the city. On a clear day you can see it from Seattle that's how huge it is. But when you get there just drive it's great for a country drive every now then you'll want to stop and take in the scenary. Then when you get to this place called Paradise you'll see this huge parking lot just park your car and go walking up this trail. Keep going and eventually you'll see snow. I'm from Georgia so seeing snow was a huge deal and seeing in August when 70 degrees was an even bigger deal. You must stop and build a snowman and take a picture especially if you've got a shorts on. It'll be such a cool picture to show to your friends at home.

YOu must take the underground tour. Some might poo poo it for being so obviously touristy. Before the tour one of the tour guides asked if there were any natives in the crowd out of 50 only 1 and she was only there because she had an out of towner with her. But it's super fun and interesting. See downtown Seattle is literally built on top of the original Seattle. The reason that they raised downtown Seattle was because it was built below sea level and there would be a flood every day at high tide. It's really great and you learn about the interesting history of Seattle.

One of things I loved aobut Seattle was it's neighborhoods there's like a half dozen little downtowns in Seattle. Fremont is the funky bohemian type place. But in my opinion it's really small. But there's some intersting stuff but you can do Fremont in like an hour. But it's still cool. There's Ballard there's a large sweedish ancestory coomunity there from my understanding. The U-District is my favorite in my opinion better than downtown. It doesn't have a lot of tourist attractions but it's a cool place to go shopping. I loved the Buffalo Exchange. It's this used clothing stores with cheap prices. It's near the huge Univeristy so there's a younger crowd there maybe that's why I loved it so much. Queen Anne I only drove through once but in my opinion it seemed so quaint and far removed from the Seattle like a little bity town ikn the hills. There's a bigger mix of everybody and everything in Capitol HIll. The main strip is Broadway. There's a mall there but from what I've read it's not the biggest or best.

Now Pike Place Market I know is supposed to be the must see but in my opinion it wasn't much of anything but a tourist trap. Lots of souvienir shops but souvinirs are important but don't go expecting much except crowds. I'm sorry but I wasn't impressed.

Oh another cool place are the locks in Ballard. It's where boats go from salt water Puget Sound to the fresh water that eventually leads to Union Bay and to Lake washington. The thing is there's a 15 foot elevation difference. So the boats go into this holding area and they raise the water level 15 feet let the boat out into the higher elevated fresh water and empty the holding area again for the next boat.

Another must do is kayaking on Lake Union. It's too much fun and great exercise. It was only like $20 for my first time for lik 4 hours. It's a challenge but fun.

Seattle is a good base for white water rafting too. I've never done this in Washington state but I will next time I'm in the area. I did a lot when I was in Seattle maybe too much by the time my vacation was over I need a vacation from my vacation. I did all that in a week plus a day driving to Portland and a day driving to Vancouver I was so tired. So please don't over do it take your time and if you dont' get to see and do everything that's ok.

Oh yeah a neat trick I did there so I could be on time for stuff and not oversleep was I never adjusted to west coast time so when I woke up my body thought it was noon when in fact it was 9:00. This only works of course if you're from the east coast and the downside of course being you get sleepier earlier but I can stay up and keep partying better than I can get up early. (I've never had a job that started earlier than noon and I haven't had a class before 9:30 since high school) That's just a tip for any nightowls like me who might need to get early for a tour or something.

Victorious has great ideas! I'm glad you had such a nice trip, Victorious. I will add that you can take a nice ferry trip to the town of Winslow on Bainbridge Island. Also, take the water taxi to West Seattle and have dinner there (Salty's for seafood, the Phoenicia for great middle eastern type cuisine). Walk along the waterfront in the evening in W. Seattle and watch people having bonfires and playing beach volleyball. See the mini-Statue of Liberty across from the Phoenicia, watch the sunset. I'm sure you'll see Pike Place, since you'll be staying there. When you go to Fremont, be sure to see the troll and the Statue of Lenin. Rent a bike and ride the Burke Gilmann trail through the UW and along L. Washington, or ride around Seward Park and up L. Washington, or along the water in W. Seattle. You can get ideas from a bike shop. Victorious is right. You do have to see Mt. Rainier. When you go to the Ballard locks, be sure you visit the salmon ladders. If you're lucky, they'll be jumping like crazy. There are lots of festivals in the summer, too, so be sure to check on that. We celebrate summer here!

You can find a lot of information searching this website for Seattle.

You will want a car some of the time to explore this beautiful area. You can rent a car downtown.

Saying Ballard is Swedish will get you seriously crosswise with the Norwegian folks that live there. Uff da.

Some Seattle streets were raised after the fire because the sewers kept backing up. Pre-fire people would set their WCs up a step or two so that the sewer pipes could run closer to ground level, not buried so deep. If you've ever heard the term, "throne," that's where it started. Ditto Skid Row, aka Yesler Way, over which was built a log flume or skid to take logs down to the mill at the bottom. Poor folks slept under it to stay out of the rain.

I would rent a car for three of the five days, so you can explore the countryside. But I would do day rentals only, from one of the many downtown offices, rather than pay major scratch for overnight parking at any downtown hotel.

There are a variety of major activities in central Seattle during the summer - at Memorial Day, 4th of July, various July-Aug. dates for the Seafair festival, then big arts deals at Labor Day. Plus numerous concerts on one of the central waterfront piers and something that resembles baseball at Safeco Field. In those times downtown can be quite congested, so plan accordingly.

Wow, I have lived in Seattle for 20 years and not done 1/2 this stuff
;-)

For getting into town from the airport, either spring for a cab ~$30 or take the Greyliner bus ~$9 which makes a loop to downtown hotels, either Warwick or Westin would be walking distance to Inn at the Market.

After siteseeing downtown on foot and Metro bus for a couple days, I'd rent a car so you can get to outer neighborhoods of the city and even into the countryside a bit.

Pike Place Market
Pioneer Square
Chinatown
ride a ferry somewhere
Aquarium
Woodland Park Zoo
Ballard Locks
Space Needle
Seattle Art Museum
Snoqualmie Falls

would be my best picks.

We spent four days in Seattle and didn't use our car once. The Hotel Edgewater provided a fantastic shuttle service for us. Check with the Inn at the Market and make sure they offer this service.

We loved the ferry ride to Bainbridge, the aquarium, the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and Pioneer Square shopping. We enjoyed excellent meals at the Dahlia Lounge, Salty's and the Flying Fish as well as the Six Seven at our hotel.

If you haven't booked the Inn at the Market, check out the Edgewater Hotel, located right on Elliott Bay. We had a wonderful experience there and were truly pampered even in August, the busiest month for tourist season.

I'm in the PNW right now, we're off to the Oregon Zoo and a lunch at clarklewis before heading back to CA for Thanksgiving. I the PNW!!! ***kim***

If you live near Seattle, like *kim*, you may not want a car. Otherwise, you will probably want to explore our scenic beauty up close and for that you will need transportation.

Thanks so much for the helpful feedback! Truly appreciated!

Ditto above, car not necessary for touring in *downtown*. But you'll want one for a trip to Mt. Rainier or out to Snoqualmie Falls, or even to easily get out to the Ballard Locks.

Here's a new hotel downtown that looks interesting (they've been "courting" my office for a business account).

www.HotelAndra.com

and features yet another Tom Douglas restaurant called Lola's downstairs.

We visited Seattle this past summer to attend a Mariners/Yankee baseball game. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in the downtown area right off of I-5. We had easy walks to the waterfront, Seattle Center, Safeco Field, & to , I think Pier 69, for the Victoria Ferry. No one has mentioned Victoria but that can be a day trip also althrough an overnight would be better but with only 5 days it might not fit in. We rented a vehicle from Alamo, one block from the hotel, for one day for a drive to Mt Rainier. If you like to walk then downtown Seattle is a snap. If you are visiting an outside area then rent a vehicle just for that time period.