Seattle 3 days what to do whirlwind tour
 

First time in Seattle, staying at the W.

We are 35 - 40 something young looking, young spririted professionals. Only have 3 days to get a taste of Seattle...kind of a scouting mission for future visits.

If your familiar with Miami, our haunts are China Grill, Delano, Shore Club, Tantra.

Please give me some advice on following, and I tried to capture the ambience with words!

If you only had 72 hours, and plenty of energy......

1) Cool/hip place to eat (upscale/fusion):
2) a must do breakfast place (just great breakfast food)
3) a great place for lunch (Asian or eclectic)
4) cool/hip bar scene (upscale)

Any particular area noted for interesting shopping for interesting clothing shops, or just plain intresting areas to browse.

Thanks in advance!

will top this post for you :-)

I think "Belltown" has the good bars and nightlife you seek. Hopefully someone else will chime in with other suggestions.

<i>1) Cool/hip place to eat (upscale/fusion):</i>

Lampreia, Belltown; Sazerac (in the Monaco across the street from your hotel); Lark (on Capitol Hill); Earth and Ocean (in your hotel)

<i>2) a must do breakfast place (just great breakfast food)</i>

Athenian Inn or Lowell's in the Pike Market - okay to good food; great to superb scene.

<i>3) a great place for lunch (Asian or eclectic)</i>

Uwajimaya food court inside the amazing Uwajimaya grocery/department store in the International District.

<i>4) cool/hip bar scene (upscale)</i>

Any number of places in Belltown or up on Capitol Hill.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Any iteresting shopping areas?

We enjoyed shopping the boutiques in Fremont...as well as the great beer at Brouwer's Cafe -- but don't recommend Brouwer's for food unless you're ordering their fries.

We stayed at Hotel Monaco and had breakfast at Sazerac...don't know if I would classify it as hip or cool, but it might be once the lights go off. The bar across the street at the Westin seemed cooler to me... But my favorite &quot;hip&quot; place was the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar. Excellent selection of wines by the glass and cheeses to taste with your beverage.

www.thepurplecafe.com/

If you can get reservations for dinner at Matt's in the Market, go. The food is spectacular...even though it's cooked on what's basically a camping stove. Only about 5 tables in the whole place. Our favorite meal.

Will you have a car?

Places to eat:
Crush (Madison Park), Elemental@Gasworks (no reservations), Pair (Sandpoint), Union (downtown)

Breakfast:
Coastal Kitchen (Capital Hill), Julia's (Wallingford)

Lunch:
Seven Stars Pepper (International District), Hing Loon (ID), Bambooza (downtown)

Bar scene:
Sea Sound Lounge (Belltown), the Apartment (Belltown, less hip but plenty of scene), Boka (at Hotel 1000), Zig Zag, Alibi Room (Pike Place)

Shopping. Pacific Place is downtown. It's your average mall. But there's a great boutique across the street (adjacent to Nordstrom's) called Sway &amp; Cake. Also, there are some great boutiques down by Pike Place and on 1st in the Belltown area. The shops won't be open at night though, when you might be down there to hit the bars/restaurants.

Was not planning on renting a car, unless there are things that are worth driving to...keep in mind we arrive Friday afternoon and leave Sunday afternoon.

Thought there would be plenty to do near the hotel.

Will return in the spring to do more exploring.

Some of my suggestions aren't so great then. Wallingford, Sand Point and Madison Park you'd definitely need to cab/drive to. Belltown is walkable, but at night, you'd probably just cab it. Not a big deal as it is a busy area and parking gets pricey anyway.

But the ID, Pike Place, Downtown area is all withing walking distance.

The W is situated more in the business part of downtown which isn't quite as vibrant as the retail portion of downtown, but you can get to both of them. Just remember that downtown Seattle is just one large sloping area, so expect to walk uphill at some point.

Enjoy! Sounds like a fun weekend!

Without a car, you are fairly limited to downtown, so these recs reflect that...

1. Hip/Cool restaurant: BOKA. This isn't the best restaurant downtown, but it can be good and it might be the hippest. If you would rather have better food and less hip-ness, I'd go with the already suggested Union, Restaurant Zoe, Lark or Crush (the last two you'll need a cab).
2. Breakfast: Le Pichet or Cafe Campagne, both in the Market, both French, both wonderful. Downtown doesn't have a lot of good breakfast options in general, fyi.
3. Lunch: Green Leaf, excellent Vietnamese on 8th just south of Jackson. You can walk from downtown.
4. Bar: Zig Zag has probably the best cocktails in the city. Vessel is brand new but it is cool/hip, as is BOKA (already mentioned for dinner).

Shopping: The length of 1st Ave, from Belltown at about Bell St. to Pioneer Square, has lots of boutiques and independently owned shops. Pioneer Square has art galleries, great bookstores (rare, used, new, specialty), and some other neat funky shops (ie vintage pottery, photos).

Pike and Pine Streets, east of downtown on Capitol Hill, have lots of boutiques, vintage, etc clothes stores. You can walk from downtown.
There are other neighborhoods, like Fremont and Ballard, that have great boutiques, but without a car they are less accessible.

The &quot;retail core&quot;, right in the middle of downtown, has all the usual department and chain clothing stores. Nothing you wouldn't find at home.

You'll do fine without a car for such a short stay. I'd center myself downtown including Belltown, and maybe take a bus up to Capitol Hill once (just a couple miles, you can walk back... downhill!).

If the weather is nice that makes a fun outting - take the # 10 bus up to 15th Ave East &amp; all the way to the end of the line at Volunteer Park. Check out the Park (conservatory, water tower, museum, view of Seattle) then walk back down 15th thru the shops and have breakfast at Coastal Kitchen or 22 Doors.

Or for even better &amp; fairly nearby down on 19th Ave E, Monsoon is now doing a dim sum brunch on Sat &amp; Sun that I'm guessing would be great or King Fish Cafe for 'soul food'.

Someone at my office is raving about the dinner they had at Crush last night. it would be a short taxi ride from downtown, on Madison on Capitol Hill.

Black Bottle is a fun wine bar also featuring a small plate menu on 1st Avenue in Belltown. Restaurant Zoe is another favorite for dinner in this neighborhood (Belltown, 2nd &amp; Blanchard).

You folks have been fantastic!!!

I think I have enough to get a good feel for the city.

Definately will rent a car and hit the other spots on the next visit, which I will expand into a 4 day event.

Will grab a cab and hit the areas that are within cab reach. Definately want to hit some unique shops and not the normal saks and stuff.

Will try to mix up the food to get a good cross section.

Any particular cool club/bar noted for their martinis? Any great galleries downtown?

Other than that I think I am all set thanks to you fine people!

Sorry one more thing!

I am a bit of a coffee fanatic....and Seattle being noted for its coffee....if I were to go to ONE coffee bar for coffee and a snack....anything that blows away everything else???

Not Starbucks PLZ !!!!

Our two favorites on a recent trip were Wild Ginger (amazing Asian fusion) and NiJo (really good sushi in a small funky place) - both very near your hotel. Sazrac at the Monaco is not worth trying. We had a very disappointing dinner there.

http://www.wildginger.net/

http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;lr=...amp;ct=reviews

Coffee: which ever independent place is in front of you (seriously). For instance on 15th Ave East which I mentioned there is Victrola. On Broadway, Vivance. Etc.

The one coffee place that blows everyone else away is Vivace Roasteria on Denny and Broadway (though come to think of it, they do have a new location closer to downtown, which might suit you better. Though the Denny location is a wonderful space and close to the shoping of the Pike/Pine corridor). There are many other great places in town, but prospective baristas, coffee shop owners, etc, actually come to Vivace from all over the county just to work as barbacks, to learn espresso making from David Schomer, the owner.

http://www.espressovivace.com/intro.html

If you're planning on &quot;grabbing a cab&quot; make sure you get it in front of your hotel. And if you take it out of downtown, you will have to call for a return trip. Seattle doesn't really have roaming cabs picking up fares on the street, except right downtown, and even then only if you're very lucky; until fifteen years ago or so it was illegal.