Seattle end of month/early August
 

Hello!
My family and I are going to Seattle & Vancouver for a week. We would arrive in Seattle on July 31st and leave August 3rd...We will rent a car and drive to Vancouver & stay in Vancouver for 3 days and leave on August 7th.

Do you have any hotel recommendations in the $200-$250 price range in Seattle? I'll be posting a thread like this in the Canada forum as well.
We really have no idea what there is to do in Seattle. We would love to see the Space Needle for sure, and maybe do some shopping. Museums & Zoos are OK, but we would love some more recommendations and help as well...

Would you recommend renting a car from Enterprise? And would we allow to pick up the car in Seattle and drop off in Vancouver? Any restaurants that are a MUST?

Thanks for the help.

Vancouver thread: http://www.fodors.com/community/cana...for-3-days.cfm

I live in Seattle. I've used Enterprise with no complaints. You just need to call and ask them policies for a drop off in Vancouver (I'm going to guess it would be more expensive).

For hotels in downtown Seattle I like The Mayflower Park, The Warwick, Hotel Max, the Roosevelt, and Hotel Andra.

What to do in Seattle? The Space Needle/Seattle Center, the Pike Place Market, the Waterfront, Pioneer Square historic district (including Smith Tower, Underground Tour, Waterfall Garden Park, Klondike Museum). Take a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island and back.

Restaurants I like downtown... for casual: Rocco's pizza on 2nd, Mama's Mexican Kitchen on 2nd, Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar and Pike Place Chowder both in Pike Place Market, Frontier Room BBQ, Bacco, Le Pichet, Virginia Inn on 1st. For fancier: Dahlia Lounge, Etta's Seafood, Assagio's Italian on 4th, Il Bistrom in the Market.

Thanks so much! I'm sure we won't be able to fit all this in 2 days, but this definitely gives me some places to think about!

Vancouver is a quite walkable city. It is easy enough to get there by taking an Amtrak train or bus to avoid taking a rental car to the city and paying for parking.
Plan on walking in Stanley Park and maybe using the Hop on-Hop off buses.

Ok! We weren't going to keep the car the whole time, literally just for that drive from Seattle and Vancouver. I would much rather use buses and taxis and walking when I visit cities. :)
And where can I get the passes or the Hop on-Hop off buses?

Start at Canada Place. http://vancouvertrolley.com/tours/hop-on-hop-off
Two days is a much better deal than the one day pass.

I liked the Roosevelt. Very easy to walk to Pike Place Market, Nordstrom, the whole downtown! Would recommend any Tom Douglas restaurant, esp Palace Kitchen or Etta's Seafood (excellent salmon). Try the Dahlia bakery just for a piece of coconut cream pie! Place Pigalle for excellent mussels.

Thank you SeaF! I will look into it. :)

Ok, thank you tomfuller. I'll look into that as well.