Seattle visit
 

My wife and I are planning on visiting Seattle Sept. 30 thru Oct 3. What are recommendations on:

* Where to stay (budget: ~$120/night)
* Where to eat?
* What to see/not see?

I would say that we are big lighthouse fans, and plan on some type of tour for that. We are also in our late 30's/early 40's, if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

JC

I live in Seattle so can provide some suggestions.

If possible, stay as close to downtown as possible, preferably near the waterfront. Good sites include the Farmer's Market and the waterfront which are connected. A ride on the ferry to Bainbridge Island (catch at waterfront - 35min crossing) is also a must, esp on a nice day. You can have lunch on the other side before returning too. A visit to the Seattle Center and a ride up the Space Needle will provide tremendous views, but it's expensive to eat there and the food is not the best. The restaurant rotates.
We have a nice aquarium at the waterfront and a wonderful art museum on 2nd ave which is also close.

If you enjoy the outdoors, there are so many places to go. A day spent at Mt Rainier is hard to beat. A car/ferry ride to Port Townsend on the Olympic Penninsula is fun too.

Regarding places to eat, it depends on your budget. There are so many good restuarants all over downtown and on the waterfront.

You will run out of time and will need to return to explore all that Seattle and area can offer.

Considering your $120-a day budge, the best well-located hotel deal I could find is the Travelodge at 2213 8th Ave, which is close to downtown and Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is located).

I checked a queen in non-smoking with continental breakfast for $77.40 on the first night and $63.00 on subsequent nights. However, with our 15.6% hotel tax the cost will be $311.08, leaving you with $42.25 a day for food and other expenses. Fortunately there are loads of ethnic places to eat in the Pike Place Market and there is a centrally located Chinese joint I can refer you to where you can pig out for about $6.00. Let me know if you?re interested.

Stayed at the Best Western Pioneer Square a couple years ago. Good central location, small but nice room. Think we paid around $100/night.

Dahlia Lounge was very good for dinner. Don't miss the smoked fish starter.

Ride the monorail, skip the space needle.

By September/October for under $100 a night you ought easily to be able to score a 4-star place downtown on Priceline. Even if parking is $20 a day you'll be more comfortable and better located than any of the motels north of downtown or the Pioneer Square BW. You have plenty of time to make arrangements - book something cancelable for the time being if you're nervous, then start trying PL around the first of the summer. Visit www.biddingfortravel.com for valuable guidance on how to use PL, along with results of bids posted by PL users.

For lighthouses, there are a couple of good ones in the area - the Alki lighthouse in West Seattle is a popular visit, easily visible from passing ferries too. The Mukilteo light (in Mukilteo, 30 min. north of downtown) is very cute too. Matter of fact, you might think about spending a night at the Silver Cloud Inn in Mukilteo - built on piers over the water next to the ferry dock. Convenient for exploring Whidbey Island (more lighthouses) or for touring the big Boeing factory, on the road between the freeway and the ferry dock. http://www.scinns.com/mukilteo.htm

Skip the Space Needle. It was $12.50 EACH in December. We got up there and went "Now what do we do". After you walk around outside for several minutes, see the sights, you're ready to go back in because it's very cold and windy up there. I mean, the views were great, although unless it's really clear, you won't see til forever, I just felt the bang for your buck ratio was a little off. On the bright side, they have THE largest gift shop for a mediocre attraction I have EVER seen. It wraps all the way around the base and has everything from pasta to Elvis to aliens. It was a real head scratcher.

We really enjoyed Pike Place Market, and especially loved Lowell's, with it's great view of the bay and good, moderately priced, warm, filling seafood n chowder. We ate there like three times. I'd also recommend finding the two Soup Daddy restaurants in the downtown area...they were awesome, with like ten kinds of soup and lots of sandwiches for pretty cheap for all the food they gave us.

We also ate at the Pink Door at Pike Place on Post Alley, good, not so cheap, Italian in a pretty and fun atmosphere.

The Five Spot up on Queen Anne hill was good for breakfast/lunch, a funky atmosphere and good wholesome big plates of food.

As you can see, we pretty much ate our way through Seattle. What can I say, it's the cold weather.

love
roxy

The $120/day is only for lodging. Our food budget is $80/day. Sorry for the confusion.

Seattle is an amazing city, surrounded by much beauty, also. You have many options, altho limited time... check out Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. Olympic Nat'l Park is wonderful but massive and would take your entire time to see it all. But perhaps you could see just Hurricane Ridge and Lake Crescent. LOVE the Fish-throwers market in Pikes Place! ;)

Check out the Boeing jet tour just north of the city. Tickets are limited and go fast, so be there early.

I agree with roxy, skip the space needle. And also IMO, i wouldn't get lodging around there either...

We stayed in Bellevue on both visits, a very short drive away where the price was right. But if we go again, we'll use Priceline and stay downtown.

Have fun planning!

I doubt the end of September will be as cold as December. I'm usually still wearing t-shirts and tank tops at that time of year. :)

I'm curious as to why people like staying downtown as opposed to out aways. My wife and I aren't really into the "night life" stuff like clubbing.

jc, unlike other cities downtown seattle stays 'open' all night. Not just clubs but restaurants, theater, cocktail lounges and the like are all downtown. If you stay out of the dt area it will be very quiet and you will have very limited options. Also you will need to cab into dt for stuff whereas if you stay then you can walk around a lot of it.

I agree with those who said skip the spaceneedle. My relatives when in town have LOVED the duck rides. A good orientation of all things seattle. Our art musuem has a Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Kröller-Müller Museum exhibit going on until Sept. 12th. Check out ticketmaster for theater, broadway and/or symphany. If Teatro Zinzani is still playing then I would ABSOLTELY get tickets (in advance as every show sells out). It only plays in Seattle and SF and includes an excellent dinner by a well know local chef tom douglas (Dahlia, Etta's, Palace Kitchen).

I like to take people to the Ballard Locks, Snoqualmie Falls, a winery or two in Woodinville, a tour of Safeco field, wander around Pioneer Square, of course Pike Place!

Link to Boeing Everett Center (biggest building on earth (by square footage)):

http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/tours/

Also consider teh Museum of Flight (http://www.museumofflight.org/)

Ken

We visited Seattle for the first time in August. We were there for three nights and four days. The ferry to Bainbridge Island was really fun and you can get some great photos from the ferry.

Pike Place Market was also very fun. We went through that twice.

Down on the waterfront, the aquarium was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. They have have some unique things there.

The Space Needle was also great! What's a trip to Seattle without that? You have to go at least once just for the experience.

We stayed down on the waterfront at the Edgewater Hotel which was really nice. www.edgewaterhotel.com is the web address.

Our favorite restaurants were: The Flying Fish, Dahlia Lounge and Salty's on Alki Beach. Enjoy Seattle! It's quite an experience!

The shopping was also great and be sure to take a trip on the monorail! ***kim***

I live in Seattle as well and think the suggestions have been good so far. I concur about the Space Needle comment...definitely not worth the money. However, if you're interested in getting a good view of the city, go to the COlumbia Tower - it's downtown and even higher than the Space Needle. It also costs only $5 last I heard. Also, for my favorite view of Seattle, take a bus up to Queen Anne and go to Kerry Park (off 1st Ave North, about 1/2 way up the hill on the left). It's the view you see on practically every postcard, of downtown Seattle w/ Rainier in the background. On a clear day, it's beautiful.

As for restaurants, I would suggest Vivanda in Pike Place Market. Also, check out www.seattleweekly.com for great happy hour deals at all restaurants. Some great/pricey restaurants in Seattle have superb happy hour menus from 4-6 and then again after 10 at very reasonable prices. Another favorite is Ray's Boathouse (in Ballard) or Salty's (in West Seattle) if you want a great view while eating. Weather should be good enough in Sept to enjoy the deck at Ray's.

Also, I would recommend staying downtown simply because of it's access to everything. Transportation is good in Seattle and staying downtown means you can hop on a bus, the monorail, or grab a taxi no problem.

Hope this helps, and have a nice trip.

And one other really good website you should look at is www.nwsource.com. It has event calendars and tons of useful information.

I live about 30 minutes North of Seattle...here's my two cents! I would definately look into the Edgewater...beautiful and close, but not too close to everything. You can then walk along the waterfront, walk up to Pike Place, take a ferry...and got the the Old Spaghetti Factory...I can't believe no one has suggested that yet!! Great food...and cheap! Also the Pacific Science Center is up the road (within the Seattle Center)...I'd go there on a weekday, miss the crowds. Welcome, and have fun!

Thanks to everyone who gave input. It is much appreciated.

JC