Lonely Planet Seattle

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• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781787013605
• eBook ISBN: 9781788686754

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

Sights

Eating

Drinking & Nightlife

Entertainment

Shopping

Sports & Activities

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

Neighborhood Top Five

1Pike Place Market Seeing, smelling and tasting the unique energy of this Seattle icon, from the charismatic fish throwers to the creative – but disgusting – gum wall.

2Seattle Art Museum Experiencing the latest surprise lighting up this constantly evolving museum.

3Bainbridge Island ferry Riding on the Bainbridge Island ferry just for the hell of it and watching Seattle’s famous skyline disappear in its foamy wake.

4Seattle Great Wheel Viewing Seattle’s ongoing waterfront regeneration from inside an enclosed pod on this giant wheel.

5Beecher’s Handmade Cheese Joining the line for take-out tubs of gooey and hot mac ’n’ cheese at Pike Place Market’s artisanal cheese phenomenon.

Explore Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

You don’t have to search long to find Seattle’s soul: head directly to Pike Place Market and throw away any map you might have acquired – your nose, eyes and ears are the only compasses you’ll need here.

It’s particularly important to get to the market early if you want to avoid that cattle-truck feeling (40,000 visitors per day!). Weekdays and before 10am on weekends are best. That said, many enjoy the organized chaos of the arcades at Saturday lunchtime. The waterfront is more weather dependent; a sunny weekend afternoon finds it swarming, while on a misty weekday morning you’ll have the place pretty much to yourself.

Downtown Seattle, though impressive from a distance, is a bit of an anomaly. Instead of being the beating heart of the city, it’s a fairly quiet, functional business district adjacent to Seattle’s twin lures: Pike Place Market and Pioneer Sq. It’s best to visit on a weekday, when throngs of people are working and shopping in the area. At night and on weekends it can feel rather desolate.

Seattle’s retail heaven extends from the corner of 5th Ave and Pike St for a few blocks...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Welcome to Seattle
• Seattle’s Top 10
• What’s New
• Need to Know
• Top Itineraries
• If You Like…
• Month by Month
• With Kids
• Eating
• Drinking & Nightlife
• Entertainment
• Sports & Activities
• Shopping
• Neighborhoods at a Glance
• Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront
• Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo
• Belltown & Seattle Center
• Queen Anne & Lake Union
• Capitol Hill & First Hill
• The CD, Madrona & Madison Park
• U District
• Green Lake & Fremont
• Ballard & Discovery Park
• Georgetown & West Seattle
• Day Trips from Seattle
• Sleeping
• Understand Seattle
• Seattle Today
• History
• Way of Life
• Music
• Transportation
• Directory A–Z
• Behind the Scenes
• Seattle Maps
• Our Writer