Must-see in Seattle

Poking up 605 feet into the skyline, this relic of the 1962 world’s fair became synonymous with the city, and the 43-second ride to the top an essential part of visiting the city. Expert guides in smart uniforms styled by local designer Luly Yang give an impressively speedy spiel during the ascent, orienting visitors on how to explore the 360° views from two levels of indoor and outdoor observation decks.

A 2018 remodel brought back many original touches, like the orange exterior paint, while adding a revolving glass floor and tilted glass walls – ideal for high-altitude selfies. The stiff formal restaurant gave way to more indoor and outdoor observation areas, a wine bar, and a café, providing more views for more people.

People tend to be underwhelmed when hearing about this marvel of modern nautical engineering, but these locks – officially the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks – deserve a visit no matter how little this sounds like your jam. Built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1917, the two locks control the flow of water so that ships of all sizes can pass from the saltwater of Shilshole Bay (and Puget Sound beyond) into the freshwater of the Lake Washington Ship Canal.

Rangers give free tours that explain the history of the locks and how they work (call ahead for the schedule as it changes seasonally, but there are usually a few each day), visitors can watch salmon make their way up the fish ladder, and a few local seals or sea lions often hang around like it’s an all-you-can-eat-buffet. The botanical garden near the entrance adds color and is an excellent picnic space.

The flashy and intriguingly amorphous building designed by Frank O. Gehry repulsed – or at least confused – Seattleites when it opened as the Experience Music Project, an ode to Seattle’s grand history of making beautiful sounds. It expanded to include the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, then all of pop culture. But the exhibit that steals my Seattle-local heart comes from the light it shines on hometown stars like Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana, the Guitar Gallery, and the epically interactive Sound Lab, which allows anyone to become their own band.

Cutting-edge rotating exhibits delve deeper into single topics, such as Afrofuturism in the costume design of Ruth E. Carter, a visual history of hip-hop, Minecraft, or tattoo culture. In the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, Isaac Asimov’s typewriter and Luke Skywalker’s severed hand supplement interactive kiosks about the more than 100 members, from Margaret Atwood to Zelda.

This post-gold rush, pyramid-topped building drew gasps as the city’s first skyscraper in 1914, and – for 17 years – the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. The Space Needle eclipsed it as the pinnacle of the Seattle skyline in 1962, but the tower retained its charm – and opulent Neoclassical architectural details. Now both offer 360° views of Seattle from opposite ends of the city, though Smith Tower’s panorama has the advantage of including the iconic Space Needle.

A 21st century remodel added an exhibit on the building’s history for visitors to check out before chugging up to the 35th floor in the original Otis elevators. There, you step onto the observation deck and belly up to the speakeasy-themed craft cocktail bar.

That one of Seattle’s most architecturally renowned buildings houses the flagship branch of its public library systems provides accurate insight into the city’s special brand of geekiness. The Rem Koolhaas-designed building opened in 2004, and, from the street, stands out for its boxy reflective exterior. Inside, 11 floors hold almost 1.5 million books, along with innovative art and opportunities, like music practice rooms. Guided and self-paced tours show off the George Tsutakawa fountain, “Red Floor,” and a video sculpture, among other arts. Importantly for visitors, the library offers free Wi-Fi, printing, restrooms, a coffee and chocolate cart, and a tourist information center.

Wrapping around the West Seattle Peninsula, just across from Downtown, this broad strip serves as Seattle’s microcosm of a beach town. Surf shops, a boardwalk filled with walkers, runners, and rollerbladers, and waterfront cafés line the street opposite the park, as if the water lapping at the shore ever reaches swimmable temperatures. But the cool cars rolling by, sunny vibes, and bonfire parties work just as well with hoodies over the bikinis.

The first White settlers to arrive at what is now Seattle set up camp on Alki in 1851, and a monument marks the moment at the south end of the beach. Nearby, a small replica of the Statue of Liberty watches over the park, erected in honor of the 40th anniversary of Boy Scouts of America in 1952.

This immersive and fascinating museum helps visitors to do more than just read about life for the Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants in Seattle, but to interact with their lives, past and present. The museum includes three floors of exhibits and a traditional Japanese theater, but also expands beyond the galleries: Each visit includes a complimentary tour of the historic hotel building from 1910, which houses the museum, a re-creation of an early 20th century, immigrant-owned general store, and a themed neighborhood tour on Saturdays.

Seattle’s largest city park covers more than 500 acres in the quiet residential neighborhood of Magnolia. About 12 miles of walking paths weave through damp forests, along grassy bluffs above the beach, and down to the sand. The protected tidal shoreline leads to the historic West Point Lighthouse from 1881, while other buildings within the park reflect its former life as Fort Lawton.

The visitors’ center features explanations of the environmental and educational motivations for the park’s semi-natural state, though has an excellent modern and completely ADA-accessible playground in the back. The park also hosts the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, a community center for Native Americans in Seattle, featuring informative exhibits, Indigenous-informed architecture, and the Sacred Circle Gallery.

Legendary Seattle glass artist Dale Chihuly’s eponymous museum brings his famous flair for color to an illustrious location at the base of the Space Needle. A 100-foot-long red, yellow, and orange sculpture housed in a 4,500 square-foot glass house is the centerpiece, while eight other galleries give a full scope of the artist’s work.

Outside, Chihuly’s often-floral work integrates seamlessly and fascinatingly into the garden designed around the pieces there, and live glass blowing demonstrations happen in a retrofitted Airstream multiple times daily.

This free park, brimming with art and overlooking Seattle’s own masterpiece of a shoreline, is my happy place in the most literal sense of the world. It’s simply impossible to be down while wandering the gravel paths through nine acres of greenery and outdoor art.

Built on a former industrial site at the north end of Downtown, it is the neighborhood’s largest greenspace and is operated by the Seattle Art Museum. Eagle, by Alexander Calder, anchors the park visually, perched at the top of the lush hill leading down to the waterfront. While little information is posted about the art in the park, the Seattle Art Museum offers audio tours by smartphone on their website, and the Tree Walk app has an Olympic Sculpture Park guide.

A giant black statue of a man hammering away on 1st Avenue marks the entrance to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). Originally founded in 1933 with a focus on Asian art, it eventually spun that into the Seattle Asian Art Museum and broadened its scope to incorporate collections of art by Indigenous people of the Northwest Coast, Africa, and Oceania, as well as modern art from Europe and around the U.S.

The museum uses its large collection to its advantage, rotating exhibits and continually updating galleries to present the art in new ways. But the big names it brings in for its temporary exhibits are really what lift the museum above average: Recent programs have included Kehinde Wiley, Yayoi Kusama, and Jacob Lawrence.

The official name of this museum perched on the shore of South Lake Union telegraphs a staid experience, so perhaps that is why most people just call it MOHAI. And a better description might be that this is a museum that represents Seattle itself. From the first people to set upon the Puget Sound shores to the city’s most recent arrivals, the museum catalogs how, why, when, and who lived in the region through a collection of more than four million items (including documents, objects, and photos).

Only about two percent of that fits into the galleries of the former Naval Reserve Armory that houses the museum at any given time, so exhibits rotate through displays of items, like drag racer Al Young’s world championship-winning 1970 Dodge Challenger, Eddie Bauer’s oldest surviving down jacket (1935), and photos of the salmon industry in 1910.

The main reason for visitors to come down to this lakefront living museum is to rent out one of the rowboats, canoes, or kayaks for a spin on Lake Union. But once there, the museum itself deserves a look around. The campus includes an education center, exhibits on the boats and the craft of boat making, two floating buildings, a boatshop and boathouse, and various boats along the dock. When the center is open, visitors are welcome to wander the various facilities, and volunteers are often on-hand to answer questions. The only fees are the cost of hourly boat rentals.

The Olmsted Brothers, who designed New York’s Central Park, created this park with similar aims. People come from all over the city to walk, bike, and skate the 2.8-mile path around the lake, and the surrounding park brims with people exercising, picnicking, and playing throughout the year. The park encompasses a community center with a swimming pool, a play area, a pitch-and-putt golf course, and a theater housed in an old bath house. In the summer, two beaches open for swimming and the boathouse rents out small human-powered boats (motorized boats are prohibited on the lake).

Truly as simple – and wonderful – as the name implies, Hot Tub Boats rents out motorized floating hot tubs. In a city with so much water that spends so little of the year warm enough to swim in, this brilliant innovation lets people take a soak as they putter through Lake Union’s houseboats and watch the seaplanes swoop down. You can drive the boat right from the hot tub, and while they go slow, a two-hour rental gives you plenty of time to stare up at the Space Needle and cruise by Gas Works Park, giving yourself a mini-tour of the lake.

Everyone assumes the Space Needle has the best views in the city, but the skyline doesn’t look like Seattle when you can’t see the needle. This park shows off the postcard-perfect view of Seattle, featuring the Space Needle front and center, with Mt. Rainier poking up in the background – and on a nice day, you’ll see the professional photographers here to prove it. The glow of a great sunset makes the view almost surreal, but it’s nearly as magical in daylight or at night, when the lights of the city reflect off Elliott Bay.

Everyone comes into the tour excited about the samples of Theo’s organic, fair-trade chocolate (and there are plenty), but they usually leave excited about what they learned and saw too. The hour-long experience starts with an overview of cacao and the basics of chocolate making before delving into the specifics of Theo’s process – as you watch it happen right in front of you. Like dark chocolate, this tour skews a little denser and more mature, so not as good for kids as you might imagine (and kids under five are not even permitted).

Underneath the Pioneer Square neighborhood sits the remnants of old Seattle. After a big fire in 1889, residents simply built right on top of the remains, creating an abandoned underground city below. While underground tours have been a staple of Seattle for decades, this particular company stands out for its commitment to historical accuracy over theatrical embellishments, and for its focus on inclusion (in summer, they also offer a queer history tour). The underground parts are fun to explore, and it’s generally a cool way to learn a little bit about what life was like in early Seattle and how the city grew.

One of the oldest and newest museums in the state, this natural history museum started in 1879 as a high school club, but its most recent renovation landed it in a brand-new, purpose-built home on the University of Washington campus, an appropriate place for its educational bent. The museum is designed for visitors to explore not only standard and interactive exhibits, but also to peer into the working labs, where curators and experts work with the dinosaur, fossil, plant, and animal collections. The museum also specializes in Northwest Native art, and the Indigenous-owned café features Native cuisine.

Black hole sun, won’t you come… check out the Isamu Noguchi sculpture that the Soundgarden song is named after, which perches near the reservoir at this Olmsted Brothers-designed park and has a stellar view of the Downtown skyline through the center. The nearby 1906 water tower holds incredible views for anyone willing to climb 107 steps to the observation deck. The two main buildings in the park are the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Volunteer Park Conservatory, while an outdoor amphitheater hosts summer performances. Summer also brings a blanket of color to the park’s 50 acres, courtesy of the dahlias planted here, and both the wading pool and koi ponds fill up.

This art gallery serves as a de facto museum of the Black experience in America. Housed in a fifth-generation family home in the historically red-lined Central District, it achieves part of its mission simply by keeping the house under Black ownership in the face of overwhelming gentrification. It calls itself a center for Black art and belonging, which means besides the exhibits of art in each of the bedrooms upstairs and the ground floor living room, it also trains oral historians and organizes free meals of African diasporic and Indigenous cuisine three days a week.