Are You Visiting Seattle This Summer?

[SeaTeacher]

TOURIST INFO FOR SUMMER 2006 – From SeaTeacher

Changes & Construction

The downtown branch of the Seattle Art Museum is closed for expansion construction. The new Olympic Sculpture Park is not scheduled to open until fall 2006. Only the Seattle Asian Art Museum branch is currently open (located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood).

The Klondike Gold Rush Museum has moved to a beautiful new facility in the restored Cadillac Hotel at 2nd and Jackson Street.

Tickets for the Space Needle observation deck are $14 for adults and $7 for kids (age 4-13) if purchased on the Internet. If you purchase at the Space Needle, they are more expensive. During summer weekends, the lines at the ticket window can be very long. If you eat lunch/dinner at the Space Needle Restaurant, access to the observation deck is free. Diners should expect to spend at least $100 per couple for dinner, and $70 – 80 for lunch. The view is fantastic, the service good, and the food it very good (though not outstanding) but the prices are steep.

The Seattle Center Monorail is closed and undergoing repairs (as of March 2006). But it is due to re-open in summer 2006. An exact date has not been announced though.

The Seattle Aquarium pier is undergoing renovation and expansion, but the aquarium is open. The IMAX theatre has closed and will not reopen. Work on the pier will be mostly complete by June 2006. Expanded exhibits will open in 2008.

Rental Cars & Transportation

None of the major car rental companies have cars available at the two cruise terminals. However, they all have rental counters and cars in downtown Seattle locations. A couple companies will even reimburse your cab fare up to about $8.

Metro Bus fare is free within the downtown core and along the waterfront. The Seattle Metro Transit Tunnel is closed for renovation. The best streets for catching any north/south bus is 2nd (southbound) and 4th (northbound). Buses on 3rd go both directions.

The Waterfront Streetcar is out of service due to construction of the Olympic Sculpture Park. The streetcar will not go back into service until a new maintenance facility is built in Pioneer Square (date unknown).

Shopping

The core of downtown shopping is at 4th Ave. and Pine Street where Westlake Park is located. The Nordstrom flagship store is located between 5th and 6th at Pine. Macy’s is between 2nd and 3rd at Pine. The downtown also includes indoor shopping complexes. Westlake Center is located between 4th and 5th at Pine. Westlake Center is also the southern terminal of the Monorail. Pacific Place is situated between 6th and 7th along Pine. Smaller stores are generally located south of Pine along 4th, 5th, and 6th.

Historical Sites

The Pike Place Public Market is the soul of Seattle. It’s located at the top of a bluff overlooking the waterfront and the Bell Street Cruise Terminal just west of the retail core (Pier 30 is a couple miles to the south). Locals tend to stay away from the Public Market during summer. We prefer it in the winter when the crowds are below crush capacity. The Market includes fruit/veggie stalls, butchers, fish mongers, crafts, collectables, restaurants, cooking stores, specialty markets, bakers, wine stores, delicatessens, news stands, art galleries and more. The Pike Place Market is actually a district – a series of adjacent buildings connected by cobble stone streets and brick alleys. The main building is a warren of hallways and ramps. Grocery vendors and restaurants are generally on the street level. Galleries and collectibles are in the lower levels. For those of us who live in or near downtown, it is one of the places we go to “commune” with urban Seattle. The original Starbucks is also at the Public Market right on Pike Place (yes, the market is named after the little street on which the main building is located).

Pioneer Square is the original core of 19th century Seattle. It’s filled with restored Victorian buildings that include shops, clubs, galleries, and restaurants. Almost the entire central neighborhood burn to the ground in 1889. Pioneer Square is what rose from the ashes. The neighborhood is easily accessed from Pier 30 by taxi, or from Pier 66 (Bell Street) via the free waterfront trolley bus.

The International District is our “Chinatown.” But it is actually several smaller neighborhoods combined into one (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean). The core is at 5th and King Street (Hing Hay Park) a few blocks east of our massive new sports stadia. Uwajimaya is a fantastic Japanese grocery, department store, and food court. There are many terrific restaurants in the area. The I.D. is a real neighborhood. Many people live there, so it is not primarily oriented toward tourists, but it’s a great place to stroll and eat. The Wing Luke museum is small but presents a thorough history of Asian immigrant life in Seattle.

Capitol Hill is Seattle’s creative urban culture center. It’s also home to Seattle’s active gay and lesbian community. It has two core streets: the Pike/Pine corridor is oriented in an east/west direction. Broadway travels north/south. The neighborhood is filled with boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, pubs, and clubs (most clubs are gay). Also, Volunteer Park is located at the north end of Capitol Hill and it includes indoor/outdoor gardens, the Asian Art Museum, and an old water tower which functions as a viewing platform.

Seattle Center is the arts and culture hub of Seattle. The opera and ballet companies are located at McCaw Hall. It’s also home to award winning regional theatre companies like the Seattle Rep and Intiman Theater. Pacific Science Center is a great place for kids, as well as the Seattle Children’s Theatre and the Seattle Children’s Museum. There is a large food court and a small amusement park with rides and games. Of course, this is the place for the Space Needle. But also there is the Experience Music Project and the unique Science Fiction Museum (both housed in a strange modern building that looks like a crushed guitar). Finally, Seattle Center is home to Supersonics and Storm basketball and Thunderbird hockey at Key Arena.

You can learn more about Seattle through many websites, including my own non-commercial site at Virtual Tourist.

[atlmichelle]

THANKS for all the great info, SeaTeacher! We won't be in Seattle until September, and then only for less than a day. But I am determined to see the Needle, Music Project, Pike Place, and whatever else we can cram in between our plane landing from Atlanta on Saturday, and our train leaving for Vancouver early Sunday A.M.!!

[MSBYRDY]

Great information....thanks.

 

What would be a good hotel, in a central location for one night in Oct. We are mainly interested in the waterfront and the Market. Any recommendations greatly accepted.

 

This will be our first visit to Seattle. Will be arriving on a Sunday early afternoon and leaving on Monday for a short cruise.

Thanks

Marilyn

[kdvolfan]

We will be renting a car in Seattle and driving up to Vancouver. We will have a whole day in Seattle. Where is a convenient and not too expensive place to park to see Pike's Place Market? Thanks for the info.

[calikak]

The Edgewater hotel is on a pier on the waterfront, so it's convenient for the waterfront and Pike Place Market. In downtown, the Westin is pretty nice and convenient to most things.

 

For parking near Pike Place, there's a lot right on Alaskan Way (the street along the waterfront) that you can park at, and a garage that's right behind that lot. Both of those are pretty convenient. There isn't really cheap parking in central Seattle but those places aren't too horrendously expensive.

[SeaTeacher]

Great information....thanks.

 

What would be a good hotel, in a central location for one night in Oct. We are mainly interested in the waterfront and the Market. Any recommendations greatly accepted.

 

This will be our first visit to Seattle. Will be arriving on a Sunday early afternoon and leaving on Monday for a short cruise.

Thanks

Marilyn

 

Centrally located hotels in Seattle are usually expensive if you want to be within walking distance of Pike Place Public Market and pier 66.

 

First of all, make sure which pier your ship will be at. 66 is usually for NCL and Celebrity; pier 30 (1 mile south of downtown) is for Princess and HAL. Pier 30 has no hotels within walking distance. It's completely industrial, but still a short cab ride from hotels ($6-8).

 

Expensive chain hotels include the Marriott Waterfront and the independent Edgewater. Both are virtually next door to pier 66. And when I say expensive, I mean moderately so - not super luxury hotels, just very nice business style hotels priced at $120 - $250 for your travel season. Others in the same price range, but actually in the downtown core, include the Sheraton, Hilton, Renaissance, and Monnaco. Super expensive would be the Fairmont Olympic, the W, and the Elliott Grand Hyatt. Moderate hotels are the Paramount, Warwick, Spring Hill Suites, the Sixth Avenue Inn and the Red Lion.

 

Located on the outer edges of Downtown, and less expensive (around $80 - $130) is the Silver Cloud on Capitol Hill, The Days Inn and Best Western Executive (close to Seattle Ceter/Space Needle). Also near the Space Needle is the Holiday Inn on Dexter Av North. All of these hotels would probably not be considered walking distance (even though they are only about 1 mile from the Public Market.

 

If I was going to make a moderate choice, I would choose the Red Lion. It was totally renovated about 6 years ago. It's a reliable moderate chain and it has the PERFECT location: the heart of downtown, four blocks from the Public Market. Two blocks for the heart of downtown shopping.

 

If I wanted to pay more, I would go with the Marriott Waterfront. It's at the base of the Public Market (Seattle is hilly, and the market is on top of a bluff). It's only 3 years old and is walking distance to EVERYTHING including pier 66. Even the old Pioneer Square and Chinatown neighborhoods are a short shuttle bus ride away (free).

 

I hope that info helps.

[Alaska05]

Thanks so much for your Seattle info.:o I just booked an Alaskan cruise for July and am trying to put all the pieces together.

 

We're on Princess so will be arriving at Terminal 30. We're going to spend almost 2 full days post-cruise (1 night at hotel). Are there any decent hotels near this terminal or is this an area we should stay away from? We plan on either walking or using local transportation to sightsee in downtown area.

[love2cruiseseattle]

There are not any hotels close to Pier 30, a Silver Cloud is being built right now and is suppose to be finished in the Spring sometime. Pier 30 is close to where the container ships unload, I would suggest catching a taxi to the cruise port.

 

As for booking a hotel I would sugget maybe checking with a travel agent or some of the websites seeseattle.com has some good Seattle info on it.

There are plenty of nice hotels that you can get deals at, but I would say book as soon as you can. If you are in downtown you can walk to many of the main attractions, Pike Place Market, Seattle Center, Pioneer Square, etc.

 

You will have a wonderful time in our beautiful city. Please let me know if you need any other information.