Seattle
Recommended Tours

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A Walking Tour of Downtown

Starting Place: Seattle Center at 5th Avenue and Mercer Street.

Our journey begins at the Seattle Center, built in 1962 as part of the Century 21 Exposition. Seattle Center houses numerous tourist attractions including the Pacific Science Center, Paul Allen's Experience Music Project and KeyArena, home of the Seattle Supersonics. Most visitors come to the Center for Seattle's most famous and most visible landmark, the Space Needle, and all will enjoy the ride on its glass elevators and the panoramic views from the observation deck.

The Seattle Center is also at one end of the Monorail (also built for the 1962 World's Fair), and the tour continues with the 90-second, 1.3-mile ride from the Seattle Center to the Westlake Center (4th Ave and Pine St), a popular arcade for shoppers and strollers who can hit the shops, visit the nearby department stores or sit outside and watch people amid Robert Maki's granite sculptures and waterfalls. When you've had your fill, head south on Pine Street to 1st Avenue to Seattle's historic multi-level Pike Place Market. Founded in 1907, it's the city's most popular destination with its famous fish merchants, farmer's market and seemingly endless abundance of shops and restaurants.

Heading east on 1st Avenue, down the hill, stop by the Seattle Art Museum (1st Ave and University St) with its aesthetically controversial Hammering Man sculpture outside. Just a few blocks on, you'll enter Pioneer Square (1st Ave and Jackson St). The square was once a Native American village and with the white settlers it became a Wild West Main Street lined with brothels. It was also the center of a busy logging industry until the city was demolished in the Great Fire of 1889. The city was rebuilt on the ruins. The square has since survived lean financial times and is now very healthy both economically and culturally, hosting an eclectic mix of businesses and art galleries. If you're with children, or have a taste for kitsch, cap off your walk with the 1.5-hour Underground Tour, which gives a sense of what Seattle life was like before the fire and provides details of the reconstruction process.


A Tour of the Arts in Seattle

Starting Place: Seattle Center at 5th Avenue and Mercer Street

Seattle has a thriving arts scene with highly regarded theater and music groups, museums and galleries. The arts tour follows roughly the same course as the walking tour. Begin at the Seattle Center where the Opera House hosts the Seattle Opera, one of the most acclaimed opera companies in the United States, known in particular for its internationally recognized interpretations of Wagner's Ring cycle.

From the Seattle Center stroll down the hill on 2nd Avenue to the Benaroya Hall (2nd Ave and Union St), which provides the Seattle Symphony with an excellent acoustic space. The Seattle Art Museum lies a block away on 1st Avenue, and theater buffs will seek out the nationally recognized A Contemporary Theater (ACT) a few blocks away at 7th Avenue and Pine Street.

As you continue down the hill towards Pioneer Square, you'll encounter the real hub of Seattle's art community in a thick concentration of galleries. The Greg Kucera Gallery on 3rd Avenue always has high-quality offerings, and has even displayed Frank Stella sculptures, William Blake engravings and cutouts from Matisse's late period. A throng of galleries fills the area between 1st and 2nd Avenues on Occidental Avenue, most notably the Grove/Thurston Gallery.

Perhaps the best time to set out on this tour is the first Thursday of every month, when many galleries and the Seattle Art Museum stay open late, some even offering wine and cheese to those who stop to admire the art. Catch an early show at the ACT, take a tour of the galleries and cap off the night with a cappuccino in the downstairs cafe at the Elliott Bay Book Company.