Must-see attractions Seattle, Washington - Lonely Planet (2024)

Pike Place Market

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

A cavalcade of noise, smells, personalities, banter and urban theater sprinkled liberally around a spatially challenged waterside strip, Pike Place Market…

Museum of Pop Culture

Belltown & Seattle Center

The Museum of Pop Culture (formerly EMP, the "Experience Music Project") is an inspired marriage between super-modern architecture and legendary rock-and…

Museum of Flight

Seattle

Even people with absolutely no interest in aviation have been known to blink in astonishment at Seattle's Museum of Flight, which takes visitors on a…

Discovery Park

Ballard & Discovery Park

Hard to beat on a sunny spring day, this former military installation has been transformed into a wild coastal park, laced with walking trails and…

Olympic Sculpture Park

Belltown & Seattle Center

This ingenious feat of urban planning is an offshoot of the Seattle Art Museum and it bears the same strong eye for design and curation. There are dozens…

Belltown & Seattle Center

Opened in 2012 and reinforcing Seattle’s position as a leading city of the arts, this exquisite exposition of the life and work of dynamic local sculptor…

Space Needle

Belltown & Seattle Center

This streamlined, modern-before-its-time tower built for the 1962 World’s Fair has been the city’s defining symbol for more than 50 years. The needle…

Hiram M Chittenden Locks

Ballard & Discovery Park

Seattle shimmers like an impressionist painting on sunny days at the Hiram M Chittenden Locks. Here, the fresh waters of Lake Washington and Lake Union…

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park

Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo

Eloquently run by the US National Park Service, this wonderful museum has exhibits, photos and news clippings from the 1897 Klondike gold rush, when a…

Green Lake Park

Seattle

A favorite hunting ground for runners, personal trainers and artistically tattooed sunbathers, scenic Green Lake Park surrounds a small natural lake…

Queen Anne & Lake Union

Almost everything you need to know about erstwhile Seattle is crammed into the refurbished Museum of History & Industry, the centerpiece of Lake Union…

Woodland Park Zoo

Seattle

In Woodland Park, up the hill from Green Lake Park, the Woodland Park Zoo is one of Seattle’s most popular tourist attractions. Consistently rated as one…

Seattle Art Museum

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

While not comparable with the big guns in New York and Chicago, Seattle Art Museum is no slouch. Always re-curating its art collection with new…

Fremont Public Sculptures

Seattle

You don't need to pay museum entrance fees to see some of the best and most iconic art in the city. Fremont is an art gallery in and of itself, with…

Nordic Museum

Ballard & Discovery Park

Reason alone to come to Ballard – if the culinary scene and waterside parks weren’t enough – is this delightful surprise of a museum dedicated to Nordic…

Lake Union

Queen Anne & Lake Union

Unifying Seattle’s various bodies of water, freshwater Lake Union was carved by glacial erosion 12,000 years ago. Native American Duwamish tribes once…

Pioneer Square Historical District

Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo

Many important architectural heirlooms are concentrated in Pioneer Square, the district that sprang up in the wake of the 1889 Great Fire. Instantly…

Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center

The CD, Madrona & Madison Park

This Byzantium Revival building began life in 1915 as a synagogue for a congregation of Orthodox Jews. By 1969 the demographics of the neighborhood had…

University of Washington

Seattle

Founded in 1861, Seattle's university is almost as old as the city itself and is highly ranked worldwide (the prestigious Times Higher Education magazine…

Washington Park Arboretum

The CD, Madrona & Madison Park

This wild and lovely park stretching from Madison Valley up to Union Bay offers a wide variety of gardens, a wetlands nature trail and 200 acres of mature…

Northwest African American Museum

The CD, Madrona & Madison Park

Small, concise and culturally valuable, NAAM opened in 2008 after more than 30 years of planning. It occupies the space of an old school, which, until the…

Waiting for the Interurban

Seattle

Seattle’s most popular piece of public art, Waiting for the Interurban, is cast in recycled aluminum and depicts six people waiting for a train that never…

Fremont Troll

Seattle

The Fremont Troll is an outlandish sculpture that lurks beneath the north end of the Aurora Bridge at N 36th St. The troll's creators – artists Steve…

Gum Wall

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

Seattle's famous gum wall is one of those cultural monuments you can smell before you even see it. The sweet aroma of chewed gum wafts from this strip of…

Seattle Central Library

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

Rivaling the Space Needle and the Museum of Pop Culture for architectural ingenuity, Seattle Central Library looks like a giant diamond that's dropped in…

Kerry Park

Queen Anne & Lake Union

Amid the glittering Beverly Hills–like homes of Highland Dr, mere commoners can enjoy eagle’s-eye views of downtown Seattle and Elliott Bay (and Mt…

Volunteer Park

Seattle

Seattle's most manicured park sits atop Capitol Hill and is named for US volunteers in the 1898 Spanish-American War. While wandering among its leafy…

Burke Museum

Seattle

An interesting hybrid museum covering both natural history and indigenous cultures of the Pacific Rim. Inside you'll find, arguably, Washington's best…

Madison Park Beach

The CD, Madrona & Madison Park

A riotously popular place in the summer with a grassy slope for lounging and sunbathing, two tennis courts, a swimming raft floating in the lake, and…

Fishermen’s Terminal

Ballard & Discovery Park

Seattle’s fishing fleet resides at Fishermen’s Terminal, in a wide recess in the ship canal called Salmon Bay on the south side of the Ballard Bridge…

Center for Wooden Boats

Queen Anne & Lake Union

Honoring Seattle's historical, aquatic and Native American antecedents, this one-of-a-kind museum and enthusiasts' center features vintage and replica…

Seattle Aquarium

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

Though not on a par with Seattle's nationally lauded Woodland Park Zoo, the aquarium – situated on Pier 59 in an attractive wooden building – is probably…

Gas Works Park

Seattle

Urban reclamation has no greater monument in Seattle than Gas Works Park. The former power station here produced gas for heating and lighting from 1906 to…

King Street Station

Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo

One of the pillars upon which Seattle built its early fortunes, the old Great Northern Railroad depot, was given a much-needed face-lift in the early…

Suzzallo Library

Seattle

The architecturally minded will be interested in the University of Washington’s Suzzallo Library. Designed by Carl Gould in 1926, this bibliophile’s dream…

Yesler Way

Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo

Seattle claims its Yesler Way was the basis for the term ‘skid road’, which became 'skid row' – logs would ‘skid’ down the steeply sloped road linking a…

Myrtle Edwards Park

Belltown & Seattle Center

Your best bet for an uninterrupted walk or jog if you’re staying downtown is this fringe of lawn and trees along Elliott Bay that starts next to the…

Seattle Asian Art Museum

Seattle

In stately Volunteer Park, this outpost of the Seattle Art Museum houses the extensive art collection of Dr Richard Fuller, who donated this late–art deco…

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

Across Pike Place from the Main Arcade are the 1912 Corner & Sanitary Market Buildings, so named because they were the first of the market buildings in…

Hammering Man

Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront

Although not unique to Seattle, Hammering Man, the 48ft-high metal sculpture that guards the entrance to the Seattle Art Museum on the corner of 1st Ave…