Seattle: Insider’s Guide to Urban Exploits and Outdoor Adventures

The insider advice on this page is from one of Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts for the Pacific Northwest: Sheri Doyle of Pacific Northwest Journeys.

Trusted Travel Expert

Sheri Doyle

A former corporate attorney, Sheri Doyle brings her legal-eagle eye for detail to the itineraries she crafts. She plans urban and adventure trips all over the Pacific Northwest—in both the United States and Canada—as well as the northern California coast and parts of the Canadian Rockies. Her self-drive itineraries typically run to 20 pages, covering everything from detailed driving directions to activity suggestions and restaurant recommendations in each location. Geared to your interests and preferences, each itinerary is a personalized guidebook to save you hours of research time. As a resident of Seattle for nearly three decades, Sheri has traveled extensively within the region; she has repeatedly hiked the trails, kayaked the waters, slurped the oysters, and attended the jazz concerts at every place she recommends. She has slept at most of the hotels, too, and gets preferred rates at many of the top properties, which saves her clients a bundle—especially in the popular summer months.

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Expect trips orchestrated by Sheri to start at $650 per day for two travelers.

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Where to Stay and Eat

Best bang-for-your-buck hotels
The Inn at the Market is a small boutique hotel located right inside the Pike Place Market. The two Deluxe Deck Water View rooms share access to a large private deck, with views of Seattle’s waterfront and sailboats making their way through Elliott Bay. But even if you don’t splurge for one of these rooms, guests can relax on copious decks throughout the hotel, which look onto the Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, and downtown Seattle. The Inn shares its entry courtyard with one of the top sushi restaurants in the city, Sushi Kashiba, which serves fresh fish from the Pacific Northwest. Water-view room rates here are quite reasonable compared to some of the other luxury hotels in the area, and Sheri can often pass on additional savings.

A more modestly priced alternative is the Hotel Andra, a stylish boutique property with modern Scandinavian décor; Sheri’s travelers also benefit from special rates here. While it doesn’t have water views, it’s in a great location just north of the downtown core. Famed local chef Tom Douglas runs the hotel’s restaurant, Lola, and conducts cooking and cocktail classes out of the Hot Stove Society.

Restaurant the locals love
Yes, Matt’s in the Market is popular with visitors, but native Seattleites also love any excuse to eat at Matt’s, so they will gladly take their out-of-town guests here. Local seafood and produce from the Pike Place Market are the stars. At lunch, start with the house-made potato chips and dip, and try one of their sandwiches like the fishwich or Dungeness crab roll. Halibut is a favorite main course at dinner.

Dish to try
Copper River salmon. Seattle is known for its seafood, especially salmon, and Copper River salmon is the best (available from late May to early June). If you’ve only had farm-raised salmon before, you have to try wild Pacific salmon; it’s like a completely different fish. Many people who say they don’t like salmon realize they love it after trying wild Pacific salmon—especially the Copper River salmon at Ray’s Boathouse, north of downtown at Shilshole Bay.

Meal worth the splurge
Lark, located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood close to downtown, has been consistently knocking it out of the park for 20 years now. Chef/owner John Sundstrom’s cuisine emphasizes local ingredients in a casually elegant space. The four-course chef’s tasting menu is a great value at $120 per person.

What to See and Do

Glass seems to grow almost organically at the Chihuly Garden and Glass. Photo: Shutterstock

Don’t miss
Chihuly Garden and Glass at Seattle Center, which showcases glass artist Dale Chihuly’s many styles from over the years. The Glasshouse offers Instagram-worthy views of the Space Needle framed by a dramatic, 100-foot-long suspended sculpture in shades of red, orange, and yellow. The outdoor gardens are also gorgeous.

Don’t bother
Don’t waste your time or money on the Underground Tour, a walking tour of the city’s subterranean passageways (the streets and first-floor storefronts from before the fire of 1889). It offers a lot of interesting information about the city’s history, but the jokes are groan-worthy, and there’s the ick/claustrophobia factor of being underground.

Cheap thrill
The Seattle Art Museum has transformed a contaminated industrial site on downtown Seattle’s waterfront into a free, outdoor Olympic Sculpture Park with works by Richard Serra, Mark di Suvero, and Alexander Calder. Bring a picnic to the adjacent Myrtle Edwards Park to enjoy great views of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound alongside the art.

Downtime
Rent bikes on Alki (there’s a bike rental place at the West Seattle dock for the water taxi). You can follow a flat, paved bike path along the water’s edge to the lighthouse at Alki Point, with lovely views the entire way. After you return the bikes, stop for a meal at Marination Ma Kai, a brick-and-mortar version of one of the city’s most popular food trucks, serving Hawaiian specialties, shave ice, and cocktails.

Pike Place Market overlooks Puget Sound. Photo: Seattle Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.

Instagram moment
The cliché snapshot is taken from Kerry Park, about halfway up Queen Anne Hill, looking toward the Space Needle and Mount Rainier—but you’ll have plenty of company there at sunset. Head instead to the West Seattle waterfront area, referred to locally as Alki, where you can get sunset shots of both downtown (looking east) and the water and mountains (looking west). Take the 15-minute water-taxi ride to West Seattle, then walk north along the water’s edge to get both views.

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