

Lonely Planet
Seattle
Blink and it’s changed: Seattle is that ephemeral. Blending innovation and nature, itʼs a city always marching forward. Lonely Planet is your passport to Seattle, with amazing travel experiences and the best planning advice.
Stroll through clamorous Pike Place Market, speed to the top of the Space Needle for awesome views, or pay homage to Hendrix at the Museum of Pop Culture; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Seattle and begin your journey now!
This is the Ballard & Discovery Park chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guide-book.
Ballard feels like a small town engulfed by a bigger city. It has come into its own as one of the city’s best locals for exciting restaurants, lively bars and killer shopping. Discovery Park is a must for easy-to-tackle hikes and stunning views.
- feel the breeze on your face and watch birds, fishing boats, motor yachts, kayaks and salmon negotiating the Hiram M Chittenden Locks on a sunny summer’s evening
- maps
- learn about the history and culture of Ballard’s most well-known immigrant community at the newly updated Nordic Museum
- transport
- feel like you’ve left the city far, far behind in the verdant ocean-side oasis of Discovery Park
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the Belltown & Seattle Center chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guide-book.
The Seattle Center, site of the highly successful 1962 World’s Fair, is home to the Museum of Pop Culture, Chihuly Garden & Glass, and the Space Needle. After a day’s sightseeing, escape to adjacent Belltown for a bar-hopping evening out.
- ponder the shimmering glass art that sprang from the creative mind of Dale Chihuly in Chihuly Garden and Glass underneath the Space Needle
- maps
- watch the sun slip behind faraway mountains from the grassy slopes of the Olympic Sculpture Park
- transport
- take an elevator to the top of the city and marvel at the origins of the innovation and tech boom at the Space Needle
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the Capitol Hill & First Hill chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guide-book.
Capitol Hill is Seattle’s most unashamedly hip neighborhood, where the rich mix with the eccentric. Despite recent gentrification, this is still Seattle’s best crash pad for dive-bar rock and roll, LGBTIQ+ mirth and on-trend dining.
- savor sunset drinks on the patio of Pony, one of the city’s most popular LGBTIQ+ bars, which lead to all-night grinding on the dance floor
- maps
- see a name band at legendary Neumo’s, one of Seattle’s most revered live-music ven-ues
- transport
- climb the water tower in Volunteer Park to admire dazzling vistas of Seattle and Mt Raini-er
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the Day Trips from Seattle chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guide-book.
Want to escape the city? This chapter includes the very best excursions from Seattle and they can each be completed in a day. Must-sees include Bainbridge Island and Snoqualmie Val-ley.
- The ferry ride to bucolic Bainbridge Island off the coast of downtown Seattle is almost as good as the destination itself
- Verdant woods, snaking rivers and pastoral farmland mark Snoqualmie Valley’s landscape east of Seattle where the iconic TV series Twin Peaks was partially filmed
- The unpretentious atmosphere and slower pace of life on Vashon Island is just a short ferry ride from Seattle
- Tacoma isn’t large or as full of attractions as it’s bigger sister city, Seattle, but a handful of choice museums make it worth the drive down
- Fishing villages and stunning state parks wait for you on Whidbey Island, long beloved by vacationing Seattleites
- Instead of waiting for a clear day to sneak a view of massive Mt Rainier, make the 90-mile trip and see it up close
Coverage includes: Bainbridge Island, Snoqualmie Valley, Vashon Island, Tacoma, Whidbey Island, Mt Rainier.
This is the Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
You don’t have to search long to find Seattle’s soul: head directly to Pike Place Market and throw away any map you might have acquired – your nose, eyes and ears are the only com-passes you’ll need here.
- see, smell and taste the unique energy of Pike Place Market, from the charismatic fish throwers to the creative – but disgusting – gum wall
- maps
- experience the latest surprise lighting up the constantly evolving Seattle Art Museum
- transport
- ride on the Bainbridge Island ferry just for the hell of it and watch Seattle’s famous skyline disappear in its foamy wake
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the Georgetown & West Seattle chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
West Seattle is teeming with cute commercial strips and some of the best parks and beaches in the city. To the east is Georgetown, an arty enclave hammered out of a former industrial dis-trict.
- see how Homo sapiens got from the Wright Brothers to the Concorde in the space of just 66 years at the illustrious, entertaining and subtly educational Museum of Flight
- maps
- slow down the rhythm a couple of notches on a weekend summer’s afternoon on Alki Beach
- transport
- go on a pub crawl, or a vintage store crawl – or both – amid the red-brick bars and beer-stained history of bohemian Georgetown
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the Green Lake & Fremont chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guide-book.
Fremont combines young hipsters and old hippies, with junk shops, urban sculpture and a healthy sense of its own ludicrousness. To the north, family-friendly Green Lake is a more afflu-ent suburb centered on a park favored by fitness devotees.
- walk around Seattle’s most irreverent neighborhood in search of its peculiar public art, as well as keeping an eye out for any spontaneous ‘art attacks.’
- maps
- take in chimps, giraffes, hippos and more at Woodland Park Zoo, one of the better zoos in the US
- transport
- join the walking, running, skating, cycling mass of humanity powering around beautiful Green Lake Park
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
Browsing the Pioneer Square Historical District is like visiting a movie set of ear-ly-20th-century Seattle – with better food and the shopping. This is the city’s birthplace, and the district of historical buildings is still a real crossroads of the modern city.
- relive the spirit of the gold rush at the inspiring Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, with a museum set in one of the many red-brick Richardsonian Romanesque buildings that sprang up after the 1889 Great Fire
- maps
- dive mouth first into Seattle’s famous coffee scene with a damn fine cup of coffee at Zeit-geist Coffee
- transport
- satisfy lunchtime Asian food cravings at boisterous Jade Garden in the International Dis-trict
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This chapter contains the Welcome to Seattle, Seattle’s Top 10, What’s New, Need to Know, Top Stony Island Arts Bank Itineraries, If You Like..., Month By Month, With Kids, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Sports & Activities, and Shopping chapters from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
Your journey to Seattle starts here. You’ll find the tools to plan your adventure: where to go and when, how much to budget, plus in-depth info on travel with kids.
- tailor-made itineraries, arranged by region, themes and events
- list of highlights and best experiences
- everything you need to know about Seattle’s best food, drink and nightlife
- user-friendly city overview ensures you won’t miss a thing
Coverage includes: Welcome to Seattle, Seattle’s Top 10, What’s New, Need to Know, Top Itineraries, If You Like: Views, Museums, Offbeat Stuff, Architecture, Free Stuff, Green Spaces, Month By Month, With Kids, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Sports & Activities, and Shopping.
This is the Queen Anne & Lake Union chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
Sitting on a 456ft hill above the Seattle Center, Queen Anne is an elegant collection of ma-jestic redbrick houses and apartment buildings with gorgeous views of the city and Elliott Bay. The vistas and the fin-de-siècle mansions are worth the energy expenditure.
- ride the streetcar to the fabulous Museum of History & Industry for a first-class exposition of Seattle’s grunge-playing, aircraft-building, computer-designing history
- maps
- circumnavigate Lake Union on foot (or bike) on the well-signposted 6-mile Cheshiahud Loop
- transport
- take in the tranquil views while you gear up for some outdoor activities at idyllic Lake Un-ion
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the CD, Madrona & Madison Park chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
Most non-residents come to one of the three spread-out neighborhoods between Capitol Hill and Lake Washington for a specific reason: incredible Ethiopian food in the CD, brunch in Ma-drona, or the beach at Madison Park and French food in Madison Valley.
- follow the old trolley route down E Madison St to original Seattle seaside resort Madison Park Beach for a game of Frisbee, a brave dip in the lake and some wholesome food
- maps
- learn about Seattle’s long, but often overlooked, history of African American heritage at the Northwest African American Museum
- transport
- find French, Italian and other European flavors on the taste-heavy commercial strip of 34th Ave in Madrona
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This is the U District chapter from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
The U District feels like its own little college town. ‘The Ave’ is an atmospheric main drag full of tiny cheap eateries, thrift stores, record stores, secondhand bookstores, tattoo parlors, bars, and coffee shops full of deadline-chasing, laptop-gazing students.
- relive (or live) your cerebral undergraduate years on the leafy, architecturally attractive campus of the University of Washington with its art galleries, neo-Gothic library and tree-studded quad
- maps
- revisit the non-cerebral part of your undergraduate days in the pubs, bars and oh-so greasy and good take-out spots of The Ave
- transport
- read the graffiti and listen to the latest street poets at legendary Blue Moon
- restaurants & accommodation
Coverage includes: Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports & Activities.
This chapter contains the Seattle Today, History, Way of Life, Music, Transportation, and Di-rectory A–Z chapters from Lonely Planet’s Seattle guidebook.
All the info you need on everything from history, music and coffee to flights, public transport, climate, money, the internet... you name it. Get tips for women travellers, gay and lesbian travel-lers, travellers with disabilities, and travellers with kids. And get the most out of your conversa-tions with a handy language guide and glossary.
- coffee, tech money and more – a rundown on Seattle’s way of life
- info on Seattle’s musical heritage – Ray Charles, Hendrix, Nirvana and much
- full coverage of the city’s transformation from a rambunctious lumber town to a global lead-er in innovation
- details on Seattle today and the issues it faces
Coverage includes: Seattle Today, History, Way of Life, Music, Transpor-tation, and Directory A–Z.
Inside Lonely Planet’s Seattle Travel Guide:
- Full-colour maps and images throughout
- Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests
- Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots
- Honest review for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss
- Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience – music, art, architecture, pop culture, history
- Free, convenient pull-out city map (included in print version), plus over 31 colour maps
Coverage includes: Downtown, Waterfront, Pioneer Square, SoDo, Belltown, Queen Anne, Lake Union, Capitol Hill, The CD, Madrona, Madison Park, U District, Green Lake, Fremont, Ballard, Discovery Park, and more
ISBN: 9781787013605
Edition: 8th
Publication Date: January 2020
Writers: Robert Balkovich, Becky Ohlsen
256 pages, 256pp color, 37 maps | Dimensions: 128mm × 197mm
Next edition due: Not yet determined
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