Seattle Travel Forum

I'm going to be in Seattle at the beginning of April and I was wondering where the best places to stay and eat are. I will have a car so transportation will not be a problem. I dont' know much about the city so any tips on the best location to stay and the best places to eat would be much appreciated. Thank you and happy travles!!!!

I have stayed on Arora or the old 99hwy it's only a short trip downtown and it's miles of chain hotels and food outlets. ask your hotel desk for a good restaurant.

I stayed at the Westin! It was fabulous and worth every penny! Lots of great places to eat in Seattle. We dined at the Space Needle. A bit pricey but also worth every penny. The restaurant rotates 360 degrees.

Seattle is famous for its bad traffic, especially north/south due to the city's geography. If you want to drive a lot, then you could head north where it's more quiet - Bellevue or Redmond. If you want the big city atmosphere, then staying downtown is probably best. You can leave your car parked until you want to sightsee out of town.

I think the best restaurants in the Seattle area are the seafood ones. Anthony's down near the water near the Pike Market is very good. ICON is downtown and has great dinners (http://www.icongrill.net/) - we ate there on our last visit. For unusual, good Indian food.. Shamiana in Kirkland is simple but fantastic.

I would probably choose to stay downtown. Aurora Avenue (highway 99) is pretty grim, and the center of a lot of seedy activities, but it has cheap motels. Downtown, there are many good hotels, among them:
--W Hotel
--Westin Hotel
--Inn at the Market
--Ace Hotel
--Alexis Hotel
--Marriott Waterfront Hotel
--Fairmont Olympic Hotel (historic and pricey)
And many others.

"Best" places to eat? It depends on what you are looking for. There are loads of small ethnic restaurants in the International District, within walking distance from downtown.
For fabulous dining:
--Canlis
--Waterfront Seafood Grill
--Metropolitan Grill
--Queen City Grill
--Campagne
For other seafood:
--Elliott Oyster House
--Anthony's
--Saltie's
--Brooklyn Oyster House
--Ray's Boathouse

But you don't have to pay an arm-and-a-leg, as there are so many very good ethnic restaurants -- Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, Vietnamese, etc. Just ask in your hotel or pick up a copy of the free local weekly newspapers, The Weekly or The Stranger, or look in the Seattle Times' weekend/tickets section that comes out on Fridays, or online, too.

Enjoy your visit!

I have a big problem paying exorbitant $$$ for downtown parking so what I have done is book a hotel at a great rate on Hotwire.com, drop off my luggage at the hotel, and then park the car in the Queen Anne area where there is enough free unlimited parking to accommodate. One can then take a taxi or bus ride back downtown, though I always walk because, with my camera in hand, nothing is more enjoyable.

That is a very good solution to parking, Robert, as it is expensive to park downtown, and even the hotels usually charge. Although, even in Queen Anne, you have to be careful as to how long you can leave your car parked on the street to avoid a ticket. Public transport (bus) is easy and frequent from most areas into downtown.

Are you in luck to be here in April! Area restaurants are having a "2 courses for $25" special. Some of the more famous restaurants are putting this on. You can get details at www.nwsource.com. You didn't say what your budget is, but it's definitely going to be easier if you stay somewhere downtown, parking your car in the hotel garage, than staying out of the area, like Aurora Drive/Hiway 99 or the eastside, on the other side of Lake Washington in Redmond or Bellevue, and fighting the traffic and paying for parking downtown. Traffic here is as bad as in LA so you'll definitely want to plan your travel times if you do drive anywhere.

Be sure and bring warm clothes. It snowed in Tacoma yesterday!

One more tip: If the weather is clear, you don't have to pay $16 to go up the Space Needle to get a marvelous view. The top of the Columbia Tower (BofA building on 5th street) is twice as tall and costs only $5 to go up. No (overpriced) food, but great views. Beware: it's not open on the weekends.

You can also get a great view of Seattle by night... just drive up to the top of Queen Anne's Hill and take a look. It's amazing.

Indeed, the viewing place in question is called Kerry Park and can be reached by Highland Drive (left off of Queen Anne Avenue). By the way, at the base of Queen Anne there are a potpourri of restaurants. The Thai one is absolutely spectacular!

Thanks for the park's name, Robert. My son took us up there last January, and it was a new sight for me. I'd been up in that area for meals but never in the dark. He lives far to the north in Redmond, but they seem to love that area. Too bad it would be a bad commute.

Isn't Redmond directly east?

Redmond is where Microsoft is located. It is about NE of downtown Seattle, on what we call the East Side. The problem is, of course, traffic. Between the two is the big Lake Washington. So, either you have to get on the "floating bridge" Rte. 520, which is incredibly clogged at many times during the day, or you have to drive all the way around the north end of the lake. Either way, the drive is about an hour between the two places. Redmond is a suburban-type place, with not much to recommend in terms of sightseeing, except two nearby wineries. It definitely does not give the flavor of Seattle. You could be "anywheresville" in suburban Redmond.

Unless you're a techie, like me. The Microsoft Museum is SUPERB! And then of course there's Fry's Electronics in Renton - it's like Mecca for us techies!!!

Right-O for the techie stuff, but for the average tourist, they usually want to do the things that are closer to downtown. They usually ignore the other neighborhoods, but we do have some very interesting neighborhoods, among which I would count Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Fremont, and Ballard. Sorry, but Redmond reminds me of suburban Connecticut, and I'll pass!

Thanks for explaining all that, Marianne. :-) You said it better than I ever could have. My son lives in Redmond for obvious reasons, but before that they were in Woodinville.. a very diverse area and certainly with a much more NW feel to it than Redmond. It usually takes us about 40 minutes to get to downtown from there.. but in the daytime and not rush hour. Time to start booking a flight.. I miss them!

Redmond is a good place to live if you work for Microsoft, thus avoiding too much commuting. It's a good place to raise children, for example, but otherwise not too exciting in my opinion. June, if you visit your son, you can use Redmond as a "gateway" into the nearby countryside, which is attractive. There are the two wineries in Woodinville; a drive northward to the quaint town of Snohomish is fun for antique-ing; another cute town for a casual lunch is Duvall (where my best friends, who are Microsoftie millionaires, just built a palatial house); then also Snoqualmie Falls (fabulous lunch or dinner at the Salish Lodge); and Remlinger Farms, which growns berries in season (pick-your-own, yum). It's enjoyable to be out in the countryside, in addition to the hustle-bustle of Seattle.

Thanks... your recommendations are spot on. My new husband and I were in Redmond a year ago and he'd never been to Seattle. It was fun showing him all the places I'd come to enjoy and love. We had a lovely lunch at the Salish Lodge but never made it to the wineries. Heck, we even went to Ruby's, too. I love Shamiana in Kirkland and had to prove to my husband that people can cook good Indian food if they are not in England. :-) My son moved to Redmond because they were in a dodgy school district in Woodinville.. even though there was a much better school very close by. Those school borders are a bit strange, but they are enjoying Redmond a lot. He's been there for 16 years!