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…
Must-see attractions in Washington
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…
North Cascades
Buckner Orchard is one of the Stehekin area's oldest homesteads and makes for a refreshing walk; pick up a self-guided-tour brochure near the historic…
Corner & Sanitary Market Buildings
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…
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…
Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo
Once a rather rough-and-tumble place, Occidental Park has undergone a recent renaissance thanks largely to a partnership between the City of Seattle and a…
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center
Belltown & Seattle Center
The work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is celebrated at this suitably high-tech visitor center, part of a larger foundation building located…
Ballard & Discovery Park
Golden Gardens Park, established in 1904 by Harry W Treat, is a lovely 95-acre beach park with sandy beaches north of Shilshole Bay Marina. There are…
The CD, Madrona & Madison Park
Originally built in 1908 by the Danish Brotherhood, Washington Hall has been a meeting place, music venue (hosting Billie Holiday, Jimi Hendrix and Duke…
Washington Cascades
Boulder Cave, on the Chinook Scenic Byway, is a rarity in the relatively cave-free terrain of the Pacific Northwest and doubly unique due to its formation…
Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront
Everyone rushes for the iconic Space Needle, but it's not the tallest Seattle viewpoint. That honor goes to the sleek, tinted-windowed Columbia Center at…
Living Computers: Museum + Labs
Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo
Founded by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen (1953–2018), this place will evoke heavy nostalgia in anyone who can remember the world pre-internet. Hosted…
Olympic Peninsula & Washington Coast
This $9-million facility is the ne plus ultra of interactive fun for kids. Highlights include a climbable eagle's nest – a slide tumbles down from here to…
San Juan Island National Historical Park (American Camp)
San Juan Islands
On the southern flank of the island, the American Camp hosts a small visitor center and is a good place to start your historical excursion. Among the…
San Juan Island National Historical Park
San Juan Islands
Known more for their scenery than their history, the San Juans nonetheless hide one of the 19th century's oddest political confrontations, the so-called …
Washington Coast
This humble little museum holds a surprisingly compelling, well-arranged collection of memorabilia from the area's maritime history. Small vignettes…
Seattle
Alki Beach has an entirely different feel from the rest of Seattle: on a sunny day this 2-mile stretch of sand could be confused for California. There’s a…
Queen Anne & Lake Union
Opened in 2010, this welcome green patch occupies ex-navy land on the southern tip of Lake Union and has a wading pond (with model sailboats you can use),…
Leadbetter Point State Park Natural Area
Washington Coast
This 807-acre natural area, 3 miles north of Oysterville, is a kind of buffer between the straggling developments of Long Beach Peninsula and a section of…
Bellingham
You might feel like you've wandered into the North Cascades when you venture into this enormous wooded park. The wild region bisects Bellingham's eastern…
Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront
Like the psychedelic Beatles' song, the unique Arctic Building, completed in 1917, is celebrated for its walruses. Their heads (25 of them), surrounded by…
Northwestern Washington & the San Juan Islands
This worthwhile art gallery has a large collection of paintings by the influential Northwest Mystics, a loosely related group of regional artists such as…
Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo
This decorative iron pergola in Pioneer Square Park was built in 1909 to serve as an entryway to an underground lavatory and to shelter those waiting for…
Seattle
Approaching 90 years of age, the Henry is Seattle's modern-art masterpiece. Set in a sophisticated space on the University of Washington campus, it…
Olympic Peninsula & Washington Coast
The historic town of Tumwater is where the Deschutes River empties out into Capitol Lake after its long run through the Cascade Mountains. Here at the…
San Juan Islands
If you have time for only one sight, visit the excellent Whale Museum, a small but cleverly arranged space dedicated to the life of the orca (killer whale…
Southeastern Washington
At first glance, the Tri-Cities can seem like nothing but one big traffic snarl. The best solution: go to the park. This 400-acre green space along the…
Seattle
This small museum on First Hill preserves the collection of Charles and Emma Frye. The Fryes collected more than 1000 paintings, mostly 19th- and early…
Belltown & Seattle Center
This interactive museum of science and industry once housed the science pavilion of the 1962 World’s Fair. Today the center features virtual-reality…
Southeastern Washington
In a cool modern building overlooking Columbia Park, this hands-on museum focuses on local and regional history and the ecological impacts of human…
Longmire Information Center & Museum
Washington Cascades
The tiny, free Longmire Museum describes the history of Longmire, originally the park's headquarters. James Longmire first came here in 1883 and noticed…
Around Seattle
The Museum of Glass, with its slanted tower called the Hot Shop Amphitheater, is Tacoma's tribute to native son Dale Chihuly. It has art exhibits and…
North Cascade Smokejumper Base
North Cascades
Smoke jumping is a method of firefighting that involves parachuting out of a plane into a rural area to tackle a forest fire before it gets out of control…
Seattle
Psychedelic guitar genius of the late 1960s and Seattle’s favorite son, Jimi Hendrix is captured sunk to his knees in eternal rock-star pose in this…
Bellingham
Founded in 1893 as a teacher training institute, WWU was redesignated as a university in 1977. The WWU Visitors Information Center can provide details of…
Belltown & Seattle Center
A remnant of the 1962 World's Fair, the International Fountain was completely rebuilt in 1995. With 272 jets of water (recycled, of course) pumping in…
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
Pioneer Square, International District & SoDo
The beautiful Wing Luke museum examines Asia Pacific American culture, focusing on prickly issues such as Chinese settlement in the 1880s and Japanese…
Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center
Ballard & Discovery Park
Inside Discovery Park you'll find this cultural center that displays a permanent collection of Native American artwork, special exhibitions and hosts…
Island County Historical Society Museum
Around Seattle
The island's most comprehensive museum has plenty of local historical testimonies showcased in meticulous and well-presented display cases. Also on offer…
San Juan Islands
In an 1890s farmhouse on the outskirts of Friday Harbor, the San Juan Historical Museum commemorates early pioneer life on San Juan Island. While the…
