Book flights to Seattle

Seattle’s iconic landmark is the Space Needle. Erected in 1962, it stands 605ft tall and towers over the downtown area like a spaceship on stilts. The Space Needle is also a cultural complex, so as well as great views from the top during your trip to Seattle you also have a selection of restaurants, cafés and entertainment venues to choose from. Use the Seattle Centre Monorail to get up there.

The Museum of History & Industry was reopened in 2012 after an extensive facelift, and now contains many multimedia displays and galleries on all aspects of Seattle life and history.

The best place to spend a rainy day (or for that matter a sunny one) is the magnificent Seattle Art Museum. The displays include everything from Native American carvings to Asian works and European masters. It’s in the centre of downtown Seattle and has a good restaurant and gift shop attached.

Seattle’s Chinatown district is almost as old as the city itself. It’s officially known as the International District and is a hub of the local Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Filipino cultures. Be sure to drop into the Wing Luke Museum, which charts the history of the Asian and Pacific Americans in the area.

The downtown waterfront, lined with small eateries, shops and wooden piers, is a great place to stroll on your trip to Seattle. The famous Seattle Aquarium is here, as well as the awesome Seattle Great Wheel with its gondola-cabins and wonderful views across the city, Olympic Mountains and Elliott Bay.

The prettiest part of the public transport system in Seattle is the ferry service, with one of the delights for visitors being a sightseeing tour on the ferry that plies between Seattle and Bainbridge Island. Board at Pier 52 and watch the urban skyline drift by Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park which is also well worth a visit, for lovely views of the harbour, city and mountains as well as its world-class sculptures. Spread across nine acres, the park occupies most of a seaside bluff and was an industrial backwater until it was transformed by Alexander Calder and the other artists, whose works are on display.

The main public market in Seattle is its cherished Pike Place Market. Opened in 1907, this hugely colourful and atmospheric farmers’ market sells everything from flowers and cheese to seafood and vegetables.

There are loads of different eating options in Seattle. You can dine in the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market and pick up souvenir travel mugs, or drop into Puget Sound for fresh seafood.

On the Lake Union seafront, there are restaurants that specialise in Northwest and Mediterranean cuisine, and on nearby Blake Island, the big attraction is steamed clams and baked salmon.

Take a taxi along to Harbour Avenue for some of the best kalbi beef and kalua sliders you’re ever likely to taste or take a tour of Tillicum Village to sample Native American food.

The main shopping area in Seattle is the downtown district, although there are a few new brand stores in the south of the city. If you’re travelling to Seattle with shopping in mind you should drop in to the streets around Pioneer Square first to see what’s on offer. The shops here specialise in French labels and modernist office supplies. The main outlet malls are at North Bend in the east, and the swanky University Village mall and the Bellevue Collection further south are also worth a visit for designer labels and high-end boutiques.