Visit Seattle

The tourist core sits between Pike Place Market and the water. The market, open since 1907, comes alive from 7am: the fish toss, the first Starbucks, flower stalls. Below it, the waterfront has been entirely redesigned after the elevated highway came down, with a park, a Ferris wheel and the aquarium. Allow a morning for the market, a late afternoon for the walk to the free, always-open Olympic Sculpture Park.

North of downtown, this urban park gathers the legacy of the 1962 World's Fair: the Space Needle with its rotating glass floor at 160 metres, the Chihuly Garden and Glass devoted to the local glassmaker, the Museum of Pop Culture in a Frank Gehry building, the Pacific Science Center. You get there in two minutes by monorail from the Westlake mall. Book a combined Space Needle and Chihuly ticket for a morning slot.

The city's birthplace, Pioneer Square lines up late-19th-century brick buildings rebuilt after the great fire of 1889, with a wrought-iron pergola and art galleries. The guided Underground tour, of pavements buried when the streets were raised, lasts an hour. To the east, the Chinatown-International District holds Asian grocers, the Wing Luke Museum and the city's best dim sum. Pioneer Square also has the small Klondike Gold Rush park, a free museum on the 1897 stampede that made Seattle's fortune, open daily.

On the hill east of downtown, Capitol Hill is the district of nightlife, record shops, bookshops and Seattle's LGBT scene. Volunteer Park holds a 1912 plant conservatory and the Asian Art Museum, closed Monday and Tuesday. It is also the start of the walk to Lake Washington and the arboretum, superb in autumn. A very different feel from the tourist centre, fifteen minutes on foot.

To the northwest, the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks move boats between fresh and salt water, with a fish ladder visible from June to September. The Ballard farmers market, on Sundays, is one of the city's best. The neighbouring Fremont district, which declares itself an independent republic, hides a troll statue under a bridge, a rocket and several breweries. Both are about 20 minutes by bus from downtown; a Burke-Gilman trail cycle links them along the ship canal.

Mount Rainier National Park is 2h30 by road; the Paradise area, with its August wildflower meadows and its trails, is only reachable from late June to October. Bainbridge Island is a 35-minute walk-on ferry ride for an easy half-day, with a superb view of the skyline on the way back. The Olympic Peninsula, with its Hoh rainforest, hot springs and wild beaches, is a full loop that needs at least one overnight.