Pike Place before eight. The mountain by noon.
Which harbour cruise goes through the locks. What the Underground tour actually shows you. Whether Rainier is worth a whole day when the forecast says cloud. Reviews of every tour you can book in Seattle.
Four bookings a first Seattle trip is built around.
The market, the buried city below Pioneer Square, an hour on Elliott Bay and the drive south to the mountain. What each one costs, and what the people who went say.
01The first morningChef Guided Food Tour of Pike Place MarketThrough the fish counter and the stalls stacked down the hill behind it, tasting as you go. Take the early slot, before the aisles seize up.
02Under your feetBeneath The Streets Underground History TourPioneer Square was rebuilt a storey higher after the 1889 fire, and the old shopfronts are still down there. Cheap, dry, and the most booked thing in the city.
03An hour on the baySeattle’s Original Guided Harbor CruiseSkyline, container cranes and the ferry traffic, narrated from the water. The quickest way to understand how the city is laid out.
04The day you leave townMt. Rainier National Park Highlights TourTwo hours south to Paradise, meadows and a glacier at the end of the road. Somebody else does the driving and finds the parking.
The market, the buried city, the bay and the mountain behind them.
A walkable downtown wedged between salt water and a volcano, with a rainforest and a wine valley inside a day trip. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Elliott Bay, the Ballard locks, and the run north to the orcas.
Ferries cross to Bainbridge through the day, the locks lift boats from salt water to fresh in front of a crowd, and the resident pods feed off the San Juans all summer. Three kinds of day afloat, and what it costs to board each.
The Seattle days out that fill up first.
Every Seattle tour review →These carry more visitors than anything else in the city. What each one is, what it costs, and who it suits.
1
Beneath The Streets Underground History Tour
Explore Seattle’s original streets and three underground passageways while learning about the Great Fire, Klondike Gold Rush, and Coast Salish peoples.
From · $29
Read our review →
2
Chef Guided Food Tour of Pike Place Market
from $73
3
Mt. Rainier National Park Highlights Tour
from $150
4
Guided Underground Walking Tour
from $31
5
Seattle’s Original Guided Harbor Cruise
from $45
6
Seattle City Highlights Tour
from $88
7
Space Needle & Chihuly Garden and Glass Ticket
from $67
8
Mt. Rainier Day Tour from Seattle
from $164
Rainier, Snoqualmie and the Olympic rainforest are all day trips.
The volcano is two hours south and the road to Paradise stays under snow into June. Snoqualmie Falls is forty minutes east. The Olympic Peninsula needs a ferry and a whole day. All three go better with a driver.
Pike Place is where the meal starts, not where it ends.
Market walks run early, before ten, for a reason. After that the city is roasteries on Capitol Hill, a distillery row down in SoDo, and the Woodinville wine valley half an hour north.
What a day out in Seattle actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good share of the best Seattle days come in under the price of dinner downtown.
Underground walks, ghost tours, market tastings and an hour out on the bay.
The full-day standards: Rainier and Snoqualmie by coach, the long food walks, the Boeing floor.
- 1Chef Guided Food Tour of Pike Place Marketfrom $73
- 2Mt. Rainier National Park Highlights Tourfrom $150
- 3Seattle City Highlights Tourfrom $88
Olympic Peninsula days, the orca runs, private guides and the small groups that keep the numbers down.
Three things that happen in Seattle and nowhere else.
Every city has a market and a viewing platform. A shopfront street buried under the pavement, an aircraft factory the size of a small town, and salmon thrown over a counter belong to this one.
The Seattle Underground
The fire of 1889 took thirty blocks, and the rebuilt city went up a full storey to fix the sewers it had been fighting for years. Ground floors turned into basements, pavements turned into ceilings, and the original shopfronts are still down there behind the brick. Guides run a few connected sections, lamplight and damp intact.
- 1Beneath The Streets Underground History Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8,006 reviews
- 2Guided Underground Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,144 reviews
- 3Seattle Half Day Tour with Space Needle, Boat Ride & Underground★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 9 reviews
The Boeing Assembly Building
The building north of the city encloses more space than any other on earth, and 787s move down the line inside it while you watch from a gallery above. Bags are not allowed anywhere near the floor, there is real walking involved, and the summer slots go weeks ahead.
- 1Boeing Factory Tour with Guided Transport from Seattle★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,247 reviews
- 2Boeing Factory and Future of Flight Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 363 reviews
- 3Boeing Factory Tour with Private Group Transport from Seattle★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 13 reviews
Pike Place Market
The market runs nine acres down a hillside, and the fish throwing at the front counter is the smallest part of it. Below the main arcade sit the vinyl shops, the cheese makers and a queue for the first Starbucks. A guide gets you through it before ten, when the aisles still move.
- 1Chef Guided Food Tour of Pike Place Market★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,733 reviews
- 2Pike Place Market Tasting Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,696 reviews
- 3Early-Bird Tasting Tour of Pike Place Market★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,154 reviews
Four Seattle bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be sorted the night before over a beer. These four run on seasons, factory schedules and a mountain road that is shut half the year.
- 01Boeing Factory Tour with Guided Transport from SeattleThe floor takes a fixed number of people a day, no bags are allowed near it, and summer slots go weeks out.
- 02Mt. Rainier National Park Highlights TourThe road up to Paradise clears late and shuts early. Outside roughly July to October the mountain day is a shorter, lower trip.
- 03Whale Watching from Friday HarborThe resident pods are in these waters from spring into autumn. Boats run to the season, not to demand.
- 04Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley Tour from SeattleThe Skagit Valley fields flower for about three weeks in April, and the bloom moves with the weather.
Seattle is grey from October to May. Plan indoors and it stops mattering.
The rain here is rarely heavy and rarely finished. Locals do not carry umbrellas, they carry a plan: the buried city under Pioneer Square, a roastery on Capitol Hill, a glasshouse full of Chihuly, a still down in SoDo.
By landmark
Market, Underground, bay, falls, mountain: the Seattle week almost everyone does.
The newest Seattle tour reviews.
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