Visiting Seattle for the first time

Kyougu

My youngest brother just had their first kid, and I'm planning to visit him in September to meet my nephew. He lives in Dupont, WA, which it being an hour away from Seattle gave me the idea to stretch my visit and spend a few days in Seattle proper (I'm also running the Beat the Blerch half while there).

So, for someone that's never been to Seattle, what do you all recommend? Areas to stay in? Ideally I don't want to rent a car, either relying on uber, walking or public transportation.

I enjoy breweries, nature , climbing (already googling climbing gyms in the city) and of course food.

SatanIsMyMotor

It's been years but I went there on business once and went to a private party at the aquarium. It was a really neat spot that I'd recommend checking out. Also the famous market is also very cool.

I seem to recall also seeing a wall with lots of gum on it that was a thing apparently? Regardless, if you're downtown it's a pretty walkable city with decent public transport (ie if you want to go the space needle - which wasn't very exciting).

Dehumanized

nature-wise within the city, the arboretum and the kubota garden are both excellent

Burtletoy

City pass is a pretty good deal if anything on the list is what you want.

The pop culture museum and the glass museum are both really neat, but obviously quite different subjects.

Nature, you want either Olympia national park or Mt Rainer.

Also, bring a raincoat or umbrella, probably

Straygatsby

Be warned that Dupont to Seattle is more like an hour* (where *=oh my god I want to murder the world why is there so much traffic!?!?!). You can probably get to the southern edge of the city in an hour depending on time of day, but you've still gotta get to your exit and navigate to your destination, which is a whole nother story. Plan accordingly!

Seattle you can Uber around pretty easily (enjoy all the traffic violations the drivers commit - it's a great drinking game) to hit various neighborhoods, though if you want nature-y stuff, you'll benefit greatly from having a car. I'm not much of an outdoors bro, but concur with Kubota Gardens, and I'd recommend tooling around Seattle Center (I'm partial to the EMP/MoPop/whatever it is called this week). The zoo is also pretty darn great, you'll be here in one of the absolute best times to visit and be outside at the same time (unless its *that* one September week when it's like 95 in the city).

There's pretty much everything for food - it's just a matter of how adventurous and spendy you are. I'm a fan of tooling around Belltown and hitting up happy hour sushi at Umi or tapas at Pintxo (both pretty close to the market and all that walkable jazz).

I can only speak to Tacoma breweries, but you'll no doubt have a limitless supply of crafty brews at your disposal if that's your thing.

Quid

I’m a big fan of Pike Place for generally wandering around and eating. It’s touristy but there’s some great stuff to see and eat.

The underground tour is also really interesting. It’s a historical tour of parts of the city that still exist under the sidewalks and current foundations. I took my nieces during the day but there’s a more adult oriented one at night.